Abstract

Historical hydrocarbon production in Abu Dhabi predominantly originated from large conventional fields. More recently, significant interest has been generated regarding the extensive unconventional hydrocarbon potential present within formations such as Diyab and Shilaif (Alharthi, et al., 2021). This study focuses on the unconventional Shilaif Formation, primarily of the Cenomanian age. The objective was to characterize this formation through the estimation of key rock and completion quality parameters, i.e. total organic content (TOC), porosity and uniaxial compressive strength (UCS). Pre-stack seismic inversion was applied to integrated seismic and well data to generate inverted impedance volumes, which were subsequently utilized in property modeling for the spatial distribution of rock properties. Finally, potential sweet spots were identified using neural network classification techniques on the resulting models. Within the Shilaif Formation, the study identifies several intervals characterized by low organic content, relatively high porosity and low rock strength, suggesting a favorable proclivity towards hosting hydrocarbon and possibility of extraction through hydraulic fracturing. These intervals are considered prospective unconventional targets due to the likely presence of expelled hydrocarbons migrated from adjacent organic-rich intervals, particularly in deeper synclinal areas where the source rock maturity is elevated.