Complex Fractured Carbonate Reservoir Potentials - The Impact of Dettailed Structural Analysis - The Example of the Maiella

The carbonates of the Maiella Mountain (Italian Apennines) was studied to verify the consistency between forward model predictions and field measurements in a carbonate fracture sequence. The variability of depositional environments and facies, with the depositional trends orthogonal to the main present day structural axis, makes the Maiella Mountain an ideal outcrop for studying how carbonate units located in contrasting depositional environments (different textures and organization but similar structural locations) react to stress and develop fracture networks. This study was undertaken with a multidisciplinary approach and focused on the detailed acquisition and analysis of outcrop data (fracture, and facies) from sequences located in different depositional environments and structural settings. The results of the fieldwork were then compared with the fracture systems predicted by a forward modeling technique applied by restoring seismic-scale cross sections. The comparison highlights that : a) the structural model predicts correctly fracture density distribution at the field scale (km’s); b) the structural model does not fit fracture density data at the inter well-scale (100’m); c) the number of fracture sets predicted by the model is not consistent with observed data; d) fracture connectivity is higher in the field than that proposed by the model.