Accurate oil saturation determination and monitoring in a heavy oil reservoir

Conventional thermal recovery techniques such as Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD), or Horizontal Alternating Steam Drive (HASD), have been shown to be highly effective in increasing the recovery rates in a heavy oil field. However, one of the key challenges in the steam flooding process is to effectively monitor oil saturation changes over time in order to optimize recovery. While core samples in new wells are ideal to determine oil saturations, SPE 46245 explores the alternative use of Carbon Oxygen Ration or COR logs. The study with COR logs was performed in Kern River using several hundred observation wells and over 360,000 feet of COR data. The project yielded results that were comparable to core data and enabled greater coverage of 4D (time-lapse) saturation mapping. It also has improved the understanding of reservoir dynamics including steam chamber evolution and potential areas for infill drilling.

You can find the abstract either on the following links.

·        http://www.slb.com/resources/technical_papers/production/46245.aspx

·        http://www.onepetro.org/mslib/app/Preview.do?paperNumber=00046245&societyCode=SPE

Kambiz.