Abstract: Reservoir Characterization and Steam Flood Monitoring with Crosshole EM
Michael
Wilt, Carlos Torres-Verdin, H. W Tseng
Crosshole electromagnetic (EM) imaging is applied to reservoir characterization and steam flood monitoring in a centraL California oil field. Steam was injected into three stacked, eastward-dipping, unconsolidated oil sands within the upper 200 m. The steam plume is expected to develop as an ellipse aligned with the regional northwest-southeast strike. EM measurements were made from two fiberglass-cased observation wells straddling the steam injector on a northeast-southwest profile using the LLNL frequency domain crosshole EM system. Field data were collected before the initiation of a steam drive to map the distribution of the oil sands and then 6 and 12 months later to monitor the progress of the steam chest. Resisitivity images derived from the EM data before steam in section clearly delineate the distribution and dipping structure on the target oil sands. Difference images, from data collected before and after steam flooding, show resisitivity changes that indicate that the steam chest has developed only in the deeper oil sands although steam injection occurred in all three sand layers.
AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90959©1995 AAPG Rocky Mountain Section Meeting, Reno, Nevada