VISUAL DISPLAY OF RESERVOIR PARAMETERS AFFECTING ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY

Evaluation of oil and gas properties for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) involves a high degree of risk, especially when the fields are old and well past their prime. The purpose of this project is to provide the small-to-medium size oil field operator with the tools necessary to do an EOR evaluation of the same quality and sophistication that only large international oil companies have been able to afford to date. This approach utilizes readily available, affordable computer software and analytical services. This project will provide a detailed example, based on a field trial, of how to evaluate a field for EOR operations utilizing data typically available in a field which has undergone primary development. After reviewing PC-based software from most major vendors, we decided that the most effective way to provide a user-friendly, state-of-the-art package to the independent producers who are our primary clients is to link the best modules from four different systems: a commercial database, a wireline log analysis program, a mapping program, and a 2D and 3D visualization program, into a flexible, user-friendly unit. This would result in a product that could be used by small oil and gas companies to perform computerized reservoir studies. After building a test database, we have decided that Microsoft Access is the best choice for our database management platform. Building and filling the project database is a major undertaking that will involve a large effort in the months to come. Log data presents special formatting problems. We have not yet decided whether to import log data into the project database or to archive it in the specialized database attached to our log evaluation program. Currently all digitized log data is being read into, corrected, analyzed, and archived in the Crocker Data Management Petrolog Program at DPI. Munger maps which cover the Pioneer Anticline and the entire area northward to the McKittrick Front area of Cymric Field were scanned into the Canvas (Deneba) drafting program and digitized into several "layers". Fifty three wells which penetrate the Miocene Monterey Formation, the principal interval which we intend to visualize, were identified on the Pioneer Anticline. Forty five of these wells have wireline logs. All wells for which we have good logs have now been digitized. Log data were calibrated to core data for 6 wells, 4 wells in Pioneer Field for which we have good rock data, and 2 wells in Cymric Field which we are using as calibration wells. Core data were also compared with log data using a variety of statistical techniques in order to obtain correct parameters for entry into standard algorithms for calculating matrix density, porosity, and water saturation. A preliminary version of the analytical model using "first cut" parameters was developed. The output of this model will be the primary input to our reservoir visualization program. FTIR, XRD, and SEM analyses of samples from both Pioneer and Cymric Fields are underway. Spreadsheets and macros have been constructed to store, reduce, and plot the XRD data. These techniques are being developed and refined at MTU in order to better quantify mineralogy.

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