Illuminating the Reservoir
Authors: Rassenfoss Stephen 
Published: February 2015

Saudi Aramco Seeking Groundbreaking Tools, Using Electromagnetic Waves To Track Oil and Water, Using Gravity to Measure How Much Oil Is There, and Basic Nano Transportation For Reservoir Travel

In the Ghawar field, Saudi Aramco is testing its vision of the future: developing new technologies to illuminate the world’s largest oil field.

One of the most important missions for reservoir experts at Saudi Aramco’s EXPEC Advanced Research Center (EXPEC ARC) is finding better ways to map its fields in search of ways to produce more using waterflooding.

“The interwell region, especially in fields with large well spacing, is somewhat of a ‘dark zone,’ and particularly difficult to characterize due to the challenges involved in acquiring deep and meaningful measurements,” said Abdulaziz O. Al-Kaabi, chief technologist for reservoir engineering technology at EXPEC ARC. “Our target is enhanced knowledge of fluid distribution everywhere in the reservoir.”

Saudi Aramco is supporting the development of new technologies to measure the effectiveness of waterfloods to maintain output and spot oil reserves that have been missed.

There are long-term programs to develop new methods employing electromagnetism, nanotechnology, and gravity to map the location and movement of the oil and water far beyond the range of the tools now used to map reservoirs and monitor production. The research work also could lead to other advances, such as a more effective way to deliver the chemicals used for enhanced oil recovery.

While the company is also working on advanced seismic imaging methods, the fact that there is little contrast between water and oil has led to a search for a better way to observe them between wells. This factor makes long-term production studies using 4D seismic less telling in Saudi Arabia than in other regions, such as the North Sea.

The new technologies were chosen because they have the potential to add to what can be learned about

a reservoir.

 “No single tool has all the properties you are seeking, but, by combining all the methods, you can get over the limits of each one individually,” said Alberto Marsala, a petroleum engineering specialist who is an electromagnetism expert at EXPEC ARC. “We have to go further in seismic, and be active in electromagnetic and gravity and nanotechnology, and, hopefully, all of them together will get us close to where we want to be.”

Saudi Aramco’s development timelines can stretch more than a decade, far past the limits of most oil companies.

“As the mission of Saudi Aramco is to provide sustainable energy for future generations—maximizing recovery of our oil and gas resources—our people and programs are more focused on the long term with longer R&D cycles than many companies can consider,” said Samer AlAshgar, manager of Saudi Aramco EXPEC ARC.

The ideas and technology development typically involve partnerships with academic institutions and companies around the world. While AlAshgar describes the effort as pushing “technology to the limits of science,” the motivation is always maximizing ultimate recoveries.

“We are not doing nanotechnology because nano is cool. We are doing it because there is a need for it,” said Mazen Kanj, a petroleum engineering specialist and the lead scientist working on nanotechnology applications at EXPEC ARC.