Quantitative Methods for Reservoir Characterization and Improved Recovery: Application to Heavy Oil Sands

The first twelve months of the project focused on collecting data for characterization and modeling. In addition, data from Coalinga Field was analyzed to define the fractal structure present in the data set. The following sections of the report parallel the first four subtasks of the investigation were: (1) Collect and Load Property Data from Temblor Outcrops in California, (2) Collect and Load Property Data from Temblor Reservoir Sands, West Coalinga Field, California, (3) Collect and Load Property Data from Continuous Upper Cretaceous Outcrops in Utah, and (4) Define Fractal Structure in the Data Sets and Apply to Generating Property Representations

Small drill-hole, gas mini-permeameter probe

The distal end of a basic tube element including a stopper device with an expandable plug is positioned in a pre-drilled hole in a rock face. Rotating a force control wheel threaded on the tube element exerts force on a sleeve that in turn causes the plug component of the stopper means to expand and seal the distal end of the tube in the hole. Gas under known pressure is introduced through the tube element. A thin capillary tube positioned in the tube element connects the distal end of the tube element to means to detect and display pressure changes and data that allow the permeability of the rock to be determined

Simulation of Turbulent Flocculation and Sedimentation in Flocculent-Aided Sediment Retention Basins

2008 S.C. Water Resources Conference - Addressing Water Challenges Facing the State and Regio

Identification of Lateral Macropore Flow in a Forested Riparian Wetland through Numerical Simulation of a Subsurface Tracer Experiment

Understanding wetland hydrogeology is important as it is coupled to internal geochemical and biotic processes that ultimately determine the fate of potential contaminant inputs. Therefore, there is a need to quantitatively understand the complex hydrogeology of wetlands. The main objective of this study was to improve understanding of saturated groundwater flow in a forested riparian wetland located on a golf course in the Lower Pee Dee River Basin in South Carolina, USA. Field observations that characterize subsurface wetland flow critical to solute transport originating from storm-generated runoff are presented. Monitoring wells were installed, and slug tests were performed to measure permeabilities of the wetland soil. A field-scale bromide tracer experiment was conducted to mimic the periodic loading of nutrients caused by storm runoff. This experiment provided spatial and temporal data on solute transport that were analyzed to determine travel times in the wetland. Furthermore, a 3-D numerical, steady-state flow model (MODFLOW) was developed to simulate subsurface flow in the wetland. A particle tracking model was subsequently used to calculate solute travel times from the wetland inlet to the outlet based on flow modeling results. It was evident that observed tracer breakthrough times were not typical of these measured wetland soil matrix conductivity values. Based on surface water sampling results at the wetland outlet, tracer arrival time was about 9 h after the injection of the tracer. These results implied an apparent mean K value of 2,050 m/day, which is 152 times larger than the mean of the measured values using slug tests (13.4 m/day). Modeling efforts clearly demonstrated this implied preferential flow behavior; particle travel times resulting from the calibrated flow model were in the order of hundreds of days, while actual travel times in the wetland were in the order of hours to a few days. This significant difference in travel times was attributed to the presence of macropores in the form of dead root channels and cavities forming a pipe-flow network. The analyses presented in this study resulted in an estimate of the ratio of matrix permeability to matrix plus macropore permeability of approximately 1/150. Eventually, the tracer test and resulting travel times between various points in the wetland were critical to understanding the true wetland flow dynamics. The final conceptual model of the hydraulic properties of the wetland soils comprised a low permeability matrix containing a web of high K macropores. Simulation of tracer transport in this system was possible using a flow model with significantly elevated K values

Quantitative Methods for Reservoir Characterization and Improved Recovery: Application to Heavy Oil Sands

Improved prediction of interwell reservoir heterogeneity is needed to increase productivity and to reduce recovery cost for California's heavy oil sands, which contain approximately 2.3 billion barrels of remaining reserves in the Temblor Formation and in other formations of the San Joaquin Valley. This investigation involved application of advanced analytical property-distribution methods conditioned to continuous outcrop control for improved reservoir characterization and simulation