Additional Recovery from Mature Reservoirs--Promise of Integrated Geoscience Characterization: ABSTRACT

Abstract

Nationwide, the projected recovery efficiency in oil reservoirs by conventional methods averages 34%; an additional 3% may be obtained from existing EOR projects. Thus, of an in-place resource of 500 billion bbl of oil, 325 billion bbl remain a target for improved production strategies. Recovery of this large resource base from mature reservoirs nationwide will be the dominant thrust of the domestic oil industry over the next several decades. A critical element in improved production of hydrocarbons is the greater understanding of internal reservoir fabric and its controls on fluid movement during exploitation. It is here that geoscience has a major role to play in determining, mapping, and quantifying the depositional architecture, diagenetic facies distribution, petrophysical attributes, fluid-flow paths, and production character (and the variability in all of these interrelated parameters) of producing reservoirs. A national effort of integrated geoscience reservoir characterization focused on strategically important reservoir types will allow development of strategies for additional recovery. High-resolution models of reservoir architecture will help them delineate untapped or inefficiently drained reservoir compartments. The potential observed in the selected reservoirs can then be extrapolated to similar reservoirs in the candidate play and to other analogs nationwide.