Advanced Reservoir Characterization in the Antelope Shale to Establish the Viability of CO{sub 2} Enhanced Oil Recovery in California's Monterey Formation Siliceous Shales

Abstract

The Buena Vista Hills field is located about 25 miles southwest of Bakersfield, in Kern County, California, about two miles north of the city of Taft, and five miles south of the Elk Hills field. The Antelope Shale zone was discovered at the Buena Vista Hills field in 1952, and has since been under primary production. Little research was done to improve the completion techniques during the development phase in the 1950s, so most of the wells are completed with about 1000 ft of slotted liner. The proposed pilot consists of four existing producers on 20 acre spacing with a new 10 acre infill well drilled as the pilot CO{sub 2} injector. Most of the reservoir characterization of the first phase of the project will be performed using data collected in the pilot pattern wells. This is the first annual report of the project. It covers the period February 12, 1996 to February 11, 1997. During this period the Chevron Murvale 653Z-26B well was drilled in Section 26-T31S/R23E in the Buena Vista Hills field, Kern County, California. The Monterey Formation equivalent Brown and Antelope Shales were continuously cored, the zone was logged with several different kinds of wireline logs, and the well was cased to a total depth of 4907 ft. Core recovery was 99.5%. Core analyses that have been performed include Dean Stark porosity, permeability and fluid saturations, field wettability, anelastic strain recovery, spectral core gamma, profile permeametry, and photographic imaging. Wireline log analysis includes mineral-based error minimization (ELAN), NMR T2 processing, and dipole shear wave anisotropy. A shear wave vertical seismic profile was acquired after casing was set and processing is nearly complete.