REVIVING ABANDONED RESERVOIRS WITH HIGH-PRESSURE AIR INJECTION: APPLICATION IN A FRACTURED AND KARSTED DOLOMITE RESERVOIR

Abstract

The Bureau of Economic Geology and Goldrus Producing Company have assembled a multidisciplinary team of geoscientists and engineers to evaluate the applicability of high-pressure air injection (HPAI) in revitalizing a nearly abandoned carbonate reservoir in the Permian Basin of West Texas. The characterization phase of the project is utilizing geoscientists and petroleum engineers from the bureau of Economic Geology and the Department of Petroleum Engineering (both at The University of Texas at Austin) to define the controls on fluid flow in the reservoir as a basis for developing a reservoir model. This model will be used to define a field deployment plant that Goldrus, a small independent oil company, will implement by drilling both vertical and horizontal wells during the demonstration phase of the project. Additional reservoir data are being gathered during the demonstration phase to improve the accuracy of the reservoir model. The results of the demonstration are being closely monitored to provide a basis for improving the design of the HPAI field deployment plan. The results of the reservoir characterization field demonstration and monitoring program will be documented and widely disseminated to facilitate adoption of this technology by oil operators in the Permian Basin and elsewhere in the US.