Oilfield Review

Winter 2010/2011

Enhanced Oil Recovery

Arctic Operations
Oil Shale
11-OR-0001
Enhanced Oil Recovery: Here to Stay
The global imbalance between supply and demand for oil
and gas is growing. This trend is pointed out in studies
from numerous organizations that watch the E&P industry,
including the International Energy Agency, Cambridge
Energy Research Associates and the World Petroleum
Council. Some studies indicate that the decline rate of
existing oil fields is increasing significantly over time, so
additional production is becoming progressively more cru-
cial to bridge the supply and demand gap.
In my opinion, neither we, as professionals in the oil and
gas industry, nor the resource owners can be satisfied with
recovery factors that average well below 40%. We need to
do better. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is a vital means to
achieve additional production and recovery from new and
existing fields. In addition, several sizable resources, such
as extra-heavy oil fields, cannot be developed without EOR
techniques. The high capital investments for offshore and
deepwater projects warrant a reassessment of development
philosophies because production options once considered
tertiary now need to be considered as possibilities in initial
development stages.
EOR techniques employ fundamental physical and chem-
ical rock and fluid interactions to improve reservoir sweep
and reduce residual oil saturations (see “Has the Time Come
for EOR?” page 16). Of the three basic EOR processes—
thermal, gas injection and chemical—used to achieve
these ends, thermal and gas injection are the most mature.
Chemical EOR is advancing rapidly in the use of mobility
improvements (polymer and steam), residual saturation
reducers (surfactants and designer waterflooding) or com-
binations thereof (alkali-surfactant-polymer flooding).
Extensive customization, fundamental to ensure that an
EOR process will be successful for a specific field, contrib-
utes significantly to the complexity and cost of EOR projects.
This customization usually includes detailed laboratory
studies, field trials, pilots and phased developments, all
needed to reduce project risk before sanction. Unfortunately,
this also leads to quite long development times and higher
up-front investment, hence, longer payback times. Faster
maturation workflows are required, which can be enabled
by technological solutions to speed up appraisal and devel-
opment. The fiscal regimes that work well for primary and
secondary developments in several countries stand in the
way of economic EOR projects, thus change of the fiscal
frameworks is required as well.
Enhanced recovery comes at a price. The technical costs
in dollars per barrel produced are notably higher than
those of primary or secondary recovery methods. In addi-
tion, the environmental footprint of some EOR techniques
can be significant and necessitates mitigation, also adding
to the costs. EOR processes developed in the past are not
necessarily the solutions we need for today and tomorrow.
We therefore need continued investment in EOR technology
development, from the processes and fundamental concepts,
to new engineering solutions, to surveillance techniques
that improve sweep efficiency.
Recent research efforts have greatly advanced the funda-
mental understanding of the rock and fluid interface in
chemical EOR. This understanding has opened up new
opportunities that have lower costs and higher recovery
efficiencies. It has also increased the scope for recovery to
domains that were previously thought to be unattractive
as targets for EOR. However, more work is required. If we
want to reduce the EOR technology timeline and deploy
projects earlier, we must encourage wider cooperation
between industry, academia and resource holders. There
must be sharing of risk, data and knowledge while address-
ing and overcoming potential blocks such as intellectual
property ownership and other commercial aspects.
I am therefore pleased that Schlumberger and Shell
have recently agreed to start a significant landmark
research partnership. The research is aimed at discovering
and developing new methodologies and technologies for
enhancing recovery, with the aim of addressing many of
the challenges mentioned above. Enhanced oil recovery is
here to stay.
Jeroen Regtien
Vice President, Hydrocarbon Recovery Technologies
Innovation, Research & Development
Shell International Exploration and Production
Jeroen Regtien leads the improved oil recovery/enhanced oil recovery, smart
field, CO2 storage and rock and fluid science research and development
activities in the Shell Projects and Technology Group. His extensive career in
the upstream oil and gas industry has included roles as technical manager,
chief petroleum engineer, manager of strategy and planning, head of geother-
mal energy, asset manager and development manager during assignments in
Brunei, Australia, Oman, the USA and The Netherlands. He is a member of
the World Petroleum Council and International Advisory Board of the Oman
Research Council. Jeroen is an experimental physicist with an MSc degree
from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
1
 Schlumberger

Oilfield Review
www.slb.com/oilfieldreview

Executive Editor 1 Enhanced Oil Recovery: Here to Stay

Mark A. Andersen
Editorial contributed by Jeroen Regtien, Vice President, Hydrocarbon Recovery Technologies
Advisory Editor
Lisa Stewart Innovation, Research & Development; Shell International Exploration and Production

Senior Editors
Matt Varhaug
Rick von Flatern

Editors
Vladislav Glyanchenko
Tony Smithson 4 Coaxing Oil from Shale
Contributing Editors Oil shale contains copious amounts of immature organic
Rana Rottenberg material. Heating the rock accelerates the normal maturation
Ginger Oppenheimer
process to generate oil and gas. Historically, oil shales were
Design/Production mined, crushed and heated at the surface, but companies are
Herring Design
Steve Freeman
finding it may be more efficient to access these formations
through boreholes, heat the subsurface and bring the oil to
Illustration the surface.
Chris Lockwood
Mike Messinger
George Stewart

Printing
Wetmore Printing Company
Curtis Weeks

16 Has the Time Come for EOR?

Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods are designed to
produce additional oil beyond what is obtainable through
traditional methods of pressure depletion and simple
pressure maintenance. EOR techniques include miscible
gasflooding, chemical flooding and thermal recovery.
This article describes the basics of these methods; field
examples illustrate their application.

On the cover:

Engineers prepare a slim tube for a test

of minimum miscibility pressure at the
Schlumberger Reservoir Fluids Center in
Houston. The sand-filled metal coil
provides sufficient length for a multiple-
contact miscibility condition to develop
between a crude oil in the coil and an
injected gas. Miscible gas injection is
one of several enhanced oil recovery
methods used to sweep post-waterflood
residual oil from a reservoir (inset ).
About Oilfield Review
Oilfield Review, a Schlumberger journal, Oilfield Review is published quarterly and © 2011 Schlumberger. All rights reserved.
printed in the USA. Reproductions without permission are
communicates technical advances in
finding and producing hydrocarbons strictly prohibited.
Visit www.slb.com/oilfieldreview for
to employees, clients and other oilfield
professionals. Contributors to articles electronic copies of articles in multiple For a comprehensive dictionary of oilfield
include industry professionals and experts languages. terms, see the Schlumberger Oilfield
from around the world; those listed with Glossary at www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com.
only geographic location are employees
of Schlumberger or its affiliates.

2
 Winter 2010/2011
Volume 22
Number 4
ISSN 0923-1730

36 Petroleum Potential of the Arctic: Advisory Panel

Challenges and Solutions Abdulla I. Al-Kubaisy
Saudi Aramco
Although constituting only about 6% of the Earth’s surface, Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia
the Arctic potentially contains a significant portion of the Dilip M. Kale
world’s undiscovered petroleum resources and, thus, is ONGC Energy Centre
Delhi, India
attracting the growing attention of oil and gas companies.
However, this region poses numerous challenges, including a Roland Hamp
Woodside Energy Ltd.
harsh climate, short operational season, complex surface and Perth, Australia
shallow-subsurface conditions and increasing environmental
George King
restrictions. Operators and service companies are improving Apache Corporation
existing technologies and developing new ones to address the Houston, Texas, USA
unique challenges of this remote region. Richard Woodhouse
Independent consultant
Surrey, England

50 Contributors

52 New Books and Coming in Oilfield Review

54 Annual Index

Editorial correspondence Subscriptions Distribution inquiries

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3
 Coaxing Oil from Shale

Oil shale is plentiful, but producing its petroleum can be complicated. Since the
1800s, these rocks have been mined and fed into surface facilities where liquid
hydrocarbons were extracted. Now, operators are developing methods to heat the
rock in situ and pipe the liberated oil to the surface. They are also adapting oilfield
technology to evaluate these deposits and estimate their fluid yields.

Pierre Allix Oil shale is the term given to very fine-grained In nature, it can take millions of years at
Total sedimentary rock containing relatively large burial temperatures between 100°C and 150°C
Pau, France amounts of immature organic material, or kero- [210°F and 300°F] for most source rocks to gen-
gen. It is essentially potential source rock that erate oil. But the process can be accelerated by
Alan Burnham would have generated hydrocarbons if it had heating the kerogen-rich rock more quickly and
American Shale Oil LLC
been subjected to geologic burial at the requisite to higher temperatures, generating liquid hydro-
Rifle, Colorado, USA
temperatures and pressures for a sufficient time. carbons in much shorter time: from a matter of
Tom Fowler minutes to a few years.
Shell International Exploration and Production
Houston, Texas, USA

Michael Herron
Robert Kleinberg
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Bill Symington
ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company
Houston, Texas

Oilfield Review Winter 2010/2011: 22, no. 4.

Copyright © 2011 Schlumberger.
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Neil Bostrom,
Jim Grau, Josephine Mawutor Ndinyah, Drew Pomerantz
and Stacy Lynn Reeder, Cambridge, Massachusetts; John
R. Dyni, US Geological Survey, Denver; Martin Kennedy,
University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia; Patrick
McGinn, ExxonMobil Corporation, Houston; Eric Oudenot,
London; Kenneth Peters, Mill Valley, California, USA; and
Carolyn Tucker, Shell Oil, Denver.
ECS and RST are marks of Schlumberger.
CCR is a mark of American Shale Oil LLC.
Electrofrac is a mark of ExxonMobil.
Rock-Eval is a mark of the Institut Français du Pétrole.
1. Dyni JR: “Geology and Resources of Some World
Oil-Shale Deposits,” Reston, Virginia, USA: US Geological
Survey Scientific Investigations, Report 2005-5294, 2006.
Smith MA: “Lacustrine Oil Shales in the Geologic
Record,” in Katz BJ (ed): Lacustrine Basin Exploration:
Case Studies and Modern Analogs. Tulsa: The American
Association of Petroleum Geologists, AAPG Memoir 50
(1990): 43–60.

4 Oilfield Review
 Forcing petroleum products from immature
formations is one of the more difficult ways to
extract energy from the Earth, but that has not
kept people from trying. From prehistoric times
to the present, oil shale, like coal, has been
burned as fuel. Methods for coaxing oil from the
rock to produce liquid fuels have existed for hun-
dreds of years. The earliest such ventures mined
oil shale and heated it in processing facilities on
the surface to obtain liquid shale oil and other
petroleum products. More recently, methods
have been tested to heat the rock in situ and
extract the resulting oil in a more conventional
way: through boreholes. These approaches are
being developed, but the world’s oil shale
resources remain largely untapped.
Current estimates of the volumes recoverable
from oil shale deposits are in the trillions of
barrels, but recovery methods are complicated
and expensive. However, with today’s sustained
high prices and predictions of future oil short-
ages in the coming decades, producing oil from
shale may soon become economically viable.
Therefore, several companies and countries are
working to find practical ways to exploit these > Outcropping oil shales. The oil shale of the Green River Formation in the Piceance Creek basin in
unconventional resources. Colorado covers about 3,100 km2 [1,200 mi2]. The inset (top) shows a hand specimen from that region,
with dark layers of rich oil shale interbedded with pale layers of lean shale. The white scale bar is
This article explains how oil shales form, how 7.2 cm [2.8 in.] long. (Outcrop photograph courtesy of Martin Kennedy, University of Adelaide. Inset
they have been exploited in various parts of the photograph courtesy of John R. Dyni, US Geological Survey, Denver.)
world and which techniques are currently being
developed for tapping the energy they contain. Calcite and Dolomite
Examples from the western US illustrate innova-
tive applications of oilfield technology for evaluat-
ing oil shale deposits and assessing their richness.

Oil Shale Formation Calcareous Siliceous

or dolomitic dolomite
Oil shales form in a variety of depositional envi- mudstone Gas shales from Poland
ronments, including freshwater and saline lakes Parachute Creek Member
and swamps, near-shore marine basins and Eagle Ford Garden Gulch Member
subtidal shelves.1 They may occur as minor sedi- Various other locations
mentary layers or as giant accumulations hun- Siliceous
Niobrara marlstone
dreds of meters thick, covering thousands of Argillaceous
square kilometers (above right). marlstone
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
As with other sedimentary rocks, composi- Oil Shale Fig. 1
tions of shales containing organic material range ORWIN10-OilShl
Monterey Fig. 1
from mostly silicates to mostly carbonates, with Montney
varying amounts of clay minerals (right). Mineral Haynesville
composition has little effect on oil yield, but it Argillaceous Lower Barnett Muskwa
can impact the heating process. Clay minerals mudstone Marcellus
Siliceous
contain water, which may affect the amount of (traditional shale) Bakken mudstone
Bazhenov
Average shale Siliceous shale
heat required to convert the organic material to Clay Quartz and
Minerals Feldspar
petroleum. Carbonate shales, upon heating, gen- Monterey
erate additional CO2 that must be considered in porcellanite

any oil shale development program. Many depos-
its also contain valuable minerals and metals
such as alum, nahcolite, sulfur, vanadium, zinc,
copper and uranium, which may themselves be
targets of mining operations.
> Shale mineralogy. Worldwide average shale composition regardless of organic content (black
diamond) is high in clay minerals and contains some quartz and feldspar with little or no calcite or
dolomite. Organic-rich shales (other diamonds and dots) tend to have a wider variety of compositions.
Oil shales from the Green River Formation are highlighted in dotted blue ovals. Those from the
Parachute Creek Member (green squares) have low clay-mineral content, while oil shales from the
Garden Gulch Member (red dots) are richer in clay minerals. Gray lines subdivide the triangle into
compositional regions. (Adapted from Grau et al, reference 32.)

Winter 2010/2011 5
 Interspersed between the grains of these remains of lacustrine and marine algae, and con- the source rock for the oil produced from the
rocks is kerogen—insoluble, partially degraded tains minor amounts of spores, pollen, fragments Red Wash field in Utah, USA, outcrops in the
organic material that has not yet matured enough of herbaceous and woody plants and remnants of same region. It also contains the world’s largest
to generate hydrocarbons. The kerogen in oil other lacustrine, marine and land flora and reserves of shale oil.
shale has its origins predominantly in the fauna. The type of kerogen has a bearing on what
kind of hydrocarbon it will produce as it matures Oil Shales in Time and Space
Products Given thermally.2 The kerogens in oil shale fall into the The earliest use of oil shale was as fuel for heat,
off from Kerogen
Maturation Type I and Type II classifications used by geo- but there is also evidence of weaponry applica-
CO2, H2O chemists (left). tions, such as flaming, oil shale–tipped arrows
Type I Oil The thermally immature kerogens in oil shot by warriors in 13th-century Asia.5 The first
Wet gas shales have undergone low-temperature diagen- known use of liquid petroleum derived from shale
Dry gas esis but no further modifications.3 Some other dates to the mid-1300s, when medical practitio-
Type II
1.5
No hydrocarbon organic-rich shales may have reached thermal ners in what is now Austria touted its healing
potential maturity but not yet expelled all of their liquid properties. By the late 1600s, several municipali-
Increasing
Hydrogen/carbon ratio

maturation petroleum products. To distinguish them from oil ties in Europe were distilling oil from shale for
shales, for the purposes of this article, mature, heating fuel and street lighting. In the 1830s,
Type III organic-rich shales that have not expelled all of mining and distillation activities began in France,
1.0
their oil are called oil-bearing shales. Examples and reached commercial levels there and in
of these are the Bakken, Monterey and Eagle Canada, Scotland and the US by the mid-1800s.
Ford shales, which currently produce oil in the The country with the longest history of commer-
Type IV US. Other organic-rich shales are more thermally cial shale oil production is Scotland, where mines
mature or of different kerogen type and contain operated for more than 100 years, finally closing
0.5
gas instead of oil, such as the Barnett, Fayetteville in 1962.6
and Marcellus shales, also in the US.4 Fuel shortages during the two World Wars
Many shales attain source-rock status, achiev- encouraged other countries to exploit their oil
0 0.1 0.2
ing full maturity and expelling their oil and natu- shale resources. Tapping a kerogen-rich carbon-
Oxygen/carbon ratio
ral gas, which then migrate, and under the proper ate sequence, Estonia began mining oil shale
> Kerogen maturation. The Type I and Type II
conditions, accumulate and become trapped from a deposit about 20 to 30 m [65 to 100 ft]
kerogens in most oil shales are not yet mature
enough to generate hydrocarbons. As these until discovered and produced. Some such shales thick that covers hundreds of square kilometers
kerogens mature—usually through geologic burial can manifest in several ways. For example, the in the northern part of the country. The operation
and the increased heat associated with it—they Kimmeridge Clay Formation is the main source continues today.
transform into oil, and then with more heat, to gas.
rock for the oil fields of the North Sea, but where The shale, which occurs as 50 or so beds of
Methods that accelerate the maturation process
attempt to control heat input, thereby producing it outcrops in England it is an oil shale. Similarly, organic-rich shallow marine sediments alternat-
only the desired type of hydrocarbon. the Green River shale, which is presumed to be ing with biomicritic limestone, is produced from
open-pit mines at depths to 20 m. Where the shale
is buried deeper than that, down to 70 m [230 ft],
50 it is accessed by underground mines. Roughly
Germany Scotland three-quarters of the mined rock supplies fuel for
China Russia
electric power plants, providing 90% of the coun-
40
Brazil Estonia
try’s electricity. The remainder is used for heating
Mined shale, million metric tons

and as feedstock for petrochemicals. In the past

90 years, 1 × 109 metric tons [1 × 109 Mg, or
30 1.1 billion tonUS] of oil shale has been mined
from the primary Estonia deposit (left).7
China has a significant history of oil shale min-
20
Oilfield Review ing as well, with shale oil production beginning in
Winter 10 the 1920s. In the Fushun area, extensive shale lay-
10
Oil Shale Fig. 3 ers 15 to 58 m [49 to 190 ft] thick are mined along
ORWIN10-OilShl Fig. 3 with coal, both from Eocene lacustrine deposits.
The total resource of oil shale at Fushun is esti-
0 mated at 3.3 × 109 Mg [3.6 billion tonUS].8 As of
1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010
1995, Fushun’s petroleum production capacity
Year
from shale was 66,000 m3/yr [415,000 bbl/yr].
> More than a century of commercial oil shale mining. Tonnage of mined shale rose dramatically in the
Brazil began developing an oil shale mining
1970s when oil prices were also rising; it peaked in 1980, but declined as oil prices made shale oil
noncompetitive. Several countries continue to mine oil shale as a source of heat, electricity, liquid fuel and processing industry in the 1960s. The national
and chemical feedstock. Since 1999, mined shale tonnage has started to increase again. (Data from oil company, Petróleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras),
1880 to 1998 from Dyni, reference 1.)

6 Oilfield Review
 United States (1) Russia (2)
2,085 247

Estonia (9)
Canada (11) 16
15 Italy (5)
73
France (12)
7
Israel (14) China (10)
Morocco (6) 16
53 4
Egypt (13) Jordan (7)
5.7 34
Democratic
Brazil (4) Republic of
82 Congo (3)
Shale oil resource, 100
billion bbl
(global ranking) Australia (8)
31

> Significant oil shale deposits. Most of the known high-quality shale oil resources are in these 14 countries. (Data from Knaus et al, reference 11.)

established the Shale Industrialization Business
Unit (SIX) to exploit the country’s several
large oil shale deposits. The Irati Formation,
which outcrops extensively in southern Brazil,
contains reserves of more than 1.1 × 108 m3
[700 million bbl] of oil and 2.5 × 1010 m3 [880 Bcf]
of gas.9 Surface facilities at São Mateus do Sul, in
the state of Paraná, are capable of processing
7,100 Mg [7,800 tonUS] of shale per day to produce
fuel oil, naphtha, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG),
shale gas, sulfur and asphalt additives.
To date, almost all the oil extracted from the
world’s oil shale has been from rock that was
mined and then processed at surface facilities.
Mining is typically performed either through sur-
face mining or through underground mining
using the room-and-pillar method associated
2. Tissot BP: “Recent Advances in Petroleum Geochemistry
Applied to Hydrocarbon Exploration,” AAPG Bulletin 68,
no. 5 (May 1984): 545–563.
3. For more on diagenesis: Ali SA, Clark WJ, Moore WR
and Dribus JR: “Diagenesis and Reservoir Quality,”
Oilfield Review 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 14–27.
4. Boyer C, Kieschnick J, Suarez-Rivera R, Lewis RL and
Waters G: “Producing Gas from Its Source,” Oilfield
Review 18, no. 3 (Autumn 2006): 36–49.
5. Moody R: “Oil & Gas Shales, Definitions and Distributions
in Time & Space,” presented at the Geological Society’s
History of Geology Group Meeting, Weymouth, England,
April 20–22, 2007, http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/cache/
offonce/groups/specialist/hogg/pid/3175;jsessionid=
4CC09ACD6572AE54454755DE4A9077DC (accessed
September 14, 2010).
6. Shale Villages: “A Very Brief History of the Scottish Shale
Oil Industry,” http://www.almondvalley.co.uk/V_
background_history.htm (accessed September 24, 2010).
with coal mining. After mining, oil shale is trans-
ported to a facility—a retort—where a heating
process converts kerogen to oil and gas and sepa-
rates the hydrocarbon fractions from the mineral
fraction. This mineral waste, which contains sub-
stantial amounts of residual kerogen, is called
spent shale. After retorting, the oil must be
upgraded by further processing before being sent
to a refinery.
Mining operations require handling massive
volumes of rock, disposing of spent shale and
upgrading the heavy oil. The environmental
impact can be significant, causing disruption of
the surface and requiring substantial volumes of
Oilfield Review
water. WaterWinter
is needed
10 for controlling dust, cool-
Oil Shale Fig.
ing spent shale and 5
upgrading raw shale oil.
Estimates ofORWIN10-OilShl Fig.range
water requirements 5 from 2 to
5 barrels of water per barrel of oil produced.10
  7. Sabanov S, Pastarus J-R and Nikitin O: “Environmental
Impact Assessment for Estonian Oil Shale Mining
Systems,” paper rtos-A107, presented at the
International Oil Shale Conference, Amman, Jordan,
November 7–9, 2006.
  8. Dyni, reference 1.
  9. Petrobras SIX Shale Industrialization Business Unit:
“Shale in Brazil and in the World,” http://www2.
petrobras.com.br/minisite/refinarias/petrosix/ingles/oxisto/
oxisto_reservas.asp (accessed November 10, 2010).
10. Bartis JT, LaTourrette T, Dixon L, Peterson DJ and
Cecchine G: Oil Shale Development in the United States:
Prospects and Policy Issues. Santa Monica, California,
USA: The RAND Corporation, Monograph MG-414, 2005.
11. Knaus E, Killen J, Biglarbigi K and Crawford P: “An
Overview of Oil Shale Resources,” in Ogunsola OI,
Hartstein AM and Ogunsola O (eds): Oil Shale: A
Solution to the Liquid Fuel Dilemma. Washington, DC:
American Chemical Society, ACS Symposium
Series 1032 (2010): 3–20.
12. Dyni, reference 1.
13. Screen mesh of –8 means the particles can pass
through a wire screen with 8 openings per linear inch.
The world’s oil shale deposits are widely distrib-
uted; hundreds of deposits occur in more than 30
countries (above). Many formations are at depths
beyond mining capabilities or in environmentally
fragile settings. In these areas, heating the rocks in
place may offer the best method to hasten kerogen
maturation. If ways can be found to do this safely,
efficiently and cost effectively, the potential prize is
immense. By conservative estimate—because oil
shales have not been the target of modern explora-
tion efforts—resources of the world’s shale oil total
about 5.1 × 1011 m3 [3.2 trillion bbl].11 It is estimated
that more than 60% of this amount—roughly
3 × 1011 m3 [2 trillion bbl]—is located in the US.
Converting Oil Shale to Shale Oil
Translating volume of rock to volume of recover-
able oil requires information on oil shale proper-
ties, such as organic content and grade, which can
vary widely within a deposit. Traditionally, for the
purposes of surface retorting, oil shale grade is
determined by the modified Fischer assay method,
which measures the oil yield of a shale sample in
a laboratory retort.12 A 100-g [0.22-lbm] sample is
crushed and sieved through a 2.38-mm [–8] mesh
screen, heated in an aluminum retort to 500°C
[930°F] at a rate of 12°C/min [22°F/min] and
then held at that temperature for 40 min.13 The
resulting distilled vapors of oil, gas and water are
condensed and then separated by centrifuge. The
quantities delivered are weight percentages of oil,
water and shale residue and the specific gravity of
the oil. The difference between the weight of the
products and that of the starting material is

Winter 2010/2011 7
 40
Project Name Primary Purpose Dates Heater Total Depth,
Shale oil, degree API gravity

36 Holes Holes ft
Red Pinnacle ICP field demonstration 1981 to 1982 3 14 20
32 thermal conduction test
Mahogany field ICP field demonstration 1996 to 1998 6 26 130
28 experiment
ICP LLNL
24
Mahogany demonstration ICP field demonstration, 1998 to 2005 38 101 600
project recovery
20 Mahogany demonstration ICP field demonstration, 2003 to 2005 16 27 400
100,000 10,000 1,000 100 10 1 project, South recovery
Heating rate, °C/d
Deep heater test Heaters 2001 to present 21 45 700
> Improved oil quality with slow heating. Data
Mahogany isolation test Freeze wall 2002 to 2004 2 53 1,400
from the Shell in situ conversion process (ICP)
and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Freeze wall test Freeze wall 2005 to present 0 233 1,700
(LLNL), in California, show a clear increase in oil
API gravity as heating rate decreases. The red > Shell’s thermal conduction pilot projects. Shell has performed seven field pilots using the in situ
endpoint represents the results of typical conversion process (ICP) to heat oil shale to conversion temperature. (Adapted from Fowler and
laboratory pyrolysis. Vinegar, reference 24.)

recorded as “gas plus loss.” The oil yield is
reported in liters per metric ton (L/Mg) or gallons
per short ton (galUS/tonUS) of raw shale.
Commercially attractive oil shale deposits yield at
least 100 L/Mg [24 galUS/tonUS], and some reach
300 L/Mg [72 galUS/tonUS].14
The Fischer assay method does not measure
the total energy content of an oil shale because
the gases, which include methane, ethane, pro-
pane, butane, hydrogen, H2S and CO2, can have
significant energy content, but are not individu-
ally specified. Also, some retort methods, espe-
cially those that heat at a different rate or for
different times, or that crush the rock more finely,
may produce more oil than that produced by
the Fischer assay method. Therefore, the method
only approximates the energy potential of an oil
shale deposit.Oilfield
15 Review
Winter 10
Another Oil
method
ShaleforFig.characterizing
6 organic
richness of oil shale is a pyrolysis
ORWIN10-OilShl Fig. 6 test developed
by the Institut Français du Pétrole, in Reuil-
Malmaison, France, for analyzing source rock.16
The Rock-Eval test heats a 50- to 100-mg
[0.00011- to 0.00022-lbm] sample through several
temperature stages to determine the amounts of
hydrocarbon and CO2 generated. The results can
be interpreted for kerogen type and potential for
oil and gas generation. The method is faster than
the Fischer assay and requires less sample material.
The reactions that convert kerogen to oil and
gas are understood generally, but not in precise
molecular detail.17 The amount and composition
of generated hydrocarbons depend on the heating
conditions: the rate of temperature increase, the
duration of exposure to heat and the composition
of gases present as the kerogen breaks down.
Generally, surface-based retorts heat the [1.9 to 2.9 × 1011 m3]. Nearly 75% of the resources
shale rapidly. The time scale for retorting is lie under land managed by the US Department of
directly related to the particle size of the shale, the Interior.
which is why the rock is crushed before being The fine-grained sediments of this formation
heated in surface retorts. Pyrolysis of particles on were deposited over the course of 10 million years in
the millimeter scale can be accomplished in Early and Middle Eocene time, in several large lakes
minutes at 500°C; pyrolysis of particles tens of covering up to 25,000 mi2 [65,000 km2]. The warm
centimeters in size takes hours. alkaline waters provided conditions for abundant
In situ processes heat the shale more slowly. growth of blue-green algae, which are believed to be
It takes a few years to heat a block tens of meters the main component of the organic matter in the oil
wide. However, slow heating has advantages. shale.18 The formation is now about 1,600 ft [500 m]
Retorting occurs at a lower temperature so less thick and in places has shale layers that contain
heat is needed. Also, the quality of the oil more than 60 galUS/tonUS [250 L/Mg] of oil (next
increases substantially (above left). Coking and page).19 A particularly rich and widespread layer,
cracking reactions in the subsurface tend to called the Mahogany zone, reaches a thickness of
leave the heavy, undesirable components in the 50 ft [15 m]. It contains an estimated 173 billion bbl
ground. As a result, compared with surface pro- [2.8 × 1010 m3] of shale oil. The Green River area has
cessing, in situ heating can produce lighter liquid been well studied, with more than 750,000 assay
hydrocarbons with fewer contaminants. tests performed on samples from outcrops, mines,
During in situ conversion, the subsurface acts boreholes and core holes.20
Oilfieldand
as a large reactor vessel in which pressure Review Settlers and miners began retorting oil from
heating rate may be designed to maximize Winter 10 the shale in the 1800s. The region experienced
prod-
Oil Shale Fig. 9
uct quality and quantity while minimizing pro- mining and exploration booms from 1915 to 1920
ORWIN10-OilShl Fig. 9
duction cost. In addition to generating a superior and again from 1974 to 1982, each period fol-
product relative to surface processing, in situ lowed by busts.21 In 1980, Unocal built a major
methods have a reduced environmental impact in plant for mining, retorting and upgrading oil
terms of surface disturbance, water require- shale in the Piceance Creek basin in Colorado; it
ments and waste management. operated until 1991. During that time, the
Several companies have developed methods company produced 4.4 million bbl [700,000 m3]
for heating oil shale in situ to generate shale oil. of shale oil.22
They are testing these techniques in the rich sub- Recently, oil price volatility and growing
surface deposits of the western US. energy needs have combined to again focus inter-
est on the region. In 2003, the US Bureau of Land
The Epitome of Oil Shales Management initiated an oil shale development
The Green River Formation at the intersection of program and solicited applications for research,
the states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, USA, development and demonstration (RD&D) leases.
contains the most bountiful oil shale beds in the Several companies applied for and received
world. Estimates of the recoverable shale oil lease awards to develop in situ heating techniques
in this area range from 1.2 to 1.8 trillion bbl on public lands, and some are testing methods

8 Oilfield Review
 Generalized
Depth, ft Lithology
0

(with tongues of Green River Formation)

. Lithology (center) and Sandstone, siltstone and some
marlstone and lean oil shale
grade (right) of the Green

Uinta Formation
River Formation. Oil shales in Oil shale 500
the Parachute Creek Member
are carbonate rich, and the Marlstone and low-grade oil shale
Rich oil shale zones, carbonate rich
underlying shales of the Leached oil shale; contains open solution
Garden Gulch Member are cavities and marlstone solution breccias Rich oil shale zones, clay rich
clay rich. High-grade (blue) Nahcolite-bearing oil shale; contains nodules, Lean oil shale zones, carbonate rich
oil shales are interspersed scattered crystals and beds of nahcolite
1,000 Lean oil shale zones, clay rich
with lean layers (pink). Oil Clay-bearing oil shale
yield from Fischer assay
measurement is plotted in Interbedded halite, nahcolite and oil shale
R-8 zone
red. Total shale oil resources
contained in the various Nahcolite and oil shale A-groove
layers are shown in the chart 1,500
Mahogany
zone
(bottom left). (Lithology and
shale oil resources from Shale Oil Resources B-groove

Parachute Creek Member

Dyni, reference 1; shale Zone 109 tonUS 109 bbl R-6 zone
grade from Johnson et al,
R-8 No data No data L-5 zone
reference 19.)

Green River Formation

Mahogany 25.25 172.94 R-5 zone
R-6 23.23 159.09 2,000
L-4 zone
L-5 7.65 52.42
R-5 26.09 178.72 R-4 zone
L-4 8.88 60.85 L-3 zone
R-4 15.74 107.78
L-3 2.73 18.72 R-3 zone
2,500
R-3 8.52 58.38 L-2 zone
L-2 2.93 20.08
R-2 zone
R-2 7.75 53.07
L-1 1.56 10.70 L-1 zone
R-1 16.84 115.35
Garden Gulch

R-1 zone
Member

L-0 No data No data

3,000 L-0 zone
R-0 No data No data
Total 147.17 1,008.10 R-0 zone
Anvil Points
Member 0 20 40 60 80 100
Shale oil yield,
galUS/tonUS

on privately held land. Examples from three
companies—Shell, ExxonMobil and American
Shale Oil LLC (AMSO)—show the range of
concepts being applied to the challenges of in situ
retorting in the Green River oil shale.
Shell has done extensive laboratory and field
work in efforts to demonstrate commercial viabil-
ity of in situ retorting using downhole electric
14. Knaus et al, reference 11.
15. Dyni JR, Mercier TJ and Brownfield ME: “Chapter 1—
Analyses of Oil Shale Samples from Core Holes and
Rotary-Drilled Wells from the Green River Formation,
Southwestern Wyoming,” in US Geological Survey Oil
Shale Assessment Team (ed): “Fischer Assays of
Oil-Shale Drill Cores and Rotary Cutting from the
Greater Green River Basin, Southwestern Wyoming,”
US Geological Survey, Open-File Report 2008-1152,
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1152/downloads/Chapter1/
Chapter1.pdf (accessed October 8, 2010).
16. Pyrolysis is the controlled heating of organic matter in
the absence of oxygen to yield organic compounds such
as hydrocarbons.
Peters KE: “Guidelines for Evaluating Petroleum Source
Rock Using Programmed Pyrolysis,” AAPG Bulletin 70,
no. 3 (March 1986): 318–329.
heaters.23 The process follows a method developed thermal simulations and field pilots contributed to
in Sweden during World War II—a technique used the development of Shell’s in situ conversion pro-
until 1960, when cheaper supplies of imported oil cess (ICP). Through seven field pilot tests, Shell
became available. has investigated a variety of heating methods—
Shell participated in early mining and surface including injected steam and downhole heaters—
retort attempts in the Green River area, but chose and well configurations with patterns of wells of
to withdraw from those in the mid-1990s to focus varying depths for heating, producing and dewa-
on an in situ method.24 Years of laboratory testing, tering (previous page, top right).
Espitalie J, Madec M, Tissot B, Mennig JJ and Leplat P: publications/reports/SecureFuelsReport2009FINAL.pdf
“Source Rock Characterization Method for Petroleum (accessed November 12, 2010).
Exploration,” paper OTC 2935, presented at the Offshore 21. Hanson JL and Limerick P: “What Every Westerner
Technology Conference, Houston, May 2–5, 1977. Should Know About Oil Shale: A Guide to Shale
17. Burnham AK: “Chemistry and Kinetics of Oil Shale Country,” Center of the American West, Report no. 10,
Retorting,” in Ogunsola OI, Hartstein AM and Ogunsola O June 17, 2009, http://oilshale.centerwest.org (accessed
Oilfield
(eds): Oil Shale: A Solution to the Liquid Review
Fuel Dilemma. August 4, 2010).
Washington, DC: American Chemical
Symposium Series 1032 (2010): 115–134.
Winter
Society,10
ACS 22. Dyni, reference 1.
18. Dyni, reference 1.
Oil Shale Fig. 8 23. Ryan RC, Fowler TD, Beer GL and Nair V: “Shell’s In Situ
ORWIN10-OilShl
19. Johnson RC, Mercier TJ, Brownfield ME, Pantea MP
Fig. 8Conversion Process—From Laboratory to Field Pilots,”
in Ogunsola OI, Hartstein AM and Ogunsola O (eds):
and Self JG: “Assessment of In-Place Oil Shale Oil Shale: A Solution to the Liquid Fuel Dilemma.
Resources of the Green River Formation, Piceance Washington, DC: American Chemical Society,
Basin, Western Colorado,” Reston, Virginia, USA: US ACS Symposium Series 1032 (2010): 161–183.
Geological Survey, Fact Sheet 2009-3012, March 2009. 24. Fowler TD and Vinegar HJ: “Oil Shale ICP—Colorado
20. US Department of Energy: “Secure Fuels from Domestic Field Pilots,” paper SPE 121164, presented at the SPE
Resources,” http://www.unconventionalfuels.org/ Western Regional Meeting, San Jose, California,
March 24–26, 2009.

Winter 2010/2011 9
 Pilot testing of the freeze wall began in 2002
with 18 freeze wells arranged in a circle 50 ft
Plan View
across. One producer, two heating wells and eight
monitor wells were located within the freeze cir-
cle (left). After five months of cooling, the freeze
Wells wall was complete. This pilot showed that a
8 ft Heater (2) freeze wall could be established and could isolate
Producer (1) fluids inside the circle from those outside.
Freeze (18)
Shell tested the freeze wall concept on a larger
Inside monitor (8)
scale starting in 2005, with an ambitious project
22 ft involving 157 freeze wells at 8-ft [2.4-m] intervals
to create a containment volume 224 ft [68 m]
across (next page, top). The operator began chill-
50 ft
ing in 2007 by circulating an ammonia-water
solution—initially at shallow depth and gradually
Side View deepening. As of July 2009, the freeze wall was
continuing to form in the deeper zones, down to
1,400-ft
freeze 1,700 ft [520 m]. The test is designed to evaluate
interval the integrity of the freeze wall, and will not involve
430-ft
heated heating, or production of hydrocarbons.
interval
ExxonMobil is also pursuing research and
development of a process for in situ oil shale con-
version. The company’s Electrofrac process
hydraulically fractures the oil shale and fills the
fractures with an electrically conductive material,
> Shell freeze wall isolation test. Using a technique dating to the 1880s, Shell creating a resistive heating element.26 Heat is
constructed a circular freeze wall 1,400 ft [430 m] deep by circulating thermally conducted into the oil shale, converting
coolant in 18 freeze wells for 5 months. A 430-ft [130-m] interval of the
enclosed formation was then heated to generate shale oil. The test verified
the kerogen into oil and gas, which are then pro-
that the freeze wall could confine produced fluids. duced by conventional methods. Calcined petro-
leum coke, a granular form of relatively pure
carbon, is being tested as the Electrofrac conduc-
tant. By pumping this material into vertical
hydraulic fractures, ExxonMobil hopes to create a
series of parallel planar electric heaters (next
page, bottom). As in the Shell ICP method, the
The ICP method uses closely spaced down- products is three times the energy input to resistive heat reaches the shale by thermal diffu-
hole electric heaters to gradually and evenly heat obtain them. sion. A potential advantage of the Electrofrac pro-
the formation to the conversion temperature of Commercialization of the ICP process cess is that, compared with line sources, the
about 650°F [340°C]. Depending on heater spac- requires a method that prevents water influx to greater surface area of planar fracture heaters will
ing and the rate of heating, the time projected to the heated volume and contains the fluid prod- permit fewer heaters to be used to deliver heat to
reach conversion temperature in a commercial ucts, thereby maximizing recovery and protecting the subsurface volume. The use of planar heaters
project ranges from three to six years. Tests have local aquifers.25 The Shell ICP process makes use should also reduce surface disturbance when com-
demonstrated liquid-recovery efficiencies greater of a freeze wall, created by circulating coolants, pared with line sources or wellbore heaters.
than 60% of Fischer assay value, with the low- to isolate the heated formation from ground­
25. Ryan et al, reference 23.
value kerogen components left in the ground. The water. Use of a freeze wall is a relatively common 26. Symington WA, Kaminsky RD, Meurer WP, Otten GA,
resulting oil is of 25 to 40 degree API gravity. The practice in some underground mining operations. Thomas MM and Yeakel JD: “ExxonMobil’s Electrofrac™
Process for In Situ Oil Shale Conversion,” in Ogunsola
gas contains methane [CH4], H2S, COOilfield
2 and HReview
2. Inside the freeze wall, water is pumped from the OI, Hartstein AM and Ogunsola O (eds): Oil Shale: A
Taking into account the oil equivalence Winter 10 formation. The formation is heated, the oil is pro- Solution to the Liquid Fuel Dilemma. Washington, DC:
of the gas generated, the recovery Oil Shale Fig.duced
10 and the residual shale is cleaned of con- American Chemical Society, ACS Symposium Series 1032
efficiency (2010): 185–216.
approaches 90% to 100% of Fischer assay ORWIN10-OilShl Fig. 10 by flushing with clean water. The
value. taminants Symington WA, Olgaard DL, Otten GA, Phillips TC,
From results of the pilot testing, a commercial- recovered oil in one test had 40 degree API grav- Thomas MM and Yeakel JD: “ExxonMobil’s Electrofrac
Process for In Situ Oil Shale Conversion,” presented at
scale project is expected to have an energy ity, similar to modeling results for oil produced at the AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas, USA,
gain close to 3, meaning the energy value of the heating rates of 1°C/h [0.5°F/h] and 27 MPa. April 20–23, 2008.

10 Oilfield Review
 Plan View

C
C
8 ft Freeze well
B

A
A B

224 ft
> Large-scale freeze wall test. In a step toward
supporting commercial viability of the ICP, Shell is
Side View testing a large-scale freeze wall for isolation and
Test containment. In addition to the freeze wells shown
Test Sections in the plan view (left) there are 27 observation
Section B A and C holes for geomechanical, pressure, fluid level and
1,700-ft 1,500-ft temperature measurements; 30 special-use holes
freeze freeze
interval interval for venting, squeezing, water reinjection, water
production and hydraulic fracturing; and 40
groundwater monitoring holes. An artist’s
rendering (right) depicts the freeze wall in 3D.

Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 11
20/40 Mesh Proppant
ORWIN10-OilShl Fig. 11
Toe connector well Production wells Electrofrac process
heater wells
C

Calcined Coke

Hydraulic fracture
with electrically
conductive material Conductive heating and
Oilfield Review oil shale conversion
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 11
ORWIN10-OilShl Fig. 11
> The ExxonMobil Electrofrac process. Horizontal wells penetrate the oil shale. The horizontal sections are hydraulically
fractured (left) and filled with electrically conductive proppant made of calcined coke (bottom right). A 20/40 mesh proppant (top
right) is displayed for scale. Field testing has shown it is possible to create an electrically conductive fracture and heat it for
several months. The plus and minus signs indicate electric charge applied to heat the fractures. (Illustration and photographs
courtesy of ExxonMobil.)

Winter 2010/2011 11
 slurry of calcined petroleum coke, water and
0
portland cement at pressures sufficient to break
Heating well the rock. The larger of the two Electrofrac frac-
Production well
500 Production well tures has been heavily instrumented to measure
Low-salinity water
temperature, voltage, electrical current and
rock movement. As a preliminary test of the
1,000 Mahogany zone
Electrofrac process, the fracture was heated
Depth, ft

to relatively low temperatures. This low-

Condensate

Condensate
High-salinity water

Vapor
1,500
Rubble-
Nahcolitic oil shale caprock filled
2,000
retort
Illitic oil shale
Boiling oil
Heating well
2,000 ft
> The AMSO CCR conduction, convection and reflux process. Two horizontal wells target the illitic oil
shale beneath a nahcolitic caprock. The heating well is at the base and the production well is at the
top of the shale (left). As heat causes the kerogen to decompose, the lighter products rise and
condense (right), efficiently heating a large volume of rock. Hydrocarbon fluids are produced via the
production well.
Prior to embarking on field research, • That a completion strategy can be designed to
ExxonMobil conducted modeling and laboratory create fractures that deliver heat effectively.
studies addressing several important technical Based on these results, ExxonMobil advanced
issues for the Electrofrac process. These included to field research to test the Electrofrac method in
establishing the following: situ.27 The test site is at the company-owned
• That the conductant in the fracture can main- Colony oil shale mine in northwest Colorado. The
tain its electrical continuity while the surround- Colony mine provides a large, highly accessible
ing rock is heated to conversion temperatures. volume of rock for testing. ExxonMobil has cre-
• That oil and gas generated by the process are ated two Electrofrac fractures at Colony by drill-
expelled from oil shale, not only at surface con- ing horizontally into the oil shale and pumping a
ditions, but also under in situ stress conditions.
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
t
0f
temperature experiment was not intended to
generate oil or gas. To date, the results of this
field program have been encouraging. They
demonstrate that it is possible to create an elec-
trically conductive hydraulic fracture, to make
power connections to the fracture and to operate
it, at least at low temperature, for several months.
AMSO, 50% owned by Total, proposes to use
the CCR conduction, convection and reflux pro-
cess to recover shale oil. By focusing the heating
effort on shales beneath an impermeable shale
caprock, this method isolates production zones
from protected sources of groundwater.28
The company plans to drill two horizontal
wells—a heater below a producer—in the bot-
tom of the illite shale at the base of the Green
River Formation (above left). Heat is delivered by
a downhole burner that eventually runs on pro-
duced gas. As the kerogen decomposes, the
lighter products—hot vapors—rise and reflux.
Heat is distributed through the formation by the
refluxing oil; thermomechanical fracturing, or
spalling, creates permeability for the convective
heat transfer.
The concept for commercial-scale produc-
tion uses an array of horizontal wells about
2,000 ft [600 m] long at 100-ft [30-m] intervals
(left). The formation is heated slowly, yielding

Oil Shale Fig.Panel

13 being retorted
20

oil with lower concentrations of heteroatoms

ORWIN10-OilShl Fig. 13 and metals than that generated by surface pro-
ft

cessing methods.29 Meanwhile, the aromatic

00
2,0

portions of kerogen tend to stay in the rock

Panel being drilled matrix as coke. More than enough gas is copro-
duced to provide the energy required to operate
2,0
00
ft
a self-sustaining commercial retorting process,
and it is likely that most of the propane and
2,000 ft

butane produced can be exported to market.

Computational studies show that heat deliv-
ery by convection and conduction is much more
effective than by conduction alone. The CCR pro-
cess is estimated to give a total energy gain
between 4 and 5, counting all the surface facility
requirements, including an oxygen plant for pro-
ducing pure CO2 from the downhole burner. The
> The AMSO concept for commercial-scale production. By using long method is projected to use less than one barrel of
horizontal wells concentrated in a 200-ft corridor, drilling should impact water per barrel of oil produced. No water is
less than 10% of the surface area. While one 2,000-ft square panel is being
needed to clean spent retorts because they
heated and converted in situ, wells will be drilled in an adjacent panel. The
operation is projected to produce about 1 billion bbl of shale oil over a remain isolated from usable groundwater.
25-year period.

12 Oilfield Review
 AMSO’s initial RD&D pilot test is currently Resistivity Illite
under construction and will begin in mid-2011. Montmorillonite
90-in. Array
Heating will take up to 200 days. The operation Orthoclase
0.2 ohm.m 2,000 Pyrite
will retort a formation volume equivalent to
60-in. Array Dawsonite
4,000 tonUS [3,600 Mg] of oil shale and produce
0.2 ohm.m 2,000 Nahcolite
up to 2,000 bbl [320 m3] of shale oil. Development Gamma
Ray Porosity Albite
30-in. Array
of a commercial operation will proceed in steps Kerogen Total Organic Matter Quartz
0 gAPI 200 0.2 ohm.m 2,000
up to 100,000 bbl/d [16,000 m3/d], with plans to Calcite
PEF 20-in. Array Density Porosity Core Fischer Assay Dolomite
sustain that production for 25 years. That trans-
0 10 0.2 ohm.m 2,000 45 % –15 0 % 50 Bound water
lates into about 1 billion bbl [1.6 × 108 m3] of oil Kerogen
Caliper Depth, 10-in. Array NMR Porosity TOM Log
to be produced from an 8-mi2 [20.8-km2] lease. ft Water
6 in. 16 0.2 ohm.m 2,000 45 % –15 0 % 50
X,000
Evaluating Oil Shales
Companies are looking at ways to assess oil shale
richness and other formation properties without
having to take core samples and perform Fischer
assay analysis. Methods that show promise
include integration of several conventional log-
ging measurements, such as formation density,
magnetic resonance, electrical resistivity and
X,050
nuclear spectroscopy.
One way of quantifying kerogen content is by
combining density porosity and magnetic reso-
nance responses. In a formation with porosity
that is filled with both kerogen and water, the
density porosity measurement does not distin-
guish between kerogen- and water-filled porosity.
However, the magnetic resonance measurement
sees the kerogen as a solid, similar to the grains
X,100
of the rock, and so senses a lower porosity. The
difference between the magnetic resonance and
density readings gives kerogen volume.30 The vol-
ume of kerogen can be related empirically to
Fischer assay values for oil shales in the region.
The method was tested in an AMSO oil shale
well in the Green River basin. Kerogen content
was calculated from density porosity and mag-
netic resonance logs (right). Using a correlation X,150
between kerogen content and Fischer assay
27. Symington WA, Burns JS, El-Rabaa AM, Otten GA,
Pokutylowicz N, Spiecker PM, Williamson RW and
Yeakel JD: “Field Testing of Electrofrac™ Process
Elements at ExxonMobil’s Colony Mine,” presented at
the 29th Oil Shale Symposium, Colorado School of
Mines, Golden, Colorado, USA, October 19–21, 2009.
28. Burnham AK, Day RL, Hardy MP and Wallman PH:
“AMSO’s Novel Approach to In-Situ Oil Shale Recovery,”
in Ogunsola OI, Hartstein AM and Ogunsola O (eds):
Oil Shale: A Solution to the Liquid Fuel Dilemma. X,200
Washington, DC: American Chemical Society,
ACS Symposium Series 1032 (2010): 149–160. > Kerogen content from porosity measurements in Green River oil shales. Neither gamma ray (Track 1,
29. Heteroatoms are atoms of elements other than hydrogen dashed green) nor resistivity measurements (Track 2) show much correlation with kerogen content, but
and carbon—the components of pure hydrocarbons. porosity measurements are more useful. The difference between density porosity (Track 3, red) and
They commonly consist of nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, iron
and other metals.
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) porosity (green) represents kerogen-filled porosity (gray). The
30. Kleinberg R, Leu G, Seleznev N, Machlus M, Grau J,
kerogen values can also be depicted as a log (Track 4) of total organic matter (TOM, red), which
Herron M, Day R, Burnham A and Allix P: “Oil Shale compares favorably with laboratory Fischer assay results on core samples (black dots). Mineralogical
Formation Evaluation by Well Log and Core analysis incorporating ECS elemental capture spectroscopy measurements (Track 5) indicates the high
Measurements,” presented at the 30th Oil Shale levels of calcite and dolomite in these shales, as well as the presence of rare minerals such as
Symposium, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Oilfield
dawsonite (light gray) and nahcolite (solid pink)Review
in some intervals.
Colorado, October 18–22, 2010. Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 15
ORWIN10-OilShl Fig. 15

Winter 2010/2011 13
 40
TOC converted to
Fischer assay yield
X,000
Core Fischer assay

30

Total organic matter (TOM), %

X,200

20
X,400

Total
Totalorganic
organicmatter
matter
as
asfraction
fractionofofore
oreweight
weight
10 ρρk X,600
TOM
TOM== ρρbk (φ( φDD––φφMR )
MR )

Depth, ft
b

X,800
0
0 20 40 60
Modified Fischer assay, galUS/tonUS
80 Y,000
Well log Fischer assay estimate
Fischer assay, galUS/tonUS

60 Core-measured Fischer assay values

Y,200
40

20
Y,400
0 20 40 60
0 Shale oil yield, galUS/tonUS
X,000 X,050 X,100 X,150 X,200
> Fischer yield from TOC. Fischer assay estimates
Depth, ft
(black) from the TOC log exhibit an excellent
> Fischer assay estimates from wireline logs. Core measurements on Green correlation with core Fischer assay results (red).
River shales show a strong correlation between total organic matter (TOM),
or kerogen, and Fischer assay values (top). Total organic matter is
calculated using the density ρk of the kerogen, bulk density of the formation
ρb and the difference between density porosity φD and magnetic resonance
porosity φMR. Researchers computed a kerogen log from the difference Heating Elements
between density and NMR porosity, then used this linear correlation to One of the most fundamental issues for oil shale
convert the kerogen log to a Fischer assay log (bottom). The log-based retorting is how to get the heat into the oil shale.
Fischer assay estimates (black) show excellent agreement with values from After early testing, steam injection was aban-
laboratory Fischer assay measurements on cores (red).
doned as other, more efficient techniques were
discovered. In situ combustion has also been
results on Green River shales, researchers com- such as nahcolite [NaH(CO3)] and dawsonite tried, but is difficult to control. Electric heaters,
puted an estimated Fischer assay log based on [NaAl(CO3)(OH2)], which are common in Green electrically conductive proppant and downhole
the wireline logging measurements (above). The River shales. The ECS concentrations of Ca, Mg gas burners have all been evaluated and reported
estimated Fischer assay values show excellent and Na are used to compute the inorganic car- to be effective with varying degrees of efficiency.
agreement with those from laboratory measure- bon. The remainder, called total organic carbon Another concept, heating by downhole radio-
ments on cores from the same interval.Oilfield Review (TOC), makes up the kerogen. frequency (RF) transmitters, has also been mod-
Winterfrom
Another approach distinguishes mineral 10 Using this spectroscopy method, researchers eled and has Oilfield Reviewlaboratory testing.33
undergone
organic content using spectroscopy data.OilThe
Shale
ECSFig. computed
16 a TOC log for an AMSO well in the Advantages ofWinter
the RF10method are that it heats the
ORWIN10-OilShl Fig. 16 Oilformation
Shale Fig.instead
19 of the borehole,
elemental capture spectroscopy sonde measures Green River basin, showing a good match between interior of the
ORWIN10-OilShl Fig. 19
concentrations of silicon [Si], aluminum [Al], cal- log-based results and core measurements (next and it can be controlled to customize heating rate.
cium [Ca], iron [Fe], sulfur [S], potassium [K], page).32 The TOC log was converted to a Fischer But like all electrical methods, it sacrifices effi-
sodium [Na], magnesium [Mg], titanium [Ti] and assay yield log using a correlation derived inde- ciency, losing about half the heating value of the
gadolinium [Gd].31 Grain mineralogy is computed pendently by AMSO scientists. The Fischer assay fuel originally burned to produce the electricity.
from these element concentrations. log exhibited excellent agreement with Fischer It is important to note that all the current
The total carbon concentration comes from assay tests performed on cores (above right). This projects to produce shale oil by in situ heating
the RST reservoir saturation tool. Of this concen- technique employing geochemical logs, along methods are in test and pilot stages; none have
tration, some carbon is inorganic and some with the complementary method using nuclear demonstrated large-scale commercial produc-
organic. The inorganic carbon combines with cal- magnetic resonance logs, provides reliable, effi- tion. Operators are still working to optimize their
cium and other elements to form calcite and cient means to characterize shale oil yield with- heating technologies. For a given oil shale, the
dolomite, along with lesser-known minerals, out having to resort to core measurements.

14 Oilfield Review
 X,000
X,200
X,400
X,600
Depth, ft
X,800
Y,000
Y,200
Y,400
0 20 40
Total carbon, weight percent
> Organic and inorganic carbon from logs and cores. Total carbon (left) is made up of inorganic and organic carbon, the latter of
which resides in kerogen. The inorganic carbon is present in mineral form, such as in carbonates and some exotic minerals
sometimes found in oil shales. Estimates of inorganic (middle left) and organic carbon (middle right) based on nuclear
measurements (black) correlate extremely well with laboratory measurements on cores (red). An expanded section (right) shows
the quality of the match across the bottom 150-ft interval.
heating history—how much heat and for how
long—determines the amount and content of the
resulting fluids. By controlling the heat input,
companies can fine-tune the output, essentially
designing a shale oil of desired composition.
Beyond heating methods, there are other
aspects of oil shale operations that have yet to
be fully addressed. Mechanical stability of the
heated formation is not well understood. All the
in situ heating techniques rely on some thermo-
mechanical fracturing within the shale to
release matured organic material and create
additional permeability for the generated fluids
to escape the formation. With many oil shales
containing 30% or more kerogen, most of which
leaves the rock after in situ retorting, treated
formations may not be able to support their
31. Barson D, Christensen R, Decoster E, Grau J, Herron M,
Herron S, Guru UK, Jordán M, Maher TM, Rylander E
and White J: “Spectroscopy: The Key to Rapid, Reliable
Petrophysical Answers,” Oilfield Review 17, no. 2
(Summer 2005): 14–33.
32. Grau J, Herron M, Herron S, Kleinberg R, Machlus M,
Burnham A and Allix P: “Organic Carbon Content of the
Green River Oil Shale from Nuclear Spectroscopy Logs,”
presented at the 30th Oil Shale Symposium, Colorado
School of Mines, Golden, Colorado, October 18–22, 2010.
33. Burnham AK: “Slow Radio-Frequency Processing of
Large Oil Shale Volumes to Produce Petroleum-Like Shale
Winter 2010/2011
150-ft interval
0 10 20 0 20 40
Inorganic carbon, weight percent Organic carbon, weight percent 0 10 20 30 40
TOC, weight percent
newfound porosity. Overburden weight can help Work also remains to understand the kerogen-
drive production, but may also cause compac- maturation process. To optimize heating pro-
tion and subsidence, which in turn can affect grams, operators would like to know when the
wellbore stability and surface structures. shale has been heated enough and if the subsur-
It is also unclear how to deal with the CO2 face volume has been heated uniformly. To this
generated along with other gases. Companies end, scientists are conducting laboratory experi-
retorting oil shale in situ may need to investigate ments to monitor the products of kerogen pyroly-
ways to capture and use the CO2 for enhanced oil sis.35 To understand when the process should be
recovery or sequester it in deep storage zones. An modified or stopped, researchers plan to analyze
alternative, being explored by AMSO, is mineral- the composition of an oil shale and its hydrocar-
ization of CO2 in the spent shale formation.34 This bons as they evolve with time. In the future, it
option exploits the chemical properties of the may be possible to control and monitor oil shale
heat-treatedOilfield
shale. Review
AMSO scientists expect the heating and production to obtain oil and gas of
Winter 10
depleted formation to have sufficient porosity to desired compositions. —LS
Oil Shale Fig. 18
accommodate all the generated
ORWIN10-OilShl Fig.and
18 reinjected
CO2 as carbonate minerals.
Oil,” Livermore, California: Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, Report UCRL-ID-155045, August 20, 2003.
Raytheon: “Radio Frequency/Critical Fluid Oil Extraction
Technology,” http://www.raytheon.com/businesses/
rtnwcm/groups/public/documents/datasheet/rtn_bus_
ids_prod_rfcf_pdf.pdf (accessed November 16, 2010).
34. Burnham et al, reference 28.
35. Bostrom N, Leu G, Pomerantz D, Machlus M, Herron M
and Kleinberg R: “Realistic Oil Shale Pyrolysis Programs:
Kinetics and Quantitative Analysis,” presented at the
29th Oil Shale Symposium, Colorado School of Mines,
Golden, Colorado, October 19–21, 2009.
15
 Has the Time Come for EOR?
Rifaat Al-Mjeni For twenty years, much of the E&P industry turned away from the term enhanced oil
Shell Technology Oman
Muscat, Oman recovery. Yet, during that period, field successes through flooding with steam and
carbon dioxide continued. Decreasing production levels in maturing fields have
Shyam Arora
Pradeep Cherukupalli revived interest in enhanced recovery techniques in many parts of the world.
John van Wunnik
Petroleum Development Oman Improved technologies for understanding and accessing reservoirs have increased
Muscat, Oman the possibilities for successful EOR implementation.
John Edwards
Muscat, Oman
A tantalizingly large source of additional oil sits
within reach of existing oilfield infrastructure.
Betty Jean Felber
Consultant Operating companies know where it is, and they
Sand Springs, Oklahoma, USA have a good idea how much is there. This resource
is oil left in reservoirs after traditional recovery
Omer Gurpinar methods, such as primary production and water-
Denver, Colorado, USA flooding, have reached their economic limits.
The percentage of original oil remaining var-
George J. Hirasaki ies from field to field, but a study of 10 US oil-
Clarence A. Miller producing regions found that about two-thirds of
Rice University the original oil in place (OOIP) remained after
Houston, Texas, USA
traditional recovery methods were exhausted.1
The study found that about 23% of the oil remain-
Cuong Jackson
Houston, Texas ing in those regions could be produced using
established CO2 flood technologies. That techni-
Morten R. Kristensen cally recoverable resource of almost 14 billion m3
Abingdon, England [89 billion bbl] of oil could, by itself, supply more
than a decade of US consumption at current
Frank Lim rates. Interest in methods to recover those
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation resources has increased in recent years.2
The Woodlands, Texas Worldwide, the number of mature fields will
continue to grow, with more passing their produc-
Raghu Ramamoorthy
tion peak each year. Operators work to optimize
Abu Dhabi, UAE
recovery from these fields, and in the past 20
Oilfield Review Winter 2010/2011: 22, no. 4. years tremendous advances have been made that
Copyright © 2011 Schlumberger.
CHDT, CMR-Plus, Dielectric Scanner, ECLIPSE, FMI, MDT, 1. Hartstein A, Kusskraa V and Godec M: “Recovering
MicroPilot and Sensa are marks of Schlumberger. ‘Stranded Oil’ Can Substantially Add to U.S. Oil Supplies,”
Project Fact Sheet, US Department of Energy Office of
Fossil Energy (2006), http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/
oilgas/publications/eor_co2/C_-_10_Basin_Studies_
Fact_Sheet.pdf (accessed November 8, 2010).
2. For a recent review of enhanced recovery methods:
Manrique E, Thomas C, Ravikiran R, Izadi M, Lantz M,
Romero J and Alvarado V: “EOR: Current Status and
Opportunities,” paper SPE 130113, presented at the SPE
Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, Tulsa, April 24–28, 2010.
16
help access the remaining resource. Bypassed oil
can be located with advanced logging tools, 4D
seismic evaluations, crosswell imaging technolo-
gies, 3D geomodeling and other state-of-the-art
software systems. The industry has made strides
in understanding clastic sedimentary structures
and carbonate petrophysics to construct models
and in reservoir geomechanics to plan well paths.
Today, the industry can drill more-complex wells
and precisely reach multiple targets containing
untapped oil. Completions can be designed to bet-
ter monitor and control production and injection
downhole and to measure fluid properties both in
situ and at the surface. Tailored chemicals can be
designed to improve recovery, and advanced
research is looking at the use of nanoparticles to
mobilize remaining oil. In addition, the world is
now more environmentally aware, presenting the
opportunity to use depleted reservoirs for storage
of CO2 while also increasing recovery factors.
Methods for recovering oil are referred to
by several terms.3 An early concept described
sequential phases of production using the
terms primary (pressure depletion, including
natural water or gas drive), secondary (mostly
For results of a biennial survey of activity: Moritis G:
“Special Report: EOR/Heavy Oil Survey: CO2 Miscible,
Steam Dominate Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes,”
Oil & Gas Journal 108, no. 14 (April 19, 2010): 36–53.
Moritis G: “EOR Oil Production Up Slightly,” Oil & Gas
Journal 96, no. 16 (April 1998): 49–77, http://www.ogj.
com/index/current-issue/oil-gas-journal/volume-96/
issue-16.html (accessed February 7, 2011).
3. A proposal made to the SPE in 2003 to clarify the
definitions was not implemented. See Hite JR, Stosur G,
Carnahan NF and Miller K: “IOR and EOR: Effective
Communication Requires a Definition of Terms,” Journal
of Petroleum Technology 55, no. 6 (June 2003): 16.
Oilfield Review
Winter 2010/2011 17
 600
Data from Oil & Gas Journal surveys
field-level tests, ranging from single-well to
multiple-pattern pilots. If the early steps indicate
500 Chemical
Thermal
likelihood of a positive economic result, full-field
Number of US projects 400 Gas implementation can follow.
EOR technology has even resurrected signifi-
300 cant levels of production after abandonment. The
Pru Fee property in Midway-Sunset field, San
200
Joaquin basin, California, USA, produced about
100 2.4 million bbl [380,000 m3] of heavy oil between
start of production in the early 1900s and
0 abandonment in 1986.7 Cyclic steam injection
1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010
Year had been partially successful in increasing pro-
> EOR project history. The number of ongoing EOR field projects in the US duction, but by the time of abandonment, the oil
peaked in 1986, then declined for nearly 20 years. Since 2004, the number of rate was less than 10 bbl/d [1.6 m3/d] for the
projects has been rising again. Currently, miscible gas EOR projects (green) entire field.
dominate, followed by thermal projects (pink). At present, only a few
In 1995, The US Department of Energy (DOE)
chemical floods (blue) are underway. [Data from Moritis (1998 and 2010),
reference 2.] selected the Pru Fee property for a demonstra-
tion EOR project. After cyclic steamflooding in
several old wells at the center of the site demon-
water- or gasflooding, including pressure main- such as inflow control devices, or by injecting flu- strated good production levels, the project team
tenance) and tertiary (everything else). ids, such as foam or polymer, that plug those added 11 new producers, 4 injectors and 3 tem-
However, with advances in reservoir modeling, zones; these activities improve recovery from perature-observation wells, obtaining production
engineers sometimes found that waterflooding lower-permeability zones. Thermal processes are rates in the range of 363 to 381 bbl/d/well [57.7 to
should occur before pressure decline, or that a common to decrease viscosity of heavy oils and to 60.6 m3/d/well]. In 1999, operator Aera Energy
tertiary method should be used in place of a mobilize light oils. added 10 steamflood patterns.8 By 2009, the site
waterflood, or that potential recovery by a ter- Finally, injecting chemicals and effective had produced an additional 4.3 million bbl
tiary method might be lost due to reservoir recovery gases—such as CO2—can change certain [684,000 m3] of oil after original abandonment.9
damage from earlier activities. The terms lost physical properties of the crude oil-brine-rock This article describes a broad range of recov-
their original sense of a chronological order. (COBR) system. These methods alter inter­facial ery methods, but focuses on techniques tradition-
Engineers today often include methods for- tension (IFT), mobility, viscosity or wettability, ally considered EOR—and referred to as
merly termed tertiary as part of the field devel- swell the oil or alter its phase composition. such—including miscible and immiscible gas-
opment plan from the beginning. The specific method or combination of EOR flooding, chemical flooding and thermal technol-
Another distinction that has been difficult to methods applied to recover oil is typically based ogies. A case study for a Gulf of Mexico field
define is that between improved oil recovery on an engineering study of each reservoir. In evaluated its gasflooding potential. An extensive
(IOR)—which had essentially the same defini- most cases, the objective is to achieve the most laboratory evaluation indicates how to tailor a
tion as secondary recovery—and enhanced oil economical return on investment, but some chemical combination for EOR injection. Another
recovery (EOR), which included more-exotic national oil companies have different goals, such case, from Oman, describes the first use of a
recovery methods. Over the years, a few EOR pro- as maximizing ultimate recovery. Operators method for performing rapid single-well, in situ
cesses were commercially successful in many examine several risk factors, including oil price, evaluations of injection to demonstrate the effi-
applications, and some companies began Oilfield Review
refer- need for a long-term program to achieve satisfac- ciency of a flooding process.
ring to them as a form of IOR instead.Winter 10 tory return on investment, large upfront capital
This rela-
EOR Fig. 1
beling process accelerated after many companies investments and cost of drilling additional wells Displacement Efficiency
ORWIN10-EOR Fig. 1
severely cut or stopped funding EOR research and running pilots. Waterflooding in oil fields was first legalized in
during the era of low crude-oil prices in the 1980s Many oil-recovery techniques depend on pore- the US in the state of New York in 1919, but so-
and 1990s.4 level interactions involving COBR-system proper- called unintentional waterflooding was recorded
Regardless of the labels used, the range of ties. Most projects begin by screening EOR as early as 1865, near Pithole City, Pennsylvania,
activities applied to increase recovery from reser- candidates against field parameters such as tem- USA.10 Less than a decade after waterflooding
voirs is wide. Waterflooding is common as an eco- perature, pressure, salinity and oil composition.5 became legal, inventors proposed means to
nomical way to displace oil and provide pressure Many companies have established screening improve flood recovery by adding surfactant to
support. Methods that improve physical access to criteria for EOR projects, but since these are lower interfacial tension or by injecting alkali to
oil include infill drilling, horizontal drilling, changing as new technologies are introduced, this generate surfactant in situ—both now accepted
hydraulic fracturing and installation of certain article does not present a specific set of criteria.6 EOR methods.11
types of completion hardware. Conformance con- EOR techniques that pass initial screening A boom of activity in EOR techniques came
trol improves recovery by blocking off high- are further evaluated based on laboratory studies after the oil-price rise of the 1970s, but the bust
permeability zones either by mechanical means, of the rock and fluids and on simulation studies in the late 1980s led many companies to abandon
that use field properties. If laboratory tests have marginal and uneconomic projects (above left).
positive results, the operator might next perform A sustained period of higher crude-oil prices in

18 Oilfield Review
Pattern Flood
lt
fau
g
alin
Se
Injectant
Viscous fingers
Injection well Production well
> Areal displacement efficiency. Oil can be bypassed
because of inefficiencies in macroscopic sweep.
A pattern flood can be affected by a heterogeneous
formation (such as the presence of sealing faults)
or by fingering of a less viscous injectant into
the oil.
the past 10 years has revived operator interest in
some of these techniques and encouraged intro-
duction of new ones. That interest has survived
the more recent price volatility.
Many techniques aimed at improving recov-
ery are designed to increase the efficiency of oil
displacement using injected water or other flu-
ids. Some methods address the macroscopic dis-
placement efficiency, also called sweep efficiency.
Other recovery methods focus on microscopic, or
pore-scale, displacement efficiency. The overall
displacement efficiency is the product of both
macroscopic and microscopic efficiencies.
Macroscopic displacement—At the scale of
interwell distances, oil is bypassed because of lat-
eral or vertical formation heterogeneity, well-
pattern inefficiencies or low-viscosity injection
fluids. Improving sweep efficiency is typically one
of the goals of reservoir engineering and model-
4. One indication of the rise and fall of the term EOR is the
naming of the biennial meeting sponsored by the SPE in
Tulsa. The first five meetings, spanning 1969 through
1978, were called the SPE Improved Oil Recovery
Symposia. From 1980 through 1992, the US Department of
Energy jointly sponsored the conferences, and they were
called the SPE/DOE Enhanced Oil Recovery Symposia. In
1994, the conferences returned to sole sponsorship by
SPE, and again became the SPE Improved Oil Recovery
Symposia, which they remain today. Throughout this
31-year period, conference papers covered topics
typically considered both IOR and EOR.
5. Lake LW, Schmidt RL and Venuto PB: “A Niche for
Enhanced Oil Recovery in the 1990s,” Oilfield Review 4,
no. 1 (January 1992): 55–61.
6. For an overview of EOR engineering, including criteria to
consider: Green DW and Willhite GP: Enhanced Oil
Recovery. Richardson, Texas, USA: Society of Petroleum
Engineers, SPE Textbook Series, vol. 6, 1998.
Winter 2010/2011
Vertical Profile
> Vertical displacement efficiency. Vertical sweep can be affected by viscous
fingering, as well as by preferential movement of fluids along a high-
permeability thief zone or by gravity override of injection gas (as indicated
here) or underride of injection water.
ing. Although the efficiency of well patterns such
as five- or nine-spots can be determined for a uni-
form reservoir, reservoir heterogeneities affect
flow paths (above left). If these are unknown or
not compensated for by adjusting the pattern,
then sweep efficiency suffers.
Advances in seismic acquisition, processing
and interpretation have given reservoir engi-
neers new tools to locate faults and layer changes.
Some companies have applied 4D seismic meth-
ods to follow a flood front through a reservoir,
allowing their engineers to update models based
on observed flow geometries. Pattern sweep effi-
ciency can be improved by infill drilling or the
use of horizontal or extended-reach wells and by
creating zones within well intervals using down-
hole flow-control devices.12
Sweep is also affected by vertical variations in
properties (above right). In particular, a high-
For another set of criteria: Taber JJ, Martin FD and
Seright RS: “EOR Screening Criteria Revisited—Part 1:
Introduction to Screening Criteria and Enhanced
Recovery Field Projects,” SPE Reservoir Engineering 12,
no. 3 (August 1997): 189–198.
Taber JJ, Martin FD and Seright RS: “EOR Screening
Criteria Revisited—Part 2: Applications and Impact of
Oil Prices,” SPE Reservoir Engineering 12, no. 3
(August 1997): 199–205.
7. Schamel S: “Reactivation of the Idle Pru Lease of
Midway-Sunset Field, San Joaquin Basin, CA,” The Class
Act: DOE’s Reservoir Class Program Newsletter 7, no. 2
(Summer 2001): 1–6, www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/
oil-gas/publications/newsletters/ca/casum2001.pdf
(accessed November 10, 2010).
8. Schamel S and Deo M: “Role of Small-Scale Variations in
Water Saturation in Optimization of Steamflood Heavy-Oil
Recovery in the Midway-Sunset Field, California,”
SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering 9, no. 2
(April 2006): 106–113.
Barrier
Gravity
override
Low permeability
High permeability
Barrier
permeability, or thief, zone will be swept by a
waterflood before adjacent low-permeability
zones are swept. Techniques can be applied to
equalize the flow in the zones, most commonly
by decreasing thief-zone permeabilities. If there
is little or no communication between zones,
the thief zone can be shut off near the injection
site, but if the zones communicate throughout
the reservoir, it may be necessary to design an
injectant that will block the zone all the way to
the producing well. For both near-well and far-
field solutions, engineers use foams and polymers
for this purpose.
Viscous fingering is another concern of macro-
scopic displacement efficiency. If the displacing
fluid—typically water—is significantly less vis-
cous than the oil it is displacing, the flood front
can become unstable. Rather than being linear or
radially symmetric, the leading edge of the front
  9. State of California Department of Conservation Division
of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, Online
Production and Injection database, http://opi.consrv.
ca.gov/opi (accessed December 3, 2010).
10. Blomberg JR: “History and Potential Future of Improved
Oil Recovery in the Appalachian Basin,” paper SPE
51087, presented at the SPE Eastern Regional Meeting,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, November 9–11, 1998.
11. Uren LC and Fahmy EH: “Factors Influencing the
Recovery of Petroleum from Unconsolidated Sands
by Water-Flooding,” Transactions of the AIME 77
(1927): 318–335.
Atkinson H: “Recovery of Petroleum from Oil Bearing
Sands,” US Patent No. 1,651,311 (November 29, 1927).
12. Ellis T, Erkal A, Goh G, Jokela T, Kvernstuen S, Leung E,
Moen T, Porturas F, Skillingstad T, Vorkinn PB and
Raffn AG: “Inflow Control Devices—Raising Profiles,”
Oilfield Review 21, no. 4 (Winter 2009/2010): 30–37.
19

Oil
Water
Grain
> Microscopic displacement. At the microscopic
scale, oil can be trapped in the middle of pores
(for example, top right) when water flows around
the oil in a water-wet formation. Oil that is
connected to flow paths (bottom right) continues
to be displaced.
forms waves that transition to fingers extending
farther into the oil. Eventually, water fingers reach
the producing well. At that point, additional
injected water will preferentially follow the water-
filled paths. Engineers avoid this by increasing
water viscosity through methods such as adding
polymer or foam to it.
Microscopic displacement—At the other end
of the size scale, small blobs of oil can be trapped
within a pore or a connected group of pores
(above). Oil at this scale is trapped because vis-
cous or gravity-drive forces within the pore space
are insufficient to overcome capillary forces.
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
EOR Fig. 3
ORWIN10-EOR Fig. 3
Capillary pressure
Pce2
Pce1
0 100
Water saturation, %
> Capillary pressure curves. Formations have
different capillary pressure relationships,
depending on the distribution of pore throats in the
rock. Starting fully saturated with water, the rock
is exposed to oil at increasing capillary pressures,
and the capillary pressure curve indicates the
degree of saturation at each capillary pressure.
A clean, uniform sandstone (pink) with large pore
throats will have a low capillary entry pressure
Pce1 and a rapid decline in water saturation as the
capillary pressure increases. In contrast, a poorly
sorted sandstone (blue) can have a high capillary
entry pressure Pce2 and a slow decrease in
saturation as the capillary pressure increases.
20
The amount of oil trapped within pore spaces
depends on a variety of physical properties of
the COBR system. One of these properties is
wettability.13 In a strongly water-wet rock, water
preferentially coats the pore walls. Conversely,
strongly oil-wet surfaces within a pore are pref-
erentially contacted by oil. In an intermediate-
wetting condition, the pore surfaces do not have
a strong preference for either water or oil.
Most reservoir rocks have a mix of wetting
conditions: The smaller pores and spaces near
grain contacts are generally strongly water wet-
ting, while the surfaces bounding the larger pore
bodies may range from less water wetting to oil
wetting. Thus, the wettability of the bulk material
is between the two extremes. Although measures
of wettability, such as Amott-Harvey or US Bureau
of Mines (USBM) wettability tests, may result in
similar index numbers for intermediate and
mixed-wet rocks, the two are distinct wetting
conditions. Intermediate wettability applies to
rocks with all surfaces of neutral wetting prefer-
ence, while mixed wetting applies to rocks with
surfaces of markedly different wettability.
Optimal recovery from waterflooding is obtained
in mixed-wet material that is slightly water wet-
ting.14 The reason for this can be made clear by a
discussion of pore-level oil-trapping mechanisms.
Most reservoirs were water-wet formations
before oil accumulated. Oil migrating into a for-
mation must overcome the rock’s wetting forces
before it can enter the pores. This resistance is the
rock’s capillary entry pressure, which is the pres-
sure difference between the water and oil phases
needed to overcome wetting forces in small open-
ings. The capillary entry pressure is inversely pro-
portional to the radius of the opening, or pore
throat, through which the oil must pass.
Since rocks have a variety of pore throat
sizes, any given rock will have a distribution of
capillary entry pressures. Pores having the larg-
est throats are the first to be invaded by the
nonwetting phase, and those with progressively
smaller pore throats are invaded at progres-
sively higher pressure differences between the
phases. Thus, a rock will have a capillary pres-
sure curve indicating the degree of invasion—
represented by the remaining water
saturation—at each capillary pressure (left).
In a reservoir, the source of the pressure dif-
ference between the phases is their density dif-
ference. The depth in the reservoir at which the
water- and oil-phase pressures are the same is
the free-water level.15 The product of the height
above the free-water level, the acceleration of
gravity and the density difference between
phases gives the pressure difference for that
height. That pressure difference supplies the
capillary pressure, resulting in decreasing water
saturation with height above the free-water level
based on the pore throat distribution in the rock.
This is seen in some reservoirs as a transition
zone, where the water saturation changes with
depth in a rock with uniform properties.16
In addition to providing insight into the ini-
tial saturation distribution in a reservoir, capil-
lary pressure is also important for flow dynamics.
The capillary behavior of a formation influences
the irreducible water saturation after water-
flooding. Thus, one of the most important quanti-
ties to know about a reservoir, the maximum
amount of oil that can be recovered by water-
flooding, is strongly influenced by the pore-level
physics of wetting.
If the oil in a pore contains surface-active
components, it can displace a thin layer of water
and contact the rock surface. Thus, the oil in
pores can alter the wettability of the pore sur-
face, making it less strongly water wetting or
even oil wetting. However, the tight spaces in
pores, such as near grain-to-grain contacts,
retain their water coatings and remain strongly
water wetting. This is thought to be the origin of
the mixed-wetting character of most reservoirs.17
When oil is displaced either through a natural
or forced waterdrive, water can encroach into
pore spaces in three ways. It can follow existing
paths of continuous water in the smallest nooks
and crannies of the pore structure and slowly
increase the thickness of that water film.
However, the relative permeability for water flow-
ing along that path is vanishingly small outside
13. For more on wettability: Abdallah W, Buckley JS,
Carnegie A, Edwards J, Herold B, Fordham E, Graue A,
Habashy T, Seleznev N, Signer C, Hussain H, Montaron B
and Ziauddin M: “Fundamentals of Wettability,” Oilfield
Review 19, no. 2 (Summer 2007): 44–61.
14. Jadhunandan PP and Morrow NR: “Effect of Wettability
on Waterflood Recovery for Crude-Oil/Brine/Rock
Systems,” SPE Reservoir Engineering 10, no. 1
(February 1995): 40–46.
15. Free-water level may not correspond to the oil/water
contact because of the filling history of the reservoir.
16. A change in distribution of pore throats, such as occurs
in a sand-shale sequence, also results in an abrupt
saturation change because the rocks have different
capillary pressure curves. Filling and depletion history
can also influence the saturation distribution.
17. Mixed wettability can also occur because different
minerals present in the rock have different affinities for
water and oil.
18. Seccombe J, Lager A, Jerauld G, Jhaveri B, Buikema T,
Bassler S, Denis J, Webb K, Cockin A and Fueg E and
Paskvan F: “Demonstration of Low-Salinity EOR at
Interwell Scale, Endicott Field, Alaska,” paper SPE
129692, presented at the SPE Improved Oil Recovery
Symposium, Tulsa, April 24–28, 2010.
Oilfield Review
the transition zone because the water layers are
so thin. Alternatively, if the formation is strongly
water wetting, the rock’s affinity for imbibing
water will force oil out of the smaller pore spaces
first, then from increasingly larger pores as the
flood progresses. The flood water connects with
the thin layers of water present on the grains.
Finally, in an oil-wet or mixed-wet formation of
the type described above, water invades the large
pores as the nonwetting phase if the water-phase
pressure is sufficient to overcome the capillary
entry pressure.
In all three cases, as the waterflood pro-
gresses, oil can become trapped within pores as
water finds easier flow paths around it. Once the
water breaks the connection between an oil blob
and the oil sweeping out ahead of the waterfront,
the blob becomes much more difficult to move
(right). This disconnected oil has to move
through pore throats that probably were never
altered from strongly water wetting (even in a
mixed-wet formation), but the only drive force is
the pressure difference between the water
upstream and that downstream of the blob.
One of the reasons that maximum oil recovery
occurs in mixed-wet systems is that oil in contact
with the more oil-wetting (or less water-wetting)
pore surfaces can remain continuous at lower oil
saturations than in a water-wet system. More of
the oil can drain from the pores before it becomes
trapped by water on all sides.
However, in a strongly oil-wetting formation,
remaining oil is trapped in the smaller pores and
its relative permeability gets vanishingly small
Viscous forces Gravity forces
v = brine velocity ∆ρ = oil/water density difference
µW = brine viscosity g = acceleration of gravity
L = characteristic length (size of oil blob)
v µW ∆ρ g L 2
Capillary number: Nc = Bond number: Nb =
σOW cos θ σOW cos θ
Capillary forces
σOW = oil/water interfacial tension
θ = contact angle
> Comparison of forces. Capillary forces can trap isolated oil in the pore
space. Typically, capillary forces are overcome by either viscous or gravity
forces. Two dimensionless numbers are used to compare these forces. The
capillary number Nc (left) is a ratio of viscous to capillary forces. To mobilize
the oil, either the brine velocity must be increased or the oil/water IFT must
be brought near zero, which produces a large value of the capillary number.
In a system where gravity is more important, such as gravity stabilized flow,
the relevant quantity to maximize is the Bond (also called the Eötvös) number
Nb (right). In most cases, the wettability is taken as strongly water-wet, with a
contact angle near zero.
as water fills the larger pores. The waterflood of these has a variety of forms, and they can be
residual oil recovery for a formation that is combined to achieve specific results (below).
strongly oil wetting is less than that of a mixed- Waterflooding is generally not considered an
wetting formation. EOR method unless it is combined with some
other flooding method. However, over the past
Flooding Methodologies 15 years, the oil industry has investigated low-
Traditionally, many EOR techniques target the oil salinity waterflooding, which, in some situations,
remaining after waterflooding. Most methods fall does recover additional oil following a typical,
into one of three general categories: gasflooding, high-salinity waterflood.18 Although the oil-
chemical flooding and thermal techniques. Each recovery mechanism is not universally accepted,

Pressure Sweep IFT Wettability Viscosity Oil Hydrocarbon Compositional Incremental

EOR Method
Support Improvement Reduction Alteration Reduction Swelling Single Phase Change1 Recovery Factor
Waterflood Waterflood Base case2
Engineered water Low
Gasflood: Hydrocarbon Moderate
immiscible CO2 High
Nitrogen or flue gas 3 3 Moderate
Gasflood: Hydrocarbon 4 High
miscible Hydrocarbon WAG 4 Very high
CO2 High
CO2 WAG Highest
Thermal Steam High
High-pressure air High
Chemical Polymer Low
Surfactant Moderate
ASP High
IFT = interfacial tension 1. Change of composition of liquid hydrocarbon.
2. Waterflooding provides the base case for comparison of other methods.
WAG = water-alternating-gas
3. Oil stripping occurs as miscibility develops.
ASP = alkali-surfactant-polymer 4. Condensing and vaporizing exchange.
> Physical effects of EOR methods. EOR methods generate various physical effects that help recover remaining oil (shaded boxes). The incremental
recovery factor (right) has a large range of values when compared with waterflooding, which is typically not considered an EOR method.

Winter 2010/2011 21
 Injection well Production well

Injection fluids Oil

Fault
Drive fluid Water Miscible zone Additional
(water) oil recovery

High-permeability layer
CO2 CO2 Oil bank

> Miscible water-alternating-gas (WAG) process. In a miscible WAG process, an injected gas—CO2 in this case—mixes with reservoir oil and creates an oil
bank ahead of the miscible zone. The gas is followed by a slug of water, which improves the mobility ratio of the displacing fluids to avoid fingering. The cycle
of gas and water injection can be repeated many times, until a final waterdrive flushes the remaining hydrocarbon, now mixed with CO2, from the reservoir.
Formation heterogeneities, such as a higher permeability streak (darker layer), affect the shapes of the flood fronts.

most researchers think there is a COBR interac-
tion that liberates additional oil (see “On the
Road to Recovery,” page 34).
Gasflooding—Historically, gasflooding has
often been classified as a secondary or IOR
method. It can be a preferred disposal or storage
method for associated natural gas when there is
no available market, or seasonally when gas
demand is lower than supply. But it can also be
applied after waterflooding, or in combination
with a waterflood, in which case it is considered
an EOR method. When performed in conjunction
with waterflooding, injection typically alternates
between gas and water. The water-alternating-
gas (WAG) cycles improve sweep efficiency by
increasing the viscosity of the combined flood
front (above). In addition, with some fluid com-
positions and in situ conditions, foam may form,
which can further improve the viscosity-related
sweep efficiency.
Depending on the pressure, temperature and
composition of the gas and oil, injection can be
under either immiscible or miscible conditions.
In an immiscible flood, gas and oil remain dis-
tinct phases. Gas invades the rock as a nonwet-
ting phase, displacing oil from the largest pores
first. However, when they are miscible, gas and oil
form one phase. This mixing typically causes the
oil volume to swell while lowering the interfacial
tension between the oil phase and water.
Displacement by miscible-gas injection can be
highly efficient for recovering oil.
The rock wettability also has an impact on oil
recovery by miscible flooding. In a laboratory
core study, the best waterflood oil recovery was in
mixed-wet rocks, followed by intermediate-wet
and water-wet rocks, with oil-wet rocks having
the least waterflood oil recovery.19 For a miscible
gasflood after waterflooding, the greatest amount
of remaining oil was recovered from the oil-wet
core, suggesting that the miscible process could
be considered in place of a waterflood.20 Both the
intermediate-wet and mixed-wet rocks had high
overall recovery from the combined waterflood
and miscible gasflood.
Under some conditions, the fluids are termed
multiple-contact miscible. In this case, when
they first contact one another, gas and oil are not
miscible. However, light components from the oil
enter the gas phase, and the heavy, long-chain
hydrocarbons from the gas enter the liquid phase.
As the front contacts fresh oil, more components
are exchanged, until the gas and the oil reach
compositions that are miscible.21
Various gases are used as EOR injectants.
Natural gas—produced from the same or a neigh-
boring field—has already been mentioned as one
source. Methane or methane enriched with light
ends is also used. A local supply of flue gas, such
as exhaust gas from a power plant, can be utilized
if the transport costs are low enough. Nitrogen,

22 Oilfield Review
Injection
Oil
CO2
Mixing zone
Injecting CO2
> Cyclic gas injection. In a single-well process, a gas such as CO2 is injected into the near-well region for a brief period of hours or days (left). During a long
soak period of days or weeks (middle), the miscible gas mixes with the oil in place, swelling it and reducing its viscosity. Then the well is produced for an
extended period of time (right), taking advantage of the increased pressure from the injected fluids and the change in properties of the oil. The cycle is
typically repeated.
which is generally separated from air on location,
is another injection gas.
Most gas-injection EOR projects in operation
today use CO2 as the injection gas (above).22 In
Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, USA, naturally
occurring CO2 is produced and piped to oil fields.
Recently, considerable interest has arisen in
using CO2 injection as a way both to increase oil
recovery and to sequester anthropogenic sources
of this greenhouse gas. This option generally
requires proximity between the source factory
and an oil field suitable for CO2 injection.
Chemical flooding—Many types of chemicals
are injected to recover oil, but they generally fall
within one of three groups: polymers, surfactants
and alkalis. There are few projects active today,
but historically, polymer injection has been
applied significantly more often than the other
two methods.23 Modern chemical floods can be
highly successful at displacing remaining oil,
Winter 2010/2011
Soak
CO2 swells oil and
reduces its viscosity.
with oil recovery in the high 90% range reported
in the laboratory and the field.
Long-chain polymers are injected along
with water or other flooding agents to improve
the viscosity ratio, thereby decreasing viscous
fingering. Polymer injection is used both for near-
well conformance control and for formation
sweep control.
Surfactant chemicals are medium- to long-
chain molecules that have both a hydrophilic and
a hydrophobic section. Thus, the molecules accu-
mulate at the oil/water interface and lower the
IFT between the phases. Since capillary forces
prevent oil from moving through water-wet
restrictions, such as pore throats, decreasing
such forces can increase recovery. When the cap-
illary number, or ratio between viscous and capil-
lary forces, is high, viscous forces dominate and
remaining oil can move. This also applies in a
gravity-dominated displacement, where the Bond
number, or ratio of gravity to capillary forces,
Production
Producing oil and CO2
needs to be high to overcome capillary trapping.
Although the price of surfactants has declined
relative to the price of crude oil since the 1980s,
they remain among the costliest EOR injectants.
An alternative to surfactants is high-pH, alka-
line chemicals. If the oil contains sufficient con-
centration of petroleum acids of the right type,
the alkali will react in situ to form soaps, which
are also surface active. The objective is the same
as a surfactant flood, but since the surfactant
19. Rao DN, Girard M and Sayegh SG: ”The Influence of
Reservoir Wettability on Waterflood and Miscible Flood
Performance,” Journal of Canadian Petroleum
Technology 31, no. 6 (June 1992): 47–55.
20. Rao et al, reference 19.
21. There are three ways for mass transfer between fluids
to occur: The fluids can be soluble in one another, they
can diffuse into one another due to random motion, or a
concentration gradient can drive one into the other
through dispersion. In a CO2 -crude oil system, solubility
is the main driver.
22. Moritis (2010), reference 2.
23. Moritis (2010), reference 2.
23
 Injection well Production well

Injection fluids Oil

Fault
Drive fluid Polymer Oil bank
(water) solution

High-permeability layer
Freshwater Alkali-surfactant Preflush
buffer solution

> Alkali-surfactant-polymer flood. An ASP flood includes several flood stages. A brine preflush is sometimes used to change the salinity or other rock or
fluid properties. The first chemical slug injected is a combination of alkali and surfactant. That slug mixes with the oil and changes its properties,
decreasing the IFT and altering the rock wettability. These effects mobilize more oil. A polymer slug follows to improve the mobility differential between the
oil and the injected fluids. This slug is typically followed by a freshwater slug to optimize recovery of the chemicals, and then a flood with drive water.
Gravity over- or underride and formation heterogeneities, such as a higher permeability streak (darker layer), affect the shapes of the flood fronts.

characteristics of the soap are not designed for
the system, recovery may not be as high as with
surfactants chosen specifically for the field.
Combinations of these chemical methods
have become more common. An early combina-
tion used in several fields was surfactant-polymer
flooding, also called micellar-polymer flooding. A
slug of surfactant is injected to mobilize the oil,
followed by a polymer flood to prevent viscous
fingering. Recently, a combination of all three
types of injectants has shown significant promise.
In alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding,
operators inject a tailored mix of an alkaline
compound and surfactants chosen for the spe-
cific COBR system, followed by polymer slugs for
mobility control (above). Properly formulated, an
ASP flood combines the best of the three chemi-
cal methods to optimize recovery (see “Laboratory
Predesign for an ASP Flood,” page 29).24
Lower IFT can also be obtained through
microbial EOR. The research emphasis today is
on finding microbes already present in the forma-
tion that have favorable properties for interfacial
activity and then injecting nutrients favored by
those microbes. This leads to their proliferation
in situ, increasing the microbial action that gen-
erates lower IFT for the oil/water system.
Microbial EOR has not been applied often.25
Thermal methods—Typically, heavy oil is
mobilized by adding heat to a reservoir to decrease
oil viscosity. Viscosity of very heavy oils can drop by
a factor ranging from 100 to 1,000 when heated
from about 40°C to 150°C [100°F to 300°F].26
Thermal methods include steamfloods, hot water-
floods, electrical heating and combustion. Steam
has greater heat content than hot water, but they
both serve similar purposes in EOR. Electrical
heating has been tested in several field trials, but
has not otherwise been implemented.27 Although
in situ oil combustion is used, steamflooding is the
predominant thermal method.28
New wells in a heavy-oil reservoir often begin
production using cyclic steam injection to
improve oil mobility in the near-well region (next
page).29 In this single-well process, a slug of
steam is injected into the formation, and, after a
soak phase to allow heat transfer to the reservoir,
the well is produced. The cycle repeats, often
until steam heats a sufficient formation volume
such that the well can be incorporated into a pat-
tern steamflood.
The pattern in a heavy-oil field typically has
relatively small well spacings. Injected steam
heats and thins the heavy oil and displaces it to
production wells.

24 Oilfield Review
Injection
Oil
Heated oil
Steam
Condensed steam
Injecting steam
> Cyclic steam injection. This single-well process injects steam into the near-well region for days to weeks (left). The soak period lasts a few days (middle)
during which time the heat reduces the oil viscosity. Production follows for an extended period of time (right). The cycle can repeat, or the well can be
converted to an injection well in a pattern flood.
Thermally assisted gas-oil gravity drainage is
suited for heavy oil in fractured formations.
Steam injected into the fracture system heats the
formation, thinning the oil so it flows more easily
into the fractures. The steam also applies a gas
gradient across the matrix blocks so that the oil
in the formation drains by gravity.
In Canada, a dual horizontal-well system
called steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD)
has been successful. Steam is injected into an
upper horizontal well, creating a hot zone. The
hot oil drains to and is produced through a lower,
parallel wellbore.
Oil can also be heated by combusting it in
situ. At a controlled rate, operators inject a gas
containing oxygen, most commonly air, into an
oil-bearing formation, and then ignite it to begin
combustion. The combustion front is narrow and
moves slowly away from the injection well. Hot
combustion gases flow ahead of the fire zone and
Winter 2010/2011
Soak
Condensing steam (hot
water) heats formation.
strip light ends from the oil. This process forms
an oil bank. The remaining oil saturation is ther-
mally cracked as the hot front approaches, and
the lighter mobile oil advances. Residual coke
coats the rock grains and becomes fuel for the
combustion front. A combustion flood can be
combined with water injection, increasing the
24. Hirasaki GJ and Miller CA: “Recent Advances in
Surfactant EOR,” paper SPE 115386, presented at the
SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition,
Denver, September 21–24, 2008.
25. Moritis (2010), reference 2.
26. Braden WB: “A Viscosity-Temperature Correlation at
Atmospheric Pressure for Gas-Free Oils,” Journal of
Petroleum Technology 18, no. 11 (November 1966):
1487–1490.
27. For a recent review of electrical heating methods:
Das S: “Electro-Magnetic Heating in Viscous Oil
Reservoir,” paper SPE/PS/CHOA 117693, presented at
the International Thermal Operations and Heavy Oil
Symposium, Calgary, October 20–23, 2008.
Production
Producing heated oil
and condensed steam
amount of steam in the gas bank. In situ combus-
tion has been used in reservoirs containing both
heavy and medium-gravity oil. The oldest still-active
air-injection project in the US began in 1978 in
Buffalo field, South Dakota, USA; incremental
production due to air injection in the field was
18.1 million bbl [2.9 million m3] in 2009.30
28. Moritis (2010), reference 2.
29. For more on heavy-oil reservoirs: Alboudwarej H, Felix J,
Taylor S, Badry R, Bremner C, Brough B, Skeates C,
Baker A, Palmer D, Pattison K, Beshry M, Krawchuk P,
Brown G, Calvo R, Cañas Triana JA, Hathcock R,
Koerner K, Hughes T, Kundu D, López de Cárdenas J
and West C: “Highlighting Heavy Oil,” Oilfield Review 18,
no. 2 (Summer 2006): 34–53.
30. Kumar VK, Gutiérrez D, Thies BP and Cantrell C:
“30 Years of Successful High-Pressure Air Injection:
Performance Evaluation of Buffalo Field, South Dakota,”
paper SPE 133494, presented at the SPE Annual
Technical Conference and Exhibition, Florence, Italy,
September 19–22, 2010.
25
 103
102
10
Vertical resolution, m
Logs
1 Surface-to-borehole
10–1
10–2
10–3
10–6 10–3 10–2
Pores Core
> Scales of evaluation for EOR. Tools and measurements used to evaluate formations for EOR projects
in the field (top) and in the laboratory or office (bottom) span a wide range of scales with various
resolutions. Designs for EOR processes should consider both microscopic and macroscopic sweep, so
an evaluation must include pore-scale through reservoir-scale measurements and analysis.
Selecting an EOR Method
Choosing a method or combination of methods to
use for EOR is best done based on a detailed
study of each specific field. Since most EOR tech-
niques involve complex physics, the reservoir
must be characterized at many levels (above).
Pore morphology affects microscopic displace-
ment efficiency. Formation properties and het-
erogeneities influence macroscopic sweep,
whether they are at log scale, interwell scale or
fieldwide. Thus, the evaluation proceeds in stages
with the objective of reducing the uncertainty
that application of an EOR technique will achieve
technical and economic success.
The methodology starts with relatively inex-
pensive activities based in the office or the
laboratory, progressing to field trials and
implementation, which are more expensive and
time-consuming. However, at any stage, if the
project does not meet the company’s technical
and financial criteria for that stage, the project
does not proceed further. The project team can
either iterate earlier steps to find a better solu-
tion with less uncertainty or abandon the project.
The first step is to gather as much data about
the reservoir as possible and develop a coherent
package of information. This can be compared
26
Surface-to-surface
measurement
Crosswell measurement
measurement
Single-well tools
10–1 1 10 102 103 104 105
Depth of investigation, m
Log Crosswell Reservoir
with screening criteria for various recovery meth-
ods. These criteria, based on past field successes
and failures, can provide a positive match for
some EOR technologies. Because tailored chemi-
cals are expanding ranges of applicability for
chemical methods, the asset team evaluating the
methods should review the current literature and
consult with researchers and chemical manufac-
turers. In addition, former limits on oil gravity
and viscosity and brine salinity are now being
broken by synthetic surfactants, which are often
available at lower cost than previously possible.31
Once the number of feasible EOR technolo-
gies has been narrowed, the evaluation typically
moves into the laboratory. Physical properties of
the fluids and combinations of fluids, including
the crude oil and formation water, have to be con-
firmed for the chosen technique. It is important
to examine not only the positive aspects, such as
miscibility and wettability alteration, which are
desired, but also any negative ones, such as scal-
ing or wax dropout, which should be avoided.
Next, to investigate fluid/solid properties such as
adsorption, the chemicals are mixed with grains
that are representative of the formation. Then,
flow studies are conducted, using either sand-
packs in a slim tube or cores, or both. At each of
these laboratory stages, potential EOR methods
can be eliminated or tailored for the specific field
application (next page).
After engineers and geoscientists evaluate
the field history, they can develop updated static
and dynamic reservoir models. Armed with
results from flow and other laboratory tests, mod-
eling experts can simulate the effect of the EOR
method in the dynamic model to predict expected
recovery. For example, the ECLIPSE reservoir
simulator handles most combinations of chemi-
cal floods, such as the ASP method.32 Simulation
includes finding an appropriate well configura-
tion, spacing and pattern, as well as the proper
injectants and injection strategy.
Major unknowns, such as formation heteroge-
neity, are evaluated using multiple iterations of
the simulator with different model parameters.
Operators compare expected supply costs and
project economics to the base case of continued
production without an EOR technique. If the
simulation indicates the project meets company
technical and financial requirements, then it can
be used to design the next stage: field tests.
Field pilots should be designed to answer spe-
cific questions. The pilot objectives may include
the following assessment of the EOR process for
full-field development:
• Evaluate recovery efficiency.
• Assess effects of reservoir geology on
performance.
• Reduce technical and economic risk in produc-
tion forecasts.
• Obtain data to calibrate reservoir-simulation
models.
• Identify operational issues and concerns.
• Assess the effect of development options on
recovery.
• Assess environmental impact.
• Evaluate operating strategy to improve eco-
nomics and recovery.33
EOR pilots range from single-well tests, with
injection only or including production, to single-
pattern or multiple-pattern pilots; cost and com-
plexity increase generally in that order. A small,
single-well injection pilot may be designed simply
to assess fluid injectivity. More complex pilots
may test aspects of areal and vertical sweep, grav-
ity override, channeling and viscous fingering.34
Planning for pilots must have a focus on fast
and efficient data collection to answer the ques-
tions discussed previously. These data come from
surface and subsurface monitoring, and the plan
may also incorporate monitoring wells drilled to
obtain additional data at specific points in the
field. Time is also a consideration: Sufficient time
must be allowed for the flood front to progress
through the pilot. In a recent listing of more than
Oilfield Review
 20 ExxonMobil EOR pilot tests, only one test was
completed within one calendar year and several
lasted for three or more years.35
New applications of technologies also expand
the options for EOR methods. For example, in a
field in the Middle East, the operator planned to
use thermally assisted gas-oil gravity drainage for
a fractured, heavy-oil reservoir. The operator
wanted to monitor the position of the oil rim
between gas and water legs, but the formation
temperature was beyond the operating range of
permanent electronic gauges. Schlumberger
placed into the wellbore a U-tube that contained
a Sensa fiber-optic monitoring system to measure
the tube temperature profile. The U-tube is filled
from surface with cool water; the rate that it
warms in the wellbore depends on the properties
of the surrounding fluids. The temperature pro-
file response allows discrimination of the fluid
levels, and the measurement can be rapidly
repeated. This fit-for-purpose solution enabled
evaluation of the EOR prospect.
Applying EOR to offshore fields, particularly
those in deep water, involves additional concerns.
It is considerably more expensive to drill offshore
wells, and the surface facilities have space and
weight constraints not found onshore, except for
those in environmentally fragile areas. High well
cost means interwell spacing is larger. This spac-
ing adversely impacts a company’s ability to
acquire data and adequately characterize the
reservoir, and also increases the time needed for
an EOR-related response to reach production
wells. The constraints on facilities often mean
original equipment on a platform has to be reen-
gineered to make space and allow for the weight
of EOR-related equipment, such as devices used
for injectant mixing and handling, water separa-
tion, treatment and disposal, and gas handling
and compression. Regardless of the EOR method,
safe operations must be assured.36 A number of
EOR projects or pilots have been performed off-
shore, including gas injection and WAG, chemical
flooding and even steamflooding.37
On land or offshore, if a small pilot indicates a
probability of successful implementation, it might
be expanded to include more patterns. This
expansion would provide additional information
about the behavior of the EOR method in a larger
and possibly more heterogeneous area. The goal
of all piloting is either to reduce the risk suffi-
ciently to be able to implement an EOR method in
all or at least a substantial part of the field, or to
eliminate it as incompatible with company goals.
Evaluating Miscibility
The K2 field in the Gulf of Mexico about 175 mi
[280 km] south of New Orleans is a large, deep-
water, subsalt Miocene-age field.38 First oil from
subsea production wells began in May 2005. The

Develop
idea

Screen EOR Feedback loops to improve design Optimizing the EOR project
methods can be implemented rapidly. continues throughout its life.

Test in
laboratory
Uncertainty and risk

Model field
and process
Design
field test

Perform pilot:
monitor and Monitor and
analyze Design field control project
implementation Implement
in field
Fine-tune field
development plan
Expand field
development

Effort and investment

> EOR roadmap. The objective of an evaluation of EOR methods is to reduce
reservoir uncertainties and economic risk. The evaluation begins by
screening based mostly on existing information, comparing the subject field
to known successes of various EOR methods in other fields. If the project
passes one step, it moves to the next, such as laboratory tests, then field
modeling. If the project does not pass a technical or economic hurdle, it can
be abandoned or the process can return to an earlier step to reevaluate that
or another EOR method. When sufficient confidence has been achieved,
the operator designs and implements a field pilot, with possible eventual
expansion to full or partial-field implementation. The horizontal axis
indicates a sequential process, but it also indicates generally increasing
investment required to complete each step going from developing the ideas
on the left to field implementation on the right.

31. Yang H, Britton C, Liyanage PJ, Solairaj S, Kim DH,
Nguyen Q, Weerasooriya U and Pope G: “Low-Cost, High-
Performance Chemicals for Enhanced Oil Recovery,”
paper SPE 129978, presented at the SPE Improved Oil
Recovery Symposium, Tulsa, April 24–28, 2010.
32. Fadili A, Kristensen MR and Moreno J: “Smart
Integrated Chemical EOR Simulation,” paper IPTC 13762,
presented at the International Petroleum Technology
Conference, Doha, December 7–9, 2009.
33. Adapted from Teletzke GF, Wattenbarger RC and
Wilkinson JR: “Enhanced Oil Recovery Pilot Testing Best
Practices,” SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering 13,
no. 1 (February 2010): 143–154.
34. Teletzke et al, reference 33.
35. Teletzke et al, reference 33.
36. Bondor PL, Hite JR and Avasthi SM: “Planning EOR
Projects in Offshore Oil Fields,” paper SPE 94637,
presented at the SPE Latin American and Caribbean
Petroleum Engineering Conference, Rio de Janeiro,
June 20–23, 2005.
37. Bondor et al, reference 36.
38. Lim F, Munoz E, Browning B, Joshi N, Jackson C and
Smuk S: “Design and Initial Results of EOR and Flow
Assurance Laboratory Fluid Testing for K2 Field
Development in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico,” paper
OTC 19624, presented at the Offshore Technology
Conference, Houston, May 5–8, 2008.

Winter 2010/2011 27
 Nitrogen, carbon dioxide and methane Before a forward-contact test can be per-
formed, the minimum miscibility pressure
(MMP) must be known. Above this minimum, the
1st gas
2nd gas
gas and oil can achieve miscibility. The MMP con-
dition is determined by slim-tube tests. The slim
5th gas
tube is a long coil of tubing packed with sand,
Two-phase saturated with crude oil, and kept at formation
boundary
estimate temperature for tests at a series of pressures

5th oil
*Expected
miscibility
(next page, bottom). The inside diameter of the
composition
tube is large enough that wall effects on flow are
2nd oil negligible, and the flow rate must be low enough
1st oil K2 oil that viscous fingering is not a factor. The distinc-
tion between miscible and immiscible displace-
ment in the slim-tube test is based on the oil
recovery factor after a set injection volume, here
taken to be 1.2 pore volumes (PVs) of injection.
Recovery significantly less than 90% is consid-
C7+ C2 to C6
ered an immiscible condition, while miscible
> Forward-contact miscibility test of K2 oil. Results of a miscibility test are flooding has high recovery, near or above 90%.
typically displayed on a ternary diagram with the composition divided into
Pure nitrogen was injected into a 60-ft [18-m]
three pseudocomponents. The top vertex represents the light components, the
right vertex is the intermediates, and the left vertex is the heavy components. slim tube in five tests at different pressures. The
Each side of the triangle is mixtures of the phases of the adjacent vertices, objective was to have two tests below the MMP
with tick marks at each 10% change in composition. The K2 field reservoir oil and two above, to establish the trendlines of
was thoroughly mixed with nitrogen and the resulting phases analyzed.
recovery under those conditions, and then do a
Compositions of the equilibrated first gas and first oil phases are shown. The
oil phase was removed isobarically, and fresh oil mixed with the first gas, final test near the predicted MMP to validate that
resulting in the second gas and second oil compositions. The process was value. A correlation of MMP for nitrogen and
repeated five times. The fifth combination had not achieved miscibility, but a crude oils—which matched all previously pub-
smooth curve representing the phase boundary can be estimated from the
sequential-mixture phase compositions. A tangent to that boundary curve from lished MMP data within 750 psi [5.2 MPa]—pre-
the original oil composition indicates the expected composition of the miscible dicted an MMP for the K2 crude oil of about
fluid (black asterisk). 6,500 psi [44.8 MPa].40
The first test at a system pressure of 8,000 psi
field reached a peak oil rate of 40,000 bbl/d In an immiscible gasflood, the gas remains a [55.2 MPa] indicated 90% recovery, which fits
[6,400 m3/d], followed by a continuous decline. distinct phase, and microscopic displacement the criterion for miscible displacement. The
The main producing intervals, the M14 and M20 efficiency is poor. If the gas and oil phases are second test at 5,500 psi [37.9 MPa] was intended
sands, lie more than 25,000 ft [7,600 m] subsea in miscible on first contact, the two become one to be below the MMP, but recovery was 84%,
4,000 ft [1,200 m] of water. They lack any sub- phase, and the microscopic displacement effi- which is more likely to be a miscible displace-
stantial natural drive mechanisms; production is ciency can exceed 90% oil recovery. The K2 study ment condition.
from pressure depletion. After primary produc- evaluated nitrogen injection as a multiple- Two tests at lower system pressures, 4,000
tion, a significant quantity of oil will remain. contact miscible process. When the nitrogen first and 4,500 psi [27.6 and 31.0 MPa], produced oil
The operator, Anadarko Petroleum, evaluated contacts oil, light ends are stripped from the oil recoveries of 49% and 63%, respectively. Based
the field for its enhanced recovery potential; the phase into the gas. As the enriched gas front on the recovery, these are considered immisci-
screening identified seawater injection and moves ahead, it contacts fresh oil, stripping light ble displacements. A final test at 9,600 psi
nitrogen injection as the two most technically ends from that oil and becoming more enriched. [66.2 MPa] produced a recovery of 93%. By
and economically viable possibilities. Although This process, called a vaporizing gasdrive, can 39. In a forward-contact miscibility test, the gas phase is
seawater injection is not usually considered an continue for a number of contacts until the liquid equilibrated with a set quantity of oil. The spent oil is
and gas phases become miscible. removed and the gas is equilibrated with another set
EOR method, the company gave it the same level quantity of fresh oil. This step iterates. A backward-
of scrutiny as it did the nitrogen injection, This process was evaluated in a laboratory contact miscibility test keeps the oil phase and
PVT cell with a five-step forward-contact test, repeatedly exposes it to a set quantity of the original
because the cost and time required to implement gas phase.
a waterflood in that offshore location are as sub- using oil from the M14 reservoir and starting with 40. Sebastian HM and Lawrence DD: “Nitrogen Minimum
stantial as they are for a miscible nitrogen flood. pure nitrogen.39 After each equilibration step, the Miscibility Pressures,” paper SPE/DOE 24134, presented
at the SPE/DOE Eighth Symposium on Enhanced Oil
The company has done a waterflood evalua- compositions of the gas and oil phases were Recovery, Tulsa, April 22–24, 1992.
tion, as well as an evaluation of flow assurance determined. Then the enriched gas phase was 41. Liu S, Zhang DL, Yan W, Puerta M, Hirasaki GJ
and Miller CA: “Favorable Attributes of Alkaline-
problems that might arise as a result of either equilibrated with fresh oil. Although five steps Surfactant-Polymer Flooding,” SPE Journal 13, no. 1
improved recovery method. For example, asphal- were insufficient to achieve miscibility, the (March 2008): 5–16.
tene precipitation is a concern in nitrogen flood- results could be extrapolated to determine the The surfactant was supplied by Shell Chemical with
Procter and Gamble.
ing. However, this case study focuses on the miscibility composition (above). 42. A hard brine contains salts of divalent ions such as
miscibility of nitrogen injection in the K2 field. calcium and magnesium.

28 Oilfield Review
extrapolating straight-line trends for the two 100
lowest pressures and the two highest pressures, 90
the MMP was estimated to be about 5,300 psi
80
[36.5 MPa], confirming that the second test was

Oil recovery, %
just above the MMP (right). 70
Anadarko has continued to evaluate the
60
K2 field for its EOR potential, extending the mis-
cible gasflooding studies to include CO2 injection. 50
The company has not yet decided to implement a 40 MMP
field project, but has found value in the labora-
30
tory screening. 2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000 7,000 8,000 9,000 10,000
Pressure, psi
Laboratory Predesign for an ASP Flood > Minimum miscibility evaluation. Oil recoveries from slim-tube tests conducted
Chemical EOR flooding today often uses specially at different pressures are used to estimate the minimum miscibility pressure
designed fluids, which are manufactured by a num- of the gas-oil system (blue diamonds). The two highest pressures were
ber of companies. Thus, an important step in selected to be in a miscible condition and the two lowest pressures were
selected to be in an immiscible condition. The oil recoveries confirm those
decreasing the uncertainty in project selection is to choices: miscible displacement results in much higher recoveries than
systematically evaluate the chemicals in laboratory immiscible displacement. The MMP estimate is at the intersection of the trend
tests, as was done for a West Texas field. lines extrapolated from the high pressures and low pressures. It is 5,300 psi in
Researchers at Rice University in Houston this case, as confirmed by the test conducted at 5,500 psi (black diamond).
conducted a series of evaluations of an ASP for-
mulation with a novel surfactant.41 The results
are specific to a crude oil in a dolomite forma- polymer and an internal olefin sulfonate (IOS) as The first laboratory test was designed to con-
tion from the West Texas field, but they are likely a cosurfactant. IOS is more hydrophilic than N67 firm surfactant single-phase behavior in the
to reflect trends for other ASP applications. The and can be used to adjust the conditions for opti- absence of an oil phase. Each of several concen-
crude oil had an acid number of 0.20 mg/g of mal salinity for the mixture. tration ratios of N67 and IOS surfactants was
potassium hydroxide [KOH], which indicates
that exposure to a high pH through injection of
an alkali would create sufficient soap to aid the
ASP flood. These evaluations provide a good
example of steps taken in the laboratory before a
field assessment.
Many of the surfactants used in past EOR
projects were petroleum sulfonates made from
refinery streams or from crude oils in the field,
but they tended to form liquid crystals or precipi-
tated in hard brine unless substantial amounts of
alcohol or oil were present.42 Formation of such
crystals is undesirable because they can form
gels or flocculate, causing plugging, surfactant
retention and viscous emulsions.
The surfactant used in the evaluation at Rice,
termed N67, was a propoxylated sulfate with a
slightly branched C16 to C17 hydrocarbon chain.
In contrast to the behavior of petroleum sulfo-
nates, the branches of the hydrocarbon and pro-
pylene oxide chains of the tested sulfate mitigate
formation of the liquid-crystal phase even in the
absence of oil, so the surfactant solution can be
injected into the formation as a single-phase
micellar solution. Meanwhile, the long, branched > Slim-tube apparatus. The sand-packed metal coil in the middle of the oven
hydrocarbon chain gives the N67 surfactant high is filled with crude oil at reservoir temperature. The coil is positioned so flow
affinity for the oil, providing low IFT over a sub- is mostly horizontal to minimize gravity effects. A solvent, such as nitrogen
stantial range of conditions. gas for the K2 field evaluation, is injected. The coil provides a long flow path
so miscibility can develop between the oil and the solvent. After 1.2 PV of
The other ASP injectants used in this evalua-
solvent is injected, the oil recovery is noted. If miscibility is established, the
tion were sodium carbonate [Na2CO3] as the oil recovery will be near or above 90%. The other components in the oven
alkali, partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide as the control flow, temperature and pressure. The coil shown is a 100-ft [30.5-m]
slim tube.

Winter 2010/2011 29
 Type l Type ll Type lll

Oil Microemulsion Water

> Winsor emulsion types. A surfactant can form an emulsion in the water phase, leaving
behind excess oil (left) in a Winsor Type I microemulsion, or in the oil leaving excess water
(center) in a Type II microemulsion, or it can form a phase whose density is between that of
oil and water, leaving excess amounts of both (right) in a Type III microemulsion. The lowest
IFTs are typically obtained with a Type III microemulsion.

placed in a separate pipette with increasing con-
centrations of sodium carbonate and sodium
chloride. The combinations were mixed and
allowed to equilibrate. Single-phase behavior at
room temperature existed for salt concentrations
up to 4% to 8% by weight—with the limit depend-
ing on the surfactant ratio. At the 4/1 ratio of N67
to IOS, the single-phase region extended to about
6%. This is a great improvement over results from
past studies, in which use of petroleum sulfo-
nates as injectants required addition of oil or
alcohol to obtain a single phase.
The phase behavior of the ASP injectant with
oil was next examined using mixtures in pipettes.
Ternary mixtures of oil, brine and surfactant can
form more than one phase, depending on the
brine salinity. At low salinity, a lower-phase
microemulsion can form between oil, water and
surfactant with a separate excess-oil phase. This
is called a Winsor Type I microemulsion.43 At high
salinity, an upper-phase microemulsion (Winsor
Type II) can instead form with a separate excess
brine phase.
Finally, at intermediate salinity, a middle-
phase Winsor Type III microemulsion forms with
both an excess-water phase below and an excess-
oil phase above (above). A certain value of salin-
ity—termed the optimal salinity—in the Type III
range produces a minimum IFT that is equal for
both the microemulsion/oil and microemulsion/
brine interfaces. Within experimental error, that
is also the salinity at which the solubilization
ratios of water and oil in the microemulsion are
equal.44 Since phase behavior is easier to test in
the laboratory, salinity scans of phase behavior
are generally used to determine the optimal
salinity (next page). The optimal salinity value
depends on the surfactant and oil used and on
temperature and pressure.
In an ASP process, near the flood front there
is a gradient in the local concentration ratio of
surfactant Oilfield
to soap, Review
created as the injected alkali
reacts withWinter
oil to form
10 the soap. Laboratory tests
are designedEORto Fig. 16 that the reservoir salinity
ensure
ORWIN10-EOR
is one of the Fig. 16included within
optimal salinities
the range of ratio gradients. Thus a region of low
IFT advances through the reservoir, leaving
behind little or no trapped oil.
With the proper choice of chemical concen-
trations, the optimal salinity of the surfactant-
soap combination occurs at a somewhat lower
salinity than that of the surfactant alone. Low
salinity is advantageous for injection because it
reduces surfactant adsorption onto the rock and
maintains a single phase for a wider range of
chemical concentrations. In the sand-pack test
described below, for example, the optimal salin-
ity for the surfactant alone was 5% NaCl, and the
surfactant solution was single-phase at that
salinity. However, the addition of polymer to pro-
vide mobility control shifted the phase equilib-
rium. A surfactant solution with 4% salinity and
added polymer separated into two phases. In con-
trast, no separation occurred when polymer was
added at a lower 2% NaCl concentration.
The salinity scan of the N67-IOS system
revealed two other interesting behaviors. First, a
colloidal dispersion, representing a fourth phase,
gradually separated from the lower-phase micro-
emulsion during Type I behavior. This probably
resulted from the presence of two types of
surfactants—soap and injected surfactant—with
very different hydrophilic or hydrophobic proper-
ties. Low values of IFT, below 0.01 mN/m, were
obtained over a wide range of salinities for these
conditions. However, if the dispersion was given an
extended time to separate before testing, the IFT
remained high. That is, the presence of the fourth
phase—and its dispersion in the emulsion—was
essential to achieving low IFT values. The reason
for this behavior is not well understood.

30 Oilfield Review
 The second behavior was noted by viewing the NaCl concentration, % by weight
pipettes through crossed polarizers: The brine 0.2 0.8 1.4 2.0 2.6 3.2 3.6 4.0 4.5 5.0
phase exhibited birefringence in concentrations
near optimal salinity. This phenomenon is typi-
cally indicative of a lamellar liquid crystalline
phase, but in this case the aqueous dispersion of
the lamellar phase maintained a low viscosity.
Even though classic Winsor III behavior was not
observed in this case, the IFT reached a mini-
mum at optimal salinity where the surfactant
shifted from being preferentially water soluble to
preferentially oil soluble.
Surfactants can also adsorb onto a solid sur-
face, but any surfactant remaining there at the
end of the process represents a cost to be avoided.
The electrical charge on a calcite surface—the
primary component of limestones and other car-
bonate formations—is positive in fluids of neu-
tral pH, but presence of carbonate ions [CO32–]
reverses the charge to negative. A dolomite sur-
face exhibits similar behavior. The negative
charge repulses anionic surfactant ions, such as
those in N67 and IOS. A commonly used alkali,
sodium hydroxide [NaOH], exhibited surfactant
adsorption little different from that of the alkali-
free surfactant solution. In contrast, the addition
of 1% Na2CO3 by weight radically decreased
adsorption of both N67 and IOS onto calcite or 1,000

dolomite powder compared to the case with no Vw /Vs

alkali, which is a desirable effect because it
Solubilization rate

decreases the amount of surfactant remaining 100

after a flood.
The pipette, IFT and adsorption tests pro-
vided guidance to formulate an ASP flood through
dolomite sand in a laboratory displacement. The
sand was packed into a glass tube with a diame-
ter of 1 in. [2.54 cm] and a length of 1 ft
[30.48 cm], which permitted observation of the
flood front. The pack was first saturated with 2%
by weight NaCl brine, then the West Texas crude
oil. After 60-h aging at 60°C [140°F] to alter the
dolomite wettability, the pack was cooled to room
temperature and waterflooded, reducing oil satu-
ration to 18%.
The pack was then flooded with the ASP solu-
tion. The first slug, amounting to 0.5 pore volume
(PV), contained the N67-IOS blend, sodium car-
bonate, sodium chloride and polymer. This was
followed by a 1-PV slug of polymer and sodium
chloride. The viscosity of both the ASP slug and
the polymer chaser was 45 cP [0.045 Pa.s], to
match or exceed the effective viscosity of the oil
43. Winsor PA: “Hydrotropy, Solubilisation and Related
bank formed ahead of the flood front. As indi-
cated above, the 2% by weight concentration of
sodium chloride was below the optimal salinity of
5% for the injected surfactant system.
Vo /Vs
10
1
2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0
NaCl concentration, % by weight
> Salinity scans. Scientists filled pipettes with known amounts of crude oil and
brine containing an alkali-surfactant blend, 1% Na2CO3 and a variety of NaCl
concentrations (top). At NaCl concentrations up to 3.2%, a Type I microemulsion
forms (brownish water phase); above that concentration there is a transition to
Type III behavior, with the upper boundary of the middle phase marked (black
lines). For each pipette test, the volume of surfactant Vs is known. The volume
of water in the microemulsion phase Vw and the volume of oil in the microemulsion
phase Vo are determined, and their ratios to Vs are indicated on a solubilization
plot (bottom). At a certain NaCl concentration, the solubilization ratios for
water and oil are equal. This value, about 3.5% here, is the optimal salinity,
which has the lowest IFT. (Photographs courtesy of George J. Hirasaki and
Clarence A. Miller.)
44. The solubilization ratio of a component is the ratio of the
Emulsification Processes,” Transactions of the Faraday volume of that component that is in the microemulsion
Society 44 (1948): 376–398. phase to the volume of solute, which in this case is
OilfieldReviewthe surfactant.
Winter 10
EOR Fig. 17
ORWIN10-EOR Fig. 17

Winter 2010/2011 31
 Effluent pore volumes Rapid Downhole EOR Test
0.09 0.18 0.27 0.36 0.45 0.54 0.63 0.72 0.81 0.90 0.99 1.08 1.17 1.26 1.35 1.44 1.53 1.62 1.71 1.80 1.89 1.98 2.07 Once an EOR method has been evaluated through
laboratory testing and shown to meet acceptance
criteria, the next step is to test it in the field. The
first step may be a simple, single-well injectivity
test, whose primary function is to establish that
the fluids can be injected into the target forma-
tion at acceptable rates.
Another single-well test that requires more
time, but returns a greater amount of informa-
tion, is a single-well tracer test. This test uses a
chemical tracer soluble in both oil and water,
such as certain esters, that reacts in the forma-
tion to form a water-soluble component, such as
an alcohol. That tracer is injected as a slug, and
then left in place for a several-day soak period to
allow some of the tracer to react. The well is put
on production, and the separation in production
peaks between the water- and oil-soluble phases
can be used to determine the residual oil satura-
tion. Complete interpretation of pilot results
0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55 0.60 0.65 0.70 0.75 0.90 1.50
requires information about the rock properties.
Injection pore volumes
A new method of single-well testing assessed
> Formation of an oil bank in a dolomite sand pack. An optimized ASP formulation is injected into the
the effectiveness of an ASP formulation for a well
bottom of a 1-in. diameter glass tube (bottom). All the images are of the same tube, taken after injecting
sequentially increasing pore volumes of the ASP solution. The alkali and surfactant form an oil bank in a field in Oman.45 Petroleum Development
(dark band) that moves ahead of the chemical flood front. Most of the oil production (black liquid, top) Oman (PDO) operates this sandstone field, which
occurs when this bank breaks through, as shown in the 0.81 PV effluent beaker. The sandpack at 0.90 PV produces medium-gravity oil from a formation
injection shows most of the core has been cleared of oil, and the 0.90 PV effluent vial shows, at about having 3,500 to 4,000 mD/cP [3.5 × 106 to 4 × 106
this same time, significant oil is still being produced. The surfactant solution flushes additional oil until
about 1.5 PV have been injected. (Photographs courtesy of George J. Hirasaki and Clarence A. Miller.) mD/Pa.s] drawdown mobility. The operator
wanted to evaluate the ASP in the field, but
sought a quicker method than a traditional log-
The ASP flood clearly showed formation of an produce some oil until about 1.5 PV. The process inject-log process.
oil bank (above). Breakthrough occurred at recovered 98% of the oil remaining after the In a log-inject-log procedure, an initial log-
about 0.8 PV. Most oil was recovered by about waterflood, demonstrating the potential of this ging run establishes the properties of the forma-
1 PV injection, although the flood continued to EOR method. tion interval, in particular, the oil saturation
(next page). After injection of one or more fluids,
a second logging run measures the oil saturation
CMR-Plus tool Dielectric Scanner tool again to determine the effectiveness of the injec-
tant for EOR. Typically, a single-well log-inject-
log pilot floods an entire interval to about 10 ft
Transverse
[3 m] from the wellbore, requiring large volumes
of injectant—and the associated surface facili-
Oilfield Review ties to mix and process it—in addition to an
Winter 10 extended injection time.
EOR Fig. 18 Longitudinal After exchanging ideas with PDO on how to
ORWIN10-EOR Fig. 18 improve on these lengthy single-well pilots,
Schlumberger brought together several advances
in logging technology to decrease the amount of
Measurement injectant used to a relatively small volume. The
zone injectant can be readily premixed.
The MicroPilot small-scale EOR evaluation
uses a small volume of injectant, up to the 6-galUS
> Logging tool sensitivity. The CMR-Plus logging tool focuses its measurement about 1.1 in. [2.8 cm] [22.7-L] capacity of a downhole fluid sample
into the formation in a region that is about 1-in. [2.5-cm] square (left). The measurement zone extends chamber. Because the injectant volume is so
about 6 in. [15 cm] along the tool axis. The Dielectric Scanner tool generates a transverse field, which
small, the total time spent on the procedure—
has a toroidal shape wrapping around the tool sensors, and a longitudinal field, which has a teardrop
shape in the measurement plane (right). The intersection of these two fields provides a depth of two to three days—is much shorter than the
investigation up to 4 in. [10 cm] with a vertical resolution up to about 1 in. weeks or so necessary for a typical single-well

32 Oilfield Review
 Log-Inject-Log Procedure

Log Inject Log

Packer Barrier

Drilling fluid Reservoir

invasion EOR fluid

Logging Logging
sensor sensor

Barrier

MicroPilot Procedure

Log Inject Log

Drilling Logging Reservoir EOR fluid

fluid sensor
invasion
Openhole
drilling
module

EOR fluid
> Single-well pilot testing using log-inject-log procedure. In a typical log-inject-log procedure (top), a
region of interest is isolated using packers. The interval is logged, then a fluid is injected throughout
the zone to an invasion depth of about 10 ft. The same logging suite is run after injection to determine
the saturation change in the formation. In a MicroPilot operation, a smaller region of interest is logged
(bottom). Then the tool is positioned at a station within that region and the drilling module drills a small
hole into the formation. The depth of that small injection hole is designed to reach the most sensitive
region of the onboard logging tool measurements. An EOR test fluid is injected through that hole. The
amount injected is at most a few gallons, carried downhole in sampling bottles. The interval is logged
again. Note that the illustrations are not to scale: A log-inject-log procedure typically involves a much
larger depth interval than the MicroPilot procedure.

pilot. Although small compared with a typical
log-inject-log test, the MicroPilot flood volume
is much larger than that of a typical coreflood in
a laboratory, allowing for testing of some forma-
tion heterogeneity.
The first MicroPilot objective is to inject the
fluid at a precise location. The tool uses a drill
modified from one proved in service in the CHDT
cased hole dynamics tester. Originally designed
to drill through casing and cement, the 0.39-in.
[1-cm] diameter bit is capable of drilling
through mudcake and into the formation to a
depth up to 6 in. [15 cm]. The drilling module is
combinable with sample chambers from the
MDT modular formation dynamics tester family,
which transport the fluids downhole. MDT
pumpout modules can be used for hole cleaning,
formation mobility testing and injecting the flu-
ids, and MDT downhole fluid analysis modules
can be used to monitor and analyze the fluids as
they are injected or recovered.
Saturation change can be difficult to measure
in situ for an EOR process like ASP flooding. The
salinity can change radically in formation water,
mud filtrate and ASP injectant. In addition, an
ASP flood can change the formation wettability,
so the Archie saturation exponent n will also
change after a successful flood. A saturation mea-
surement based on resistivity is obtained, but it
may not provide consistent results before and
after injection. However, the CMR-Plus combin-
able magnetic resonance tool is sensitive to the
volume, properties and environment of the fluid
(previous page, bottom). Within a certain range
of oil viscosity, it may be possible to discriminate
45. Arora S, Horstmann D, Cherukupalli P, Edwards J,
Ramamoorthy R, McDonald T, Bradley D, Ayan C,
Zaggas J and Cig K: “Single-Well In-Situ Measurement
of Residual Oil Saturation After an EOR Chemical
Flood,” paper SPE 129069, presented at the SPE EOR
Conference at Oil and Gas West Asia, Muscat, Oman,
April 11–13, 2010.
Cherukupalli P, Horstman D, Arora S, Ayan C, Cig K,
Kristensen M, Ramamoorthy R, Zaggas J and Edwards J:
“Analysis and Flow Modeling of Single Well MicroPilot*
to Evaluate the Performance of Chemical EOR Agents,”
paper SPE 136767, presented at the SPE International
Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, UAE,
November 1–4, 2010.

Winter 2010/2011 33
the oil and water using fluid magnetic resonance
relaxation and diffusion measurements. The
magnetic fields that define the sampling geome-
try are unaffected by the fluid exchange.46
Azimuthal tool geometry focuses the measure-
ment 1.1 in. into the formation on a specific vol-
ume that is about 1-in. square by 6-in. long for
station measurements, or 7.5-in. [19-cm] long
when logged at 150 ft/h [46 m/h]. With the CMR-
Plus tool, oil-saturation measurement uncer-
tainty in this formation is 5% within the range of
oil saturation from 90% to 0%.
The multifrequency dielectric dispersion mea-
surement available from the Dielectric Scanner
tool is also sensitive to the water volume. Close to
the wellbore, the 1-GHz measurement has a verti-
cal resolution of 1 in. and is insensitive to IFT
changes. The salinity sensitivity of the tool can be
independently determined from water saturation
using multifrequency data collected at several
source-receiver spacings. Water saturation, inde-
pendent of brine salinity, can be calculated from
these measurements in conjunction with a
porosity log.
The MicroPilot test in the PDO well showed
that ASP injection successfully displaced remain-
ing oil from a waterflooded formation. In the
pilot, 11 L [2.9 galUS] of ASP was injected into
the small hole created by the CHDT tool. An elec-
trical image from an FMI fullbore formation
microimager log clearly showed development of
an oil bank and displacement of the residual oil
in a roughly circular region centered at the injec-
tion hole (next page).
46. Wettability change brought about by ASP injection can
change the NMR response in a way that may make it
difficult to measure the saturation change. Laboratory
measurements can indicate whether the method will
work in a given situation.
47. Stoll WM, al Shureqi H, Finol J, Al-Harthy SAA,
Oyemade S, de Kruijf A, van Wunnik J, Arkesteijn F,
Bouwmeester R and Faber MJ: “Alkaline-Surfactant-
Polymer Flood: From the Laboratory to the Field,” paper
SPE 129164, presented at the SPE EOR Conference at Oil
and Gas West Asia, Muscat, Oman, April 11–13, 2010.
48. Shutang G and Qiang G: “Recent Progress and
Evaluation of ASP Flooding for EOR in Daqing Oil
Field,” paper SPE 127714, presented at the SPE EOR
Conference at Oil and Gas West Asia, Muscat, Oman,
April 11–13, 2010.
49. He L, Jinling L, Jidong Y, Wenjun W, Yongchun Z and
Liqun Z: “Successful Practices and Development of
Polymer Flooding in Daqing Oilfield,” paper SPE 123975,
presented at the SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas
Conference and Exhibition, Jakarta, August 4–6, 2009.
50. He et al, reference 49.
51. Moritis (2010), reference 2.
52. Tang GQ and Morrow NR: “Salinity, Temperature,
Oil Composition, and Oil Recovery by Waterflooding,”
SPE Reservoir Engineering 12, no. 4 (November 1997):
269–276.
53. RezaeiDoust A, Puntervold T, Strand S and Austad T:
“Smart Water as Wettability Modifier in Carbonate and
Sandstone: A Discussion of Similarities/Differences in
the Chemical Mechanisms,” Energy & Fuels 23, no. 9
(September 17, 2009): 4479–4485.
34
Both the NMR and dielectric measurements
indicated a reduction in the remaining oil satura-
tion from 40% to near 0% behind the front. The
dielectric measurement also showed the buildup
of oil saturation as a bank ahead of the ASP front,
which matched the results of an ECLIPSE reser-
voir model of the injection.
This evaluation was part of a larger study PDO
is doing on ASP flooding. In conjunction with
Shell Technology Oman, PDO has performed sev-
eral single-well tracer tests of the same ASP
treatment. The degree of desaturation seen in
those more extensive field tests was similar to
what was seen in the MicroPilot test.47
Multiwell ASP pilots have been conducted in
the Daqing oil field, Heilongjiang Province, China,
which is operated by Daqing Oilfield Company.
This multilayered deltaic, lacustrine reservoir is
the largest oil field in the People’s Republic of
China. In four ASP pilot tests, the incremental oil
recovery over waterflooding was about 20%, with a
chemical cost of US$ 11 to US$ 15/bbl of incremen-
tal oil.48 This field is also the site of the world’s
largest polymer EOR flood, with more than 20
years of polymer injection in the field.49 The recov-
ery after polymer flooding exceeds 50%, which
Daqing Oilfield Company indicates is a 10% to 15%
improvement over conventional waterflood pro-
duction from these wells.50
On the Road to Recovery
Based on current production, the most successful
EOR techniques, by far, have been steamflooding
and CO2 flooding, with hydrocarbon gasflooding
54. Seccombe et al, reference 18.
55. Pu H, Xie X, Yin P and Morrow NR: “Low Salinity
Waterflooding and Mineral Dissolution,” paper
SPE 134042, presented at the SPE Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition, Florence, Italy,
September 19–22, 2010.
56. Pu et al, reference 55.
57. Skrettingland K, Holt T, Tweheyo MT and Skjevrak I:
“Snorre Low Salinity Water Injection—Core Flooding
Experiments and Single Well Field Pilot,” paper SPE
129877, presented at the SPE Improved Oil Recovery
Symposium, Tulsa, April 24–28, 2010.
58. For example: Onyekonwu MO and Ogolo NA:
“Investigating the Use of Nanoparticles in Enhancing Oil
Recovery,” paper SPE 140744, presented at the 34th
Annual SPE International Conference and Exhibition,
Tinapa-Calabar, Nigeria, July 31–August 7, 2010.
59. Felber BJ: “Selected U.S. Department of Energy EOR
Technology Applications,” paper SPE 89452, presented
at the SPE/DOE Fourteenth Symposium on Improved Oil
Recovery, Tulsa, April 17–21, 2004.
60. Vega B, O’Brien WJ and Kovscek AR: “Experimental
Investigation of Oil Recovery From Siliceous Shale by
Miscible CO2 Injection,” paper SPE 135627, presented at
the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition,
Florence, Italy, September 19–22, 2010.
61. For an example of in situ shale retorting: Fowler TD and
Vinegar HJ: “Oil Shale ICP—Colorado Field Pilots,”
paper SPE 121164, presented at the SPE Western
Regional Meeting, San Jose, California, USA,
March 24–26, 2009.
at a distant third.51 Combustion and polymer and
nitrogen flooding also have produced substantial
amounts of additional oil. Other methods are still
being tested.
One EOR method that has garnered consider-
able attention and that has been tested in several
pilot studies is low-salinity waterflooding. Most
waterfloods use high-salinity brine, and addi-
tional oil recovery has been obtained by following
that with a low-salinity waterflood.52 Use of injec-
tion water with specially engineered salinity and
ion composition has also been referred to as engi-
neered- or smart-water injection.53
BP piloted the low-salinity method in Endicott
field, Alaska, USA.54 Positive results of laboratory
corefloods and several single-well tracer tests
were confirmed in a two-well pilot. The original
oil saturation in this field was 95%, which was
reduced to 41% by a high-salinity waterflood. The
water cut at that point was 95%. Next, the opera-
tor executed a low-salinity pilot flood. When the
low-salinity front broke through at the producer,
water cut dropped to 92%. The residual oil
saturation is expected to reach 28%, a 13-unit
drop in oil saturation.
The mechanism leading to this additional
recovery after low-salinity flooding is not yet
agreed upon, but some interaction or combina-
tion of interactions involving the crude oil,
brine and rock is believed to be the cause.
Generally, presence of four factors has been
thought to be required.55 The system has to
include crude oil: The effect is not seen when a
core sample is saturated with refined oil.
Formation water must be present. There must
be a crude oil/brine interface. Finally, clays
must be present: Cores heated to a high tem-
perature to convert and stabilize clays did not
show the effect. However, even this list is in flux.
Recent work on sandstone and dolomite cores
with no clay exhibited increased recovery from
low-salinity flooding, which was attributed to
dissolution of fines in the formations.56
Some field tests of the method by other opera-
tors in other locations did not recover sufficient
additional oil for this to be an economic process,
so the industry is proceeding cautiously.57 A
better understanding of the method’s physical
and chemical interactions is likely to advance
this technique.
A cutting-edge method uses nanoparticles
designed specifically for EOR. Their surfaces are
engineered to make them move preferentially to
oil/water interfaces and mobilize additional oil.58
Much of the work on nanoparticles for hydrocar-
bon recovery is still in the laboratory stage.
Oilfield Review
 CMR-Plus Dielectric Scanner
Water Saturation Water Saturation
Desaturation Desaturation
After Injection After Injection
1 m3/m3 0 1 m3/m3 0
Before Injection Before Injection
1 m3/m3 0 1 m3/m3 0

Station Measurement CMR-Plus Station FMI Scaled Image After Injection

Before Injection Measurement
Before Injection
Orientation from Top of Hole
1 m3/m3 0 1 m3/m3 0

Station Measurement CMR-Plus Station Resistive FMI Conductivity Conductive

Depth, m

After Injection Measurement

After Injection
1 m3/m3 0 1 m3/m3 0 0 degree 360

X6.4

0 100
Oil saturation, %

X6.6

X6.8

X7.0

X7.2

0 0.8
Conductivity, S/m

X7.4

> Oil bank from MicroPilot injection. Taken after injection of an ASP solution, an FMI image (Track 3) clearly shows evidence of an
oil bank and swept formation behind it: a circular bright area around a darker interior. A 3D cutaway (right, top) shows the
modeled displacement as the ASP flood (dark blue) pushes an oil bank (green) away from the small drilled injection hole (white). A
2D vertical section (right, bottom) of conductivity, taken from an ECLIPSE model, matches the dimensions of the bank in the FMI
image, with a swept area having a diameter of 28 cm [11 in.] and the outer range of the oil bank at 54 cm [21 in.] The water
saturation after injection approaches 100%, both in the CMR-Plus log (Track 1) and the Dielectric Scanner log (Track 2).

Research has also progressed on accessing
reservoirs for EOR injection. The US DOE funded
development of microhole technology for bore-
holes ranging in diameter from 11/4 in. to 2 3/8 in.
and logging tools with 7/8-in. diameter. The objec-
tive is to drill such holes with coiled tubing and
miniaturized BHAs to a depth of 6,000 ft [1,800 m].
Afterward, the program envisions injecting EOR
chemicals into the formation and using miniatur-
ized logging tools to evaluate the result.59
Recently, there has been increased activity in
recovery of oil from tight formations such as the
Niobrara, Bakken and Eagle Ford shales in the US.
Although operators have only begun developing EOR techniques run the gamut from labora-
these unconventional oil plays, the lead time for tory successes not yet proved in the field to suc-
developing EOR strategies for any play is long. cessful field applications that have recovered
Investigators have already begun looking at meth- millions of barrels of additional oil over decades.
ods such as CO2 flooding for additional recovery.60 As mature fields approach their economic limits
Recovery from oil shales using in situ retorting for traditional recovery methods, the need for
Oilfield
might eventually beReview
classed as an EOR method EOR applications continues to grow. Since most
Winter 10
(see “Coaxing
EOR Fig. 21Shale,” page 4). Oil shale is
Oil from EOR methods have limitations on their applica-
heated in situ to temperatures
ORWIN10-EOR Fig.sufficient
21 to con- bility, the industry needs to broaden and deepen
vert the kerogen into oil and gas, and the products its expertise and prove applicability of more
are produced through wellbores.61 Several methods methods. The prize is significant: more oil pro-
are undergoiong field test in the US. duced from more known reservoirs. —MAA

Winter 2010/2011 35

Andrew Bishop
Gatwick, England
Chad Bremner
Stavanger, Norway
Andreas Laake
Claudio Strobbia
Cairo, Egypt
Patrick Parno
Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Geir Utskot
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Oilfield Review Winter 2010/2011: 22, no. 4.
Copyright © 2011 Schlumberger.
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Yuliya
Ekgardt, Gazprom dobycha Yamburg LLC, Novy Urengoy,
Russia; Hannes Grobe, Alfred Wegener Institute for
Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany;
Patrick McGinn, ExxonMobil, Houston; Jeffrey Philipp,
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada; Steve Rinehart,
BP Alaska, Anchorage; Betty Tsang, Calgary; and
Alexander Zarkhidze, Cairo.
ARCTICSET, CleanGEL, DAD, FracCAT, GelSTREAK, PCM,
PetroMod, PodSTREAK, Q-Land, UniQ, VDA and YF are
marks of Schlumberger.
1. Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil
and Gas: “Alaska Department of Natural Resources
Division of Oil and Gas 2006 Annual Report,” (May 2006),
http://www.dog.dnr.state.ak.us/oil/products/publications/
annual/2006_annual_report/0.5_Introduction_2006.pdf
(accessed August 19, 2010).
2. BP: “Prudhoe Bay Fact Sheet,” (August 2006), http://
www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/us/bp_us_english/
STAGING/local_assets/downloads/a/A03_prudhoe_bay_
fact_sheet.pdf (accessed June 29, 2010).
3. Company names in this article are given as they existed
at the time. British Petroleum became BP, ARCO was
acquired by BP, and Standard Oil Company of New
Jersey became Exxon, now part of ExxonMobil.
36
Petroleum Potential of the Arctic:
Challenges and Solutions
Although Arctic oil and gas have been E&P targets for decades, the petroleum
potential of this region is far from being fully realized. The Arctic environment is
fragile, climate conditions are harsh and the operational season is short. Success in
this remote area will depend on appropriate selection of existing technologies and
development of novel, more efficient ones.
The Arctic region has drawn attention since
ancient times—attention well beyond mere curi-
osity about the great unknown. Fur, fin and
feather from the Arctic coasts were the earliest
attractions, enticing people from other regions to
these frigid waters and icy expanses. Legendary
treasures in distant Asian lands and the long, dif-
ficult and often dangerous southern sea route to
obtain them impelled European travelers to
dream about alternative paths and turn their
eyes to the north.
Starting in the 16th century, explorers sought
the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean along
the north coast of North America, as well as a
Northern Sea Route along the north coast of
Eurasia, often guided by fantastic notions of the
geography of the region (next page). In the late
19th century, exploration of these northern terri-
tories reached the highest latitude: the North
Pole. These far-reaching adventures and discov-
eries further enabled active scientific and com-
mercial enterprises. The age of oil was coming,
and explorationists extended their interest to
even more-remote areas in a quest for what is
now considered one of the greatest treasures of
the Arctic—hydrocarbon reserves.
This article reviews the first hydrocarbon
discoveries in the Arctic and describes recent
estimates of its oil and gas reserves. The
difficulties of Arctic exploration, development
and production of hydrocarbons are similar to
those of subarctic and other extremely cold
climates; this article also discusses the existing
solutions and novel technologies created to
address these challenges.
First Discoveries
The Arctic is variously defined in the E&P indus-
try. Its geographic definition covers territories
north of the Arctic Circle, at latitudes greater
than 66°33'44" N. Other definitions include any
regions with Arctic-like conditions, such as a par-
ticularly cold climate, or with permafrost, float-
ing ice and icebergs. These extended definitions
encompass vast areas—such as West Siberia and
Sakhalin, Russia; northern Canada; and Alaska,
USA—with rich hydrocarbon exploration and
production histories.
The indigenous Inuit people of Alaska had
long known about oil seeps on the Arctic coastal
plain. Russia owned the Alaskan territory until
1867, and Russian settlers were the first western-
ers to report oil shows on the Alaska Peninsula.1
The late 19th to early 20th century saw the first
successful exploration and production efforts in
Alaska, but the first major commercial oil and
gas fields there were discovered only as recently
as the late 1950s. However, all of these successes
were achieved in southern Alaska. The discovery
of the first true Arctic commercial hydrocarbon
field in Alaska occurred a decade later.
Oilfield Review
> Septentrionalium Terrarum Descriptio—“Description of the Septentrional (Northern) Lands.” Created in 1595 by Gerardus Mercator, this map presents a
realistic depiction of Northern Europe, along with imaginary coasts of Asia and America and fantastic mysterious lands at and around the North Pole.

On March 12, 1968, ARCO and Standard Oil
Company of New Jersey drilled a well that tapped
North America’s largest oil field and the 18th-
largest in the world—the Prudhoe Bay field on
Alaska’s North Slope.2 British Petroleum drilled a
confirmation well in 1969.3 An early estimate for
the field was 1.5 billion m3 [9.6 billion bbl] of
recoverable oil. By today's estimates, from the
4.0 billion m3 [25 billion bbl] of original oil in
place (OOIP), 2.1 billion m3 [13 billion bbl] of oil
can be recovered with existing technologies. The
field also contains an estimated 1.3 trillion m3
[46 Tcf] of natural gas in place in an overlying gas
cap and in solution with the oil, of which about
736 billion m3 [26 Tcf] are classified as recoverable.
Moving Prudhoe Bay oil to market required
the operators to solve a variety of problems, from
climatic and technological to environmental and
legal. Completion of the Trans Alaska Pipeline
from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska, constructed

Winter 2010/2011 37
 1969 by Panarctic Oils, was the Drake Point gas
field on Melville Island in the Canadian Arctic
Archipelago. The current estimated gas reserves
of the field are 153 billion m3 [5.4 Tcf]. In 1974,
Panarctic Oils discovered the first Canadian
Arctic oil field—the Bent Horn field on Cameron
Island. Although relatively small, this is the
only Canadian Arctic oil field that has been
commercially produced. The field was abandoned
in 1997, but produced 453.16 thousand m3
[2.85 million bbl] of crude oil from 1985 to 1996.5
Today, natural gas is considered the most promis-
ing hydrocarbon reserve in the Canadian Arctic,
and the highest gas potential is expected from
the Mackenzie Delta–Beaufort Sea basin and
basins of the Arctic Archipelago.
The petroleum potential of Greenland—east
of Canada and a self-governing territory of
Denmark—has not been extensively explored
(below left). Much of Greenland’s territory lies
north of the Arctic Circle. About 80% of the island
is covered by the Greenland ice sheet—an ice
body generally more than 2,000 m [6,600 ft]
> Trans Alaska Pipeline. This pipeline system extends for 800 mi [1,300 km] from the north coast of thick—which complicates exploration activities
Alaska to the south coast. The 4-ft [1.2-m] diameter pipeline is managed by the Alyeska Pipeline considerably. It was not until the early 1970s, the
Service Company, which is owned by BP Pipelines (Alaska) Inc., ConocoPhillips Transportation Alaska,
Inc., ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, Koch Alaska Pipeline Company, LLC and Unocal Pipeline time of a dramatic rise in oil prices, that the first
Company. (Photograph copyright of BP plc.) large seismic surveys were carried out offshore
West Greenland, mostly within the Arctic Circle.6
This exploration period lasted until 1978, with no
between 1974 and 1977, allowed oil production in to seal seams on canoes.4 Oil seeping along the discoveries. Five exploratory wells were also
the field to begin (above). banks of the Mackenzie River was first reported drilled in 1976 and 1977—all dry holes.
In the Canadian Arctic, east of Alaska, indig- by westerners in 1789. Some subarctic fields were Exploration resumed in the early 1990s, with the
enous people had also been aware of oil seeps for discovered in the 1920s. But the first purely first oil seeps in Greenland’s waters found in
centuries and had even used hydrocarbon pitch Arctic hydrocarbon field in Canada, discovered in 1992. The Marraat-1 well, drilled in 1993, demon-
strated substantial oil leakage from cores. Since
then, seismic and airborne geophysical surveys
have been commissioned, and a few more off-
shore and onshore wells have been drilled. Some
structures with hydrocarbon potential have been
identified, and onshore oil seeps and offshore
slicks have been observed.7 However, to date, no
oil or gas fields of any commercial significance
have been discovered in Greenland.8
Iceland, Greenland’s neighbor, may also have
some Arctic petroleum potential.9 In 1981,
Iceland and Norway agreed on a partition of the
Continental Shelf in the area between Iceland
and Jan Mayen Island and on a joint project to
map the subsea resources of the Jan Mayen
Ridge.10 A 1985 seismic survey and subsequent
surveys identified two areas of the Icelandic shelf
that are thought to have potential for commercial
accumulation of oil and gas. In the Dreki area,
east and northeast of Iceland, the thick continen-
tal crust potentially includes Jurassic and
> The Polarstern vessel on a scientific research voyage off the coast of East Greenland. (Photograph Cretaceous source rocks and is geologically
copyright of Hannes Grobe, Alfred Wegener Institute of Polar and Marine Research.) similar to hydrocarbon basins in Norway and

38 Oilfield Review
Greenland. Gammur, on the northern insular
shelf of Iceland, is a relatively young sedimentary
basin of about 9 million years, from which gas
escapes have been reported.11 In 2009, Iceland Sakhalin
60°N
held the first licensing round for exploration and
production licenses in the Dreki area, and the Kenai
second round opens in 2011. However, existing Valdez Alaska Arc
tic
ge e Cir

a
surveys estimate the probability of hydrocarbon Ran i S Ea cle
s c h st Sib
ok C h uk eri
discovery as low. o Prudhoe Bay an
eR
ckenzi iver

Br
Se
Norway, conversely, is one of the world’s larg- Ma Inuvik
Liberty Endicott

a
est petroleum producers and exporters. All of Kugmallit Bay
CANADA
Norway’s petroleum reserves are located on the L a pte v S ea
Norwegian Continental Shelf in three marine Melville Island Drake Point
Bent Horn
regions: the North, Norwegian and Barents seas, Cameron Island
RUSSIA
but only the Barents Sea has Arctic petroleum 90°W ARCTIC OCEAN Yamburg 90°E
production. Seismic surveying began in the Tazovskoe
Kara Sea
region in the early 1970s, followed by exploratory Zapolyarnoe
75°N
drilling in 1980, when the Norwegian parliament Rusanovskoe Leningradskoe
permitted drilling north of the 62nd parallel. In Marraat-1 Barents Sea Prirazlomnoe
1984, Statoil discovered the Askeladd, Albatross Severo-Gulyaevskoe
GREENLAND Shtokman echora Sea
Murmanskoe P
and Snøhvit fields, which are collectively called Kharyaga
Snøhvit ea
the Snøhvit development.12 The Snøhvit develop- S
ian
Jan Mayen eg
ment is now the world’s northernmost offshore

w
Nor
Gammur Melkøya
gas field, and its estimated recoverable reserves ICELAND
Dreki NORWAY
are 194 billion m3 [6.8 Tcf] of natural gas,
No Hammerfest
18 million m3 [113 million bbl] of condensate and rth
5.1 million metric tons [53 million bbl] of natural

gas liquids.13
Elsewhere in the Barents Sea, exploration
activities continue, and this region is consid-
ered a promising area for hydrocarbon produc-
tion not only by Norway but also by Russia
(above right). The Kara Sea, the Barents Sea
and its southeastern part, the Pechora Sea, are
now the most explored areas of the Russian
Arctic. The first offshore Russian Arctic
field—the Murmanskoe gas field—was discov-
ered in 1983 in the Barents Sea.14 The recover-
4. Canada's Petroleum Heritage: “Canada's Arctic,”
http://www.albertasource.ca/petroleum/industry/historic_
dev_canada_arctic.html (accessed June 30, 2010).
5. Drummond KJ: “Canada’s Discovered Oil and Gas
Resources North of 60,” Search and Discovery, Article
10102 (2006), http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/
documents/2006/06022drummond/index.htm (accessed
June 30, 2010).
6. GHEXIS—Greenland Hydrocarbon Exploration
Information Service Online: “West Greenland Petroleum
Geology, Exploration History,” http://www.geus.dk/
ghexis/expl-his.htm (accessed July 17, 2010).
7. Watts M: “Petroleum Exploration,” presented at the
Newfoundland and Labrador Oil and Gas Industries
Association Conference, St. John’s, Newfoundland
and Labrador, Canada, June 16–18, 2010, http://www.
cairnenergy.com/uploadedFiles/Investors/Downloads/
Petroleum%20Exploration%20NOIA%20Conference,%20
St%20Johns.pdf (accessed July 13, 2010).
8. The most recent attempt was made by Cairn Energy.
By September 30, 2010, the end of the drilling season
in Greenland, Cairn Energy had drilled two of the four
planned wells in the West Disko area, Baffin Bay, West
Greenland. The company found traces of hydrocarbons
but no commercial discoveries.
> Arctic fields (red dots) and other locations mentioned in this article.
able gas reserves of this field are estimated at
122 billion m3 [4.3 Tcf].15 In 1986, the first
Russian Arctic offshore oil was discovered at
the Severo-Gulyaevskoe oil and gas condensate
field with estimated recoverable oil reserves of
Webb T: “Cairn Energy Fails to Find Enough Oil off the
Coast of Greenland,” guardian.co.uk (October 26, 2010),
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/oct/26/
cairn-energy-greenland-venture-fails (accessed
December 13, 2010).
  9. All of the main island of Iceland is south of the Arctic
Circle; however, Grimsey, a small island north of the
country’s main island, lies on the Arctic Circle.
10. Jan Mayen, a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean
between Greenland and northern Norway, is a part
of Norway.
Gunnarsson K, Sand M and Gudlaugsson ST: Geology
and Hydrocarbon Potential of the Jan Mayen Ridge,
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate and National Energy
Authority, Iceland, 1989, http://www.nea.is/media/olia/
gunnarsson89.pdf (accessed December 20, 2010).
11. Iceland National Energy Authority: “Oil and Gas
Exploration,” http://www.nea.is/oil-and-gas-exploration/
exploration-areas/ (accessed December 21, 2010).
12. Offshore-technology.com: “Snøhvit Gas Field, Barents
Sea, Norway,” http://www.offshore-technology.com/
projects/snohvit/ (accessed July 14, 2010).
Se
a
11.4 million metric tons [84 million bbl].16
Fifteen hydrocarbon fields have been discov-
ered to date in the Kara, Barents and Pechora
seas, including three supergiant fields—
Shtokman, Rusanovskoe and Leningradskoe—
13. Traditionally, in countries using the metric system,
condensate is measured in metric tons (mass unit),
whereas in the US it is measured in barrels (volume
unit). Conversion of one unit to the other requires
knowledge of density. The US Energy Information
Administration provides an approximate conversion
factor of 10.40 bbl/metric ton that is used here. http://
www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/iea/tablec1.html (accessed
August 19, 2010).
14. Novikov YN and Gazhula SV: “Preliminary Results and
the Lessons of the Overestimation of the Hydrocarbon
Fields Reserves of Undistributed Fund for the Western
Arctic Shelf of Russia,” presented at the Fourth Arctic
Shelf: Strategy for the Future International Conference,
Murmansk, Russia, November 12–14, 2008, http://
www.helion-ltd.ru/preliminary-results-and (accessed
July 15, 2010).
15. Khitrov AM, Popova MN, Novikova OV: “Resource Base
of Russia and Possible Hydrocarbon Transportation
Routes During the First Part of the XXI Century,”
Georesursy Geoenergetika Geopolitika 1, no. 1
(January 27, 2010), (in Russian), http://oilgasjournal.ru/
2009-1/3-rubric/hitrov.pdf (accessed September 3, 2010).
16. Khitrov et al, reference 15.

Winter 2010/2011 39

> A drilling rig at Yamburg field. The field was discovered in 1969 and production began in 1986.
(Photograph courtesy of Gazprom dobycha Yamburg LLC.)
but none are producing yet. The Prirazlomnoe
oil field in the Pechora Sea is expected to
begin production in 2011. Its estimated recov-
erable reserves are 58.6 million metric tons
[430 million bbl].17 Offshore regions farther
east—the Laptev, East Siberian and Chukchi
seas—are less explored but promising.
Almost all of the developed Russian oil and
gas fields are located onshore, and many impor-
tant ones, including giant fields, are north of the
17. Offshore-technology.com: “Prirazlomnoe Oilfield—
Barents Sea, Russia,” http://www.offshore-technology.
com/projects/Prirazlomnoye/ (accessed September 3,
2010).
18. Sandrea R: “Equation Aids Early Estimation of Gas Field
Production Potential,” Oil & Gas Journal 107, no. 6
(February 9, 2009): 34–36.
19. Tutushkin A: “Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District Opens
for Foreigners,” Kommersant 173 (891) (September 20,
1995), (in Russian), http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.
aspx?DocsID=117850 (accessed September 7, 2010).
20. Sandrea, reference 18.
21. Bird KJ, Charpentier RR, Gautier DL, Houseknecht DW,
Klett TR, Pitman JK, Moore TE, Schenk CJ, Tennyson ME
and Wandrey CJ: “Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal:
Estimates of Undiscovered Oil and Gas North of the
Arctic Circle,” US Geological Survey Fact Sheet
2008-3049 (2008), http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3049/
(accessed February 4, 2010).
22. Gautier DL: “Results of the US Geological Survey
Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal (Cara),” presented at
3P Arctic: The Polar Petroleum Potential Conference
and Exhibition, Moscow, September 30–October 2, 2009.
23. Charpentier RR: “Uncertainty in USGS Estimates of
Undiscovered Arctic Petroleum Resources,” presented
at 3P Arctic: The Polar Petroleum Potential Conference
and Exhibition, Moscow, September 30–October 2, 2009.
40
Arctic Circle. The Yamburg oil and gas conden-
sate field, for example, is the world’s third-largest
gas field with estimated reserves of 4 trillion m3
[141 Tcf] (above).18 Explorationists first investi-
gated this remote area in 1943, during World
War II, when the country was in acute need of
hydrocarbons. These endeavors were suspended,
and it was not until 1959 that exploration activi-
ties resumed. Discovered in 1962 near the Taz
Estuary in the northern area of West Siberia, the
24. Kontorovich AE, Epov MI, Burshtein LM, Kaminskii VD,
Kurchikov AR, Malyshev NA, Prischepa OM, Safronov AF,
Stupakova AV and Suprunenko OI: “Geology and
Hydrocarbon Resources of the Continental Shelf in
Russian Arctic Seas and the Prospects of Their
Development,” Russian Geology and Geophysics 51,
no. 1 (January 2010): 3–11.
Kontorovich AE, Burshtein LM, Kaminsky V,
Kashirtsev VA, Prishchepa OM, Safronov AF,
Starosel’tsev VS, Stoupakova A, Suprunenko OL and
Epov MI: “Oil and Gas Resources in Eurasian Offshore
Sector of the Arctic Ocean,” presented at 3P Arctic: The
Polar Petroleum Potential Conference and Exhibition,
Moscow, September 30–October 2, 2009.
25. In particular, it was estimated that there is a 90%
probability that the initial in-place resources of
hydrocarbons in the Arctic Ocean exceed 90 billion
metric tons [660 billion bbl] of oil equivalent.
26. The average Arctic winter temperature is –34°C [–30°F],
while the average Arctic summer temperature is 3°C
to 12°C [37°F to 54°F].
27. Taiga is an ecosystem dominated by coniferous forests.
Northern taiga, because of colder climate and stronger
winds, is more sparsely vegetated. Tundra is a treeless
zone with permanently frozen subsoil, north of the
timberline. Forest-tundra is a transition zone between
taiga and tundra in which islands of trees alternate with
tundra areas.
Tazovskoe gas field was the first discovery in the
Russian Arctic. The field has estimated gas
reserves of about 200 billion m3 [7.06 Tcf].19 The
Zapolyarnoe oil, gas and condensate field, discov-
ered in 1965, was the first Russian Arctic oil field.
This is also the world’s sixth-largest gas field with
2.7 trillion m3 [95 Tcf] of recoverable gas.20
However, the time from discovery to production
may sometimes take decades in this challenging
region. Although it was discovered 45 years ago,
this field produced its first gas only in 2001.
Arctic Petroleum Reserves Estimates
Since the time of these early discoveries through-
out the Arctic, explorationists have wondered
about the size of Arctic resources and how they
are distributed among different basins and coun-
tries. Estimates of Arctic reserves depend on the
parameter values and methods used, and may
change as new data become available or another
evaluation technique is applied. In 2000, the US
Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that the
Arctic, with 6% of the world’s area, holds 25% of
the world’s undiscovered oil and gas reserves.
The USGS obtained this figure after assessing
seven of the most studied oil and gas basins.
Since then, with improved data and a growing
level of interest in Arctic oil and gas, the estimate
has been updated.
In May 2008, the USGS completed a new
assessment, the Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal
(CARA), which was performed using a probabilis-
tic methodology of geologic analysis and analog
modeling.21 The total undiscovered conventional
hydrocarbon resources of the Arctic were
estimated to be approximately 14.3 billion m3
[90 billion bbl] of oil, 47.3 trillion m3 [1,669 Tcf]
of natural gas and 7 billion m3 [44 billion bbl] of
natural gas liquids—a total of 65.5 billion m3
[412 billion bbl] of oil equivalent (next page).
This constitutes about 30% of the world’s undis-
covered gas and 13% of the world’s undiscovered
oil. Thus, the 2000 USGS estimate has been
refined: The undiscovered gas resources are
assessed as being even larger, whereas the undis-
covered oil resources are only half as much as the
earlier estimate.
However, none of the estimates is final for an
area as underexplored as the Arctic, and the
CARA appraisal induced further interpretations
and criticism. On one hand, some believe that the
undiscovered oil resources of the Arctic, while
critically important to the interests of the stake-
holder countries, are probably not large enough
to significantly shift the current geographic
Oilfield Review
patterns of world oil production.22 In addition, a Yet-To-Find Arctic Resources in Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent
post­assessment review of the risks that CARA
evaluated showed that the Arctic areas, on 60°N
average, are less likely to hold large fields.23
On the other hand, a separate appraisal of the
Arc
Russian Arctic oil and gas potential suggests that tic
Cir
cle
the Arctic basins collectively constitute one of
the world’s largest petroleum superbasins.24 75°N
Scientists calculated probabilistic estimates of 72.77 4.4
hydrocarbon resources of Eurasian sedimentary
basins in the Arctic Ocean shelves using a 22.31 37.28
stochastic regression relationship between the
initial oil-in-place and gas-in-place resources and
90°W 90°E
characterization of the filling of the sedimentary 10.84
basins, making allowance for their ages. The esti-
mates suggested that, in the second half of the 135.95
21st century, the Arctic petroleum super­basin 17.06
could provide consumers with energy resources
that are comparable to those of the Persian Gulf
61.76
or West Siberian petroleum basins.25
34.71 14.03
Nonetheless, whatever the specific estimates,
it is clear that the Arctic petroleum reserves are
more than sufficient to attract exploration and
create a demand for oilfield services. The follow-
ing sections describe how companies address the
challenges they face in finding and exploiting
Arctic reserves.
Arctic Region: Percentage of Worldwide Hydrocarbon Resources (USGS 2008)
Logistics and Environment
“Cold!” For most people that is the main chal- 22% 412 billion bbl of oil equivalent of YTF resources

lenge of working in the Arctic. Indeed, in Arctic

13% 90 billion bbl of oil
areas, uncomfortably low temperatures dominate
for a considerable part of the year. To work in the 30% 1,669 Tcf of gas
cold, companies must budget additional expenses
for everything from warm work clothing and non- 20% 44 billion bbl of natural gas liquids (NGL)
freezing fuels and oils to specially designed
equipment and vehicles. Distribution by Resource Type
However, the Arctic is not always cold;
Oil NGL Natural gas
temperatures vary significantly with place and
season. The average temperatures in summer are
above freezing over all Arctic areas except the Distribution by Country
central Arctic basin and interior Greenland.26
Norway

In the warmer areas, when temperatures are US (Alaska) Canada Greenland Russia

most comfortable for humans and suitable for

machines, the ground is free of snow and ice and
unfrozen to varying depths. But the result is
that northern taiga, forest-tundra and tundra
become almost impassable wetlands during the
warm season.27
Because of this almost impenetrable land-
scape and the sparse population, permanent
roads are either uneconomical or impossible to
construct. The absence of roads is one of the rea-
sons the operational season for many onshore
exploration activities is restricted to winter, pro-
vided that the temperature drops sufficiently low,
> A brief summary of the CARA 2008 results. The map shows the most promising areas for finding
undiscovered, or yet-to-find (YTF), conventional hydrocarbon resources (top). The height of each
column represents the volume of YTF resources (red for gas, green for oil) in billions of barrels of oil
equivalent. The base of each column is plotted approximately at the basin location. The graphs
(bottom) present the Arctic YTF resource volume, type and location compared with the rest of the
world. The data indicate that most of these resources consist of natural gas in Russia.
down to at least –20°C [–4°F], for the ground to ice of neighboring rivers and lakes and pouring it
be frozen hard enough to support heavy trucks on the surface. Wherever possible, ice roads are
and equipment. laid along frozen waterways near the road-
Furthermore, it is often necessary to con- building material—water. There are special
struct ice roads by taking water from beneath the requirements for the thickness and strength of

Winter 2010/2011 41

> The danger of thin ice. A Super-B-Train truck hauling diesel fuel broke through the Mackenzie River
ice crossing near Fort Providence, Northwest Territories, Canada. The truck weighed more than
60,000 kg [132,300 lbm], which is 15 times more than the maximum load limit of 4,000 kg [8,800 lbm] for
the Mackenzie River ice crossing. (Photograph courtesy of Jeffrey Philipp, Yellowknife, Northwest
Territories, and CBC News, reference 28.)
the ice roads, as well as driving and safety
requirements for vehicle operators (above).28 In
addition, ice bridges are built to cross frozen riv-
ers and ponds, and sea-ice roads are constructed
on the frozen sea.
All these types of ice routes are used by
Schlumberger in the Northwest Territories,
Canada, to connect its base in Inuvik to locations
in the Mackenzie Delta–Beaufort Sea basin. The
southernmost parts of most of the roads are laid
along the frozen Mackenzie River, and north-
ward, many rivers and lakes are crossed via ice
bridges. On the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk road, the
northernmost leg is a sea-ice road along the coast
of the Beaufort Sea’s Kugmallit Bay.
Another equally important reason for taking
care with roads and transport is the extreme
fragility of the Arctic environment.29 Arctic soil,
especially in tundra, is particularly vulnerable to
damage. Some remnants of seismic exploration
activity—trails made by drill, vibrator and
recording vehicles—may persist for decades.30 To
allow seismic operations to continue year-round,
WesternGeco introduced the first rubber-tracked,
low ground-pressure vehicles to Alaska’s North
Slope (below). These vehicles have wide rubber-
treaded tracks and a new drive system. When
making a turn, conventional tracked vehicles
lock one track, while keeping the other moving.
The locked track drags along the ground, often
causing damage. With the new drive system, both
tracks continue to move during a turn, but one of
them moves faster than the other, reducing
potential damage to the soil.
WesternGeco takes other measures to mini-
mize environmental impact. For example, drip
pans or sorbent materials are placed beneath
stopped vehicles to avoid contaminating the snow
with drops or spills of hydrocarbon-base products.
These sorbent materials, together with other
waste, are then disposed of in an on-site
computer-controlled high-temperature incinera-
tor. Another example of attention to detail is the
use of wooden stakes instead of plastic and wire-
pin flags for indicating source and receiver points
in land seismic surveys. Wood, if inadvertently left
in the field, will biodegrade much more rapidly.
These measures and others significantly reduce
damage to the sensitive Arctic environment.
Exploration Challenges
Along with infrastructure and logistics chal-
lenges, the use of basic technologies in Arctic
exploration can be difficult. Results of land seis-
mic surveys everywhere are affected by surface
roughness and near-surface heterogeneity. In the
Arctic, these problems are exacerbated. Glacial
erosion and deposition lead to a complex geomor-
phology with moraines, lakes, ridges and rapid
lithological changes. Thaw areas may induce low-
velocity anomalies for body waves, whereas the
ice cover may generate flexural waves with large
amplitudes and very short wavelengths. In ground
with permafrost and seasonally frozen layers,
there are often abrupt transitions between the
frozen and melted zones.31 These transitions
usually result in large and rapid variations—both
vertical and lateral—of elastic properties, induc-
ing seismic arrival-time differences that require
corrections, called statics.32
An approach that uses instrumentation to
cope with coherent noise is point-receiver acqui-
sition, which WesternGeco introduced in 2002
with the Q-Land single-sensor land seismic sys-
tem.33 The new-generation UniQ integrated point-
receiver land seismic system, launched in 2008,
was designed to work in complex-geology and
high-noise environments. The UniQ seismic sys-
tem is compliant with environmental regulations
in the Arctic and other sensitive locations.

> A rubber-tracked vibrator. Wide tracks deployed with rubber treads

produce less pressure on vulnerable Arctic soil, causing less damage.

42 Oilfield Review
 WesternGeco performed a point-source, 0 50 100 km Contemporary permafrost
point-receiver test in the Russian Arctic to dem- 0 50 100 mi Sporadic Discontinuous Continuous
onstrate how the effects of near-surface complex- Lake
ities can be identified and removed.34 The test 100 Overburden Talik
area was located in a plain, at the border between 50
tundra and taiga. The area is dominated by 0 Oligocene deposits

Elevation, m
moraine features and abounds in rivers, creeks
and glacial lakes. Along with glacial geomorphol-
ogy features, the main geophysical factor in the
survey was temperature, which affected the state
and properties of the ground and surface water.
Elastic properties of water change drastically
upon freezing, and as a consequence the seismic
velocity of unconsolidated sediments may
increase from 1,500 m/s [5,000 ft/s] to almost
4,000 m/s [13,000 ft/s]. Therefore, the near-
surface properties may vary with the season
(right). A thick, permanently frozen layer in con-
tinuous permafrost areas is characterized by high
seismic velocity. However, in large lakes and riv-
ers, the deeper water, which is insulated by the
ice cover, may remain liquid throughout the year,
thus forming low-velocity anomalies. Seismic
wave propagation in discontinuous and sporadic
permafrost areas and in areas with a thick sea-
sonally frozen layer is additionally complicated
by transitions between frozen patches and
unfrozen zones.
The survey was located at the southern edge of
the permafrost area, and continuous permafrost
was not expected. However, relict permafrost was
likely. Relict permafrost can be extremely hetero-
geneous laterally, representing the present or
past surface drainage system. Imaging this inter-
face by dense sampling in the near offset yielded
a useful survey result: Relict permafrost can be a
–50
–100
Relict permafrost
–150
–200
–250 Eocene deposits
> A near-surface section of permafrost ground. Contemporary permafrost (blue) is called continuous if
it underlies more than 80% of the ground. Between 30% and 80%, it is considered discontinuous, and
with less than 30%, sporadic. Talik is a layer of year-round unfrozen ground in a permafrost area. In
continuous permafrost regions, taliks often form beneath lakes and rivers in which the deep water
does not freeze in winter, and so neither does the soil underneath. Relict permafrost (purple) is the
remains of a frozen layer formed when the surface temperature was lower than at present.
drilling hazard because it can seal underlying the permafrost with a velocity exceeding
natural gas accumulations. Also, relict permafrost 3,000 m/s [9,843 ft/s] at a depth of 100 m [328 ft].
has a strong impact on seismic data, inducing The refractions travel as Rayleigh waves in the
large long-wavelength traveltime distortion and solid ground and as flexural Lamb waves in the
often generating strong multiples. ice (below).
The test data were acquired as point-source, One of the biggest seismic data processing
point-receiver seismic data, which allowed the challenges in permafrost areas is long-wavelength
detection and delineation of the extreme lateral traveltime distortion in the shallow part of the sec-
variations in the properties of the seismic data. tion. A number of techniques are used to resolve
High-resolution refractions revealed the top of this effect, but many of them strongly depend on
Receivers Source

28. CBC News: “Fuel Truck Breaks Through Ice Road,” 0.0
(January 12, 2000), http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/ Refracted arrivals ave
ighw
ayle
2000/01/12/yk_truck.html (accessed December 7, 2010).
29. Read T, Thomas J, Meyer H, Wedge M and Wren M: R
0.2
“Environmental Management in the Arctic,” Oilfield
Review 5, no. 3 (October 1993): 14–22. Reflection
ve
wa

Gibson D and Rice S: “Promoting Environmental

Statics
mb

Responsibility in Seismic Operations,” Oilfield Review 15, 0.4

La
Time, s

no. 2 (Summer 2003): 10–21.

ral
xu

30. US Fish & Wildlife Service: “Seismic Trails,” http://arctic.

Fle

fws.gov/seismic.htm (accessed July 20, 2010).

0.6
31. Permafrost is defined as a soil layer that remains at or
below the freezing point of water of 0°C [32°F] for two or
more years.
32. For more on near-surface complexities and solutions 0.8
in land seismic techniques: Bagaini C, Bunting T,
El-Emam A, Laake A and Strobbia C: “Land Seismic
Techniques for High-Quality Data,” Oilfield Review 22,
no. 2 (Summer 2010): 28–39. 1.0
33. Ait-Messaoud M, Boulegroun M-Z, Gribi A, Kasmi R, > An example of lateral variations and mode conversion (bottom) at the junction
Touami M, Anderson B, Van Baaren P, El-Emam A, of a partially frozen lake (blue, top left) and a moraine with discontinuous
Rached G, Laake A, Pickering S, Moldoveanu N and
Özbek A: “New Dimensions in Land Seismic Technology,”
permafrost (purple, top right). Statics (inset, bottom) are induced by the
Oilfield Review 17, no. 3 (Autumn 2005): 42–53. transition between the frozen (ground) and melted (lake) zones in the presence
34. Strobbia C, Glushchenko A, Laake A, Vermeer PL, of a strong shallow reflector. Shots on the ground with frozen zones generate
Papworth S and Ji Y: “Arctic Near Surface Challenges: head waves (black arrows, top) refracted by a shallow horizon (green). In the
The Point Receiver Solution to Coherent Noise and shallow subsurface, surface waves propagate (red arrows), which are Rayleigh
Statics,” First Break 27, no. 2 (February 2009): 69–76. waves in the ground and pseudo-Lamb waves on the ice (white) of the lake.

Winter 2010/2011 43
 Cro
ssli
ne a
xis
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
Velocity
4.0
4.5
5.0
> The 3D seismic cube with the final velocity
model after several iterations of common image
point tomography. The shallow section exhibits a
low-velocity zone (red) in the central portion.
well data. One method that does not require well
data or assumptions about geology uses grid-based
tomography to build a depth-velocity model of the
shallow subsurface.35 This method was tested for
suitability for processing the data acquired in West
Siberia, Russia.
The permafrost-induced distortion was cor-
rected in two steps. First, geoscientists built a
high-resolution model of the shallow part of the
section that contains permafrost. Second, they
identified a shallow horizon below permafrost,
tied the final depth-velocity model to well data,
where available, and calculated replacement
statics using either a constant velocity or gradi-
ent velocity field above the chosen horizon. The
final high-resolution depth-velocity model for the
shallow part of the geologic section showed a very
good match to the well data (above left). This
velocity model can be used for full depth migra-
tion or can serve as a basis for long-wavelength
statics derivation. In the case from West Siberia,
images produced from a model that incorporated
the permafrost correction produced geologically
realistic horizons, while those derived from the
uncorrected model contained sag and bulge
artifacts (above right).
Because exploration activities in the Arctic
are characterized by high costs and short operat-
ing time windows, Schlumberger is focusing on
integrating techniques to prioritize exploration
targets. For example, PetroMod petroleum
system modeling software helps assess basin
potential by tracking hydrocarbon generation,
44
Without Permafrost Correction With Permafrost Correction
400 400
Seismic section Seismic section
0.5
Time, ms
Time, ms
1.0
1.5
Time, s
2.0
2,440 2,440
2.5
3.0
N
3,000 3,000
Crossline Crossline
Time slice Time slice
Inline
Inline
Seismic Seismic
section section
> Seismic sections (top) and corresponding time slices (bottom) with a statics error caused by
permafrost. Permafrost induces artifacts that cause the reflecting horizons in the uncorrected images
(top left) to look rather curved. After correction for permafrost (top right), these horizons appear flatter.
The time slices at 2,440 ms show bulges and sags before correction (bottom left) and gently dipping
layers after correction (bottom right). The yellow lines at 2,440 ms (top) indicate the projection of the
time slices on the seismic sections.
maturation and accumulation throughout geo- Sea—a region spanning vast underexplored ter-
logic history.36 The results are 3D geologic models ritories and areas containing significant known
that are fully scalable from regional to prospect reserves. The study area covered 275,000 km2
scale. Through such modeling, exploration risk [106,000 mi2] and included data from more than
assessments are improved in advance of field 400 wells.
operations, and time and effort can be concen- Simulation results showed that hydrocarbon
trated in the areas with greatest exploration charging occurs quickly—instantaneously on a
potential, while avoiding areas with lower geologic time scale. If traps are not formed before
chances of success. or as soon as hydrocarbons are ready to move,
Schlumberger and the USGS undertook a there is a high risk the fluids will not be trapped.
study combining basin and petroleum system Events charts for two different areas overlying
modeling (BPSM) on a regional scale with pros- the thermally mature Shublik source rock dem-
pect-scale modeling. This study was intended to onstrate how relative timing between trap
help geoscientists understand the petroleum sys- formation and source-rock maturation can
tems in Alaska’s North Slope and the Chukchi
Oilfield Review
impact risk (right). At Prudhoe Bay, trap forma- Prudhoe Bay
tion preceded generation, migration and accu- Time, millions of years ago Geologic time scale
mulation by several million years, resulting in 300 200 100 (some period names
major oil accumulations. On the other hand, the abbreviated)
Paleozoic Mesozoic Cenozoic
events chart at a well in the foothills of the M P Permian Tr Jurassic Cretaceous Pg Ng Petroleum system events
Alaskan Brooks Range indicates significant tim- Source rock
ing risks exist for stratigraphic traps, which Reservoir rock
formed at about the same time as generation and Seal rock
migration of fluids from the Shublik Formation.
Overburden rock
In addition, risk is high for the structural traps
Stratigraphic/structural Trap formation
because they can be filled only by remigration of
Geologic element Generation, migration, accumulation
petroleum from older stratigraphic traps or by
Process Favorable timing Preservation
hydrocarbon displaced from other areas.
Stratigraphic Structural Critical moment

Drilling in the Arctic

Drilling in Arctic areas is complicated both
Brooks Range Foothills
onshore and offshore. In both environments,
Time, millions of years ago Geologic time scale
the main subsurface challenge is permafrost,
300 200 100 (some period names
which may be a drilling hazard because accumu- abbreviated)
Paleozoic Mesozoic Cenozoic
lations of natural gas hydrates can exist within
M P Permian Tr Jurassic Cretaceous Pg Ng Petroleum system events
and beneath it.37 A dangerous gas kick may
occur when a gas hydrate–bearing layer is Source rock

penetrated or if free gas is trapped below the Reservoir rock

gas-hydrate zone.38
Most drilling problems encountered in gas
hydrate–bearing strata are attributed to gas-
hydrate dissociation, which can produce more
than 160 volumes of free gas for every volume of
gas hydrate affected. Typically, this can occur if
drilling operations or warm drilling mud alters
the temperature or pressure regime of the gas
hydrates within the formation sediments or
within drill cuttings. In situations where the tem-
perature equilibrium of the gas hydrates has
been disrupted, conventional well control meth-
ods, such as weighting up the drilling mud, may
have little effect because the gas is being pro-
duced as a result of thermal, not pressure, dis-
equilibrium. In a worst-case scenario, gas-hydrate
dissociation may be so vigorous that the drilling
mud is displaced, thus reducing the hydrostatic
head and creating the potential for an influx of
free gas. Drilling problems in the Mackenzie
Delta and northern Alaska have been attributed
in part to this phenomenon.39
35. Zarkhidze A, Yanchak D, Grechishnikova T and May R:
“Correcting Long-Wavelength Traveltime Distortion in
the Presence of Inhomogeneous Permafrost Using
Grid-Based Tomography,” paper H010, presented at the
68th European Association of Geoscientists and
Engineers Conference and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria,
June 12–15, 2006.
36. Al-Hajeri MM, Al Saeed M, Derks J, Fuchs T, Hantschel T,
Kauerauf A, Neumaier M, Schenk O, Swientek O,
Tessen N, Welte D, Wygrala B, Kornpihl D and Peters K:
“Basin and Petroleum System Modeling,” Oilfield
Review 21, no. 2 (Summer 2009): 14–29.
Seal rock
Overburden rock
Stratigraphic Structural Trap formation
Generation, migration, accumulation
Unfavorable timing Preservation
Critical moment
> Events charts for two northern Alaska areas. The event chronology for Prudhoe Bay (top) indicates
favorable timing for accumulation of hydrocarbons generated from the Shublik source rock. Timing is
favorable if trap formation precedes the critical moment (black), a time when more than 50% of
hydrocarbon generation, migration and accumulation has occurred. By the time hydrocarbons were
migrating in the mid-Cretaceous, many traps had formed and were available to capture fluids. To the
south, in the foothills of the Brooks Range (bottom), events were not as favorably timed. However, while
traps may have formed too late to contain oil and gas generated in the Cretaceous, they might have
formed in time to hold remigrating fluids, or those displaced from other areas (hatched red).
Because of the potential drilling hazard that hydrate stability conditions. Therefore, the typi-
gas hydrates present, industry practice in most cal strategy employed when problems are
regions typically has been to drill through gas encountered is to slow the rate of penetration and
hydrate–bearing strata as rapidly as possible in circulate the gas-hydrate cuttings out of the hole.
order to stabilize the interval and install surface More recently, chemical agents have been added
casing. However, in Arctic wells, chilled drilling to the drilling mud to stabilize the gas hydrates
muds have worked effectively to maintain gas- both in the formation and in the drill cuttings.40
37. Natural gas hydrates are ice-like substances that form 39. Energy, Mines and Resources Canada: “Report of
when water and natural gas combine at high pressures Investigation of Events Culminating in a Blowout of Gas
and low temperatures. at Gulf et al Immiugak N-05,” Ottawa, Ontario, Canada:
For more on natural gas hydrates: Birchwood R, Dai J, Energy, Mines and Resources Canada, 1989.
Shelander D, Boswell R, Collett T, Cook A, Dallimore S, Schofield TR, Judzis A and Yousif M: “Stabilization of
Fujii K, Imasato Y, Fukuhara M, Kusaka K, Murray D and In-Situ Hydrates Enhances Drilling Performance and Rig
Saeki T: “Developments in Gas Hydrates,” Oilfield Safety,” paper SPE 38568, presented at the SPE Annual
Review 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 18–33. Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio,
38. Yakushev VS and Collett TS: “Gas Hydrates in Arctic Texas, USA, October 5–8, 1997.
Regions: Risk to Drilling and Production,” in Proceedings 40. Ohara T, Dallimore SR and Fercho E: “JAPEX/JNOC/GSC
of the Second International Offshore and Polar MALLIK 2L-38 Gas Hydrate Research Well, Mackenzie
Engineering Conference, vol. 1. Golden, Colorado, USA: Delta, N.W.T.: Overview of Field Operations,” paper
International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers SPE 59795, presented at the SPE/CERI Gas Technology
(June 1992): 669–673. Symposium, Calgary, April 3–5, 2000.

Winter 2010/2011 45

> An artificial island for offshore production. This caisson retained island (CRI) is located in the
Beaufort Sea. (Photograph copyright of ExxonMobil.)
Drilling operations in Arctic conditions can
be improved by using casing while drilling
(CWD). This technique employs well casing as a
drillstring: The casing is equipped with a drill bit
at the bottom, rotated until the target depth is
reached and then cemented.41 In this manner,
CWD allows the operator to drill and set casing
through problematic zones in one operation
with relatively low flow rates to avoid hole
enlargement. The lower flow rates also enable
use of smaller, lighter rig equipment, reducing
the minimum ice thickness required during rig
moves, thereby lengthening the winter-season
operating period.42
Offshore operations in the Arctic encounter
the same subsurface difficulties as those onshore,
but have more-severe surface challenges. The
open-water season is very short, and the condi-
tions are harsh. Strong currents, fierce storms,
multiyear ice, intense floating ice motion and, in
some areas, icebergs all combine to increase the
danger associated with drilling in open water.43 To
withstand such challenges, offshore drilling and
production facilities—vessels, platforms and
submerged structures—must be particularly
rugged. In shallow waters, artificial islands,
typically made from gravel or ice, are the most
technically and economically efficient solution.
Gravel islands are constructed by dredging
and filling with gravel during the summer. In
Arctic areas, it is possible to truck the gravel over
46
the ice to the site in the winter and dump the
gravel through a hole excavated in the ice sheet.
Ice islands lack the stability of gravel islands.
The former are relatively thin and tolerate only
low-weight loads; therefore, they need to be pro-
tected against the lateral movement of the
surrounding ice.
Along with artificial islands built from various
materials, different caissons, or retaining struc-
tures, are used as drilling facilities. For example,
in its Arctic activities, ExxonMobil uses gravel
islands, ice islands, caisson retained islands
(CRIs), concrete island drilling systems (CIDS),
Molikpaq and single steel drilling caisson (SSDC)
systems (above).44 The CRI structure requires
less gravel than a traditional gravel island and is
less expensive and faster to install. A CIDS is a
reusable gravity-based structure developed to
further reduce construction costs. The heavily
instrumented Molikpaq drilling and oil produc-
tion platform is a steel caisson filled with
granular material.45 An SSDC employs an ice-
strengthened, converted supertanker that rests
on a mobile steel platform, allowing for year-
round drilling.
The deeper the water, the larger the earth-
work required for building artificial islands and
the more costly and more difficult they are to
build. An alternative in such cases is extended-
reach drilling. The two methods can be efficiently
combined. A recent example is the BP Liberty
Project, which is estimated to cost more than
US$ 1 billion and will tap into a new 100 million-
bbl [16 million-m3] reservoir.46
The Liberty field is located in 20 ft [6 m] of
water inside the Beaufort Sea barrier islands off-
shore Alaska. The project will take advantage of
existing infrastructure in the BP-operated
Endicott oil field, which has been producing
since 1987. BP plans to reach the Liberty oil res-
ervoir, about 6 mi [10 km] east of Endicott, using
state-of-the-art, extended-reach wells. The wells
will be drilled from the Endicott satellite drilling
island, which will be expanded for these drilling
operations (next page). Producing the oil through
these long-reach wells will eliminate the need for
a new drilling island and subsea oil pipeline. It is
expected that the Liberty field will yield about
40,000 bbl [6,360 m3] of oil per day.
Preparing Arctic Wells
Well cementing in Arctic environments is partic-
ularly challenging. Cement setting is usually
accompanied by heat release in hydration reac-
tions of cement components. This property of
exothermicity, which may be ignored in many
other areas, becomes significant in Arctic envi-
ronments because the heat release causes per-
mafrost to thaw. The formation, previously firm
and strong, becomes unconsolidated and unsta-
ble as liquid water forms around the borehole. If
the permafrost contains gas hydrates, they can
decompose to release methane in dangerous
quantities. These multiphase conditions around
the wellbore threaten its integrity. Because per-
mafrost thickness varies from less than 1 m [3 ft]
to more than 1,500 m [5,000 ft], extremely long
portions of the wellbore may be damaged if
cemented improperly.47
Schlumberger developed a solution to this
problem—ARCTICSET cements, designed spe-
cifically for low-temperature applications across
permafrost zones. The compositions of these
cements are selected so that the heat of hydra-
tion is low and the heat release in cement setting
is minimal. ARCTICSET cements do not freeze,
but set and develop adequate strength in wells
having temperatures as low as –9°C [16°F]. The
cements have low free-water separation, low
permeability, excellent durability to temperature
cycling and controllable pumping times and gel
strength properties. An antifreeze is used to
ensure that the mix water does not freeze before
the cement hydrates. ARCTICSET formulations
are available for a variety of conditions, including
wellbores that require low-density cements and
cements with lost circulation materials.
Oilfield Review
 Satellite drilling island

> BP Endicott offshore field (top). The main production island in the foreground is connected to the
satellite drilling island and to shore by a gravel causeway, along which an oil pipeline to shore is also
laid. The satellite drilling island will be expanded for the Liberty field development. A close-up of
reinforcement structures of such islands can be seen at Northstar Island, a BP offshore oil field
(bottom). (Photographs courtesy of BP.)

Harsh, cold climates also pose difficulties for
well stimulation operations. Hydraulic fracturing
and matrix acidizing share common logistics and
environmental safety challenges, but have their
own specific difficulties related to handling
and storage of supplies, especially chemicals.
Hydraulic fracturing is a complex oilfield service:
It requires equipment to transport and store
water and chemicals, prepare fracturing fluid,
blend the fluid with proppant, pump the fluid
down the well and monitor the treatment. To
operate efficiently in these conditions,
Schlumberger engineers designed a fracturing
fleet for operations in West Siberia, including
Arctic areas.48
41. Some CWD techniques employ a system for retrieving
the bottomhole assembly before pumping cement; other
systems require the bit to be cemented in place and this
option can be further modified by using a drillable bit
that can be removed by milling. For more on CWD:
Fontenot KR, Lesso B, Strickler RD and Warren TM:
“Using Casing to Drill Directional Wells,” Oilfield
Review 17, no. 2 (Summer 2005): 44–61.
42. Vrielink H, Bradford JS, Basarab L and Ubaru CC:
“Successful Application of Casing-While-Drilling
Technology in a Canadian Arctic Permafrost
Application,” paper IADC/SPE 111806, presented at the
IADC/SPE Drilling Conference, Orlando, Florida, USA,
March 4–6, 2008.
43. Multiyear ice has survived at least one melt season, may
be much thicker than first-year ice and typically
continues to grow over time.
44. ExxonMobil: “Arctic Leadership,” (May 2008), http://
www.exxonmobil.com/corporate/files/news_pub_poc_
arctic.pdf (accessed October 12, 2010).
45. The Molikpaq is an ice-resistant structure originally built
to explore for oil in the Canadian Beaufort Sea. It is
currently installed in the Astokh area of the Piltun-
Astokhskoye field offshore Sakhalin Island, Russia, as
part of the Sakhalin II Project. Offshore-technology.com:
“Sakhalin II, Sea of Okhotsk, Russia,” http://www.
offshore-technology.com/projects/sakhalin/ (accessed
December 22, 2010).
46. BP: “Reaching Out to Liberty,” http://www.bp.com/
liveassets/bp_internet/us/bp_us_english/STAGING/
local_assets/downloads/l/final_liberty70808.pdf
(accessed October 13, 2010).
47. International Permafrost Association: “What Is
Permafrost?” http://ipa.arcticportal.org/index.php/
what-is-permafrost.html (accessed August 5, 2010).
48. Ayala S, Barber T, Dessinges MN, Frey M, Horkowitz J,
Leugemors E, Pessin J-L, Way CS, Badry R, El Kholy I,
Galt A, Hjelleset M, Sock D and Yamilov RR: “Improving
Oilfield Service Efficiency,” Oilfield Review 18, no. 3
(Autumn 2006): 69–79.

Winter 2010/2011 47
 Hydration tank reduction.49 Using less polymer is beneficial
because less filtercake is deposited on the frac-
ture face, and the proppant pack contains
less polymer residue after fluid cleanup.
Schlumberger has developed a simplified and
robust fluid that is compatible with Siberian
fluid-preparation logistics and climate—the
YF100RGD crosslinked, water-base fracturing
fluid. In this fluid’s name, RGD is an acronym for
“reduced guar, delayed,” meaning that less guar
is required to attain a given fluid viscosity, and
that crosslinking is delayed to reduce friction
pressure during fluid placement.
The linear gel produced in the GelSTREAK
vehicle is fed to a winterized PodSTREAK stimu-
8 × 6 centrifugal pump lation blending, monitoring and control unit. This
unit allows continuous mixing of all chemicals
required for the fracturing treatment, and an
operator in its cabin controls the operation.
Systems have also been designed for matrix
Polymer-storage bin Hydration tank
acidizing in a Russian Arctic oil field.50 Field
operator Total determined that a well was under-
performing in its Kharyaga field in the Timan-
Pechora region of Russia 60 km [37 mi] north of
the Arctic Circle. The field produces principally
from a Devonian-age carbonate reservoir. The
productivity index of the subject well dropped to
2.5 m3/(kPa·s) [1.1 bbl/d/psi] from the previous
6.5 m3/(kPa·s) [2.8 bbl/d/psi]. In this well, devi-
ated by 40° at the pay zone, the total length of the
perforated interval was 40 m [131 ft], and the
bottomhole static temperature was 42°C [107°F].
The permeability of the formation ranged from
20 to 150 mD. The 40 degree API gravity oil had
high paraffin content (17% n-paraffins) and a
wax-appearance temperature of 29°C [84°F],
> GelSTREAK polymer hydration unit, fully winterized for the West Siberian climate. Unlike previous
which raised concerns about compatibility with
continuous-mix systems, the GelSTREAK unit uses dry polymer to produce linear gel at concentrations
up to 6 kg/m3 [2.1 lbm/bbl] and at output rates up to 6.4 m3/min [40 bbl/min]. The onboard storage bin treatment fluid as well as solidification. Exacer-
holds 1,810 kg [3,990 lbm] of dry polymer powder. Polymer hydration requires time and fluid shearing. bating conditions included low-temperature
Therefore, the onboard hydration tank has five agitation compartments, each 23.8 m3 [150 bbl] in surface environment, long perforated intervals,
volume, through which the fluid passes sequentially, providing first-in, first-out flow. Equipment flowback through an electric submersible pump
operation is automated and remotely controlled from the FracCAT computer-aided treatment carrier,
a part of the PodSTREAK unit. (ESP), and H2S presence in the oil. Planned
workover operations would not allow immediate
Built on a Russian six-wheel-drive truck chas- The unit uses the CleanGEL hydrocarbon-free flowback, and therefore the client selected a
sis and powered by a 400-horsepower engine, polymer-base fracturing fluids—refined, fast- polymer-free solution to avoid formation damage.
the GelSTREAK gel continuous mixing and hydra- hydrating, dry guars that have higher molecular Total chose VDA viscoelastic diverting acid
tion vehicle, which is easy to transport, is a com- weights than conventional products and there- for even distribution and the DAD dynamic acid
pact version of the PCM precision continuous fore impart higher linear and crosslinked gel vis- dispersion system for acid stimulation. VDA fluid
mixer (above). cosities, allowing a 20% polymer-concentration can be used in a wide temperature range, main-
taining an ideal thin consistency while being
49. Guar gum is a hydrophilic polymer extracted from the Kharyaga Field,” paper SPE 102475, presented at the
seed of the guar plant. It is readily dispersible in water SPE Russian Oil and Gas Technical Conference and pumped into the well. Upon acid spending, the
and brines of various types and salinity. Its water Exhibition, Moscow, October 3–6, 2006.
dispersions can be crosslinked by borax to yield a gel, 51. McIntosh SA, Noble PG, Rockwell J and Ramlakhan CD:
called linear gel. “Moving Natural Gas Across Oceans,” Oilfield Review 20,
50. Poitrenaud H, Ferrand P, Pouget P and Manière J: no. 2 (Summer 2008): 50–63.
“Successful Acid-Fracturing in Adverse Conditions:
Lessons Learnt and Integrated Evaluation in the

48 Oilfield Review
 A mutual solvent was pumped as a preflush
ahead of the acid treatment. Then, VDA fluid was
bullheaded alternately with DAD fluid. The DAD
acid-external phase emulsion includes a dispers-
ing and stabilizing agent often used as a preflush
ahead of matrix acidizing treatments. It was used
to remove oily paraffinic deposits and to simulta-
neously dissolve acid-soluble minerals (below
left). The well was flowed back 14 days later with-
out incident, and the restored productivity index
was measured at 4.6 m3/(kPa·s) [2.0 bbl/d/psi],
which represented an 84% improvement.

Arctic Petroleum and Economic Challenges

Although aspects of technology, climate and envi-
> Changing rheology of VDA viscoelastic diverting acid. The VDA fluid in 20% hydrochloric acid has a ronment affect Arctic hydrocarbon production,
viscosity of less than 3 mPa·s (left). Upon reaction of hydrochloric acid with formation carbonate rocks, its potential is ultimately determined by a cumu-
VDA fluid develops viscosity rapidly, and after completion of the reaction, it converts to a gel (right). lative factor—profitability. The Arctic holds a
disproportionate amount of the world's undiscov-
ered gas and oil. Although these reserves occur in
a favorable concentration, they are mostly
fluid rapidly develops viscosity in situ and perforation holes was too large (more than 600) stranded; the situation is even more difficult for
becomes self-diverting (above). The viscosity to ensure efficiency of this type of diversion. In gas because it is more problematic to transport
buildup serves as a barrier to reduce the devel- addition, the flowback through the ESP would than oil.
opment of dominating wormholes and allows call for soluble ball sealers, which were consid- The development of liquefied natural gas
movement of the fluids to stimulate other ered less dependable than insoluble ones. (LNG) technologies has made natural gas increas-
untreated zones. VDA fluid is polymer free and Polymer-base in situ crosslinking acid systems ingly available for remote consumers, but the
nondamaging, and therefore well cleanup is eas- were undesirable because they were known to advantage of this technology has so far mainly
ier than in conventionally stimulated wells. cause residual formation damage. Moreover, such been realized by LNG plants built in low and mid-
Total selected the VDA system because an systems are iron-crosslinked, and the iron-com- dle latitudes. Of the 21 operating LNG plants, only
extended shutdown was expected after the treat- pound precipitation is difficult to control, partic- one, on the island of Melkøya, Hammerfest,
ment, prohibiting the use of any system that con- ularly in the presence of H2S, which is contained Norway, is in the Arctic; others at Kenai, Alaska,
tains either solids or polymer. Ball-sealer in the oil in this field. and Sakhalin Island, Russia, are located in simi-
diversion was excluded because the number of larly harsh climates.51
Nonetheless, the determining factor for the
future of Arctic oil and gas development seems
to be the world’s growing demand for energy.
The satisfaction of that demand may require
marshalling all conceivable hydrocarbon
resources, wherever they are located. Continually
improved technologies may help bring the hydro-
carbons of the remote Arctic within reach of
consumers worldwide. –VG

> A sample of carbonate rock etched by DAD dynamic acid dispersion

treatment. The acid enhances permeability by creating large conduits that
facilitate the flow of oil.

Winter 2010/2011 49

Pierre Allix, who is Unconventional Resources
Program Manager for Total, is responsible for evaluat-
ing new technology applications for all types of uncon-
ventional resources worldwide. He is based at the Total
Scientific Research Center in Pau, France. Pierre
joined Elf Aquitaine (which later became Total) in
1981 after obtaining a PhD degree in geology from the
University of Aix-Marseille, France. He has led numer-
ous integrated exploration projects in Africa, Asia and
South America and, in 1990, worked as chief geologist
and deputy exploration manager for the Elf Aquitaine
subsidiary in Angola in the exploration of the deep off-
shore of the Lower Congo basin. Before taking his cur-
rent position, Pierre was in charge of new business for
North and South America.
Rifaat Al-Mjeni is a petrophysicist with Shell
Technology Oman in Muscat. He is currently involved
in building high-resolution static-sector simulation
models for understanding remaining oil saturations
and for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) screening pur-
poses. He also identifies surveillance technologies that
enable accurate assessment of EOR processes in pilot
tests. Before assuming his current post, he worked for
Petroleum Development Oman and Occidental
Mukhaizna, also in Oman. Rifaat received a BSc
degree in geophysics from the University of Leeds,
England, and an MSc degree in petroleum geosciences
and a PhD degree in petroleum engineering, both from
Imperial College, London.
Shyam Arora, based in Muscat, Oman, is the New Oil
Team Leader for the Fahud and Yibal clusters in the
North Oman Directorate for Petroleum Development
Oman (PDO). He began his career with Schlumberger
Brazil in 1985. He worked for Crocker Data Processing
and then the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation (CSIRO), both in Perth,
Western Australia, Australia. He was the senior petro-
physicist working on the Tunu Field for Total
Indonesie in Balikpapan. Before joining PDO as petro-
physics discipline head of the South Oman
Directorate, he was senior petrophysicist for Brunei
Shell Petroleum in Seria. Shyam has BS and MS
degrees in engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology, Mumbai.
Andrew Bishop is Business Development Manager for
WesternGeco GeoSolutions, and is based in Gatwick,
England. He has been responsible for identifying inte-
grated upstream oil and gas reservoir technology
opportunities and the marketing and sales of
WesternGeco services since 2000. From 1994 to 2000,
he worked for Western Geophysical as business man-
ager for the Europe, Africa and Middle East Reservoir
Services Group, which he had established, overseeing
the management of reservoir characterization and seis-
mic time-lapse (4D) projects. Before that, he worked
for Halliburton Geophysical Services in Canada, the US
and Norway. He also was business development man-
ager for the USSR/CIS, and one of the first representa-
tives of western oil service companies to visit and work
with the geological and geophysical exploration organi-
zations in Russia. Andrew is a member of the Energy
Institute (formerly the Institute of Petroleum) and the
SPE. He earned a BS degree in geology at Queen Mary
College and an MS degree in geophysics at Imperial
College, both at University of London in England. He
50
Contributors
also earned an MBA degree at The Open University,
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, and is a
qualified PRINCE2 Project Management Practitioner.
Chad Bremner is the Oilfield Services Marketing
Manager for the Schlumberger North Sea GeoMarket*
region, based in Stavanger, Norway. Prior to his cur-
rent position, he managed a six-month project to study
the opportunities and challenges that exist in the
Arctic and develop an Arctic strategy for
Schlumberger. The project covered all Schlumberger
product segments and involved several GeoMarket
regions, including Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway
and Russia. Chad joined Schlumberger in Canada in
2002. He has held various positions in the Artificial
Lift segment with a special focus on REDA Hotline*
high-temperature electric submersible pumps. Chad
has a BS degree in petroleum engineering from the
University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Alan Burnham is the Chief Technology Officer for
American Shale Oil Company LLC, in Rifle, Colorado,
USA, where he leads the company’s research and
development efforts. Previously, he worked for more
than 30 years at Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory (LLNL) in California, USA, in the areas of
oil shale processing, petroleum geochemistry, laser
fusion targets, large optics and energetic materials.
Alan holds three patents and has published approxi-
mately 250 journal articles, conference proceedings
and publicly available LLNL technical reports. He has
been active in numerous professional societies and
was the recipient of a Federal Laboratory Consortium
award for excellence in technology transfer in 1990.
He received a BS degree in chemistry from Iowa State
University, Ames, USA, and a PhD degree in physical
chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, USA.
Pradeep Cherukupalli works for Petroleum
Development Oman (PDO), in Muscat, as the surveil-
lance focal point for waterflood and polymer injection
projects of the PDO Marmul asset. He started his
career as a geophysicst with Oil and Natural Gas
Corporation (ONGC) in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.
During 21 years at ONGC, his assignments included
petrophysical laboratory studies, log analysis, data
management, software development and field develop-
ment studies. Before taking his current assignment, he
worked several years in the maturation team of the
exploration directorate of PDO. Pradeep holds a BSc
degree in physics and an MSc (Tech) degree in geo-
physics, both from Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam,
India, and an MTech degree in petroleum exploration
from the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Jharkhand.
John Edwards is Schlumberger Technical Manager in
Muscat, Oman. Since joining the company in 1978, he
has worked in various operational, engineering and
management positions with a focus on the acquisition
and processing of various measurements deployed on
wireline, drillpipe or permanent completions. John
earned a BE degree in civil engineering from The
University of Auckland in New Zealand.
Betty Jean Felber is an Independent Consultant in
Sand Springs, Oklahoma, USA, with expertise in evalu-
ation and implementation of improved oil recovery
projects. Her career in the E&P industry began in 1971
with Amoco Production Company at the Tulsa
Research Center. She was the senior reservoir engi-
neer in charge of the Improved Recovery Group for
MAPCO Oil and Gas Company, which was bought by
CNG Producing Company. Later, she worked on world-
wide projects as director of reservoir description and
exploitation for Core Laboratories in Dallas and
Houston. In 1994, Betty joined the US Department of
Energy in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. She then served as
senior scientist and project manager for modeling all
US land and offshore oil and gas reserves at the
National Energy Technology Laboratory in Tulsa. She
received a BS degree from Oklahoma Panhandle State
University in Goodwell, MS and PhD degrees from
Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, all in chem-
istry, and a diploma from the Senior Executive Fellows
Program at Harvard University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, USA.
Tom Fowler graduated from Michigan Technological
University, Houghton, USA, in 1981 with a BS degree in
mechanical engineering, and joined Shell later that
year. Since 1998, he has worked primarily on Shell’s
field testing of the emerging in situ conversion process
(ICP) for oil shale and the in situ upgrading process
(IUP) for heavy oil. He was involved in the recent
Colorado oil shale pilots and was project manager for
the large heavy-oil pilot in Peace River, Alberta,
Canada. Tom is currently the Commercial &
Integration Lead for Oil Shale in Shell’s Projects and
Technology group in Houston.
Omer Gurpinar, based in Denver, is Technical Director
of EOR for Schlumberger. He is responsible for develop-
ing technologies and services that increase oilfield
recovery factors. He has more than 35 years of industry
experience in various aspects of applied reservoir engi-
neering, with a focus on understanding the recovery
behavior of naturally fractured reservoirs, EOR and
compositional modeling. Omer started his professional
career in 1976 in Ankara, Turkey, with Türkiye
Petrolleri Anonim Ortakliği (TPAO), then moved to
Calgary where he became chief reservoir engineer for
Scientific Software-Intercomp Inc. and later vice presi-
dent of reservoir simulation with INTERA. Since joining
Schlumberger in 1998, he has been vice president and
technology director for the Schlumberger Integrated
Product Management and Data and Consulting
Services groups and contributed to building the E&P
consulting group. He earned a BSc (Hons) and an MSc
degree, both in petroleum engineering, from Middle
East Technical University in Ankara.
Michael Herron is a Scientific Advisor at
Schlumberger-Doll Research (SDR) in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and is an Adjunct Professor at Lamont-
Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, in New
York City. He works on the integration of geochemical
logging data into the mainstream of reservoir descrip-
tion and on applications of geochemical and statistical
methods for reservoir interpretation problems. He is
Coleader of the SDR Oil Shale research effort and has
recently begun work on gas shale interpretation
methodology. Prior to joining Schlumberger in 1982, he
studied the chemical stratigraphy of polar ice cores at
The State University of New York at Buffalo, USA, where
he received a PhD degree in geological sciences. Mike
also has a BA degree in chemistry from the University of
California, San Diego.
Oilfield Review
George J. Hirasaki is a Professor of Chemical
Engineering at Rice University in Houston. Since join-
ing the faculty in 1993, his research interests have
included nuclear magnetic resonance well logging,
reservoir wettability, surfactant enhanced oil recovery,
foam mobility control, gas hydrate recovery, asphaltene
deposition and emulsion separation. Prior to that, he
worked for 26 years for Shell, doing research in reser-
voir simulation, enhanced oil recovery and formation
evaluation. George received the SPE Lester C. Uren
Award and was named an Improved Oil Recovery
Pioneer at the 1998 SPE/DOE IOR Symposium. He also
received the Society of Core Analysts Technical
Achievement Award and is a member of the National
Academy of Engineers. He obtained degrees in chemi-
cal engineering: a BS degree from Lamar University,
Texas, USA, and PhD degree from Rice University.
Cuong Jackson is EOR Project Engineer in the
Schlumberger EOR Solutions Group. Based in
Houston, he manages EOR projects and an EOR labo-
ratory. Before joining Schlumberger in 2000, he was
a research and teaching assistant at Texas A&M
University, College Station. He conducted research on
live oil viscosity using a model based on the law of cor-
responding state. Cuong earned a BS degree in petro-
leum engineering from Texas A&M.
Robert Kleinberg is a Schlumberger Fellow at
Schlumberger-Doll Research in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. His area of interest is unconventional
fossil fuel resources—oil shale, gas shale, heavy oil,
gas hydrates and geothermal energy. His other projects
at Schlumberger have been in ultrasonics, electrical
resistivity, nuclear magnetic resonance and gravime-
try, and include several tool inventions. Bob received a
BS degree in chemistry at the University of California,
Berkeley, and a PhD degree in physics from the
University of California, San Diego. Before joining
Schlumberger, he spent two years at the Corporate
Strategic Research Laboratory of Exxon Research and
Engineering Company in Clinton, New Jersey, USA.
Morten R. Kristensen is a Modeling and Simulation
Engineer at the Schlumberger Abingdon Technology
Center, England, where he develops ECLIPSE* model-
ing software. He began working for Schlumberger in
2008, specializing in the development of new software
features for chemical EOR. In 2010, he worked in Abu
Dhabi on chemical and CO2 EOR projects. Morten has
MSc and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from
the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby, where
his work centered on thermal EOR processes.
Andreas Laake is the Geophysical Advisor at the
WesternGeco Research and Engineering Group in Cairo,
Egypt. He has 23 years of experience in seismic and
remote sensing with a focus on survey planning, data
acquisition and data integration. He worked in marine-
systems engineering on the design and manufacture of
streamers and airguns and later began the geophysical
design work for what is now Q-Land* technology.
Currently, he works on remote-sensing techniques and
their integration into the seismic and reservoir work-
flow. He developed an integrated workflow for the simu-
lation of near-surface effects on seismic data that allows
the prediction of noise features and the generation of
synthetic seismic data prior to seismic data acquisition.
Andreas obtained an MSc degree in physics and geology
and a PhD degree in physics and geosciences from the
University of Kiel, Germany.
Winter 2010/2011
Frank Lim is a Senior Reservoir Engineering Advisor
with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, The Woodlands,
Texas. Since 2007, he has led EOR efforts on the K2
Asset Area of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico operations. He
has more than 35 years of EOR experience, mostly
onshore in the US; his recent work is on the Patrick
Draw Monell and Salt Creek CO2 flood pilot and expan-
sion floods in Wyoming, USA. He worked for Texaco, Gulf
and Union Pacific Resources in research and engineer-
ing capacities prior to joining Anadarko in 2000. Frank
obtained a BS degree in chemical engineering from the
University of Houston.
Clarence A. Miller is Louis Calder Professor Emeritus
of Chemical Engineering and part-time Research
Professor at Rice University, Houston. He conducts
research on surfactant oil-recovery processes and
emulsions. Clarence began his career at the Division of
Naval Reactors of the US Atomic Energy Division in
Washington, DC. In 1969, he joined the Chemical
Engineering Department at Carnegie-Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He moved to
Rice in 1981, and served several years as the chair of
the Department of Chemical Engineering. Clarence is
an elected Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical
Engineers. He earned BA and BS degrees from Rice
and a PhD from the University of Minnesota in
Minneapolis-St. Paul, USA, all in chemical engineering.
Patrick Parno is the Alaska Marketing and Sales
Manager for Schlumberger Oilfield Services, in
Anchorage. After earning a BS degree in physics from
the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Patrick
joined Schlumberger in 1980 as junior field engineer
for the Reservoir Evaluation Wireline (REW) Product
Group in Edson, Alberta, Canada. He has held various
engineering and managerial positions for REW, includ-
ing running the largest land district in the US (at the
time) with openhole and cased hole operations. He
then worked for Schlumberger Information Solutions,
Data Consulting and Services and Oilfield Services in
the US, Vietnam, China, The Netherlands, Scotland
and Canada. In these countries, Patrick held various
roles including operations manager, marketing man-
ager and global account director.
Raghu Ramamoorthy, Schlumberger Petrophysics
Advisor at the Abu Dhabi Regional Technology Center,
oversees petrophysical formation evaluation issues
affecting carbonates and EOR. He joined
Schlumberger as a wireline field engineer in 1982,
working in Egypt and other countries in the Middle
East. He worked as a log analyst at the Field Log
Interpretation Center in Muscat, Oman. In 1994,
Raghu moved to Schlumberger-Doll Research in
Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA, as a research scientist.
Before taking his current post in 2004, he was princi-
pal petrophysicist for Australasia and East Asia and
later Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Author of many tech-
nical papers and patents, he earned a BS degree in
mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology in Madras, Tamil Nadu, and an MS degree
in petroleum engineering from The University of Texas
at Austin. Raghu received the SPE Middle East, North
Africa, India Regional Award in 2010 for contributions
to petroleum engineering in the area of formation
evaluation. He has served on the board of the SPWLA.
Jeroen Regtien leads the improved oil recovery/
enhanced oil recovery, smart field, CO2 storage and rock
and fluid science research and development activities in
the Shell Projects and Technology Group. His extensive
career in the upstream oil and gas industry has included
roles as technical manager, chief petroleum engineer,
manager of strategy and planning, head of geothermal
energy, asset manager and development manager during
assignments in Brunei, Australia, Oman, the USA and
The Netherlands. He is a member of the World Petroleum
Council and International Advisory Board of the Oman
Research Council. Jeroen is an experimental physicist
with an MSc degree from the University of Groningen,
The Netherlands.
Claudio Strobbia is a Research Geophysicist for the
WesternGeco Regional Technology Hub and
Development Center, Cairo. His main research activi-
ties are in data acquisition and processing techniques
for near-surface characterization and noise attenua-
tion. He joined Schlumberger in 2007 as a research
geophysicist in Gatwick, England, and with the Q*
Applications Research Group, Cairo. Before joining
Schlumberger, he was a research assistant at the
Polytechnic Institute of Turin and lecturer at the
University of Milan Bicocca, both in Italy. He also
worked as a researcher and member of the
Management Committee at the European Centre for
Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering
(EUCENTRE) and the Rose School, Pavia, Italy.
Claudio holds an MS degree in environmental engi-
neering and a PhD degree in geophysics, both from the
Polytechnic Institute of Turin.
Bill Symington joined Exxon Production Research in
1978 after receiving a bachelor’s degree from The
Cooper Union, New York City, and master’s and PhD
degrees from California Institute of Technology (Caltech),
Pasadena, all in mechanical engineering. During his
30-year career with Exxon, now ExxonMobil, he has had
a variety of assignments in engineering and geoscience
research and exploration. Since the mid-1990s, Bill’s
research focus has been on the generation of oil and gas
from source rocks, with an emphasis on oil shale. He is
the principal inventor of ExxonMobil’s Electrofrac†
process, and is currently Technical Team Lead for
ExxonMobil’s in situ oil shale research.
Geir Utskot, based in Calgary, has been the
Schlumberger Arctic Manager for Canada since 2006.
He is responsible for oilfield services for Schlumberger
in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. He
introduced Aboriginal Awareness training, created a
literacy program for aboriginal groups in the region
and established relationships with a number of local
aboriginal groups and government organizations. He
has worked for Schlumberger for 25 years. Geir began
in Canada in 2003, when he was the Well Completions
and Productivity (WCP) operations manager.
Previously, he worked as the WCP business develop-
ment manager for China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan,
based in Beijing. He has also worked in the Middle
East, Europe, North America and Africa. He earned a
degree in mechanical engineering at Agder University
College and a degree in petroleum technology at
Høgskolen i Stavanger, both in Norway.
John van Wunnik is the team leader of the EOR field
development study team for Petroleum Development
Oman (PDO) in Muscat. He started in the industry
with Shell in 1983, working on EOR research in
Rijswijk, The Netherlands. He later worked on Oman
waterflood developments, then served as special core
analysis laboratory team leader in Rijswijk. John also
worked on EOR projects in North Sea fields before
joining PDO in 2004. He has BSc, MSc and PhD
degrees in physics from the University of Amsterdam.
An asterisk (*) is used to denote a mark of Schlumberger.
†Mark of ExxonMobil.
51
Coming in Oilfield Review
Information from Formation Water.
Analysis of formation water is a critical
step in hydrocarbon exploration and
production. It helps assess potential
for corrosion and scaling, provides
input to petrophysical evaluation and
aids in the understanding of reservoir
connectivity. This article explains the
causes of variation in formation water
chemistry and describes methods for
collecting pure water samples and
evaluating them downhole and in
surface laboratories.
Offshore Pipelines. In response to
maturing production in established
onshore and shallow-water basins,
many E&P companies are extending
their quest for reserves toward deeper
offshore prospects. Pipeline compa-
nies, in turn, must keep pace with this
push into deeper environments. The
many pipeline design considerations
have a direct bearing on operation
and maintenance practices. This article
provides a broad overview of offshore
pipeline construction, operations and
monitoring activities.
Dielectric Logging. Dielectric
logging tools, introduced to the oil and
gas industry in the late 1970s, operate
at frequencies in the microwave range.
They provide supplemental information
for analyzing freshwater reservoirs and
identifying movable hydrocarbons, which
is helpful in characterizing heavy-oil
reservoirs. A new logging tool offers a
dielectric dispersion measurement that
petrophysicists can use to evaluate
rock texture in carbonates and shale
effects in siliciclastics. This article
describes dielectric measurements,
including dispersion, and their applica-
tions. Case studies from freshwater,
heavy-oil and carbonate reservoirs
are included.
Managed Pressure Drilling. As
the length of horizontal wells contin-
ues to increase, limits—once a
consequence of accepted safe drilling
practices—are being swept aside.
By lowering equivalent circulating
density, operators are able to cross
both virgin, pressured sands and
mature, depleted zones with the same
wellbore on their way to untapped
reserves. This article discusses the
relatively new automated managed
pressure drilling tool and its ability
to drill wells once deemed techno-
logically or economically impossible.
52
NEW BOOKS
The Grand Design
Stephen Hawking and Leonard
Mlodinow
Bantam Books, an imprint of
Random House Publishing, Inc.
1745 Broadway
New York, New York 10019 USA
2010. 198 pages. US$ 28.00
ISBN: 978-0-553-80537-6
Theoretical physicists Hawking and
Mlodinow discuss theories of quantum
mechanics and relativity and how they
shape our understanding of the origins
of our universe. They further propose
that the Milky Way is just one of billions
of galaxies, each with its own set of laws
of nature. This Multiverse or M-theory—
the theory of everything—they posit, is
the unified theory that Einstein pursued.
Contents:
• The Mystery of Being
• The Rule of Law
• What Is Reality?
• Alternative Histories
• The Theory of Everything
• Choosing Our Universe
• The Apparent Miracle
• The Grand Design
• Glossary, Index
The Grand Design . . . attempts to
outline . . . a complete scenario for
the nature of the universe and our
place in it. . . . Whether this ambitious
conception is actually correct remains
unclear. It’s not especially idiosyn-
cratic; many theorists hold similar
views of the multiverse and the
anthropic principle. The important
lesson of The Grand Design is not so
much the particular theory being
advocated but the sense that science
may be able to answer the deep
‘Why?’ questions that are part of
fundamental human curiosity.
Carroll S: “The ‘Why?’ Questions, Chapter and
Multiverse,” The Wall Street Journal (September 24,
2010), http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240
52748704358904575477583868227458.html
(accessed January 3, 2011).
The Planet in a Pebble: A
Journey into Earth’s Deep
History
Jan Zalasiewicz
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue
New York, New York 10016 USA
2010. 234 pages. US$ 27.95
ISBN: 978-0-19-956970-0
Starting with a slate pebble found on a
beach in Wales, the author engages the
reader in a discussion of the grandeur
of time, physics and stellar matter.
Through an exploration of the science
of paleogeology, Zalasiewicz offers the
reader an understanding of the origins
of the universe, creation of oil fields and
the nature of vanished oceans.
Contents:
• Stardust
• From the Depths of the Earth
• Distant Lands
• To the Rendezvous
• The Sea
• Ghosts Observed
• Ghosts in Absentia
• Where on Earth?
• Gold!
• The Oil Window
• Making Mountains
• Breaking the Surface
• Futures
• Further Reading, Bibliography, Index
. . . Common elements and atomic
rarities, microfossils and ticking
radio-isotopes all make an appear-
ance . . . [in The Planet in a Pebble].
It builds to a satisfying picture of how
our planet’s history is etched into
every fragment of the pebble.
Zalasiewicz has a clear style, with
some nice lyrical touches. His story is
a celebration of the astonishing ways
geologists have found of sampling
stone’s secrets. Geology has a gifted
new popular science writer.
Turney J: New Scientist 207, no. 2778
(September 18, 2010): 47.
Science at the Nanoscale:
An Introductory Textbook
Chin Wee Shong, Sow Chorng Haur and
Andrew T.S. Wee
Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd.
Penthouse Level, Suntec Tower 3
8 Temasek Boulevard
Singapore 038988
2010. 214 pages. US$ 88.00
ISBN: 978-981-4241-03-8
This textbook, targeted at the
undergraduate level, introduces the
principles of nanoscience—the under-
pinnings of nanotechnology. The book
examines atomic, molecular and
solid-state physics as well as chemistry
as they relate to and define nanotech-
nologies. A companion Web site pro-
vides solutions to chapter problems.
Contents:
• Introduction and Historical Perspective
• Classical Physics at the Nanoscale
• Brief Review of Quantum Mechanics
• From Atoms and Molecules to
Nanoscale Materials
• Surfaces at the Nanoscale
• Low-Dimensional Nanostructures
• Formation and Self-Assembly at the
Nanoscale
• Nanotools and Nanofabrication
• Future Trends
• Index
Science at the Nanoscale is a
valuable introductory course
resource. . . . In a certain way, the
book might be too introductory,
since . . . [the authors] . . . cover
many basic physical and chemical
principles in some detail, and not all
of this content specifically relates to
nanotechnology. However, the
authors’ approach will allow less
experienced readers to follow the
presented concepts.
Giesche H: Choice 48, no. 4 (December 2010): 705.
Oilfield Review

Massive: The Missing Particle
That Sparked the Greatest Hunt
in Science
Ian Sample
Basic Books, a member of
the Perseus Books Group
387 Park Avenue South
New York, New York 10016 USA
2010. 260 pages. US$ 25.95
ISBN: 978-0-465-01947-2
The author explores the search for the
fundamental particle called the Higgs
boson. The book describes the world
science climate in the decades leading
to 1964, when Peter Higgs developed
the theory, and ends with present-day
work at the world’s particle accelera-
tors, which have yet to isolate the
Higgs boson particle.
Contents:
• Long Road to Princeton
• Shadow of the Bomb
• Seventy-Nine Lines
• The Enchanted Prince
• An Earnest Revenge
• Reagan’s Renegade
• Massive Maggie
• The End Is Not Nigh
• The Gordian Knot
• Chasing the Wind
• Hidden World
• Notes, Bibliography, Index
Ian Sample . . . shows a keen eye
for the personal equation even while
narrating large swatches of physics
history. . . . Mr. Sample’s exciting,
easy-to-read narrative captures the
collaboration, and competition,
among the theorists who became
involved in the search [for the Higgs
particle] over the decades.
Pesic P: The Wall Street Journal (November 13,
2010), http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424
052748704141104575588230844156338.html
(accessed January 6, 2011).
Winter 2010/2011
The Great Ocean Conveyor:
Discovering the Trigger for
Abrupt Climate Change
Wally Broecker
Princeton University Press
41 William Street
Princeton, New Jersey 08540 USA
2010. 172 pages. US$ 27.95
ISBN: 978-0-691-14354-5
The author, a leading authority on
sudden global climate change, explores
how our planet’s climate can abruptly
change based on fluxes and shutdowns
of what he terms the ‘Great Ocean
Conveyor.’ Broecker traces the evolution
of the science, describing how research-
ers work to probe the Earth’s past and
how they combine their findings with
the newest technologies to try to
predict the future of climate change.
Contents:
• The Setting
• A Surprise
• The Villain
• Puzzles
• Hot Clues
• The Solution
• A Confirmation
• The Last Hurrah
• Holocene Wobbles
• The Anthropocene
• Glossary, Supplementary Readings,
Index
Wally Broecker is one of the great
pioneers of paleoclimatology, the
study of past climate changes in
Earth’s history. He introduced the
term global warming and, in the
1980s, proposed the global ocean-
circulating system, which he dubbed
the Great Ocean Conveyor. . . . In The
Great Ocean Conveyor, Broecker
offers a history of his thinking on the
topic. Relating his breakthroughs and
setbacks, he portrays science as a
‘continual struggle to understand
more fully and more accurately how
the world really works.’
Rahmstorf S: Nature 464, no. 7829
(April 1, 2010): 681.
In his latest book, . . . Broecker
investigates how the ocean’s vast
network of currents drives abrupt
climate change. The author explores
the science behind ocean current • We All Have Our Faults
models such as the Great Ocean • The Bad One
Conveyor Belt as a trigger to explain
the mystery of the Earth’s intermittent • Whither Earthquake Prediction?
pattern of global ice ages. . . . Anyone • Notes, Index, Index of Earthquakes
who has walked on a beach, thrown a by Year
snowball, or flown over the ocean will
be fascinated by this excellent book . . . a comprehensive, broadly
geared to undergraduate scientists accessible, and readable overview
and the general public. of the ups and (mostly) downs of
earthquake prediction over the past
Gordon ID: Choice 48, no. 1 (September 2010):
50 years. . . . Hough raises the thorny
124–125.
questions of what responsibilities
the seismologist has with respect to
conveying warnings and how civil
authorities should treat predictions. . . .
[T]he author steers a balanced, fair,
and measured course between opti-
mism and pessimism. Anyone who
wants to know why earthquakes
are still unpredictable will find the
answer here.
Musson R: Physics Today 63, no. 11
(November 2010): 46–47.
There is something for everyone
in Predicting the Unpredictable,
whether they are seismologists,
Predicting the Unpredictable: students or senators. Even the nut-
The Tumultuous Science of cases will benefit from Hough’s
Earthquake Prediction tactful discussions in this masterly
Susan Hough summary of why we cannot predict
Princeton University Press earthquakes.
41 William Street
Bilham R: Nature 463, no. 7282 (February 11,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540 USA
2010): 735.
2010. 272 pages. US$ 24.95
ISBN: 978-0-691-13816-9
Geophysicist Susan Hough explores the
vagaries of earthquake prediction
through the failures and apparent
successes of earlier predictions, and
describes why predicting the unpredict-
able is such a challenge. From the
laboratory to the field, Hough examines
the fact, fiction and pseudoscience of
earthquake prediction, including unusual
earthquake prediction theories and why
they have not held up, even when
occasionally accurate.
Contents:
• Ready to Rumble
• Ready to Explode
• Irregular Clocks
• The Hayward Fault
• Predicting the Unpredictable
• The Road to Haicheng
• Percolation
• The Heyday
• The Hangover
• Highly Charged Debates
• Reading the Tea Leaves
• Accelerating Moment Release
• On the Fringe
• Complicity
• Measles
53

ARTICLES
Big Things in Small Packages
Barron AR, Tour JM, Busnaina AA,
Jung YJ, Somu S, Kanj MY, Potter D,
Resasco D and Ullo J.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 38–49.
Brazil’s Presalt Play
Beasley CJ, Fiduk JC, Bize E, Boyd A,
Frydman M, Zerilli A, Dribus JR,
Moreira JLP and Pinto ACC.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 28–37.
Casabe: New Tricks
for an Old Field
Amaya M, Amaya R, Castaño H,
Lozano E, Rueda CF, Elphick J,
Gambaretto W, Márquez L,
Olarte Caro DP, Peralta-Vargas J
and Velásquez Marín AJ.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 4–17.
Coaxing Oil from Shale
Allix P, Burnham A, Fowler T,
Herron M, Kleinberg R and
Symington B.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011):
4–15.
Developments in Gas Hydrates
Birchwood R, Dai J, Shelander D,
Boswell R, Collett T, Cook A,
Dallimore S, Fujii K, Imasato Y,
Fukuhara M, Kusaka K, Murray D
and Saeki T.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 18–33.
Diagenesis and
Reservoir Quality
Ali SA, Clark WJ, Moore WR
and Dribus JR.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 14–27.
Extended-Reach Wells
Bennetzen B, Fuller J, Isevcan E,
Krepp T, Meehan R, Mohammed N,
Poupeau J-F and Sonowal K.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 4–15.
Has the Time Come for EOR?
Al-Mjeni R, Arora S, Cherukupalli P,
van Wunnik J, Edwards J, Felber BJ,
Gurpinar O, Hirasaki GJ, Miller CA,
Jackson C, Kristensen MR, Lim F
and Ramamoorthy R.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011):
16–35.
Integrating Exploration Tools
to Reduce Risk
Bender AA, Bryant I, Chhibber R,
Campbell T, Lovatini A, Mavridou E,
Palmowski DB, Schenk O, Myers K,
Saragoussi E and Xu P.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 4–13.
54
Oilfield Review Annual Index—Volume 22
Land Seismic Techniques
for High-Quality Data
Bagaini C, Bunting T, El-Emam MA,
Laake A and Strobbia C.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 28–39.
The Next-Generation
Separator: Changing the Rules
Sims P.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 50–54.
Permanent Monitoring:
Taking It to the Reservoir
Algeroy J, Lovell J, Tirado G,
Mayyappan R, Brown G, Greenaway R,
Carney M, Meyer JH, Davies JE
and Pinzon ID.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 34–41.
Petroleum Potential of
the Arctic: Challenges
and Solutions
Bishop A, Bremner C, Laake A,
Strobbia C, Parno P and Utskot G.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011):
36–49.
Resolving Carbonate
Complexity
Al-Marzouqi MI, Budebes S, Sultan E,
Bush I, Griffiths R, Gzara KBM,
Ramamoorthy R, Husser A, Jeha Z,
Roth J, Montaron B, Narhari SR,
Singh SK and Poirier-Coutansais X.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 40–55.
Robots to the Rescue
Downton G, Gomez S, Haci M,
Maidla E and Royce C.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 16–27.
Scanning for
Downhole Corrosion
Acuña IA, Monsegue A, Brill TM,
Graven H, Mulders F, Le Calvez J-L,
Nichols EA, Zapata Bermudez F,
Notaoadinegoro DM and Sofronov I.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 42–50.
NEW BOOKS
Earthquake and
Volcano Deformation
Segall P.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 59.
Engineering Geology:
Principles and Practice
Price DG; de Freitas MH (ed).
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 55.
The Essential Engineer:
Why Science Alone Will Not
Solve Our Global Problems
Petroski H.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 56.
Essentials of Paleomagnetism
Tauxe L, with contributions from
Butler RF, Van der Voo R and
Banerjee SK.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 60.
Exploration Geophysics:
An Introduction
Gadallah MR and Fisher R.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 55.
Geomorphology and Global
Environmental Change
Slaymaker O, Spencer T and
Embleton-Hamann C (eds).
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 59.
The Grand Design
Hawking S and Mlodinow L.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011): 52.
The Great Ocean Conveyor:
Discovering the Trigger for
Abrupt Climate Change
Broecker W.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011): 53.
Hydrogen Fuel: Production,
Transport, and Storage
Gupta RB (ed).
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 56.
In Praise of Science: Curiosity,
Understanding and Progress
Bais S.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 60.
Introductory Mathematics
for Earth Scientists
Yang X-S.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 60.
Massive: The Missing Particle
That Sparked the Greatest
Hunt in Science
Sample I.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011): 53.
Nanomaterials: Mechanics
and Mechanisms
Ramesh KT.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 58.
Nanoscale: Visualizing
an Invisible World
Deffeyes KS and Deffeyes SE.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 59.
The Nature of Technology:
What It Is and How It Evolves
Arthur WB.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 58.
No Small Matter: Science
on the Nanoscale
Whitesides G and Frankel F.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 56.
Our Threatened Oceans
Rahmstorf S and Richardson K.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 59.
Over the Coasts: An Aerial
View of Geology
Collier M.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 59.
The Planet in a Pebble:
A Journey into Earth’s
Deep History
Zalasiewicz J.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011): 52.
Predicting the Unpredictable:
The Tumultuous Science of
Earthquake Prediction
Hough S.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011): 53.
Principles of Igneous and
Metamorphic Petrology,
2nd edition
Philpotts AR and Ague JJ.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 60.
Sandstone Landforms
Young RW, Wray RAL, Young ARM.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 55.
Science and Decisions:
Advancing Risk Assessment
National Research Council.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 58.
Science at the Nanoscale:
An Introductory Textbook
Chin WS, Sow CH and Wee ATS.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011): 52.
The Sea: Tsunamis
Bernard EN and Robinson AR (eds).
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 55.
Vanished Ocean: How
Tethys Reshaped the World
Stow D.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 59.
Vesuvius: A Biography
Scarth A.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 60.
The Wave: In Pursuit of
the Rogues, Freaks and
Giants of the Ocean
Casey S.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 60.
Oilfield Review
SCHLUMBERGER OILFIELD REVIEW WINTER 2010/2011 VOLUME 22 NUMBER 4