Fractured Reservoir Discrete Feature Network Technologies

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Often less than half of the oil in place in reservoirs is recovered. In reservoirs where fractures play a significant role in reservoir permeability, the ultimate recovery can be less than 10% of the estimated oil in place. The remaining oil is either technically or economically unrecoverable. This unrecovered oil represents a significant potential resource for the mature petroleum industry in the United States, in which the potential for new, large discoveries of oil is small.

The research program described in this web presentation outlines a method for improving the ultimate recovery from fractured oil reservoirs. The approach focuses upon developing a suite of tools to better understand and design secondary recovery processes specifically tailored to fractured oil reservoirs.

The research is designed to exploit data and collect additional information gathered during a field trial of Thermally Assisted Gravity Segregation (TAGS) at the Yates Field in Texas, but is also applicable to other types of enhanced oil recovery processes in fractured reservoirs. The TAGS process as well should be applicable to many other fractured oil reservoirs in the United States.

Click here for more information on the Yates field and it's production history.