The overall goal of this project is to improve recovery of Alaskan North Slope (ANS) heavy oil resources in the Ugnu formation by improving our understanding of the formation’s vertical and lateral heterogeneities via core evaluation, evaluating possible recovery processes, and employing geophysical monitoring to assess production and modify production operations.
Although the reserves of heavy oil on the North Slope of Alaska are enormous (estimates are up to 10 billion barrels in place), difficult technical and economic hurdles must be overcome to produce these oils. The Ugnu formation contains the most viscous, biodegraded oils and standard production methods are ineffective. Numerous alternative techniques for heavy oil production have been proposed (e.g., steam injection). However, the overall effectiveness of these methods is much lower than either modeling or laboratory tests suggest. A prime factor limiting the efficiency of heavy oil recovery is the heterogeneity of the system. Heavy oils are viscoelastic materials with varying resin and asphaltene contents. The rocks containing the fluids have porosities, permeabilities, connectivities, and mineral contents that vary over short distances.
This project will characterize the fluids and rocks on a fine scale to ascertain the range and distribution of physical properties and evaluate the various proposed recovery processes in light of these distributions, design a geophysical monitoring program to continually assess the progress and effectiveness of production, and develop feedback procedures using monitoring results to update and modify the production procedures.
