New method for monitoring steam injection for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and for finding sources of geothermal heat

Abstract

A database of over 10,000 wells with open hole logs, of which over 600 wells are dedicated surveillance wells with whole core, time lapse Carbon/Oxygen, Neutron, and Temperature data being used for evaluating Adrok’s deep penetrating radar system. Kern River (California) is on its way to recovering 90% of its OOIP and surveillance is playing a significant role in achieving such a world class milestone. Future growth for development of the field and surveillance technologies still exist as well. To that end, we are looking at the possibly of surface only acquisition for Chevron’s surveillance needs. Significant time and effort was spent on dielectric logging in the 1970’s – 80’s by operators and service companies. Adrok’s Atomic Dielectric Resonance (ADR) scanning technology claims to interact with the subsurface in the same region of the electro-magnetic spectrum as di-electric logging, but from surface measurement. First Principles predicts a rise in dielectric constant as temperature rises. Fieldwork was conducted during 2014 to 2016. The surveys were divided up into two groups, one for training (full access to database) and one for blind testing (no access to database). Surprisingly, the blind tests could detect the presence or absence of a single zone steam chest by a rise in dielectric constant at the correct space-time. Atomic Dielectric Resonance (ADR) is a patented investigative technique (Stove, 2005) which involves the measurement and interpretation of resonant energy responses of natural or synthetic materials to the interaction of pulsed electromagnetic radio-waves from materials which permit the applied energy to pass through the material. Radiowaves (typically in the frequency range of 1MHz to 100MHz) are continuously pulsed into the ground from an ADR transmitter antenna and the responses from the ground are gathered at the ground surface by an ADR receiver antenna. The resonant energy response can be measured in terms of energy, frequency and phase relationships. The precision with which the process can be measured helps define the unique interactive atomic or molecular response behaviour of any specific material, according to the energy bandwidth used. ADR is measurable on a very wide range of hierarchical scales both in time and space. Time scales may range from seconds to femtoseconds, and spatial scales from metres to nanometres. The technology has been applied to help mining and petroleum companies in their search for subsurface natural resources, some of which are described in this contribution. The body of the oral presentation describes in greater detail the technology, field experiments and results to date for Chevron. Results from onshore geothermal heat exploration at a number of sites in New Zealand are also presented.