With typical oil recovery rates of around 35 percent from underground oil reservoirs, better methods for characterizing oil fields are needed to improve the long-term supply of domestic oil. In current reservoir characterization practice, various pieces of seismic and small scale sampling data is collected and integrated into geologic and reservoir models. These data are used to constrain the reservoir model during its production, the results of which become the de facto reservoir characterization for future forecasting. This project will develop software for correlating data derived from seismic techniques with data from oil well data logs in order to generate high-resolution rock and fluid property distributions in three-dimensional (3-D) space and time. In Phase I, virtual intelligence techniques will be employed to establish the needed correlations, utilizing both advanced magnetic resonance imaging logs and crosswell seismic data.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The technology should be used by oil producing companies to increase oil production and recovery rates from new and existing oil fields, and by regulatory agencies to establish field rules. Increased oil recovery and lowered development costs are estimated to be valued in the billions of dollars.
