Significant amounts of hydrocarbon are available in oil sands and oil shale within the United States; however, its recovery has been hampered by the difficulty in accurately imaging the rock formations and fluid flow. Although formation testers are now being used to sense the fine details associated with multiphase fluid distributions in thinly-bedded sandstone-shale sequences, software models are not yet available to interpret the data. This project will develop a computational model that can address the complicated physical problem in which azimuthal symmetries are generally absent. Phase I will formulate and numerically solve a general three-dimensional immiscible flow model for horizontally layered formations penetrated by horizontal wells. The model will be designed with special boundary conditions characteristic of formation-tester operation, and it will be integrated with a computationally fast and stable algorithm that allows for convenient field use.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: The model should permit more accurate identification of hydrocarbon and water saturations in thinly-bedded sandstone-shale media. It should allow petroleum engineers to test numerous "what if" scenarios quickly and rule out situations that are not consistent with formation tester (and other logging) measurements
