Gas injection with radioactive tracer to determine reservoir continuity, East Coalinga field, California

Conference · Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1972 · Soc. Pet. Eng. AIME, Pap.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5071643

Tinker, G E

The Temblor Zone II reservoir consists of intervals of movable oil associated with intervals of high gas saturation or desaturated intervals. Natural gas injection into these desaturated intervals, using tritium and krypton as radioactive tracers has served to determine reservoir continuity. In these example cases, the desaturated intervals contained nearly all carbon dioxide gas. The injection tests also have furnished data concerning the nature and distribution of desaturated intervals in an unconsolidated sand reservoir with permeabilities of 300 to 500 md and porosity of 26% having 21/sup 0/ API gravity oil with a viscosity of 25 cp at reservoir temperature. It can be concluded from these tests that (1) the injection of radioactive gas into reservoirs having oil desaturation can be used to map continuity, (2) gas-oil interfaces found in some gravity drainage reservoirs deviate from the horizontal, and (3) the gas overlying the movable oil will likely influence supplemental recovery projects by acting as a thief zone for injected water.

• Research Organization: Shell Oil Co.
• OSTI ID: 5071643
• Report Number(s): CONF-721167-
• Journal Information: Soc. Pet. Eng. AIME, Pap.; (United States), Vol. SPE-4184; Conference: 43. annual SPE of AIME California regional meeting, Bakersfield, CA, USA, 8 Nov 1972
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
RESERVOIR ROCK
PERMEABILITY
GAS INJECTION
GAS SATURATION
GEOLOGY
INTERFACES
KRYPTON
NATURAL GAS
PETROLEUM
POROSITY
SANDSTONES
TRACER TECHNIQUES
TRITIUM
VISCOSITY
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
FLUID INJECTION
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUEL GAS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GASES
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPE APPLICATIONS
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
NONMETALS
NUCLEI
ODD-EVEN NUCLEI
RADIOISOTOPES
RARE GASES
ROCKS
SATURATION
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
020300* - Petroleum- Drilling & Production