Schlumberger Oilfield Review

Winter 2010/2011
Enhanced Oil Recovery

Arctic Operations
Oil Shale
Oilfield Review
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The global imbalance between supply and demand for oil
and gas is growing. This trend is pointed out in studies
from numerous organizations that watch the E&P industry,
including the International Energy Agency, Cambridge
Energy Research Associates and the World Petroleum
Council. Some studies indicate that the decline rate of
existing oil elds is increasing signicantly over time, so
additional production is becoming progressively more cru-
cial to bridge the supply and demand gap.
In my opinion, neither we, as professionals in the oil and
gas industry, nor the resource owners can be satised with
recovery factors that average well below 40%. We need to
do better. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is a vital means to
achieve additional production and recovery from new and
existing elds. In addition, several sizable resources, such
as extra-heavy oil elds, cannot be developed without EOR
techniques. The high capital investments for offshore and
deepwater projects warrant a reassessment of development
philosophies because production options once considered
tertiary now need to be considered as possibilities in initial
development stages.
EOR techniques employ fundamental physical and chem-
ical rock and uid interactions to improve reservoir sweep
and reduce residual oil saturations (see Has the Time Come
for EOR? page 16). Of the three basic EOR processes
thermal, gas injection and chemicalused to achieve
these ends, thermal and gas injection are the most mature.
Chemical EOR is advancing rapidly in the use of mobility
improvements (polymer and steam), residual saturation
reducers (surfactants and designer waterooding) or com-
binations thereof (alkali-surfactant-polymer ooding).
Extensive customization, fundamental to ensure that an
EOR process will be successful for a specic eld, contrib-
utes signicantly to the complexity and cost of EOR projects.
This customization usually includes detailed laboratory
studies, eld trials, pilots and phased developments, all
needed to reduce project risk before sanction. Unfortunately,
this also leads to quite long development times and higher
up-front investment, hence, longer payback times. Faster
maturation workows are required, which can be enabled
by technological solutions to speed up appraisal and devel-
opment. The scal regimes that work well for primary and
secondary developments in several countries stand in the
way of economic EOR projects, thus change of the scal
frameworks is required as well.
Enhanced recovery comes at a price. The technical costs
in dollars per barrel produced are notably higher than
those of primary or secondary recovery methods. In addi-
tion, the environmental footprint of some EOR techniques
Enhanced Oil Recovery: Here to Stay
1
can be signicant and necessitates mitigation, also adding
to the costs. EOR processes developed in the past are not
necessarily the solutions we need for today and tomorrow.
We therefore need continued investment in EOR technology
development, from the processes and fundamental concepts,
to new engineering solutions, to surveillance techniques
that improve sweep efciency.
Recent research efforts have greatly advanced the funda-
mental understanding of the rock and uid interface in
chemical EOR. This understanding has opened up new
opportunities that have lower costs and higher recovery
efciencies. It has also increased the scope for recovery to
domains that were previously thought to be unattractive
as targets for EOR. However, more work is required. If we
want to reduce the EOR technology timeline and deploy
projects earlier, we must encourage wider cooperation
between industry, academia and resource holders. There
must be sharing of risk, data and knowledge while address-
ing and overcoming potential blocks such as intellectual
property ownership and other commercial aspects.
I am therefore pleased that Schlumberger and Shell
have recently agreed to start a signicant landmark
research partnership. The research is aimed at discovering
and developing new methodologies and technologies for
enhancing recovery, with the aim of addressing many of
the challenges mentioned above. Enhanced oil recovery is
here to stay.
Jeroen Regtien
Vice President, Hydrocarbon Recovery Technologies
Innovation, Research & Development
Shell International Exploration and Production
Jeroen Regtien leads the improved oil recovery/enhanced oil recovery, smart
field, CO
2
storage and rock and fluid science research and development
activities in the Shell Projects and Technology Group. His extensive career in
the upstream oil and gas industry has included roles as technical manager,
chief petroleum engineer, manager of strategy and planning, head of geother-
mal energy, asset manager and development manager during assignments in
Brunei, Australia, Oman, the USA and The Netherlands. He is a member of
the World Petroleum Council and International Advisory Board of the Oman
Research Council. Jeroen is an experimental physicist with an MSc degree
from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
38607schD2R1.indd 1 2/21/11 9:22 PM
www.slb.com/oilfieldreview
Schlumberger
Oilfield Review
1 Enhanced Oil Recovery: Here to Stay
Editorial contributed by Jeroen Regtien, Vice President, Hydrocarbon Recovery Technologies
Innovation, Research & Development; Shell International Exploration and Production
4 Coaxing Oil from Shale
Oil shale contains copious amounts of immature organic
material. Heating the rock accelerates the normal maturation
process to generate oil and gas. Historically, oil shales were
mined, crushed and heated at the surface, but companies are
finding it may be more efficient to access these formations
through boreholes, heat the subsurface and bring the oil to
the surface.
16 Has the Time Come for EOR?
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods are designed to
produce additional oil beyond what is obtainable through
traditional methods of pressure depletion and simple
pressure maintenance. EOR techniques include miscible
gasflooding, chemical flooding and thermal recovery.
This article describes the basics of these methods; field
examples illustrate their application.
Executive Editor
Mark A. Andersen
Advisory Editor
Lisa Stewart
Senior Editors
Matt Varhaug
Rick von Flatern
Editors
Vladislav Glyanchenko
Tony Smithson
Contributing Editors
Rana Rottenberg
Ginger Oppenheimer
Design/Production
Herring Design
Steve Freeman
Illustration
Chris Lockwood
Mike Messinger
George Stewart
Printing
Wetmore Printing Company
Curtis Weeks
Oilfield Review is published quarterly and
printed in the USA.
Visit www.slb.com/oilfieldreview for
electronic copies of articles in multiple
languages.
2011 Schlumberger. All rights reserved.
Reproductions without permission are
strictly prohibited.
For a comprehensive dictionary of oilfield
terms, see the Schlumberger Oilfield
Glossary at www.glossary.oilfield.slb.com.
About Oilfield Review
Oilfield Review, a Schlumberger journal,
communicates technical advances in
finding and producing hydrocarbons
to employees, clients and other oilfield
professionals. Contributors to articles
include industry professionals and experts
from around the world; those listed with
only geographic location are employees
of Schlumberger or its affiliates.
On the cover:
Engineers prepare a slim tube for a test
of minimum miscibility pressure at the
Schlumberger Reservoir Fluids Center in
Houston. The sand-filled metal coil
provides sufficient length for a multiple-
contact miscibility condition to develop
between a crude oil in the coil and an
injected gas. Miscible gas injection is
one of several enhanced oil recovery
methods used to sweep post-waterflood
residual oil from a reservoir (inset ).
2
Winter 2010/2011
Volume 22
Number 4
ISSN 0923-1730
50 Contributors
52 New Books and Coming in Oilfield Review
54 Annual Index
3
36 Petroleum Potential of the Arctic:
Challenges and Solutions
Although constituting only about 6% of the Earths surface,
the Arctic potentially contains a significant portion of the
worlds undiscovered petroleum resources and, thus, is
attracting the growing attention of oil and gas companies.
However, this region poses numerous challenges, including a
harsh climate, short operational season, complex surface and
shallow-subsurface conditions and increasing environmental
restrictions. Operators and service companies are improving
existing technologies and developing new ones to address the
unique challenges of this remote region.
Abdulla I. Al-Kubaisy
Saudi Aramco
Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia
Dilip M. Kale
ONGC Energy Centre
Delhi, India
Roland Hamp
Woodside Energy Ltd.
Perth, Australia
George King
Apache Corporation
Houston, Texas, USA
Richard Woodhouse
Independent consultant
Surrey, England
Advisory Panel
Editorial correspondence
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4 Oileld Review
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. Opener
ORWIN10-OilShl Fig. Opener
Coaxing Oil from Shale
Oil shale is plentiful, but producing its petroleum can be complicated. Since the
1800s, these rocks have been mined and fed into surface facilities where liquid
hydrocarbons were extracted. Now, operators are developing methods to heat the
rock in situ and pipe the liberated oil to the surface. They are also adapting oileld
technology to evaluate these deposits and estimate their uid yields.
Pierre Allix
Total
Pau, France
Alan Burnham
American Shale Oil LLC
Rie, Colorado, USA
Tom Fowler
Shell International Exploration and Production
Houston, Texas, USA
Michael Herron
Robert Kleinberg
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Bill Symington
ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company
Houston, Texas
Oileld Review Winter 2010/2011: 22, no. 4.
Copyright 2011 Schlumberger.
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Neil Bostrom,
Jim Grau, Josephine Mawutor Ndinyah, Drew Pomerantz
and Stacy Lynn Reeder, Cambridge, Massachusetts; John
R. Dyni, US Geological Survey, Denver; Martin Kennedy,
University of Adelaide, South Australia, Australia; Patrick
McGinn, ExxonMobil Corporation, Houston; Eric Oudenot,
London; Kenneth Peters, Mill Valley, California, USA; and
Carolyn Tucker, Shell Oil, Denver.
ECS and RST are marks of Schlumberger.
CCR is a mark of American Shale Oil LLC.
Electrofrac is a mark of ExxonMobil.
Rock-Eval is a mark of the Institut Franais du Ptrole.
Oil shale is the term given to very ne-grained
sedimentary rock containing relatively large
amounts of immature organic material, or kero-
gen. It is essentially potential source rock that
would have generated hydrocarbons if it had
been subjected to geologic burial at the requisite
temperatures and pressures for a sufcient time.
In nature, it can take millions of years at
burial temperatures between 100C and 150C
[210F and 300F] for most source rocks to gen-
erate oil. But the process can be accelerated by
heating the kerogen-rich rock more quickly and
to higher temperatures, generating liquid hydro-
carbons in much shorter time: from a matter of
minutes to a few years.
1. Dyni JR: Geology and Resources of Some World
Oil-Shale Deposits, Reston, Virginia, USA: US Geological
Survey Scientic Investigations, Report 2005-5294, 2006.
Smith MA: Lacustrine Oil Shales in the Geologic
Record, in Katz BJ (ed): Lacustrine Basin Exploration:
Case Studies and Modern Analogs. Tulsa: The American
Association of Petroleum Geologists, AAPG Memoir 50
(1990): 4360.
38607schD4R1.indd 4 2/21/11 9:24 PM
Winter 2010/2011 5
Forcing petroleum products from immature
formations is one of the more difcult ways to
extract energy from the Earth, but that has not
kept people from trying. From prehistoric times
to the present, oil shale, like coal, has been
burned as fuel. Methods for coaxing oil from the
rock to produce liquid fuels have existed for hun-
dreds of years. The earliest such ventures mined
oil shale and heated it in processing facilities on
the surface to obtain liquid shale oil and other
petroleum products. More recently, methods
have been tested to heat the rock in situ and
extract the resulting oil in a more conventional
way: through boreholes. These approaches are
being developed, but the worlds oil shale
resources remain largely untapped.
Current estimates of the volumes recoverable
from oil shale deposits are in the trillions of
barrels, but recovery methods are complicated
and expensive. However, with todays sustained
high prices and predictions of future oil short-
ages in the coming decades, producing oil from
shale may soon become economically viable.
Therefore, several companies and countries are
working to nd practical ways to exploit these
unconventional resources.
This article explains how oil shales form, how
they have been exploited in various parts of the
world and which techniques are currently being
developed for tapping the energy they contain.
Examples from the western US illustrate innova-
tive applications of oileld technology for evaluat-
ing oil shale deposits and assessing their richness.
Oil Shale Formation
Oil shales form in a variety of depositional envi-
ronments, including freshwater and saline lakes
and swamps, near-shore marine basins and
subtidal shelves.
1
They may occur as minor sedi-
mentary layers or as giant accumulations hun-
dreds of meters thick, covering thousands of
square kilometers (above right).
As with other sedimentary rocks, composi-
tions of shales containing organic material range
from mostly silicates to mostly carbonates, with
varying amounts of clay minerals (right). Mineral
composition has little effect on oil yield, but it
can impact the heating process. Clay minerals
contain water, which may affect the amount of
heat required to convert the organic material to
petroleum. Carbonate shales, upon heating, gen-
erate additional CO
2
that must be considered in
any oil shale development program. Many depos-
its also contain valuable minerals and metals
such as alum, nahcolite, sulfur, vanadium, zinc,
copper and uranium, which may themselves be
targets of mining operations.
>
Outcropping oil shales. The oil shale of the Green River Formation in the Piceance Creek basin in
Colorado covers about 3,100 km
2
[1,200 mi
2
]. The inset (top) shows a hand specimen from that region,
with dark layers of rich oil shale interbedded with pale layers of lean shale. The white scale bar is
7.2 cm [2.8 in.] long. (Outcrop photograph courtesy of Martin Kennedy, University of Adelaide. Inset
photograph courtesy of John R. Dyni, US Geological Survey, Denver.)
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 1
ORWIN10-OilShl Fig. 1
>
Shale mineralogy. Worldwide average shale composition regardless of organic content (black
diamond) is high in clay minerals and contains some quartz and feldspar with little or no calcite or
dolomite. Organic-rich shales (other diamonds and dots) tend to have a wider variety of compositions.
Oil shales from the Green River Formation are highlighted in dotted blue ovals. Those from the
Parachute Creek Member (green squares) have low clay-mineral content, while oil shales from the
Garden Gulch Member (red dots) are richer in clay minerals. Gray lines subdivide the triangle into
compositional regions. (Adapted from Grau et al, reference 32.)
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 2
Clay
Minerals
Calcite and Dolomite
Siliceous
dolomite
Eagle Ford
Niobrara
Calcareous
or dolomitic
mudstone
Argillaceous
marlstone
Siliceous
marlstone
Argillaceous
mudstone
(traditional shale)
Siliceous
mudstone
Monterey
Montney
Muskwa
Barnett
Bakken
Haynesville
Lower
Marcellus
Siliceous shale
Monterey
porcellanite
Bazhenov
Average shale
Garden Gulch Member
Parachute Creek Member
Gas shales from Poland
Quartz and
Feldspar
Various other locations
38607schD4R1.indd 5 2/21/11 9:25 PM
6 Oileld Review
Interspersed between the grains of these
rocks is kerogeninsoluble, partially degraded
organic material that has not yet matured enough
to generate hydrocarbons. The kerogen in oil
shale has its origins predominantly in the
remains of lacustrine and marine algae, and con-
tains minor amounts of spores, pollen, fragments
of herbaceous and woody plants and remnants of
other lacustrine, marine and land ora and
fauna. The type of kerogen has a bearing on what
kind of hydrocarbon it will produce as it matures
thermally.
2
The kerogens in oil shale fall into the
Type I and Type II classications used by geo-
chemists (left).
The thermally immature kerogens in oil
shales have undergone low-temperature diagen-
esis but no further modications.
3
Some other
organic-rich shales may have reached thermal
maturity but not yet expelled all of their liquid
petroleum products. To distinguish them from oil
shales, for the purposes of this article, mature,
organic-rich shales that have not expelled all of
their oil are called oil-bearing shales. Examples
of these are the Bakken, Monterey and Eagle
Ford shales, which currently produce oil in the
US. Other organic-rich shales are more thermally
mature or of different kerogen type and contain
gas instead of oil, such as the Barnett, Fayetteville
and Marcellus shales, also in the US.
4

Many shales attain source-rock status, achiev-
ing full maturity and expelling their oil and natu-
ral gas, which then migrate, and under the proper
conditions, accumulate and become trapped
until discovered and produced. Some such shales
can manifest in several ways. For example, the
Kimmeridge Clay Formation is the main source
rock for the oil elds of the North Sea, but where
it outcrops in England it is an oil shale. Similarly,
the Green River shale, which is presumed to be
the source rock for the oil produced from the
Red Wash eld in Utah, USA, outcrops in the
same region. It also contains the worlds largest
reserves of shale oil.
Oil Shales in Time and Space
The earliest use of oil shale was as fuel for heat,
but there is also evidence of weaponry applica-
tions, such as aming, oil shaletipped arrows
shot by warriors in 13th-century Asia.
5
The rst
known use of liquid petroleum derived from shale
dates to the mid-1300s, when medical practitio-
ners in what is now Austria touted its healing
properties. By the late 1600s, several municipali-
ties in Europe were distilling oil from shale for
heating fuel and street lighting. In the 1830s,
mining and distillation activities began in France,
and reached commercial levels there and in
Canada, Scotland and the US by the mid-1800s.
The country with the longest history of commer-
cial shale oil production is Scotland, where mines
operated for more than 100 years, nally closing
in 1962.
6
Fuel shortages during the two World Wars
encouraged other countries to exploit their oil
shale resources. Tapping a kerogen-rich carbon-
ate sequence, Estonia began mining oil shale
from a deposit about 20 to 30 m [65 to 100 ft]
thick that covers hundreds of square kilometers
in the northern part of the country. The operation
continues today.
The shale, which occurs as 50 or so beds of
organic-rich shallow marine sediments alternat-
ing with biomicritic limestone, is produced from
open-pit mines at depths to 20 m. Where the shale
is buried deeper than that, down to 70 m [230 ft],
it is accessed by underground mines. Roughly
three-quarters of the mined rock supplies fuel for
electric power plants, providing 90% of the coun-
trys electricity. The remainder is used for heating
and as feedstock for petrochemicals. In the past
90 years, 1 10
9
metric tons [1 10
9
Mg, or
1.1 billion tonUS] of oil shale has been mined
from the primary Estonia deposit (left).
7
China has a signicant history of oil shale min-
ing as well, with shale oil production beginning in
the 1920s. In the Fushun area, extensive shale lay-
ers 15 to 58 m [49 to 190 ft] thick are mined along
with coal, both from Eocene lacustrine deposits.
The total resource of oil shale at Fushun is esti-
mated at 3.3 10
9
Mg [3.6 billion tonUS].
8
As of
1995, Fushuns petroleum production capacity
from shale was 66,000 m
3
/yr [415,000 bbl/yr].
Brazil began developing an oil shale mining
and processing industry in the 1960s. The national
oil company, Petrleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras),
>
Kerogen maturation. The Type I and Type II
kerogens in most oil shales are not yet mature
enough to generate hydrocarbons. As these
kerogens matureusually through geologic burial
and the increased heat associated with itthey
transform into oil, and then with more heat, to gas.
Methods that accelerate the maturation process
attempt to control heat input, thereby producing
only the desired type of hydrocarbon.
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 3
1.5
H
y
d
r
o
g
e
n
/
c
a
r
b
o
n

r
a
t
i
o
1.0
0.5
0 0.1 0.2
Type I
Type II
Type III
Type IV
Oxygen/carbon ratio
Dry gas
Increasing
maturation
CO
2
, H
2
O
Oil
Wet gas
No hydrocarbon
potential
Products Given
off from Kerogen
Maturation
>
More than a century of commercial oil shale mining. Tonnage of mined shale rose dramatically in the
1970s when oil prices were also rising; it peaked in 1980, but declined as oil prices made shale oil
noncompetitive. Several countries continue to mine oil shale as a source of heat, electricity, liquid fuel
and chemical feedstock. Since 1999, mined shale tonnage has started to increase again. (Data from
1880 to 1998 from Dyni, reference 1.)
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 4
M
i
n
e
d

s
h
a
l
e
,

m
i
l
l
i
o
n

m
e
t
r
i
c

t
o
n
s
40
50
30
20
10
0
1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 1890 1910 1930 1950 1970 1990
Year
2010
Germany
China
Brazil
Scotland
Russia
Estonia
38607schD4R1.indd 6 2/21/11 9:25 PM
Winter 2010/2011 7
established the Shale Industrialization Business
Unit (SIX) to exploit the countrys several
large oil shale deposits. The Irati Formation,
which outcrops extensively in southern Brazil,
contains reserves of more than 1.1 10
8
m
3

[700 million bbl] of oil and 2.5 10
10
m
3
[880 Bcf]
of gas.
9
Surface facilities at So Mateus do Sul, in
the state of Paran, are capable of processing
7,100 Mg [7,800 tonUS] of shale per day to produce
fuel oil, naphtha, liqueed petroleum gas (LPG),
shale gas, sulfur and asphalt additives.
To date, almost all the oil extracted from the
worlds oil shale has been from rock that was
mined and then processed at surface facilities.
Mining is typically performed either through sur-
face mining or through underground mining
using the room-and-pillar method associated
with coal mining. After mining, oil shale is trans-
ported to a facilitya retortwhere a heating
process converts kerogen to oil and gas and sepa-
rates the hydrocarbon fractions from the mineral
fraction. This mineral waste, which contains sub-
stantial amounts of residual kerogen, is called
spent shale. After retorting, the oil must be
upgraded by further processing before being sent
to a renery.
Mining operations require handling massive
volumes of rock, disposing of spent shale and
upgrading the heavy oil. The environmental
impact can be signicant, causing disruption of
the surface and requiring substantial volumes of
water. Water is needed for controlling dust, cool-
ing spent shale and upgrading raw shale oil.
Estimates of water requirements range from 2 to
5 barrels of water per barrel of oil produced.
10
The worlds oil shale deposits are widely distrib-
uted; hundreds of deposits occur in more than 30
countries (above). Many formations are at depths
beyond mining capabilities or in environmentally
fragile settings. In these areas, heating the rocks in
place may offer the best method to hasten kerogen
maturation. If ways can be found to do this safely,
efciently and cost effectively, the potential prize is
immense. By conservative estimatebecause oil
shales have not been the target of modern explora-
tion effortsresources of the worlds shale oil total
about 5.1 10
11
m
3
[3.2 trillion bbl].
11
It is estimated
that more than 60% of this amountroughly
3 10
11
m
3
[2 trillion bbl]is located in the US.
Converting Oil Shale to Shale Oil
Translating volume of rock to volume of recover-
able oil requires information on oil shale proper-
ties, such as organic content and grade, which can
vary widely within a deposit. Traditionally, for the
purposes of surface retorting, oil shale grade is
determined by the modied Fischer assay method,
which measures the oil yield of a shale sample in
a laboratory retort.
12
A 100-g [0.22-lbm] sample is
crushed and sieved through a 2.38-mm [8] mesh
screen, heated in an aluminum retort to 500C
[930F] at a rate of 12C/min [22F/min] and
then held at that temperature for 40 min.
13
The
resulting distilled vapors of oil, gas and water are
condensed and then separated by centrifuge. The
quantities delivered are weight percentages of oil,
water and shale residue and the specic gravity of
the oil. The difference between the weight of the
products and that of the starting material is
2. Tissot BP: Recent Advances in Petroleum Geochemistry
Applied to Hydrocarbon Exploration, AAPG Bulletin 68,
no. 5 (May 1984): 545563.
3. For more on diagenesis: Ali SA, Clark WJ, Moore WR
and Dribus JR: Diagenesis and Reservoir Quality,
Oileld Review 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 1427.
4. Boyer C, Kieschnick J, Suarez-Rivera R, Lewis RL and
Waters G: Producing Gas from Its Source, Oileld
Review 18, no. 3 (Autumn 2006): 3649.
5. Moody R: Oil & Gas Shales, Denitions and Distributions
in Time & Space, presented at the Geological Societys
History of Geology Group Meeting, Weymouth, England,
April 2022, 2007, http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/gsl/cache/
offonce/groups/specialist/hogg/pid/3175;jsessionid=
4CC09ACD6572AE54454755DE4A9077DC (accessed
September 14, 2010).
6. Shale Villages: A Very Brief History of the Scottish Shale
Oil Industry, http://www.almondvalley.co.uk/V_
background_history.htm (accessed September 24, 2010).
>
Signicant oil shale deposits. Most of the known high-quality shale oil resources are in these 14 countries. (Data from Knaus et al, reference 11.)
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 5
Brazil (4)
82
Canada (11)
15
United States (1)
2,085
France (12)
7
Italy (5)
73
Russia (2)
247
China (10)
16
Democratic
Republic of
Congo (3)
100
Australia (8)
31
Shale oil resource,
billion bbl
(global ranking)
Morocco (6)
53
Egypt (13)
5.7
Estonia (9)
16
Israel (14)
4
Jordan (7)
34
7. Sabanov S, Pastarus J-R and Nikitin O: Environmental
Impact Assessment for Estonian Oil Shale Mining
Systems, paper rtos-A107, presented at the
International Oil Shale Conference, Amman, Jordan,
November 79, 2006.
8. Dyni, reference 1.
9. Petrobras SIX Shale Industrialization Business Unit:
Shale in Brazil and in the World, http://www2.
petrobras.com.br/minisite/renarias/petrosix/ingles/oxisto/
oxisto_reservas.asp (accessed November 10, 2010).
10. Bartis JT, LaTourrette T, Dixon L, Peterson DJ and
Cecchine G: Oil Shale Development in the United States:
Prospects and Policy Issues. Santa Monica, California,
USA: The RAND Corporation, Monograph MG-414, 2005.
11. Knaus E, Killen J, Biglarbigi K and Crawford P: An
Overview of Oil Shale Resources, in Ogunsola OI,
Hartstein AM and Ogunsola O (eds): Oil Shale: A
Solution to the Liquid Fuel Dilemma. Washington, DC:
American Chemical Society, ACS Symposium
Series 1032 (2010): 320.
13. Screen mesh of 8 means the particles can pass
through a wire screen with 8 openings per linear inch.
38607schD4R1.indd 7 2/21/11 9:25 PM
8 Oileld Review
recorded as gas plus loss. The oil yield is
reported in liters per metric ton (L/Mg) or gallons
per short ton (galUS/tonUS) of raw shale.
Commercially attractive oil shale deposits yield at
least 100 L/Mg [24 galUS/tonUS], and some reach
300 L/Mg [72 galUS/tonUS].
14
The Fischer assay method does not measure
the total energy content of an oil shale because
the gases, which include methane, ethane, pro-
pane, butane, hydrogen, H
2
S and CO
2
, can have
signicant energy content, but are not individu-
ally specied. Also, some retort methods, espe-
cially those that heat at a different rate or for
different times, or that crush the rock more nely,
may produce more oil than that produced by
the Fischer assay method. Therefore, the method
only approximates the energy potential of an oil
shale deposit.
15
Another method for characterizing organic
richness of oil shale is a pyrolysis test developed
by the Institut Franais du Ptrole, in Reuil-
Malmaison, France, for analyzing source rock.
16

The Rock-Eval test heats a 50- to 100-mg
[0.00011- to 0.00022-lbm] sample through several
temperature stages to determine the amounts of
hydrocarbon and CO
2
generated. The results can
be interpreted for kerogen type and potential for
oil and gas generation. The method is faster than
the Fischer assay and requires less sample material.
The reactions that convert kerogen to oil and
gas are understood generally, but not in precise
molecular detail.
17
The amount and composition
of generated hydrocarbons depend on the heating
conditions: the rate of temperature increase, the
duration of exposure to heat and the composition
of gases present as the kerogen breaks down.
Generally, surface-based retorts heat the
shale rapidly. The time scale for retorting is
directly related to the particle size of the shale,
which is why the rock is crushed before being
heated in surface retorts. Pyrolysis of particles on
the millimeter scale can be accomplished in
minutes at 500C; pyrolysis of particles tens of
centimeters in size takes hours.
In situ processes heat the shale more slowly.
It takes a few years to heat a block tens of meters
wide. However, slow heating has advantages.
Retorting occurs at a lower temperature so less
heat is needed. Also, the quality of the oil
increases substantially (above left). Coking and
cracking reactions in the subsurface tend to
leave the heavy, undesirable components in the
ground. As a result, compared with surface pro-
cessing, in situ heating can produce lighter liquid
hydrocarbons with fewer contaminants.
During in situ conversion, the subsurface acts
as a large reactor vessel in which pressure and
heating rate may be designed to maximize prod-
uct quality and quantity while minimizing pro-
duction cost. In addition to generating a superior
product relative to surface processing, in situ
methods have a reduced environmental impact in
terms of surface disturbance, water require-
ments and waste management.
Several companies have developed methods
for heating oil shale in situ to generate shale oil.
They are testing these techniques in the rich sub-
surface deposits of the western US.
The Epitome of Oil Shales
The Green River Formation at the intersection of
the states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, USA,
contains the most bountiful oil shale beds in the
world. Estimates of the recoverable shale oil
in this area range from 1.2 to 1.8 trillion bbl
[1.9 to 2.9 10
11
m
3
]. Nearly 75% of the resources
lie under land managed by the US Department of
the Interior.
The ne-grained sediments of this formation
were deposited over the course of 10 million years in
Early and Middle Eocene time, in several large lakes
covering up to 25,000 mi
2
[65,000 km
2
]. The warm
alkaline waters provided conditions for abundant
growth of blue-green algae, which are believed to be
the main component of the organic matter in the oil
shale.
18
The formation is now about 1,600 ft [500 m]
thick and in places has shale layers that contain
more than 60 galUS/tonUS [250 L/Mg] of oil (next
page).
19
A particularly rich and widespread layer,
called the Mahogany zone, reaches a thickness of
50 ft [15 m]. It contains an estimated 173 billion bbl
[2.8 10
10
m
3
] of shale oil. The Green River area has
been well studied, with more than 750,000 assay
tests performed on samples from outcrops, mines,
boreholes and core holes.
20
Settlers and miners began retorting oil from
the shale in the 1800s. The region experienced
mining and exploration booms from 1915 to 1920
and again from 1974 to 1982, each period fol-
lowed by busts.
21
In 1980, Unocal built a major
plant for mining, retorting and upgrading oil
shale in the Piceance Creek basin in Colorado; it
operated until 1991. During that time, the
company produced 4.4 million bbl [700,000 m
3
]
of shale oil.
22
Recently, oil price volatility and growing
energy needs have combined to again focus inter-
est on the region. In 2003, the US Bureau of Land
Management initiated an oil shale development
program and solicited applications for research,
development and demonstration (RD&D) leases.
Several companies applied for and received
lease awards to develop in situ heating techniques
on public lands, and some are testing methods
>
Improved oil quality with slow heating. Data
from the Shell in situ conversion process (ICP)
and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
(LLNL), in California, show a clear increase in oil
API gravity as heating rate decreases. The red
endpoint represents the results of typical
laboratory pyrolysis.
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 6
S
h
a
l
e

o
i
l
,

d
e
g
r
e
e

A
P
I

g
r
a
v
i
t
y
20
24
28
32
36
40
1 10 100 1,000 10,000 100,000
Heating rate, C/d
ICP LLNL
>
Shells thermal conduction pilot projects. Shell has performed seven eld pilots using the in situ
conversion process (ICP) to heat oil shale to conversion temperature. (Adapted from Fowler and
Vinegar, reference 24.)
Red Pinnacle
thermal conduction test
Mahogany field
experiment
Mahogany demonstration
project
Mahogany demonstration
project, South
Deep heater test
Mahogany isolation test
Freeze wall test
Project Name Primary Purpose Dates Heater
Holes
Total
Holes
Depth,
ft
ICP field demonstration
ICP field demonstration
ICP field demonstration,
recovery
ICP field demonstration,
recovery
Heaters
Freeze wall
Freeze wall
1996 to 1998
1981 to 1982
1998 to 2005
2003 to 2005
2001 to present
2002 to 2004
2005 to present
3
6
38
16
21
2
0
14
26
101
27
45
53
233
20
130
600
400
700
1,400
1,700
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 9
38607schD4R1.indd 8 3/1/11 9:35 PM
Winter 2010/2011 9
on privately held land. Examples from three
companiesShell, ExxonMobil and American
Shale Oil LLC (AMSO)show the range of
concepts being applied to the challenges of in situ
retorting in the Green River oil shale.
Shell has done extensive laboratory and eld
work in efforts to demonstrate commercial viabil-
ity of in situ retorting using downhole electric
heaters.
23
The process follows a method developed
in Sweden during World War IIa technique used
until 1960, when cheaper supplies of imported oil
became available.
Shell participated in early mining and surface
retort attempts in the Green River area, but chose
to withdraw from those in the mid-1990s to focus
on an in situ method.
24
Years of laboratory testing,
thermal simulations and eld pilots contributed to
the development of Shells in situ conversion pro-
cess (ICP). Through seven eld pilot tests, Shell
has investigated a variety of heating methods
including injected steam and downhole heaters
and well congurations with patterns of wells of
varying depths for heating, producing and dewa-
tering (previous page, top right).
14. Knaus et al, reference 11.
15. Dyni JR, Mercier TJ and Browneld ME: Chapter 1
Analyses of Oil Shale Samples from Core Holes and
Rotary-Drilled Wells from the Green River Formation,
Southwestern Wyoming, in US Geological Survey Oil
Shale Assessment Team (ed): Fischer Assays of
Oil-Shale Drill Cores and Rotary Cutting from the
Greater Green River Basin, Southwestern Wyoming,
US Geological Survey, Open-File Report 2008-1152,
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2008/1152/downloads/Chapter1/
Chapter1.pdf (accessed October 8, 2010).
16. Pyrolysis is the controlled heating of organic matter in
the absence of oxygen to yield organic compounds such
as hydrocarbons.
Peters KE: Guidelines for Evaluating Petroleum Source
Rock Using Programmed Pyrolysis, AAPG Bulletin 70,
no. 3 (March 1986): 318329.
.
Lithology (center) and
grade (right) of the Green
River Formation. Oil shales in
the Parachute Creek Member
are carbonate rich, and the
underlying shales of the
Garden Gulch Member are
clay rich. High-grade (blue)
oil shales are interspersed
with lean layers (pink). Oil
yield from Fischer assay
measurement is plotted in
red. Total shale oil resources
contained in the various
layers are shown in the chart
(bottom left). (Lithology and
shale oil resources from
Dyni, reference 1; shale
grade from Johnson et al,
reference 19.)
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 8
Sandstone, siltstone and some
marlstone and lean oil shale
Oil shale
Marlstone and low-grade oil shale
Leached oil shale; contains open solution
cavities and marlstone solution breccias
Nahcolite-bearing oil shale; contains nodules,
scattered crystals and beds of nahcolite
Clay-bearing oil shale
Interbedded halite, nahcolite and oil shale
Nahcolite and oil shale
A-groove
R-8 zone
Mahogany
zone
B-groove
R-6 zone
R-5 zone
R-4 zone
R-3 zone
L-5 zone
L-4 zone
L-3 zone
L-2 zone
R-2 zone
L-1 zone
R-1 zone
L-0 zone
R-0 zone
0 20 40 60 80 100
Shale oil yield,
galUS/tonUS
Anvil Points
Member
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
G
a
r
d
e
n

G
u
l
c
h
M
e
m
b
e
r
P
a
r
a
c
h
u
t
e

C
r
e
e
k

M
e
m
b
e
r
G
r
e
e
n

R
i
v
e
r

F
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
Generalized
Lithology Depth, ft
Rich oil shale zones, carbonate rich
Rich oil shale zones, clay rich
Lean oil shale zones, carbonate rich
Lean oil shale zones, clay rich
U
i
n
t
a

F
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
(
w
i
t
h

t
o
n
g
u
e
s

o
f

G
r
e
e
n

R
i
v
e
r

F
o
r
m
a
t
i
o
n
)
Shale Oil Resources
10
9
tonUS
Total
Mahogany
Zone
147.17
No data
1,008.10
No data
10
9
bbl
No data
No data
No data
No data
115.35
10.70
53.07
20.08
58.38
18.72
107.78
60.85
178.72
52.42
159.09
172.94
R-1
L-1
R-2
L-2
R-3
L-3
R-4
L-4
R-5
L-5
R-6
R-8
L-0
R-0
16.84
1.56
7.75
2.93
8.52
2.73
15.74
8.88
26.09
7.65
23.23
25.25
Espitalie J, Madec M, Tissot B, Mennig JJ and Leplat P:
Source Rock Characterization Method for Petroleum
Exploration, paper OTC 2935, presented at the Offshore
Technology Conference, Houston, May 25, 1977.
17. Burnham AK: Chemistry and Kinetics of Oil Shale
Retorting, in Ogunsola OI, Hartstein AM and Ogunsola O
(eds): Oil Shale: A Solution to the Liquid Fuel Dilemma.
Washington, DC: American Chemical Society, ACS
Symposium Series 1032 (2010): 115134.
19. Johnson RC, Mercier TJ, Browneld ME, Pantea MP
and Self JG: Assessment of In-Place Oil Shale
Resources of the Green River Formation, Piceance
Basin, Western Colorado, Reston, Virginia, USA: US
Geological Survey, Fact Sheet 2009-3012, March 2009.
20. US Department of Energy: Secure Fuels from Domestic
Resources, http://www.unconventionalfuels.org/
publications/reports/SecureFuelsReport2009FINAL.pdf
(accessed November 12, 2010).
21. Hanson JL and Limerick P: What Every Westerner
Should Know About Oil Shale: A Guide to Shale
Country, Center of the American West, Report no. 10,
June 17, 2009, http://oilshale.centerwest.org (accessed
August 4, 2010).
23. Ryan RC, Fowler TD, Beer GL and Nair V: Shells In Situ
Conversion ProcessFrom Laboratory to Field Pilots,
in Ogunsola OI, Hartstein AM and Ogunsola O (eds):
Oil Shale: A Solution to the Liquid Fuel Dilemma.
Washington, DC: American Chemical Society,
ACS Symposium Series 1032 (2010): 161183.
24. Fowler TD and Vinegar HJ: Oil Shale ICPColorado
Field Pilots, paper SPE 121164, presented at the SPE
Western Regional Meeting, San Jose, California,
March 2426, 2009.
38607schD4R1.indd 9 2/21/11 9:25 PM
10 Oileld Review
The ICP method uses closely spaced down-
hole electric heaters to gradually and evenly heat
the formation to the conversion temperature of
about 650F [340C]. Depending on heater spac-
ing and the rate of heating, the time projected to
reach conversion temperature in a commercial
project ranges from three to six years. Tests have
demonstrated liquid-recovery efciencies greater
than 60% of Fischer assay value, with the low-
value kerogen components left in the ground. The
resulting oil is of 25 to 40 degree API gravity. The
gas contains methane [CH
4
], H
2
S, CO
2
and H
2
.
Taking into account the oil equivalence
of the gas generated, the recovery efciency
approaches 90% to 100% of Fischer assay value.
From results of the pilot testing, a commercial-
scale project is expected to have an energy
gain close to 3, meaning the energy value of the
products is three times the energy input to
obtain them.
Commercialization of the ICP process
requires a method that prevents water inux to
the heated volume and contains the uid prod-
ucts, thereby maximizing recovery and protecting
local aquifers.
25
The Shell ICP process makes use
of a freeze wall, created by circulating coolants,
to isolate the heated formation from ground-
water. Use of a freeze wall is a relatively common
practice in some underground mining operations.
Inside the freeze wall, water is pumped from the
formation. The formation is heated, the oil is pro-
duced and the residual shale is cleaned of con-
taminants by ushing with clean water. The
recovered oil in one test had 40 degree API grav-
ity, similar to modeling results for oil produced at
heating rates of 1C/h [0.5F/h] and 27 MPa.
Pilot testing of the freeze wall began in 2002
with 18 freeze wells arranged in a circle 50 ft
across. One producer, two heating wells and eight
monitor wells were located within the freeze cir-
cle (left). After ve months of cooling, the freeze
wall was complete. This pilot showed that a
freeze wall could be established and could isolate
uids inside the circle from those outside.
Shell tested the freeze wall concept on a larger
scale starting in 2005, with an ambitious project
involving 157 freeze wells at 8-ft [2.4-m] intervals
to create a containment volume 224 ft [68 m]
across (next page, top). The operator began chill-
ing in 2007 by circulating an ammonia-water
solutioninitially at shallow depth and gradually
deepening. As of July 2009, the freeze wall was
continuing to form in the deeper zones, down to
1,700 ft [520 m]. The test is designed to evaluate
the integrity of the freeze wall, and will not involve
heating, or production of hydrocarbons.
ExxonMobil is also pursuing research and
development of a process for in situ oil shale con-
version. The companys Electrofrac process
hydraulically fractures the oil shale and lls the
fractures with an electrically conductive material,
creating a resistive heating element.
26
Heat is
thermally conducted into the oil shale, converting
the kerogen into oil and gas, which are then pro-
duced by conventional methods. Calcined petro-
leum coke, a granular form of relatively pure
carbon, is being tested as the Electrofrac conduc-
tant. By pumping this material into vertical
hydraulic fractures, ExxonMobil hopes to create a
series of parallel planar electric heaters (next
page, bottom). As in the Shell ICP method, the
resistive heat reaches the shale by thermal diffu-
sion. A potential advantage of the Electrofrac pro-
cess is that, compared with line sources, the
greater surface area of planar fracture heaters will
permit fewer heaters to be used to deliver heat to
the subsurface volume. The use of planar heaters
should also reduce surface disturbance when com-
pared with line sources or wellbore heaters.
25. Ryan et al, reference 23.
26. Symington WA, Kaminsky RD, Meurer WP, Otten GA,
Thomas MM and Yeakel JD: ExxonMobils Electrofrac
Process for In Situ Oil Shale Conversion, in Ogunsola
OI, Hartstein AM and Ogunsola O (eds): Oil Shale: A
Solution to the Liquid Fuel Dilemma. Washington, DC:
American Chemical Society, ACS Symposium Series 1032
(2010): 185216.
Symington WA, Olgaard DL, Otten GA, Phillips TC,
Thomas MM and Yeakel JD: ExxonMobils Electrofrac
Process for In Situ Oil Shale Conversion, presented at
the AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas, USA,
April 2023, 2008.
>
Shell freeze wall isolation test. Using a technique dating to the 1880s, Shell
constructed a circular freeze wall 1,400 ft [430 m] deep by circulating
coolant in 18 freeze wells for 5 months. A 430-ft [130-m] interval of the
enclosed formation was then heated to generate shale oil. The test veried
that the freeze wall could conne produced uids.
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 10
Plan View
Side View
22 ft
50 ft
8 ft
1,400-ft
freeze
interval
430-ft
heated
interval
Inside monitor (8)
Freeze (18)
Producer (1)
Heater (2)
Wells
38607schD4R1.indd 10 2/21/11 9:25 PM
Winter 2010/2011 11
>
Large-scale freeze wall test. In a step toward
supporting commercial viability of the ICP, Shell is
testing a large-scale freeze wall for isolation and
containment. In addition to the freeze wells shown
in the plan view (left) there are 27 observation
holes for geomechanical, pressure, uid level and
temperature measurements; 30 special-use holes
for venting, squeezing, water reinjection, water
production and hydraulic fracturing; and 40
groundwater monitoring holes. An artists
rendering (right) depicts the freeze wall in 3D.
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 11
A
B
C
Plan View
Side View
Test
Section B
1,700-ft
freeze
interval
Test
Sections
A and C
1,500-ft
freeze
interval
224 ft
Freeze well 8 ft
B
C
A
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 11
A
B
C
Plan View
Side View
Test
Section B
1,700-ft
freeze
interval
Test
Sections
A and C
1,500-ft
freeze
interval
224 ft
Freeze well 8 ft
B
C
A
>
The ExxonMobil Electrofrac process. Horizontal wells penetrate the oil shale. The horizontal sections are hydraulically
fractured (left) and lled with electrically conductive proppant made of calcined coke (bottom right). A 20/40 mesh proppant (top
right) is displayed for scale. Field testing has shown it is possible to create an electrically conductive fracture and heat it for
several months. The plus and minus signs indicate electric charge applied to heat the fractures. (Illustration and photographs
courtesy of ExxonMobil.)
20/40 Mesh Proppant
Calcined Coke
Toe connector well Production wells Electrofrac process
heater wells
Conductive heating and
oil shale conversion
Hydraulic fracture
with electrically
conductive material
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 12
38607schD4R1.indd 11 2/21/11 9:26 PM
12 Oileld Review
Prior to embarking on eld research,
ExxonMobil conducted modeling and laboratory
studies addressing several important technical
issues for the Electrofrac process. These included
establishing the following:
That the conductant in the fracture can main-
tain its electrical continuity while the surround-
ing rock is heated to conversion temperatures.
That oil and gas generated by the process are
expelled from oil shale, not only at surface con-
ditions, but also under in situ stress conditions.
That a completion strategy can be designed to
create fractures that deliver heat effectively.
Based on these results, ExxonMobil advanced
to eld research to test the Electrofrac method in
situ.
27
The test site is at the company-owned
Colony oil shale mine in northwest Colorado. The
Colony mine provides a large, highly accessible
volume of rock for testing. ExxonMobil has cre-
ated two Electrofrac fractures at Colony by drill-
ing horizontally into the oil shale and pumping a
slurry of calcined petroleum coke, water and
portland cement at pressures sufcient to break
the rock. The larger of the two Electrofrac frac-
tures has been heavily instrumented to measure
temperature, voltage, electrical current and
rock movement. As a preliminary test of the
Electrofrac process, the fracture was heated
to relatively low temperatures. This low-
temperature experiment was not intended to
generate oil or gas. To date, the results of this
eld program have been encouraging. They
demonstrate that it is possible to create an elec-
trically conductive hydraulic fracture, to make
power connections to the fracture and to operate
it, at least at low temperature, for several months.
AMSO, 50% owned by Total, proposes to use
the CCR conduction, convection and reux pro-
cess to recover shale oil. By focusing the heating
effort on shales beneath an impermeable shale
caprock, this method isolates production zones
from protected sources of groundwater.
28
The company plans to drill two horizontal
wellsa heater below a producerin the bot-
tom of the illite shale at the base of the Green
River Formation (above left). Heat is delivered by
a downhole burner that eventually runs on pro-
duced gas. As the kerogen decomposes, the
lighter productshot vaporsrise and reux.
Heat is distributed through the formation by the
reuxing oil; thermomechanical fracturing, or
spalling, creates permeability for the convective
heat transfer.
The concept for commercial-scale produc-
tion uses an array of horizontal wells about
2,000 ft [600 m] long at 100-ft [30-m] intervals
(left). The formation is heated slowly, yielding
oil with lower concentrations of heteroatoms
and metals than that generated by surface pro-
cessing methods.
29
Meanwhile, the aromatic
portions of kerogen tend to stay in the rock
matrix as coke. More than enough gas is copro-
duced to provide the energy required to operate
a self-sustaining commercial retorting process,
and it is likely that most of the propane and
butane produced can be exported to market.
Computational studies show that heat deliv-
ery by convection and conduction is much more
effective than by conduction alone. The CCR pro-
cess is estimated to give a total energy gain
between 4 and 5, counting all the surface facility
requirements, including an oxygen plant for pro-
ducing pure CO
2
from the downhole burner. The
method is projected to use less than one barrel of
water per barrel of oil produced. No water is
needed to clean spent retorts because they
remain isolated from usable groundwater.
>
The AMSO CCR conduction, convection and reux process. Two horizontal wells target the illitic oil
shale beneath a nahcolitic caprock. The heating well is at the base and the production well is at the
top of the shale (left). As heat causes the kerogen to decompose, the lighter products rise and
condense (right), efciently heating a large volume of rock. Hydrocarbon uids are produced via the
production well.
D
e
p
t
h
,

f
t1,000
0
500
1,500
2,000
Low-salinity water
High-salinity water
Mahogany zone
Nahcolitic oil shale caprock
Illitic oil shale
Heating well
Production well
2,000 ft
Boiling oil
V
a
p
o
r
C
o
n
d
e
n
s
a
t
e
C
o
n
d
e
n
s
a
t
e
Heating well
Rubble-
filled
retort
Production well
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 13
>
The AMSO concept for commercial-scale production. By using long
horizontal wells concentrated in a 200-ft corridor, drilling should impact
less than 10% of the surface area. While one 2,000-ft square panel is being
heated and converted in situ, wells will be drilled in an adjacent panel. The
operation is projected to produce about 1 billion bbl of shale oil over a
25-year period.
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 14
2
0
0
ft
2
,
0
0
0

f
t
2
,0
0
0
ft
2
,0
0
0
f
t
Panel being drilled
Panel being retorted
38607schD4R1.indd 12 2/21/11 9:26 PM
Winter 2010/2011 13
AMSOs initial RD&D pilot test is currently
under construction and will begin in mid-2011.
Heating will take up to 200 days. The operation
will retort a formation volume equivalent to
4,000 tonUS [3,600 Mg] of oil shale and produce
up to 2,000 bbl [320 m
3
] of shale oil. Development
of a commercial operation will proceed in steps
up to 100,000 bbl/d [16,000 m
3
/d], with plans to
sustain that production for 25 years. That trans-
lates into about 1 billion bbl [1.6 10
8
m
3
] of oil
to be produced from an 8-mi
2
[20.8-km
2
] lease.
Evaluating Oil Shales
Companies are looking at ways to assess oil shale
richness and other formation properties without
having to take core samples and perform Fischer
assay analysis. Methods that show promise
include integration of several conventional log-
ging measurements, such as formation density,
magnetic resonance, electrical resistivity and
nuclear spectroscopy.
One way of quantifying kerogen content is by
combining density porosity and magnetic reso-
nance responses. In a formation with porosity
that is lled with both kerogen and water, the
density porosity measurement does not distin-
guish between kerogen- and water-lled porosity.
However, the magnetic resonance measurement
sees the kerogen as a solid, similar to the grains
of the rock, and so senses a lower porosity. The
difference between the magnetic resonance and
density readings gives kerogen volume.
30
The vol-
ume of kerogen can be related empirically to
Fischer assay values for oil shales in the region.
The method was tested in an AMSO oil shale
well in the Green River basin. Kerogen content
was calculated from density porosity and mag-
netic resonance logs (right). Using a correlation
between kerogen content and Fischer assay
27. Symington WA, Burns JS, El-Rabaa AM, Otten GA,
Pokutylowicz N, Spiecker PM, Williamson RW and
Yeakel JD: Field Testing of Electrofrac Process
Elements at ExxonMobils Colony Mine, presented at
the 29th Oil Shale Symposium, Colorado School of
Mines, Golden, Colorado, USA, October 1921, 2009.
28. Burnham AK, Day RL, Hardy MP and Wallman PH:
AMSOs Novel Approach to In-Situ Oil Shale Recovery,
in Ogunsola OI, Hartstein AM and Ogunsola O (eds):
Oil Shale: A Solution to the Liquid Fuel Dilemma.
Washington, DC: American Chemical Society,
ACS Symposium Series 1032 (2010): 149160.
29. Heteroatoms are atoms of elements other than hydrogen
and carbonthe components of pure hydrocarbons.
They commonly consist of nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur, iron
and other metals.
30. Kleinberg R, Leu G, Seleznev N, Machlus M, Grau J,
Herron M, Day R, Burnham A and Allix P: Oil Shale
Formation Evaluation by Well Log and Core
Measurements, presented at the 30th Oil Shale
Symposium, Colorado School of Mines, Golden,
Colorado, October 1822, 2010.
>
Kerogen content from porosity measurements in Green River oil shales. Neither gamma ray (Track 1,
dashed green) nor resistivity measurements (Track 2) show much correlation with kerogen content, but
porosity measurements are more useful. The difference between density porosity (Track 3, red) and
nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) porosity (green) represents kerogen-lled porosity (gray). The
kerogen values can also be depicted as a log (Track 4) of total organic matter (TOM, red), which
compares favorably with laboratory Fischer assay results on core samples (black dots). Mineralogical
analysis incorporating ECS elemental capture spectroscopy measurements (Track 5) indicates the high
levels of calcite and dolomite in these shales, as well as the presence of rare minerals such as
dawsonite (light gray) and nahcolite (solid pink) in some intervals.
X,000
X,050
X,100
X,150
X,200
Depth,
ft
6 16 in.
Caliper
0 10
PEF
0 200 gAPI
Gamma
Ray
0.2 2,000 ohm.m
10-in. Array
0.2 2,000 ohm.m
20-in. Array
0.2 2,000 ohm.m
30-in. Array
0.2 2,000 ohm.m
60-in. Array
0.2 2,000 ohm.m
90-in. Array
Resistivity
NMR Porosity
45 % 15
Density Porosity
45 % 15
Porosity
0 % 50
TOM Log
0 % 50
Core Fischer Assay
Total Organic Matter Kerogen
Illite
Montmorillonite
Orthoclase
Pyrite
Dawsonite
Nahcolite
Albite
Quartz
Calcite
Dolomite
Bound water
Kerogen
Water
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 15
38607schD4R1.indd 13 2/21/11 9:26 PM
14 Oileld Review
results on Green River shales, researchers com-
puted an estimated Fischer assay log based on
the wireline logging measurements (above). The
estimated Fischer assay values show excellent
agreement with those from laboratory measure-
ments on cores from the same interval.
Another approach distinguishes mineral from
organic content using spectroscopy data. The ECS
elemental capture spectroscopy sonde measures
concentrations of silicon [Si], aluminum [Al], cal-
cium [Ca], iron [Fe], sulfur [S], potassium [K],
sodium [Na], magnesium [Mg], titanium [Ti] and
gadolinium [Gd].
31
Grain mineralogy is computed
from these element concentrations.
The total carbon concentration comes from
the RST reservoir saturation tool. Of this concen-
tration, some carbon is inorganic and some
organic. The inorganic carbon combines with cal-
cium and other elements to form calcite and
dolomite, along with lesser-known minerals,
such as nahcolite [NaH(CO
3
)] and dawsonite
[NaAl(CO
3
)(OH
2
)], which are common in Green
River shales. The ECS concentrations of Ca, Mg
and Na are used to compute the inorganic car-
bon. The remainder, called total organic carbon
(TOC), makes up the kerogen.
Using this spectroscopy method, researchers
computed a TOC log for an AMSO well in the
Green River basin, showing a good match between
log-based results and core measurements (next
page).
32
The TOC log was converted to a Fischer
assay yield log using a correlation derived inde-
pendently by AMSO scientists. The Fischer assay
log exhibited excellent agreement with Fischer
assay tests performed on cores (above right). This
technique employing geochemical logs, along
with the complementary method using nuclear
magnetic resonance logs, provides reliable, ef-
cient means to characterize shale oil yield with-
out having to resort to core measurements.
Heating Elements
One of the most fundamental issues for oil shale
retorting is how to get the heat into the oil shale.
After early testing, steam injection was aban-
doned as other, more efcient techniques were
discovered. In situ combustion has also been
tried, but is difcult to control. Electric heaters,
electrically conductive proppant and downhole
gas burners have all been evaluated and reported
to be effective with varying degrees of efciency.
Another concept, heating by downhole radio-
frequency (RF) transmitters, has also been mod-
eled and has undergone laboratory testing.
33

Advantages of the RF method are that it heats the
interior of the formation instead of the borehole,
and it can be controlled to customize heating rate.
But like all electrical methods, it sacrices ef-
ciency, losing about half the heating value of the
fuel originally burned to produce the electricity.
It is important to note that all the current
projects to produce shale oil by in situ heating
methods are in test and pilot stages; none have
demonstrated large-scale commercial produc-
tion. Operators are still working to optimize their
heating technologies. For a given oil shale, the
>
Fischer assay estimates from wireline logs. Core measurements on Green
River shales show a strong correlation between total organic matter (TOM),
or kerogen, and Fischer assay values (top). Total organic matter is
calculated using the density
k
of the kerogen, bulk density of the formation
b
and the difference between density porosity
D
and magnetic resonance
porosity
MR
. Researchers computed a kerogen log from the difference
between density and NMR porosity, then used this linear correlation to
convert the kerogen log to a Fischer assay log (bottom). The log-based
Fischer assay estimates (black) show excellent agreement with values from
laboratory Fischer assay measurements on cores (red).
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 16
F
i
s
c
h
e
r

a
s
s
a
y
,

g
a
l
U
S
/
t
o
n
U
S
20
0
40
60
80
X,000 X,050 X,100 X,150 X,200
Depth, ft
Core-measured Fischer assay values
Well log Fischer assay estimate
TOM =
D

MR
b
( )
Total organic matter
as fraction of ore weight
T
o
t
a
l

o
r
g
a
n
i
c

m
a
t
t
e
r

(
T
O
M
)
,

%
0
10
20
30
40
20 40 60 0
Modified Fischer assay, galUS/tonUS
TOM =
D

MR
b
( )
Total organic matter
as fraction of ore weight
>
Fischer yield from TOC. Fischer assay estimates
(black) from the TOC log exhibit an excellent
correlation with core Fischer assay results (red).
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 19
D
e
p
t
h
,

f
t
X,200
X,000
X,400
X,600
X,800
Y,000
Y,200
Y,400
0 20 40 60
Shale oil yield, galUS/tonUS
TOC converted to
Fischer assay yield
Core Fischer assay
38607schD4R1.indd 14 2/21/11 9:26 PM
Winter 2010/2011 15
heating historyhow much heat and for how
longdetermines the amount and content of the
resulting uids. By controlling the heat input,
companies can ne-tune the output, essentially
designing a shale oil of desired composition.
Beyond heating methods, there are other
aspects of oil shale operations that have yet to
be fully addressed. Mechanical stability of the
heated formation is not well understood. All the
in situ heating techniques rely on some thermo-
mechanical fracturing within the shale to
release matured organic material and create
additional permeability for the generated uids
to escape the formation. With many oil shales
containing 30% or more kerogen, most of which
leaves the rock after in situ retorting, treated
formations may not be able to support their
newfound porosity. Overburden weight can help
drive production, but may also cause compac-
tion and subsidence, which in turn can affect
wellbore stability and surface structures.
It is also unclear how to deal with the CO
2

generated along with other gases. Companies
retorting oil shale in situ may need to investigate
ways to capture and use the CO
2
for enhanced oil
recovery or sequester it in deep storage zones. An
alternative, being explored by AMSO, is mineral-
ization of CO
2
in the spent shale formation.
34
This
option exploits the chemical properties of the
heat-treated shale. AMSO scientists expect the
depleted formation to have sufcient porosity to
accommodate all the generated and reinjected
CO
2
as carbonate minerals.
Work also remains to understand the kerogen-
maturation process. To optimize heating pro-
grams, operators would like to know when the
shale has been heated enough and if the subsur-
face volume has been heated uniformly. To this
end, scientists are conducting laboratory experi-
ments to monitor the products of kerogen pyroly-
sis.
35
To understand when the process should be
modied or stopped, researchers plan to analyze
the composition of an oil shale and its hydrocar-
bons as they evolve with time. In the future, it
may be possible to control and monitor oil shale
heating and production to obtain oil and gas of
desired compositions. LS
31. Barson D, Christensen R, Decoster E, Grau J, Herron M,
Herron S, Guru UK, Jordn M, Maher TM, Rylander E
and White J: Spectroscopy: The Key to Rapid, Reliable
Petrophysical Answers, Oileld Review 17, no. 2
(Summer 2005): 1433.
32. Grau J, Herron M, Herron S, Kleinberg R, Machlus M,
Burnham A and Allix P: Organic Carbon Content of the
Green River Oil Shale from Nuclear Spectroscopy Logs,
presented at the 30th Oil Shale Symposium, Colorado
School of Mines, Golden, Colorado, October 1822, 2010.
33. Burnham AK: Slow Radio-Frequency Processing of
Large Oil Shale Volumes to Produce Petroleum-Like Shale
>
Organic and inorganic carbon from logs and cores. Total carbon (left) is made up of inorganic and organic carbon, the latter of
which resides in kerogen. The inorganic carbon is present in mineral form, such as in carbonates and some exotic minerals
sometimes found in oil shales. Estimates of inorganic (middle left) and organic carbon (middle right) based on nuclear
measurements (black) correlate extremely well with laboratory measurements on cores (red). An expanded section (right) shows
the quality of the match across the bottom 150-ft interval.
0 20 40
Total carbon, weight percent
D
e
p
t
h
,

f
t
X,000
X,200
X,400
X,600
X,800
Y,000
Y,200
Y,400
0 10 20
Inorganic carbon, weight percent
0 20 40
0 20 40 10 30 Organic carbon, weight percent
TOC, weight percent
1
5
0
-
f
t

i
n
t
e
r
v
a
l
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
Oil Shale Fig. 18
Oil, Livermore, California: Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, Report UCRL-ID-155045, August 20, 2003.
Raytheon: Radio Frequency/Critical Fluid Oil Extraction
Technology, http://www.raytheon.com/businesses/
rtnwcm/groups/public/documents/datasheet/rtn_bus_
ids_prod_rfcf_pdf.pdf (accessed November 16, 2010).
34. Burnham et al, reference 28.
35. Bostrom N, Leu G, Pomerantz D, Machlus M, Herron M
and Kleinberg R: Realistic Oil Shale Pyrolysis Programs:
Kinetics and Quantitative Analysis, presented at the
29th Oil Shale Symposium, Colorado School of Mines,
Golden, Colorado, October 1921, 2009.
38607schD4R1.indd 15 2/21/11 9:26 PM
16 Oileld Review
Has the Time Come for EOR?
For twenty years, much of the E&P industry turned away from the term enhanced oil
recovery. Yet, during that period, eld successes through ooding with steam and
carbon dioxide continued. Decreasing production levels in maturing elds have
revived interest in enhanced recovery techniques in many parts of the world.
Improved technologies for understanding and accessing reservoirs have increased
the possibilities for successful EOR implementation.
Rifaat Al-Mjeni
Shell Technology Oman
Muscat, Oman
Shyam Arora
Pradeep Cherukupalli
John van Wunnik
Petroleum Development Oman
Muscat, Oman
John Edwards
Muscat, Oman
Betty Jean Felber
Consultant
Sand Springs, Oklahoma, USA
Omer Gurpinar
Denver, Colorado, USA
George J. Hirasaki
Clarence A. Miller
Rice University
Houston, Texas, USA
Cuong Jackson
Houston, Texas
Morten R. Kristensen
Abingdon, England
Frank Lim
Anadarko Petroleum Corporation
The Woodlands, Texas
Raghu Ramamoorthy
Abu Dhabi, UAE
CHDT, CMR-Plus, Dielectric Scanner, ECLIPSE, FMI, MDT,
MicroPilot and Sensa are marks of Schlumberger.
A tantalizingly large source of additional oil sits
within reach of existing oileld infrastructure.
Operating companies know where it is, and they
have a good idea how much is there. This resource
is oil left in reservoirs after traditional recovery
methods, such as primary production and water-
ooding, have reached their economic limits.
The percentage of original oil remaining var-
ies from eld to eld, but a study of 10 US oil-
producing regions found that about two-thirds of
the original oil in place (OOIP) remained after
traditional recovery methods were exhausted.
1

The study found that about 23% of the oil remain-
ing in those regions could be produced using
established CO
2
ood technologies. That techni-
cally recoverable resource of almost 14 billion m
3

[89 billion bbl] of oil could, by itself, supply more
than a decade of US consumption at current
rates. Interest in methods to recover those
resources has increased in recent years.
2
Worldwide, the number of mature elds will
continue to grow, with more passing their produc-
tion peak each year. Operators work to optimize
recovery from these elds, and in the past 20
years tremendous advances have been made that
help access the remaining resource. Bypassed oil
can be located with advanced logging tools, 4D
seismic evaluations, crosswell imaging technolo-
gies, 3D geomodeling and other state-of-the-art
software systems. The industry has made strides
in understanding clastic sedimentary structures
and carbonate petrophysics to construct models
and in reservoir geomechanics to plan well paths.
Today, the industry can drill more-complex wells
and precisely reach multiple targets containing
untapped oil. Completions can be designed to bet-
ter monitor and control production and injection
downhole and to measure uid properties both in
situ and at the surface. Tailored chemicals can be
designed to improve recovery, and advanced
research is looking at the use of nanoparticles to
mobilize remaining oil. In addition, the world is
now more environmentally aware, presenting the
opportunity to use depleted reservoirs for storage
of CO
2
while also increasing recovery factors.
Methods for recovering oil are referred to
by several terms.
3
An early concept described
sequential phases of production using the
terms primary (pressure depletion, including
natural water or gas drive), secondary (mostly
1. Hartstein A, Kusskraa V and Godec M: Recovering
Stranded Oil Can Substantially Add to U.S. Oil Supplies,
Project Fact Sheet, US Department of Energy Ofce of
Fossil Energy (2006), http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/
oilgas/publications/eor_co2/C_-_10_Basin_Studies_
Fact_Sheet.pdf (accessed November 8, 2010).
2. For a recent review of enhanced recovery methods:
Manrique E, Thomas C, Ravikiran R, Izadi M, Lantz M,
Romero J and Alvarado V: EOR: Current Status and
Opportunities, paper SPE 130113, presented at the SPE
Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, Tulsa, April 2428, 2010.
For results of a biennial survey of activity: Moritis G:
Special Report: EOR/Heavy Oil Survey: CO
2
Miscible,
Steam Dominate Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes,
Oil & Gas Journal 108, no. 14 (April 19, 2010): 3653.
Moritis G: EOR Oil Production Up Slightly, Oil & Gas
Journal 96, no. 16 (April 1998): 4977, http://www.ogj.
com/index/current-issue/oil-gas-journal/volume-96/
issue-16.html (accessed February 7, 2011).
3. A proposal made to the SPE in 2003 to clarify the
denitions was not implemented. See Hite JR, Stosur G,
Carnahan NF and Miller K: IOR and EOR: Effective
Communication Requires a Denition of Terms, Journal
of Petroleum Technology 55, no. 6 (June 2003): 16.
38607schD5R1.indd 16 2/21/11 9:32 PM
Winter 2010/2011 17
38607schD5R1.indd 17 2/21/11 9:34 PM
18 Oileld Review
water- or gasflooding, including pressure main-
tenance) and tertiary (everything else).
However, with advances in reservoir modeling,
engineers sometimes found that waterflooding
should occur before pressure decline, or that a
tertiary method should be used in place of a
waterflood, or that potential recovery by a ter-
tiary method might be lost due to reservoir
damage from earlier activities. The terms lost
their original sense of a chronological order.
Engineers today often include methods for-
merly termed tertiary as part of the field devel-
opment plan from the beginning.
Another distinction that has been difcult to
dene is that between improved oil recovery
(IOR)which had essentially the same deni-
tion as secondary recoveryand enhanced oil
recovery (EOR), which included more-exotic
recovery methods. Over the years, a few EOR pro-
cesses were commercially successful in many
applications, and some companies began refer-
ring to them as a form of IOR instead. This rela-
beling process accelerated after many companies
severely cut or stopped funding EOR research
during the era of low crude-oil prices in the 1980s
and 1990s.
4
Regardless of the labels used, the range of
activities applied to increase recovery from reser-
voirs is wide. Waterooding is common as an eco-
nomical way to displace oil and provide pressure
support. Methods that improve physical access to
oil include inll drilling, horizontal drilling,
hydraulic fracturing and installation of certain
types of completion hardware. Conformance con-
trol improves recovery by blocking off high-
permeability zones either by mechanical means,
such as inow control devices, or by injecting u-
ids, such as foam or polymer, that plug those
zones; these activities improve recovery from
lower-permeability zones. Thermal processes are
common to decrease viscosity of heavy oils and to
mobilize light oils.
Finally, injecting chemicals and effective
recovery gasessuch as CO
2
can change certain
physical properties of the crude oil-brine-rock
(COBR) system. These methods alter inter facial
tension (IFT), mobility, viscosity or wettability,
swell the oil or alter its phase composition.
The specic method or combination of EOR
methods applied to recover oil is typically based
on an engineering study of each reservoir. In
most cases, the objective is to achieve the most
economical return on investment, but some
national oil companies have different goals, such
as maximizing ultimate recovery. Operators
examine several risk factors, including oil price,
need for a long-term program to achieve satisfac-
tory return on investment, large upfront capital
investments and cost of drilling additional wells
and running pilots.
Many oil-recovery techniques depend on pore-
level interactions involving COBR-system proper-
ties. Most projects begin by screening EOR
candidates against eld parameters such as tem-
perature, pressure, salinity and oil composition.
5

Many companies have established screening
criteria for EOR projects, but since these are
changing as new technologies are introduced, this
article does not present a specic set of criteria.
6
EOR techniques that pass initial screening
are further evaluated based on laboratory studies
of the rock and uids and on simulation studies
that use eld properties. If laboratory tests have
positive results, the operator might next perform
eld-level tests, ranging from single-well to
multiple-pattern pilots. If the early steps indicate
likelihood of a positive economic result, full-eld
implementation can follow.
EOR technology has even resurrected signi-
cant levels of production after abandonment. The
Pru Fee property in Midway-Sunset eld, San
Joaquin basin, California, USA, produced about
2.4 million bbl [380,000 m
3
] of heavy oil between
start of production in the early 1900s and
abandonment in 1986.
7
Cyclic steam injection
had been partially successful in increasing pro-
duction, but by the time of abandonment, the oil
rate was less than 10 bbl/d [1.6 m
3
/d] for the
entire eld.
In 1995, The US Department of Energy (DOE)
selected the Pru Fee property for a demonstra-
tion EOR project. After cyclic steamooding in
several old wells at the center of the site demon-
strated good production levels, the project team
added 11 new producers, 4 injectors and 3 tem-
perature-observation wells, obtaining production
rates in the range of 363 to 381 bbl/d/well [57.7 to
60.6 m
3
/d/well]. In 1999, operator Aera Energy
added 10 steamood patterns.
8
By 2009, the site
had produced an additional 4.3 million bbl
[684,000 m
3
] of oil after original abandonment.
9
This article describes a broad range of recov-
ery methods, but focuses on techniques tradition-
ally considered EORand referred to as
suchincluding miscible and immiscible gas-
ooding, chemical ooding and thermal technol-
ogies. A case study for a Gulf of Mexico eld
evaluated its gasooding potential. An extensive
laboratory evaluation indicates how to tailor a
chemical combination for EOR injection. Another
case, from Oman, describes the rst use of a
method for performing rapid single-well, in situ
evaluations of injection to demonstrate the ef-
ciency of a ooding process.
Displacement Efciency
Waterooding in oil elds was rst legalized in
the US in the state of New York in 1919, but so-
called unintentional waterooding was recorded
as early as 1865, near Pithole City, Pennsylvania,
USA.
10
Less than a decade after waterooding
became legal, inventors proposed means to
improve ood recovery by adding surfactant to
lower interfacial tension or by injecting alkali to
generate surfactant in situboth now accepted
EOR methods.
11
A boom of activity in EOR techniques came
after the oil-price rise of the 1970s, but the bust
in the late 1980s led many companies to abandon
marginal and uneconomic projects (above left).
A sustained period of higher crude-oil prices in
>
EOR project history. The number of ongoing EOR eld projects in the US
peaked in 1986, then declined for nearly 20 years. Since 2004, the number of
projects has been rising again. Currently, miscible gas EOR projects (green)
dominate, followed by thermal projects (pink). At present, only a few
chemical oods (blue) are underway. [Data from Moritis (1998 and 2010),
reference 2.]
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
EOR Fig. 1
ORWIN10-EOR Fig. 1
N
u
m
b
e
r

o
f

U
S

p
r
o
j
e
c
t
s
600
500
400
300
200
100
1978
Data from Oil & Gas Journal surveys
Chemical
Thermal
Gas
1982 1986 1990
Year
1994 1998 2002 2006 2010
0
= Oil/water interfacial tension
= Contact angle
OW
cos
Viscous forces
38607schD5R1.indd 18 2/21/11 9:35 PM
Winter 2010/2011 19
the past 10 years has revived operator interest in
some of these techniques and encouraged intro-
duction of new ones. That interest has survived
the more recent price volatility.
Many techniques aimed at improving recov-
ery are designed to increase the efciency of oil
displacement using injected water or other u-
ids. Some methods address the macroscopic dis-
placement efciency, also called sweep efciency.
Other recovery methods focus on microscopic, or
pore-scale, displacement efciency. The overall
displacement efciency is the product of both
macroscopic and microscopic efciencies.
Macroscopic displacementAt the scale of
interwell distances, oil is bypassed because of lat-
eral or vertical formation heterogeneity, well-
pattern inefciencies or low-viscosity injection
uids. Improving sweep efciency is typically one
of the goals of reservoir engineering and model-
ing. Although the efciency of well patterns such
as ve- or nine-spots can be determined for a uni-
form reservoir, reservoir heterogeneities affect
ow paths (above left). If these are unknown or
not compensated for by adjusting the pattern,
then sweep efciency suffers.
Advances in seismic acquisition, processing
and interpretation have given reservoir engi-
neers new tools to locate faults and layer changes.
Some companies have applied 4D seismic meth-
ods to follow a ood front through a reservoir,
allowing their engineers to update models based
on observed ow geometries. Pattern sweep ef-
ciency can be improved by inll drilling or the
use of horizontal or extended-reach wells and by
creating zones within well intervals using down-
hole ow-control devices.
12
Sweep is also affected by vertical variations in
properties (above right). In particular, a high-
permeability, or thief, zone will be swept by a
waterood before adjacent low-permeability
zones are swept. Techniques can be applied to
equalize the ow in the zones, most commonly
by decreasing thief-zone permeabilities. If there
is little or no communication between zones,
the thief zone can be shut off near the injection
site, but if the zones communicate throughout
the reservoir, it may be necessary to design an
injectant that will block the zone all the way to
the producing well. For both near-well and far-
eld solutions, engineers use foams and polymers
for this purpose.
Viscous ngering is another concern of macro-
scopic displacement efciency. If the displacing
uidtypically wateris signicantly less vis-
cous than the oil it is displacing, the ood front
can become unstable. Rather than being linear or
radially symmetric, the leading edge of the front
4. One indication of the rise and fall of the term EOR is the
naming of the biennial meeting sponsored by the SPE in
Tulsa. The rst ve meetings, spanning 1969 through
1978, were called the SPE Improved Oil Recovery
Symposia. From 1980 through 1992, the US Department of
Energy jointly sponsored the conferences, and they were
called the SPE/DOE Enhanced Oil Recovery Symposia. In
1994, the conferences returned to sole sponsorship by
SPE, and again became the SPE Improved Oil Recovery
Symposia, which they remain today. Throughout this
31-year period, conference papers covered topics
typically considered both IOR and EOR.
5. Lake LW, Schmidt RL and Venuto PB: A Niche for
Enhanced Oil Recovery in the 1990s, Oileld Review 4,
no. 1 (January 1992): 5561.
6. For an overview of EOR engineering, including criteria to
consider: Green DW and Willhite GP: Enhanced Oil
Recovery. Richardson, Texas, USA: Society of Petroleum
Engineers, SPE Textbook Series, vol. 6, 1998.
>
Areal displacement efciency. Oil can be bypassed
because of inefciencies in macroscopic sweep.
A pattern ood can be affected by a heterogeneous
formation (such as the presence of sealing faults)
or by ngering of a less viscous injectant into
the oil.
S
e
a
l
i
n
g

f
a
u
l
t
Viscous fingers
Injectant
Injection well Production well
Pattern Flood
>
Vertical displacement efciency. Vertical sweep can be affected by viscous
ngering, as well as by preferential movement of uids along a high-
permeability thief zone or by gravity override of injection gas (as indicated
here) or underride of injection water.
Vertical Profile
Gravity
override
Barrier
Barrier
High permeability
Low permeability
For another set of criteria: Taber JJ, Martin FD and
Seright RS: EOR Screening Criteria RevisitedPart 1:
Introduction to Screening Criteria and Enhanced
Recovery Field Projects, SPE Reservoir Engineering 12,
no. 3 (August 1997): 189198.
Taber JJ, Martin FD and Seright RS: EOR Screening
Criteria RevisitedPart 2: Applications and Impact of
Oil Prices, SPE Reservoir Engineering 12, no. 3
(August 1997): 199205.
7. Schamel S: Reactivation of the Idle Pru Lease of
Midway-Sunset Field, San Joaquin Basin, CA, The Class
Act: DOEs Reservoir Class Program Newsletter 7, no. 2
(Summer 2001): 16, www.netl.doe.gov/technologies/
oil-gas/publications/newsletters/ca/casum2001.pdf
(accessed November 10, 2010).
8. Schamel S and Deo M: Role of Small-Scale Variations in
Water Saturation in Optimization of Steamood Heavy-Oil
Recovery in the Midway-Sunset Field, California,
SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering 9, no. 2
(April 2006): 106113.
9. State of California Department of Conservation Division
of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, Online
Production and Injection database, http://opi.consrv.
ca.gov/opi (accessed December 3, 2010).
10. Blomberg JR: History and Potential Future of Improved
Oil Recovery in the Appalachian Basin, paper SPE
51087, presented at the SPE Eastern Regional Meeting,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, November 911, 1998.
11. Uren LC and Fahmy EH: Factors Inuencing the
Recovery of Petroleum from Unconsolidated Sands
by Water-Flooding, Transactions of the AIME 77
(1927): 318335.
Atkinson H: Recovery of Petroleum from Oil Bearing
Sands, US Patent No. 1,651,311 (November 29, 1927).
12. Ellis T, Erkal A, Goh G, Jokela T, Kvernstuen S, Leung E,
Moen T, Porturas F, Skillingstad T, Vorkinn PB and
Raffn AG: Inow Control DevicesRaising Proles,
Oileld Review 21, no. 4 (Winter 2009/2010): 3037.
38607schD5R1.indd 19 2/21/11 9:35 PM
20 Oileld Review
forms waves that transition to ngers extending
farther into the oil. Eventually, water ngers reach
the producing well. At that point, additional
injected water will preferentially follow the water-
lled paths. Engineers avoid this by increasing
water viscosity through methods such as adding
polymer or foam to it.
Microscopic displacementAt the other end
of the size scale, small blobs of oil can be trapped
within a pore or a connected group of pores
(above). Oil at this scale is trapped because vis-
cous or gravity-drive forces within the pore space
are insufcient to overcome capillary forces.
The amount of oil trapped within pore spaces
depends on a variety of physical properties of
the COBR system. One of these properties is
wettability.
13
In a strongly water-wet rock, water
preferentially coats the pore walls. Conversely,
strongly oil-wet surfaces within a pore are pref-
erentially contacted by oil. In an intermediate-
wetting condition, the pore surfaces do not have
a strong preference for either water or oil.
Most reservoir rocks have a mix of wetting
conditions: The smaller pores and spaces near
grain contacts are generally strongly water wet-
ting, while the surfaces bounding the larger pore
bodies may range from less water wetting to oil
wetting. Thus, the wettability of the bulk material
is between the two extremes. Although measures
of wettability, such as Amott-Harvey or US Bureau
of Mines (USBM) wettability tests, may result in
similar index numbers for intermediate and
mixed-wet rocks, the two are distinct wetting
conditions. Intermediate wettability applies to
rocks with all surfaces of neutral wetting prefer-
ence, while mixed wetting applies to rocks with
surfaces of markedly different wettability.
Optimal recovery from waterooding is obtained
in mixed-wet material that is slightly water wet-
ting.
14
The reason for this can be made clear by a
discussion of pore-level oil-trapping mechanisms.
Most reservoirs were water-wet formations
before oil accumulated. Oil migrating into a for-
mation must overcome the rocks wetting forces
before it can enter the pores. This resistance is the
rocks capillary entry pressure, which is the pres-
sure difference between the water and oil phases
needed to overcome wetting forces in small open-
ings. The capillary entry pressure is inversely pro-
portional to the radius of the opening, or pore
throat, through which the oil must pass.
Since rocks have a variety of pore throat
sizes, any given rock will have a distribution of
capillary entry pressures. Pores having the larg-
est throats are the rst to be invaded by the
nonwetting phase, and those with progressively
smaller pore throats are invaded at progres-
sively higher pressure differences between the
phases. Thus, a rock will have a capillary pres-
sure curve indicating the degree of invasion
represented by the remaining water
saturationat each capillary pressure (left).
In a reservoir, the source of the pressure dif-
ference between the phases is their density dif-
ference. The depth in the reservoir at which the
water- and oil-phase pressures are the same is
the free-water level.
15
The product of the height
above the free-water level, the acceleration of
gravity and the density difference between
phases gives the pressure difference for that
height. That pressure difference supplies the
capillary pressure, resulting in decreasing water
saturation with height above the free-water level
based on the pore throat distribution in the rock.
This is seen in some reservoirs as a transition
zone, where the water saturation changes with
depth in a rock with uniform properties.
16
In addition to providing insight into the ini-
tial saturation distribution in a reservoir, capil-
lary pressure is also important for ow dynamics.
The capillary behavior of a formation inuences
the irreducible water saturation after water-
ooding. Thus, one of the most important quanti-
ties to know about a reservoir, the maximum
amount of oil that can be recovered by water-
ooding, is strongly inuenced by the pore-level
physics of wetting.
If the oil in a pore contains surface-active
components, it can displace a thin layer of water
and contact the rock surface. Thus, the oil in
pores can alter the wettability of the pore sur-
face, making it less strongly water wetting or
even oil wetting. However, the tight spaces in
pores, such as near grain-to-grain contacts,
retain their water coatings and remain strongly
water wetting. This is thought to be the origin of
the mixed-wetting character of most reservoirs.
17
When oil is displaced either through a natural
or forced waterdrive, water can encroach into
pore spaces in three ways. It can follow existing
paths of continuous water in the smallest nooks
and crannies of the pore structure and slowly
increase the thickness of that water lm.
However, the relative permeability for water ow-
ing along that path is vanishingly small outside
13. For more on wettability: Abdallah W, Buckley JS,
Carnegie A, Edwards J, Herold B, Fordham E, Graue A,
Habashy T, Seleznev N, Signer C, Hussain H, Montaron B
and Ziauddin M: Fundamentals of Wettability, Oileld
Review 19, no. 2 (Summer 2007): 4461.
14. Jadhunandan PP and Morrow NR: Effect of Wettability
on Waterood Recovery for Crude-Oil/Brine/Rock
Systems, SPE Reservoir Engineering 10, no. 1
(February 1995): 4046.
15. Free-water level may not correspond to the oil/water
contact because of the lling history of the reservoir.
16. A change in distribution of pore throats, such as occurs
in a sand-shale sequence, also results in an abrupt
saturation change because the rocks have different
capillary pressure curves. Filling and depletion history
can also inuence the saturation distribution.
17. Mixed wettability can also occur because different
minerals present in the rock have different afnities for
water and oil.
18. Seccombe J, Lager A, Jerauld G, Jhaveri B, Buikema T,
Bassler S, Denis J, Webb K, Cockin A and Fueg E and
Paskvan F: Demonstration of Low-Salinity EOR at
Interwell Scale, Endicott Field, Alaska, paper SPE
129692, presented at the SPE Improved Oil Recovery
Symposium, Tulsa, April 2428, 2010.
>
Microscopic displacement. At the microscopic
scale, oil can be trapped in the middle of pores
(for example, top right) when water ows around
the oil in a water-wet formation. Oil that is
connected to ow paths (bottom right) continues
to be displaced.
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
EOR Fig. 3
ORWIN10-EOR Fig. 3
Oil
Water
Grain
>
Capillary pressure curves. Formations have
different capillary pressure relationships,
depending on the distribution of pore throats in the
rock. Starting fully saturated with water, the rock
is exposed to oil at increasing capillary pressures,
and the capillary pressure curve indicates the
degree of saturation at each capillary pressure.
A clean, uniform sandstone (pink) with large pore
throats will have a low capillary entry pressure
P
ce1
and a rapid decline in water saturation as the
capillary pressure increases. In contrast, a poorly
sorted sandstone (blue) can have a high capillary
entry pressure P
ce2
and a slow decrease in
saturation as the capillary pressure increases.
Water saturation, %
P
ce2
P
ce1
0 100
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
EOR Fig. 4
ORWIN10-EOR Fig. 4
C
a
p
i
l
l
a
r
y

p
r
e
s
s
u
r
e
38607schD5R1.indd 20 2/21/11 9:35 PM
Winter 2010/2011 21
the transition zone because the water layers are
so thin. Alternatively, if the formation is strongly
water wetting, the rocks afnity for imbibing
water will force oil out of the smaller pore spaces
rst, then from increasingly larger pores as the
ood progresses. The ood water connects with
the thin layers of water present on the grains.
Finally, in an oil-wet or mixed-wet formation of
the type described above, water invades the large
pores as the nonwetting phase if the water-phase
pressure is sufcient to overcome the capillary
entry pressure.
In all three cases, as the waterood pro-
gresses, oil can become trapped within pores as
water nds easier ow paths around it. Once the
water breaks the connection between an oil blob
and the oil sweeping out ahead of the waterfront,
the blob becomes much more difcult to move
(right). This disconnected oil has to move
through pore throats that probably were never
altered from strongly water wetting (even in a
mixed-wet formation), but the only drive force is
the pressure difference between the water
upstream and that downstream of the blob.
One of the reasons that maximum oil recovery
occurs in mixed-wet systems is that oil in contact
with the more oil-wetting (or less water-wetting)
pore surfaces can remain continuous at lower oil
saturations than in a water-wet system. More of
the oil can drain from the pores before it becomes
trapped by water on all sides.
However, in a strongly oil-wetting formation,
remaining oil is trapped in the smaller pores and
its relative permeability gets vanishingly small
as water lls the larger pores. The waterood
residual oil recovery for a formation that is
strongly oil wetting is less than that of a mixed-
wetting formation.
Flooding Methodologies
Traditionally, many EOR techniques target the oil
remaining after waterooding. Most methods fall
into one of three general categories: gasooding,
chemical ooding and thermal techniques. Each
of these has a variety of forms, and they can be
combined to achieve specic results (below).
Waterooding is generally not considered an
EOR method unless it is combined with some
other ooding method. However, over the past
15 years, the oil industry has investigated low-
salinity waterooding, which, in some situations,
does recover additional oil following a typical,
high-salinity waterood.
18
Although the oil-
recovery mechanism is not universally accepted,
>
Comparison of forces. Capillary forces can trap isolated oil in the pore
space. Typically, capillary forces are overcome by either viscous or gravity
forces. Two dimensionless numbers are used to compare these forces. The
capillary number N
c
(left) is a ratio of viscous to capillary forces. To mobilize
the oil, either the brine velocity must be increased or the oil/water IFT must
be brought near zero, which produces a large value of the capillary number.
In a system where gravity is more important, such as gravity stabilized ow,
the relevant quantity to maximize is the Bond (also called the Etvs) number
N
b
(right). In most cases, the wettability is taken as strongly water-wet, with a
contact angle near zero.
N
c
=
v
W
OW
cos
N
b
=
g L
2
OW
cos
Viscous forces
= brine velocity
= brine viscosity
Capillary number: Bond number:
v
W
= oil/water interfacial tension
= contact angle
OW
Capillary forces
Gravity forces
= oil/water density difference
= acceleration of gravity
= characteristic length (size of oil blob)
g
L
>
Physical effects of EOR methods. EOR methods generate various physical effects that help recover remaining oil (shaded boxes). The incremental
recovery factor (right) has a large range of values when compared with waterooding, which is typically not considered an EOR method.
Waterflood Waterflood Base case
2
Low
Low
Moderate
Moderate
Moderate
High
High
Very high
High
Highest
High
High
High
Engineered water
Hydrocarbon
Hydrocarbon
Hydrocarbon WAG
Steam
High-pressure air
Polymer
Surfactant
ASP
IFT = interfacial tension
WAG = water-alternating-gas
ASP = alkali-surfactant-polymer
1. Change of composition of liquid hydrocarbon.
2. Waterflooding provides the base case for comparison of other methods.
3. Oil stripping occurs as miscibility develops.
4. Condensing and vaporizing exchange.
Nitrogen or flue gas
CO
2
CO
2
CO
2

WAG

EOR Method
Pressure
Support
Sweep
Improvement
IFT
Reduction
Wettability
Alteration
Viscosity
Reduction
Oil
Swelling
Hydrocarbon
Single Phase
Incremental
Recovery Factor
Gasflood:
immiscible
Gasflood:
miscible
Thermal
Chemical
Compositional
Change
1
3 3
4
4
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
EOR Fig. 6
ORWIN10-EOR Fig. 6
38607schD5R1.indd 21 2/21/11 9:35 PM
22 Oileld Review
most researchers think there is a COBR interac-
tion that liberates additional oil (see On the
Road to Recovery, page 34).
GasoodingHistorically, gasooding has
often been classied as a secondary or IOR
method. It can be a preferred disposal or storage
method for associated natural gas when there is
no available market, or seasonally when gas
demand is lower than supply. But it can also be
applied after waterooding, or in combination
with a waterood, in which case it is considered
an EOR method. When performed in conjunction
with waterooding, injection typically alternates
between gas and water. The water-alternating-
gas (WAG) cycles improve sweep efciency by
increasing the viscosity of the combined ood
front (above). In addition, with some uid com-
positions and in situ conditions, foam may form,
which can further improve the viscosity-related
sweep efciency.
Depending on the pressure, temperature and
composition of the gas and oil, injection can be
under either immiscible or miscible conditions.
In an immiscible ood, gas and oil remain dis-
tinct phases. Gas invades the rock as a nonwet-
ting phase, displacing oil from the largest pores
rst. However, when they are miscible, gas and oil
form one phase. This mixing typically causes the
oil volume to swell while lowering the interfacial
tension between the oil phase and water.
Displacement by miscible-gas injection can be
highly efcient for recovering oil.
The rock wettability also has an impact on oil
recovery by miscible ooding. In a laboratory
core study, the best waterood oil recovery was in
mixed-wet rocks, followed by intermediate-wet
and water-wet rocks, with oil-wet rocks having
the least waterood oil recovery.
19
For a miscible
gasood after waterooding, the greatest amount
of remaining oil was recovered from the oil-wet
core, suggesting that the miscible process could
be considered in place of a waterood.
20
Both the
intermediate-wet and mixed-wet rocks had high
overall recovery from the combined waterood
and miscible gasood.
Under some conditions, the uids are termed
multiple-contact miscible. In this case, when
they rst contact one another, gas and oil are not
miscible. However, light components from the oil
enter the gas phase, and the heavy, long-chain
hydrocarbons from the gas enter the liquid phase.
As the front contacts fresh oil, more components
are exchanged, until the gas and the oil reach
compositions that are miscible.
21
Various gases are used as EOR injectants.
Natural gasproduced from the same or a neigh-
boring eldhas already been mentioned as one
source. Methane or methane enriched with light
ends is also used. A local supply of ue gas, such
as exhaust gas from a power plant, can be utilized
if the transport costs are low enough. Nitrogen,
>
Miscible water-alternating-gas (WAG) process. In a miscible WAG process, an injected gasCO
2
in this casemixes with reservoir oil and creates an oil
bank ahead of the miscible zone. The gas is followed by a slug of water, which improves the mobility ratio of the displacing uids to avoid ngering. The cycle
of gas and water injection can be repeated many times, until a nal waterdrive ushes the remaining hydrocarbon, now mixed with CO
2
, from the reservoir.
Formation heterogeneities, such as a higher permeability streak (darker layer), affect the shapes of the ood fronts.
Injection well
Injection fluids Oil
Drive fluid
(water)
Water Miscible zone Additional
oil recovery
CO
2
CO
2
Oil bank
Production well
High-permeability layer
F
a
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38607schD5R1.indd 22 3/1/11 9:36 PM
Winter 2010/2011 23
which is generally separated from air on location,
is another injection gas.
Most gas-injection EOR projects in operation
today use CO
2
as the injection gas (above).
22
In
Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma, USA, naturally
occurring CO
2
is produced and piped to oil elds.
Recently, considerable interest has arisen in
using CO
2
injection as a way both to increase oil
recovery and to sequester anthropogenic sources
of this greenhouse gas. This option generally
requires proximity between the source factory
and an oil eld suitable for CO
2
injection.
Chemical oodingMany types of chemicals
are injected to recover oil, but they generally fall
within one of three groups: polymers, surfactants
and alkalis. There are few projects active today,
but historically, polymer injection has been
applied signicantly more often than the other
two methods.
23
Modern chemical oods can be
highly successful at displacing remaining oil,
with oil recovery in the high 90% range reported
in the laboratory and the eld.
Long-chain polymers are injected along
with water or other ooding agents to improve
the viscosity ratio, thereby decreasing viscous
ngering. Polymer injection is used both for near-
well conformance control and for formation
sweep control.
Surfactant chemicals are medium- to long-
chain molecules that have both a hydrophilic and
a hydrophobic section. Thus, the molecules accu-
mulate at the oil/water interface and lower the
IFT between the phases. Since capillary forces
prevent oil from moving through water-wet
restrictions, such as pore throats, decreasing
such forces can increase recovery. When the cap-
illary number, or ratio between viscous and capil-
lary forces, is high, viscous forces dominate and
remaining oil can move. This also applies in a
gravity-dominated displacement, where the Bond
number, or ratio of gravity to capillary forces,
needs to be high to overcome capillary trapping.
Although the price of surfactants has declined
relative to the price of crude oil since the 1980s,
they remain among the costliest EOR injectants.
An alternative to surfactants is high-pH, alka-
line chemicals. If the oil contains sufcient con-
centration of petroleum acids of the right type,
the alkali will react in situ to form soaps, which
are also surface active. The objective is the same
as a surfactant ood, but since the surfactant
19. Rao DN, Girard M and Sayegh SG: The Inuence of
Reservoir Wettability on Waterood and Miscible Flood
Performance, Journal of Canadian Petroleum
Technology 31, no. 6 (June 1992): 4755.
20. Rao et al, reference 19.
21. There are three ways for mass transfer between uids
to occur: The uids can be soluble in one another, they
can diffuse into one another due to random motion, or a
concentration gradient can drive one into the other
through dispersion. In a CO
2
-crude oil system, solubility
is the main driver.
22. Moritis (2010), reference 2.
>
Cyclic gas injection. In a single-well process, a gas such as CO
2
is injected into the near-well region for a brief period of hours or days (left). During a long
soak period of days or weeks (middle), the miscible gas mixes with the oil in place, swelling it and reducing its viscosity. Then the well is produced for an
extended period of time (right), taking advantage of the increased pressure from the injected uids and the change in properties of the oil. The cycle is
typically repeated.
Production
Producing oil and CO
2
Injection
Injecting CO
2
Oil
CO
2
Mixing zone
Soak
CO
2
swells oil and
reduces its viscosity.
38607schD5R1.indd 23 2/21/11 9:36 PM
24 Oileld Review
characteristics of the soap are not designed for
the system, recovery may not be as high as with
surfactants chosen specically for the eld.
Combinations of these chemical methods
have become more common. An early combina-
tion used in several elds was surfactant-polymer
ooding, also called micellar-polymer ooding. A
slug of surfactant is injected to mobilize the oil,
followed by a polymer ood to prevent viscous
ngering. Recently, a combination of all three
types of injectants has shown signicant promise.
In alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP) ooding,
operators inject a tailored mix of an alkaline
compound and surfactants chosen for the spe-
cic COBR system, followed by polymer slugs for
mobility control (above). Properly formulated, an
ASP ood combines the best of the three chemi-
cal methods to optimize recovery (see Laboratory
Predesign for an ASP Flood, page 29).
24
Lower IFT can also be obtained through
microbial EOR. The research emphasis today is
on nding microbes already present in the forma-
tion that have favorable properties for interfacial
activity and then injecting nutrients favored by
those microbes. This leads to their proliferation
in situ, increasing the microbial action that gen-
erates lower IFT for the oil/water system.
Microbial EOR has not been applied often.
25
Thermal methodsTypically, heavy oil is
mobilized by adding heat to a reservoir to decrease
oil viscosity. Viscosity of very heavy oils can drop by
a factor ranging from 100 to 1,000 when heated
from about 40C to 150C [100F to 300F].
26

Thermal methods include steamoods, hot water-
oods, electrical heating and combustion. Steam
has greater heat content than hot water, but they
both serve similar purposes in EOR. Electrical
heating has been tested in several eld trials, but
has not otherwise been implemented.
27
Although
in situ oil combustion is used, steamooding is the
predominant thermal method.
28
New wells in a heavy-oil reservoir often begin
production using cyclic steam injection to
improve oil mobility in the near-well region (next
page).
29
In this single-well process, a slug of
steam is injected into the formation, and, after a
soak phase to allow heat transfer to the reservoir,
the well is produced. The cycle repeats, often
until steam heats a sufcient formation volume
such that the well can be incorporated into a pat-
tern steamood.
The pattern in a heavy-oil eld typically has
relatively small well spacings. Injected steam
heats and thins the heavy oil and displaces it to
production wells.
>
Alkali-surfactant-polymer ood. An ASP ood includes several ood stages. A brine preush is sometimes used to change the salinity or other rock or
uid properties. The rst chemical slug injected is a combination of alkali and surfactant. That slug mixes with the oil and changes its properties,
decreasing the IFT and altering the rock wettability. These effects mobilize more oil. A polymer slug follows to improve the mobility differential between the
oil and the injected uids. This slug is typically followed by a freshwater slug to optimize recovery of the chemicals, and then a ood with drive water.
Gravity over- or underride and formation heterogeneities, such as a higher permeability streak (darker layer), affect the shapes of the ood fronts.
Injection well
Injection fluids Oil
Drive fluid
(water)
Polymer
solution
Oil bank
Freshwater
buffer
Alkali-surfactant
solution
Preflush
Production well
High-permeability layer
F
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38607schD5R1.indd 24 2/21/11 9:36 PM
Winter 2010/2011 25
Thermally assisted gas-oil gravity drainage is
suited for heavy oil in fractured formations.
Steam injected into the fracture system heats the
formation, thinning the oil so it ows more easily
into the fractures. The steam also applies a gas
gradient across the matrix blocks so that the oil
in the formation drains by gravity.
In Canada, a dual horizontal-well system
called steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD)
has been successful. Steam is injected into an
upper horizontal well, creating a hot zone. The
hot oil drains to and is produced through a lower,
parallel wellbore.
Oil can also be heated by combusting it in
situ. At a controlled rate, operators inject a gas
containing oxygen, most commonly air, into an
oil-bearing formation, and then ignite it to begin
combustion. The combustion front is narrow and
moves slowly away from the injection well. Hot
combustion gases ow ahead of the re zone and
strip light ends from the oil. This process forms
an oil bank. The remaining oil saturation is ther-
mally cracked as the hot front approaches, and
the lighter mobile oil advances. Residual coke
coats the rock grains and becomes fuel for the
combustion front. A combustion ood can be
combined with water injection, increasing the
amount of steam in the gas bank. In situ combus-
tion has been used in reservoirs containing both
heavy and medium-gravity oil. The oldest still-active
air-injection project in the US began in 1978 in
Buffalo eld, South Dakota, USA; incremental
production due to air injection in the eld was
18.1 million bbl [2.9 million m
3
] in 2009.
30
24. Hirasaki GJ and Miller CA: Recent Advances in
Surfactant EOR, paper SPE 115386, presented at the
SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition,
Denver, September 2124, 2008.
26. Braden WB: A Viscosity-Temperature Correlation at
Atmospheric Pressure for Gas-Free Oils, Journal of
Petroleum Technology 18, no. 11 (November 1966):
14871490.
27. For a recent review of electrical heating methods:
Das S: Electro-Magnetic Heating in Viscous Oil
Reservoir, paper SPE/PS/CHOA 117693, presented at
the International Thermal Operations and Heavy Oil
Symposium, Calgary, October 2023, 2008.
29. For more on heavy-oil reservoirs: Alboudwarej H, Felix J,
Taylor S, Badry R, Bremner C, Brough B, Skeates C,
Baker A, Palmer D, Pattison K, Beshry M, Krawchuk P,
Brown G, Calvo R, Caas Triana JA, Hathcock R,
Koerner K, Hughes T, Kundu D, Lpez de Crdenas J
and West C: Highlighting Heavy Oil, Oileld Review 18,
no. 2 (Summer 2006): 3453.
30. Kumar VK, Gutirrez D, Thies BP and Cantrell C:
30 Years of Successful High-Pressure Air Injection:
Performance Evaluation of Buffalo Field, South Dakota,
paper SPE 133494, presented at the SPE Annual
Technical Conference and Exhibition, Florence, Italy,
September 1922, 2010.
>
Cyclic steam injection. This single-well process injects steam into the near-well region for days to weeks (left). The soak period lasts a few days (middle)
during which time the heat reduces the oil viscosity. Production follows for an extended period of time (right). The cycle can repeat, or the well can be
converted to an injection well in a pattern ood.
Production
Producing heated oil
and condensed steam
Injection
Injecting steam
Soak
Condensing steam (hot
water) heats formation.
Oil
Heated oil
Steam
Condensed steam
38607schD5R1.indd 25 2/21/11 9:36 PM
26 Oileld Review
Selecting an EOR Method
Choosing a method or combination of methods to
use for EOR is best done based on a detailed
study of each specic eld. Since most EOR tech-
niques involve complex physics, the reservoir
must be characterized at many levels (above).
Pore morphology affects microscopic displace-
ment efciency. Formation properties and het-
erogeneities inuence macroscopic sweep,
whether they are at log scale, interwell scale or
eldwide. Thus, the evaluation proceeds in stages
with the objective of reducing the uncertainty
that application of an EOR technique will achieve
technical and economic success.
The methodology starts with relatively inex-
pensive activities based in the ofce or the
laboratory, progressing to eld trials and
implementation, which are more expensive and
time-consuming. However, at any stage, if the
project does not meet the companys technical
and nancial criteria for that stage, the project
does not proceed further. The project team can
either iterate earlier steps to nd a better solu-
tion with less uncertainty or abandon the project.
The rst step is to gather as much data about
the reservoir as possible and develop a coherent
package of information. This can be compared
with screening criteria for various recovery meth-
ods. These criteria, based on past eld successes
and failures, can provide a positive match for
some EOR technologies. Because tailored chemi-
cals are expanding ranges of applicability for
chemical methods, the asset team evaluating the
methods should review the current literature and
consult with researchers and chemical manufac-
turers. In addition, former limits on oil gravity
and viscosity and brine salinity are now being
broken by synthetic surfactants, which are often
available at lower cost than previously possible.
31
Once the number of feasible EOR technolo-
gies has been narrowed, the evaluation typically
moves into the laboratory. Physical properties of
the uids and combinations of uids, including
the crude oil and formation water, have to be con-
rmed for the chosen technique. It is important
to examine not only the positive aspects, such as
miscibility and wettability alteration, which are
desired, but also any negative ones, such as scal-
ing or wax dropout, which should be avoided.
Next, to investigate uid/solid properties such as
adsorption, the chemicals are mixed with grains
that are representative of the formation. Then,
ow studies are conducted, using either sand-
packs in a slim tube or cores, or both. At each of
these laboratory stages, potential EOR methods
can be eliminated or tailored for the specic eld
application (next page).
After engineers and geoscientists evaluate
the eld history, they can develop updated static
and dynamic reservoir models. Armed with
results from ow and other laboratory tests, mod-
eling experts can simulate the effect of the EOR
method in the dynamic model to predict expected
recovery. For example, the ECLIPSE reservoir
simulator handles most combinations of chemi-
cal oods, such as the ASP method.
32
Simulation
includes nding an appropriate well congura-
tion, spacing and pattern, as well as the proper
injectants and injection strategy.
Major unknowns, such as formation heteroge-
neity, are evaluated using multiple iterations of
the simulator with different model parameters.
Operators compare expected supply costs and
project economics to the base case of continued
production without an EOR technique. If the
simulation indicates the project meets company
technical and nancial requirements, then it can
be used to design the next stage: eld tests.
Field pilots should be designed to answer spe-
cic questions. The pilot objectives may include
the following assessment of the EOR process for
full-eld development:
Evaluate recovery effciency.
Assess effects of reservoir geology on
performance.
Reduce technical and economic risk in produc-
tion forecasts.
Obtain data to calibrate reservoir-simulation
models.
Identify operational issues and concerns.
Assess the effect of development options on
recovery.
Assess environmental impact.
Evaluate operating strategy to improve eco-
nomics and recovery.
33
EOR pilots range from single-well tests, with
injection only or including production, to single-
pattern or multiple-pattern pilots; cost and com-
plexity increase generally in that order. A small,
single-well injection pilot may be designed simply
to assess uid injectivity. More complex pilots
may test aspects of areal and vertical sweep, grav-
ity override, channeling and viscous ngering.
34
Planning for pilots must have a focus on fast
and efcient data collection to answer the ques-
tions discussed previously. These data come from
surface and subsurface monitoring, and the plan
may also incorporate monitoring wells drilled to
obtain additional data at specic points in the
eld. Time is also a consideration: Sufcient time
must be allowed for the ood front to progress
through the pilot. In a recent listing of more than
>
Scales of evaluation for EOR. Tools and measurements used to evaluate formations for EOR projects
in the eld (top) and in the laboratory or ofce (bottom) span a wide range of scales with various
resolutions. Designs for EOR processes should consider both microscopic and macroscopic sweep, so
an evaluation must include pore-scale through reservoir-scale measurements and analysis.
V
e
r
t
i
c
a
l

r
e
s
o
l
u
t
i
o
n
,

m
10
3
10
2
10
1
10
1
10
2
10
3
10
6
10
5
10
4
10
3
10
2
10 1 10
1
10
2
10
3
Depth of investigation, m
Pores Core Log Crosswell Reservoir
Logs
Single-well tools
Crosswell measurement
Surface-to-borehole
measurement
Surface-to-surface
measurement
38607schD5R1.indd 26 2/21/11 9:36 PM
Winter 2010/2011 27
>
EOR roadmap. The objective of an evaluation of EOR methods is to reduce
reservoir uncertainties and economic risk. The evaluation begins by
screening based mostly on existing information, comparing the subject eld
to known successes of various EOR methods in other elds. If the project
passes one step, it moves to the next, such as laboratory tests, then eld
modeling. If the project does not pass a technical or economic hurdle, it can
be abandoned or the process can return to an earlier step to reevaluate that
or another EOR method. When sufcient condence has been achieved,
the operator designs and implements a eld pilot, with possible eventual
expansion to full or partial-eld implementation. The horizontal axis
indicates a sequential process, but it also indicates generally increasing
investment required to complete each step going from developing the ideas
on the left to eld implementation on the right.
EOR
Method
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
EOR Fig. 13
ORWIN10-EOR Fig. 13
Design field
implementation
Effort and investment
Implement
in field
Fine-tune field
development plan
Expand field
development
Monitor and
control project
Feedback loops to improve design
can be implemented rapidly.
Optimizing the EOR project
continues throughout its life.
Perform pilot:
monitor and
analyze
U
n
c
e
r
t
a
i
n
t
y

a
n
d

r
i
s
k
Design
field test
Model field
and process
Test in
laboratory
Screen EOR
methods
Develop
idea
20 ExxonMobil EOR pilot tests, only one test was
completed within one calendar year and several
lasted for three or more years.
35
New applications of technologies also expand
the options for EOR methods. For example, in a
eld in the Middle East, the operator planned to
use thermally assisted gas-oil gravity drainage for
a fractured, heavy-oil reservoir. The operator
wanted to monitor the position of the oil rim
between gas and water legs, but the formation
temperature was beyond the operating range of
permanent electronic gauges. Schlumberger
placed into the wellbore a U-tube that contained
a Sensa ber-optic monitoring system to measure
the tube temperature prole. The U-tube is lled
from surface with cool water; the rate that it
warms in the wellbore depends on the properties
of the surrounding uids. The temperature pro-
le response allows discrimination of the uid
levels, and the measurement can be rapidly
repeated. This t-for-purpose solution enabled
evaluation of the EOR prospect.
Applying EOR to offshore elds, particularly
those in deep water, involves additional concerns.
It is considerably more expensive to drill offshore
wells, and the surface facilities have space and
weight constraints not found onshore, except for
those in environmentally fragile areas. High well
cost means interwell spacing is larger. This spac-
ing adversely impacts a companys ability to
acquire data and adequately characterize the
reservoir, and also increases the time needed for
an EOR-related response to reach production
wells. The constraints on facilities often mean
original equipment on a platform has to be reen-
gineered to make space and allow for the weight
of EOR-related equipment, such as devices used
for injectant mixing and handling, water separa-
tion, treatment and disposal, and gas handling
and compression. Regardless of the EOR method,
safe operations must be assured.
36
A number of
EOR projects or pilots have been performed off-
shore, including gas injection and WAG, chemical
ooding and even steamooding.
37
On land or offshore, if a small pilot indicates a
probability of successful implementation, it might
be expanded to include more patterns. This
expansion would provide additional information
about the behavior of the EOR method in a larger
and possibly more heterogeneous area. The goal
of all piloting is either to reduce the risk suf-
ciently to be able to implement an EOR method in
all or at least a substantial part of the eld, or to
eliminate it as incompatible with company goals.
Evaluating Miscibility
The K2 eld in the Gulf of Mexico about 175 mi
[280 km] south of New Orleans is a large, deep-
water, subsalt Miocene-age eld.
38
First oil from
subsea production wells began in May 2005. The
31. Yang H, Britton C, Liyanage PJ, Solairaj S, Kim DH,
Nguyen Q, Weerasooriya U and Pope G: Low-Cost, High-
Performance Chemicals for Enhanced Oil Recovery,
paper SPE 129978, presented at the SPE Improved Oil
Recovery Symposium, Tulsa, April 2428, 2010.
32. Fadili A, Kristensen MR and Moreno J: Smart
Integrated Chemical EOR Simulation, paper IPTC 13762,
presented at the International Petroleum Technology
Conference, Doha, December 79, 2009.
33. Adapted from Teletzke GF, Wattenbarger RC and
Wilkinson JR: Enhanced Oil Recovery Pilot Testing Best
Practices, SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering 13,
no. 1 (February 2010): 143154.
34. Teletzke et al, reference 33.
35. Teletzke et al, reference 33.
36. Bondor PL, Hite JR and Avasthi SM: Planning EOR
Projects in Offshore Oil Fields, paper SPE 94637,
presented at the SPE Latin American and Caribbean
Petroleum Engineering Conference, Rio de Janeiro,
June 2023, 2005.
37. Bondor et al, reference 36.
38. Lim F, Munoz E, Browning B, Joshi N, Jackson C and
Smuk S: Design and Initial Results of EOR and Flow
Assurance Laboratory Fluid Testing for K2 Field
Development in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico, paper
OTC 19624, presented at the Offshore Technology
Conference, Houston, May 58, 2008.
38607schD5R1.indd 27 2/21/11 9:36 PM
28 Oileld Review
eld reached a peak oil rate of 40,000 bbl/d
[6,400 m
3
/d], followed by a continuous decline.
The main producing intervals, the M14 and M20
sands, lie more than 25,000 ft [7,600 m] subsea in
4,000 ft [1,200 m] of water. They lack any sub-
stantial natural drive mechanisms; production is
from pressure depletion. After primary produc-
tion, a signicant quantity of oil will remain.
The operator, Anadarko Petroleum, evaluated
the eld for its enhanced recovery potential; the
screening identied seawater injection and
nitrogen injection as the two most technically
and economically viable possibilities. Although
seawater injection is not usually considered an
EOR method, the company gave it the same level
of scrutiny as it did the nitrogen injection,
because the cost and time required to implement
a waterood in that offshore location are as sub-
stantial as they are for a miscible nitrogen ood.
The company has done a waterood evalua-
tion, as well as an evaluation of ow assurance
problems that might arise as a result of either
improved recovery method. For example, asphal-
tene precipitation is a concern in nitrogen ood-
ing. However, this case study focuses on the
miscibility of nitrogen injection in the K2 eld.
In an immiscible gasood, the gas remains a
distinct phase, and microscopic displacement
efciency is poor. If the gas and oil phases are
miscible on rst contact, the two become one
phase, and the microscopic displacement ef-
ciency can exceed 90% oil recovery. The K2 study
evaluated nitrogen injection as a multiple-
contact miscible process. When the nitrogen rst
contacts oil, light ends are stripped from the oil
phase into the gas. As the enriched gas front
moves ahead, it contacts fresh oil, stripping light
ends from that oil and becoming more enriched.
This process, called a vaporizing gasdrive, can
continue for a number of contacts until the liquid
and gas phases become miscible.
This process was evaluated in a laboratory
PVT cell with a ve-step forward-contact test,
using oil from the M14 reservoir and starting with
pure nitrogen.
39
After each equilibration step, the
compositions of the gas and oil phases were
determined. Then the enriched gas phase was
equilibrated with fresh oil. Although ve steps
were insufcient to achieve miscibility, the
results could be extrapolated to determine the
miscibility composition (above).
Before a forward-contact test can be per-
formed, the minimum miscibility pressure
(MMP) must be known. Above this minimum, the
gas and oil can achieve miscibility. The MMP con-
dition is determined by slim-tube tests. The slim
tube is a long coil of tubing packed with sand,
saturated with crude oil, and kept at formation
temperature for tests at a series of pressures
(next page, bottom). The inside diameter of the
tube is large enough that wall effects on ow are
negligible, and the ow rate must be low enough
that viscous ngering is not a factor. The distinc-
tion between miscible and immiscible displace-
ment in the slim-tube test is based on the oil
recovery factor after a set injection volume, here
taken to be 1.2 pore volumes (PVs) of injection.
Recovery signicantly less than 90% is consid-
ered an immiscible condition, while miscible
ooding has high recovery, near or above 90%.
Pure nitrogen was injected into a 60-ft [18-m]
slim tube in ve tests at different pressures. The
objective was to have two tests below the MMP
and two above, to establish the trendlines of
recovery under those conditions, and then do a
nal test near the predicted MMP to validate that
value. A correlation of MMP for nitrogen and
crude oilswhich matched all previously pub-
lished MMP data within 750 psi [5.2 MPa]pre-
dicted an MMP for the K2 crude oil of about
6,500 psi [44.8 MPa].
40
The rst test at a system pressure of 8,000 psi
[55.2 MPa] indicated 90% recovery, which ts
the criterion for miscible displacement. The
second test at 5,500 psi [37.9 MPa] was intended
to be below the MMP, but recovery was 84%,
which is more likely to be a miscible displace-
ment condition.
Two tests at lower system pressures, 4,000
and 4,500 psi [27.6 and 31.0 MPa], produced oil
recoveries of 49% and 63%, respectively. Based
on the recovery, these are considered immisci-
ble displacements. A nal test at 9,600 psi
[66.2 MPa] produced a recovery of 93%. By
39. In a forward-contact miscibility test, the gas phase is
equilibrated with a set quantity of oil. The spent oil is
removed and the gas is equilibrated with another set
quantity of fresh oil. This step iterates. A backward-
contact miscibility test keeps the oil phase and
repeatedly exposes it to a set quantity of the original
gas phase.
40. Sebastian HM and Lawrence DD: Nitrogen Minimum
Miscibility Pressures, paper SPE/DOE 24134, presented
at the SPE/DOE Eighth Symposium on Enhanced Oil
Recovery, Tulsa, April 2224, 1992.
41. Liu S, Zhang DL, Yan W, Puerta M, Hirasaki GJ
and Miller CA: Favorable Attributes of Alkaline-
Surfactant-Polymer Flooding, SPE Journal 13, no. 1
(March 2008): 516.
The surfactant was supplied by Shell Chemical with
Procter and Gamble.
42. A hard brine contains salts of divalent ions such as
calcium and magnesium.
>
Forward-contact miscibility test of K2 oil. Results of a miscibility test are
typically displayed on a ternary diagram with the composition divided into
three pseudocomponents. The top vertex represents the light components, the
right vertex is the intermediates, and the left vertex is the heavy components.
Each side of the triangle is mixtures of the phases of the adjacent vertices,
with tick marks at each 10% change in composition. The K2 eld reservoir oil
was thoroughly mixed with nitrogen and the resulting phases analyzed.
Compositions of the equilibrated rst gas and rst oil phases are shown. The
oil phase was removed isobarically, and fresh oil mixed with the rst gas,
resulting in the second gas and second oil compositions. The process was
repeated ve times. The fth combination had not achieved miscibility, but a
smooth curve representing the phase boundary can be estimated from the
sequential-mixture phase compositions. A tangent to that boundary curve from
the original oil composition indicates the expected composition of the miscible
uid (black asterisk).
Nitrogen, carbon dioxide and methane
1st gas
2nd gas
5th gas
Expected
miscibility
composition
Two-phase
boundary
estimate
1st oil
2nd oil
5th oil
K2 oil
C
7+
C
2
to C
6
*
38607schD5R1.indd 28 2/21/11 9:36 PM
Winter 2010/2011 29
extrapolating straight-line trends for the two
lowest pressures and the two highest pressures,
the MMP was estimated to be about 5,300 psi
[36.5 MPa], conrming that the second test was
just above the MMP (right).
Anadarko has continued to evaluate the
K2 eld for its EOR potential, extending the mis-
cible gasooding studies to include CO
2
injection.
The company has not yet decided to implement a
eld project, but has found value in the labora-
tory screening.
Laboratory Predesign for an ASP Flood
Chemical EOR ooding today often uses specially
designed uids, which are manufactured by a num-
ber of companies. Thus, an important step in
decreasing the uncertainty in project selection is to
systematically evaluate the chemicals in laboratory
tests, as was done for a West Texas eld.
Researchers at Rice University in Houston
conducted a series of evaluations of an ASP for-
mulation with a novel surfactant.
41
The results
are specic to a crude oil in a dolomite forma-
tion from the West Texas eld, but they are likely
to reect trends for other ASP applications. The
crude oil had an acid number of 0.20 mg/g of
potassium hydroxide [KOH], which indicates
that exposure to a high pH through injection of
an alkali would create sufcient soap to aid the
ASP ood. These evaluations provide a good
example of steps taken in the laboratory before a
eld assessment.
Many of the surfactants used in past EOR
projects were petroleum sulfonates made from
renery streams or from crude oils in the eld,
but they tended to form liquid crystals or precipi-
tated in hard brine unless substantial amounts of
alcohol or oil were present.
42
Formation of such
crystals is undesirable because they can form
gels or occulate, causing plugging, surfactant
retention and viscous emulsions.
The surfactant used in the evaluation at Rice,
termed N67, was a propoxylated sulfate with a
slightly branched C
16
to C
17
hydrocarbon chain.
In contrast to the behavior of petroleum sulfo-
nates, the branches of the hydrocarbon and pro-
pylene oxide chains of the tested sulfate mitigate
formation of the liquid-crystal phase even in the
absence of oil, so the surfactant solution can be
injected into the formation as a single-phase
micellar solution. Meanwhile, the long, branched
hydrocarbon chain gives the N67 surfactant high
afnity for the oil, providing low IFT over a sub-
stantial range of conditions.
The other ASP injectants used in this evalua-
tion were sodium carbonate [Na
2
CO
3
] as the
alkali, partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide as the
polymer and an internal olen sulfonate (IOS) as
a cosurfactant. IOS is more hydrophilic than N67
and can be used to adjust the conditions for opti-
mal salinity for the mixture.
The rst laboratory test was designed to con-
rm surfactant single-phase behavior in the
absence of an oil phase. Each of several concen-
tration ratios of N67 and IOS surfactants was
>
Slim-tube apparatus. The sand-packed metal coil in the middle of the oven
is lled with crude oil at reservoir temperature. The coil is positioned so ow
is mostly horizontal to minimize gravity effects. A solvent, such as nitrogen
gas for the K2 eld evaluation, is injected. The coil provides a long ow path
so miscibility can develop between the oil and the solvent. After 1.2 PV of
solvent is injected, the oil recovery is noted. If miscibility is established, the
oil recovery will be near or above 90%. The other components in the oven
control ow, temperature and pressure. The coil shown is a 100-ft [30.5-m]
slim tube.
>
Minimum miscibility evaluation. Oil recoveries from slim-tube tests conducted
at different pressures are used to estimate the minimum miscibility pressure
of the gas-oil system (blue diamonds). The two highest pressures were
selected to be in a miscible condition and the two lowest pressures were
selected to be in an immiscible condition. The oil recoveries conrm those
choices: miscible displacement results in much higher recoveries than
immiscible displacement. The MMP estimate is at the intersection of the trend
lines extrapolated from the high pressures and low pressures. It is 5,300 psi in
this case, as conrmed by the test conducted at 5,500 psi (black diamond).
O
i
l

r
e
c
o
v
e
r
y
,

%
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
2,000 3,000 4,000 5,000 6,000
Pressure, psi
MMP
7,000 8,000 9,000 10,000
38607schD5R1.indd 29 2/21/11 9:36 PM
30 Oileld Review
placed in a separate pipette with increasing con-
centrations of sodium carbonate and sodium
chloride. The combinations were mixed and
allowed to equilibrate. Single-phase behavior at
room temperature existed for salt concentrations
up to 4% to 8% by weightwith the limit depend-
ing on the surfactant ratio. At the 4/1 ratio of N67
to IOS, the single-phase region extended to about
6%. This is a great improvement over results from
past studies, in which use of petroleum sulfo-
nates as injectants required addition of oil or
alcohol to obtain a single phase.
The phase behavior of the ASP injectant with
oil was next examined using mixtures in pipettes.
Ternary mixtures of oil, brine and surfactant can
form more than one phase, depending on the
brine salinity. At low salinity, a lower-phase
microemulsion can form between oil, water and
surfactant with a separate excess-oil phase. This
is called a Winsor Type I microemulsion.
43
At high
salinity, an upper-phase microemulsion (Winsor
Type II) can instead form with a separate excess
brine phase.
Finally, at intermediate salinity, a middle-
phase Winsor Type III microemulsion forms with
both an excess-water phase below and an excess-
oil phase above (above). A certain value of salin-
itytermed the optimal salinityin the Type III
range produces a minimum IFT that is equal for
both the microemulsion/oil and microemulsion/
brine interfaces. Within experimental error, that
is also the salinity at which the solubilization
ratios of water and oil in the microemulsion are
equal.
44
Since phase behavior is easier to test in
the laboratory, salinity scans of phase behavior
are generally used to determine the optimal
salinity (next page). The optimal salinity value
depends on the surfactant and oil used and on
temperature and pressure.
In an ASP process, near the ood front there
is a gradient in the local concentration ratio of
surfactant to soap, created as the injected alkali
reacts with oil to form the soap. Laboratory tests
are designed to ensure that the reservoir salinity
is one of the optimal salinities included within
the range of ratio gradients. Thus a region of low
IFT advances through the reservoir, leaving
behind little or no trapped oil.
With the proper choice of chemical concen-
trations, the optimal salinity of the surfactant-
soap combination occurs at a somewhat lower
salinity than that of the surfactant alone. Low
salinity is advantageous for injection because it
reduces surfactant adsorption onto the rock and
maintains a single phase for a wider range of
chemical concentrations. In the sand-pack test
described below, for example, the optimal salin-
ity for the surfactant alone was 5% NaCl, and the
surfactant solution was single-phase at that
salinity. However, the addition of polymer to pro-
vide mobility control shifted the phase equilib-
rium. A surfactant solution with 4% salinity and
added polymer separated into two phases. In con-
trast, no separation occurred when polymer was
added at a lower 2% NaCl concentration.
The salinity scan of the N67-IOS system
revealed two other interesting behaviors. First, a
colloidal dispersion, representing a fourth phase,
gradually separated from the lower-phase micro-
emulsion during Type I behavior. This probably
resulted from the presence of two types of
surfactantssoap and injected surfactantwith
very different hydrophilic or hydrophobic proper-
ties. Low values of IFT, below 0.01 mN/m, were
obtained over a wide range of salinities for these
conditions. However, if the dispersion was given an
extended time to separate before testing, the IFT
remained high. That is, the presence of the fourth
phaseand its dispersion in the emulsionwas
essential to achieving low IFT values. The reason
for this behavior is not well understood.
>
Winsor emulsion types. A surfactant can form an emulsion in the water phase, leaving
behind excess oil (left) in a Winsor Type I microemulsion, or in the oil leaving excess water
(center) in a Type II microemulsion, or it can form a phase whose density is between that of
oil and water, leaving excess amounts of both (right) in a Type III microemulsion. The lowest
IFTs are typically obtained with a Type III microemulsion.
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
EOR Fig. 16
ORWIN10-EOR Fig. 16
Type l Type lll Type ll
Oil Microemulsion Water
38607schD5R1.indd 30 2/21/11 9:36 PM
Winter 2010/2011 31
The second behavior was noted by viewing the
pipettes through crossed polarizers: The brine
phase exhibited birefringence in concentrations
near optimal salinity. This phenomenon is typi-
cally indicative of a lamellar liquid crystalline
phase, but in this case the aqueous dispersion of
the lamellar phase maintained a low viscosity.
Even though classic Winsor III behavior was not
observed in this case, the IFT reached a mini-
mum at optimal salinity where the surfactant
shifted from being preferentially water soluble to
preferentially oil soluble.
Surfactants can also adsorb onto a solid sur-
face, but any surfactant remaining there at the
end of the process represents a cost to be avoided.
The electrical charge on a calcite surfacethe
primary component of limestones and other car-
bonate formationsis positive in uids of neu-
tral pH, but presence of carbonate ions [CO
3
2
]
reverses the charge to negative. A dolomite sur-
face exhibits similar behavior. The negative
charge repulses anionic surfactant ions, such as
those in N67 and IOS. A commonly used alkali,
sodium hydroxide [NaOH], exhibited surfactant
adsorption little different from that of the alkali-
free surfactant solution. In contrast, the addition
of 1% Na
2
CO
3
by weight radically decreased
adsorption of both N67 and IOS onto calcite or
dolomite powder compared to the case with no
alkali, which is a desirable effect because it
decreases the amount of surfactant remaining
after a ood.
The pipette, IFT and adsorption tests pro-
vided guidance to formulate an ASP ood through
dolomite sand in a laboratory displacement. The
sand was packed into a glass tube with a diame-
ter of 1 in. [2.54 cm] and a length of 1 ft
[30.48 cm], which permitted observation of the
ood front. The pack was rst saturated with 2%
by weight NaCl brine, then the West Texas crude
oil. After 60-h aging at 60C [140F] to alter the
dolomite wettability, the pack was cooled to room
temperature and waterooded, reducing oil satu-
ration to 18%.
The pack was then ooded with the ASP solu-
tion. The rst slug, amounting to 0.5 pore volume
(PV), contained the N67-IOS blend, sodium car-
bonate, sodium chloride and polymer. This was
followed by a 1-PV slug of polymer and sodium
chloride. The viscosity of both the ASP slug and
the polymer chaser was 45 cP [0.045 Pa.s], to
match or exceed the effective viscosity of the oil
bank formed ahead of the ood front. As indi-
cated above, the 2% by weight concentration of
sodium chloride was below the optimal salinity of
5% for the injected surfactant system.
>
Salinity scans. Scientists lled pipettes with known amounts of crude oil and
brine containing an alkali-surfactant blend, 1% Na
2
CO
3
and a variety of NaCl
concentrations (top). At NaCl concentrations up to 3.2%, a Type I microemulsion
forms (brownish water phase); above that concentration there is a transition to
Type III behavior, with the upper boundary of the middle phase marked (black
lines). For each pipette test, the volume of surfactant V
s
is known. The volume
of water in the microemulsion phase V
w
and the volume of oil in the microemulsion
phase V
o
are determined, and their ratios to V
s
are indicated on a solubilization
plot (bottom). At a certain NaCl concentration, the solubilization ratios for
water and oil are equal. This value, about 3.5% here, is the optimal salinity,
which has the lowest IFT. (Photographs courtesy of George J. Hirasaki and
Clarence A. Miller.)
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
EOR Fig. 17
ORWIN10-EOR Fig. 17
0.2
S
o
l
u
b
i
l
i
z
a
t
i
o
n

r
a
t
e
NaCl concentration, % by weight
V
w
/ V
s
V
o
/ V
s
1
10
2.0 2.5 3.5 3.0 4.0
100
1,000
0.8 1.4 2.0 2.6 3.2
NaCl concentration, % by weight
3.6 4.0 4.5 5.0
43. Winsor PA: Hydrotropy, Solubilisation and Related
Emulsication Processes, Transactions of the Faraday
Society 44 (1948): 376398.
44. The solubilization ratio of a component is the ratio of the
volume of that component that is in the microemulsion
phase to the volume of solute, which in this case is
the surfactant.
38607schD5R1.indd 31 2/21/11 9:37 PM
32 Oileld Review
The ASP ood clearly showed formation of an
oil bank (above). Breakthrough occurred at
about 0.8 PV. Most oil was recovered by about
1 PV injection, although the ood continued to
produce some oil until about 1.5 PV. The process
recovered 98% of the oil remaining after the
waterood, demonstrating the potential of this
EOR method.
Rapid Downhole EOR Test
Once an EOR method has been evaluated through
laboratory testing and shown to meet acceptance
criteria, the next step is to test it in the eld. The
rst step may be a simple, single-well injectivity
test, whose primary function is to establish that
the uids can be injected into the target forma-
tion at acceptable rates.
Another single-well test that requires more
time, but returns a greater amount of informa-
tion, is a single-well tracer test. This test uses a
chemical tracer soluble in both oil and water,
such as certain esters, that reacts in the forma-
tion to form a water-soluble component, such as
an alcohol. That tracer is injected as a slug, and
then left in place for a several-day soak period to
allow some of the tracer to react. The well is put
on production, and the separation in production
peaks between the water- and oil-soluble phases
can be used to determine the residual oil satura-
tion. Complete interpretation of pilot results
requires information about the rock properties.
A new method of single-well testing assessed
the effectiveness of an ASP formulation for a well
in a eld in Oman.
45
Petroleum Development
Oman (PDO) operates this sandstone eld, which
produces medium-gravity oil from a formation
having 3,500 to 4,000 mD/cP [3.5 10
6
to 4 10
6
mD/Pa.s] drawdown mobility. The operator
wanted to evaluate the ASP in the eld, but
sought a quicker method than a traditional log-
inject-log process.
In a log-inject-log procedure, an initial log-
ging run establishes the properties of the forma-
tion interval, in particular, the oil saturation
(next page). After injection of one or more uids,
a second logging run measures the oil saturation
again to determine the effectiveness of the injec-
tant for EOR. Typically, a single-well log-inject-
log pilot oods an entire interval to about 10 ft
[3 m] from the wellbore, requiring large volumes
of injectantand the associated surface facili-
ties to mix and process itin addition to an
extended injection time.
After exchanging ideas with PDO on how to
improve on these lengthy single-well pilots,
Schlumberger brought together several advances
in logging technology to decrease the amount of
injectant used to a relatively small volume. The
injectant can be readily premixed.
The MicroPilot small-scale EOR evaluation
uses a small volume of injectant, up to the 6-galUS
[22.7-L] capacity of a downhole uid sample
chamber. Because the injectant volume is so
small, the total time spent on the procedure
two to three daysis much shorter than the
weeks or so necessary for a typical single-well
>
Formation of an oil bank in a dolomite sand pack. An optimized ASP formulation is injected into the
bottom of a 1-in. diameter glass tube (bottom). All the images are of the same tube, taken after injecting
sequentially increasing pore volumes of the ASP solution. The alkali and surfactant form an oil bank
(dark band) that moves ahead of the chemical ood front. Most of the oil production (black liquid, top)
occurs when this bank breaks through, as shown in the 0.81 PV efuent beaker. The sandpack at 0.90 PV
injection shows most of the core has been cleared of oil, and the 0.90 PV efuent vial shows, at about
this same time, signicant oil is still being produced. The surfactant solution ushes additional oil until
about 1.5 PV have been injected. (Photographs courtesy of George J. Hirasaki and Clarence A. Miller.)
0.09
0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55 0.60 0.65 0.70 0.75 0.90 1.50
0.18 0.27 0.36 0.45 0.54 0.63 0.72 0.81
Effluent pore volumes
Injection pore volumes
0.90 0.99 1.08 1.17 1.26 1.35 1.44 1.53 1.62 1.71 1.80 1.89 1.98 2.07
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
EOR Fig. 18
ORWIN10-EOR Fig. 18
>
Logging tool sensitivity. The CMR-Plus logging tool focuses its measurement about 1.1 in. [2.8 cm]
into the formation in a region that is about 1-in. [2.5-cm] square (left). The measurement zone extends
about 6 in. [15 cm] along the tool axis. The Dielectric Scanner tool generates a transverse eld, which
has a toroidal shape wrapping around the tool sensors, and a longitudinal eld, which has a teardrop
shape in the measurement plane (right). The intersection of these two elds provides a depth of
investigation up to 4 in. [10 cm] with a vertical resolution up to about 1 in.
Transverse
Longitudinal
Measurement
zone
CMR-Plus tool Dielectric Scanner tool
38607schD5R1.indd 32 2/21/11 9:37 PM
Winter 2010/2011 33
pilot. Although small compared with a typical
log-inject-log test, the MicroPilot ood volume
is much larger than that of a typical coreood in
a laboratory, allowing for testing of some forma-
tion heterogeneity.
The rst MicroPilot objective is to inject the
uid at a precise location. The tool uses a drill
modied from one proved in service in the CHDT
cased hole dynamics tester. Originally designed
to drill through casing and cement, the 0.39-in.
[1-cm] diameter bit is capable of drilling
through mudcake and into the formation to a
depth up to 6 in. [15 cm]. The drilling module is
combinable with sample chambers from the
MDT modular formation dynamics tester family,
which transport the uids downhole. MDT
pumpout modules can be used for hole cleaning,
formation mobility testing and injecting the u-
ids, and MDT downhole uid analysis modules
can be used to monitor and analyze the uids as
they are injected or recovered.
Saturation change can be difcult to measure
in situ for an EOR process like ASP ooding. The
salinity can change radically in formation water,
mud ltrate and ASP injectant. In addition, an
ASP ood can change the formation wettability,
so the Archie saturation exponent n will also
change after a successful ood. A saturation mea-
surement based on resistivity is obtained, but it
may not provide consistent results before and
after injection. However, the CMR-Plus combin-
able magnetic resonance tool is sensitive to the
volume, properties and environment of the uid
(previous page, bottom). Within a certain range
of oil viscosity, it may be possible to discriminate
45. Arora S, Horstmann D, Cherukupalli P, Edwards J,
Ramamoorthy R, McDonald T, Bradley D, Ayan C,
Zaggas J and Cig K: Single-Well In-Situ Measurement
of Residual Oil Saturation After an EOR Chemical
Flood, paper SPE 129069, presented at the SPE EOR
Conference at Oil and Gas West Asia, Muscat, Oman,
April 1113, 2010.
Cherukupalli P, Horstman D, Arora S, Ayan C, Cig K,
Kristensen M, Ramamoorthy R, Zaggas J and Edwards J:
Analysis and Flow Modeling of Single Well MicroPilot*
to Evaluate the Performance of Chemical EOR Agents,
paper SPE 136767, presented at the SPE International
Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, Abu Dhabi, UAE,
November 14, 2010.
>
Single-well pilot testing using log-inject-log procedure. In a typical log-inject-log procedure (top), a
region of interest is isolated using packers. The interval is logged, then a uid is injected throughout
the zone to an invasion depth of about 10 ft. The same logging suite is run after injection to determine
the saturation change in the formation. In a MicroPilot operation, a smaller region of interest is logged
(bottom). Then the tool is positioned at a station within that region and the drilling module drills a small
hole into the formation. The depth of that small injection hole is designed to reach the most sensitive
region of the onboard logging tool measurements. An EOR test uid is injected through that hole. The
amount injected is at most a few gallons, carried downhole in sampling bottles. The interval is logged
again. Note that the illustrations are not to scale: A log-inject-log procedure typically involves a much
larger depth interval than the MicroPilot procedure.
Drilling fluid
invasion
Packer
Logging
sensor
Log-Inject-Log Procedure
Log Log Inject
Log Log Inject
MicroPilot Procedure
Drilling
fluid
invasion
Logging
sensor
EOR fluid
EOR fluid
EOR fluid
Logging
sensor
Barrier
Barrier
Reservoir
Reservoir
Openhole
drilling
module
38607schD5R1.indd 33 3/1/11 9:36 PM
34 Oileld Review
the oil and water using uid magnetic resonance
relaxation and diffusion measurements. The
magnetic elds that dene the sampling geome-
try are unaffected by the uid exchange.
46

Azimuthal tool geometry focuses the measure-
ment 1.1 in. into the formation on a specic vol-
ume that is about 1-in. square by 6-in. long for
station measurements, or 7.5-in. [19-cm] long
when logged at 150 ft/h [46 m/h]. With the CMR-
Plus tool, oil-saturation measurement uncer-
tainty in this formation is 5% within the range of
oil saturation from 90% to 0%.
The multifrequency dielectric dispersion mea-
surement available from the Dielectric Scanner
tool is also sensitive to the water volume. Close to
the wellbore, the 1-GHz measurement has a verti-
cal resolution of 1 in. and is insensitive to IFT
changes. The salinity sensitivity of the tool can be
independently determined from water saturation
using multifrequency data collected at several
source-receiver spacings. Water saturation, inde-
pendent of brine salinity, can be calculated from
these measurements in conjunction with a
porosity log.
The MicroPilot test in the PDO well showed
that ASP injection successfully displaced remain-
ing oil from a waterooded formation. In the
pilot, 11 L [2.9 galUS] of ASP was injected into
the small hole created by the CHDT tool. An elec-
trical image from an FMI fullbore formation
microimager log clearly showed development of
an oil bank and displacement of the residual oil
in a roughly circular region centered at the injec-
tion hole (next page).
Both the NMR and dielectric measurements
indicated a reduction in the remaining oil satura-
tion from 40% to near 0% behind the front. The
dielectric measurement also showed the buildup
of oil saturation as a bank ahead of the ASP front,
which matched the results of an ECLIPSE reser-
voir model of the injection.
This evaluation was part of a larger study PDO
is doing on ASP ooding. In conjunction with
Shell Technology Oman, PDO has performed sev-
eral single-well tracer tests of the same ASP
treatment. The degree of desaturation seen in
those more extensive eld tests was similar to
what was seen in the MicroPilot test.
47
Multiwell ASP pilots have been conducted in
the Daqing oil eld, Heilongjiang Province, China,
which is operated by Daqing Oileld Company.
This multilayered deltaic, lacustrine reservoir is
the largest oil eld in the Peoples Republic of
China. In four ASP pilot tests, the incremental oil
recovery over waterooding was about 20%, with a
chemical cost of US$ 11 to US$ 15/bbl of incremen-
tal oil.
48
This eld is also the site of the worlds
largest polymer EOR ood, with more than 20
years of polymer injection in the eld.
49
The recov-
ery after polymer ooding exceeds 50%, which
Daqing Oileld Company indicates is a 10% to 15%
improvement over conventional waterood pro-
duction from these wells.
50
On the Road to Recovery
Based on current production, the most successful
EOR techniques, by far, have been steamooding
and CO
2
ooding, with hydrocarbon gasooding
at a distant third.
51
Combustion and polymer and
nitrogen ooding also have produced substantial
amounts of additional oil. Other methods are still
being tested.
One EOR method that has garnered consider-
able attention and that has been tested in several
pilot studies is low-salinity waterooding. Most
wateroods use high-salinity brine, and addi-
tional oil recovery has been obtained by following
that with a low-salinity waterood.
52
Use of injec-
tion water with specially engineered salinity and
ion composition has also been referred to as engi-
neered- or smart-water injection.
53
BP piloted the low-salinity method in Endicott
eld, Alaska, USA.
54
Positive results of laboratory
coreoods and several single-well tracer tests
were conrmed in a two-well pilot. The original
oil saturation in this eld was 95%, which was
reduced to 41% by a high-salinity waterood. The
water cut at that point was 95%. Next, the opera-
tor executed a low-salinity pilot ood. When the
low-salinity front broke through at the producer,
water cut dropped to 92%. The residual oil
saturation is expected to reach 28%, a 13-unit
drop in oil saturation.
The mechanism leading to this additional
recovery after low-salinity ooding is not yet
agreed upon, but some interaction or combina-
tion of interactions involving the crude oil,
brine and rock is believed to be the cause.
Generally, presence of four factors has been
thought to be required.
55
The system has to
include crude oil: The effect is not seen when a
core sample is saturated with rened oil.
Formation water must be present. There must
be a crude oil/brine interface. Finally, clays
must be present: Cores heated to a high tem-
perature to convert and stabilize clays did not
show the effect. However, even this list is in ux.
Recent work on sandstone and dolomite cores
with no clay exhibited increased recovery from
low-salinity ooding, which was attributed to
dissolution of nes in the formations.
56
Some eld tests of the method by other opera-
tors in other locations did not recover sufcient
additional oil for this to be an economic process,
so the industry is proceeding cautiously.
57
A
better understanding of the methods physical
and chemical interactions is likely to advance
this technique.
A cutting-edge method uses nanoparticles
designed specically for EOR. Their surfaces are
engineered to make them move preferentially to
oil/water interfaces and mobilize additional oil.
58

Much of the work on nanoparticles for hydrocar-
bon recovery is still in the laboratory stage.
46. Wettability change brought about by ASP injection can
change the NMR response in a way that may make it
difcult to measure the saturation change. Laboratory
measurements can indicate whether the method will
work in a given situation.
47. Stoll WM, al Shureqi H, Finol J, Al-Harthy SAA,
Oyemade S, de Kruijf A, van Wunnik J, Arkesteijn F,
Bouwmeester R and Faber MJ: Alkaline-Surfactant-
Polymer Flood: From the Laboratory to the Field, paper
SPE 129164, presented at the SPE EOR Conference at Oil
and Gas West Asia, Muscat, Oman, April 1113, 2010.
48. Shutang G and Qiang G: Recent Progress and
Evaluation of ASP Flooding for EOR in Daqing Oil
Field, paper SPE 127714, presented at the SPE EOR
Conference at Oil and Gas West Asia, Muscat, Oman,
April 1113, 2010.
49. He L, Jinling L, Jidong Y, Wenjun W, Yongchun Z and
Liqun Z: Successful Practices and Development of
Polymer Flooding in Daqing Oileld, paper SPE 123975,
presented at the SPE Asia Pacic Oil and Gas
Conference and Exhibition, Jakarta, August 46, 2009.
50. He et al, reference 49.
52. Tang GQ and Morrow NR: Salinity, Temperature,
Oil Composition, and Oil Recovery by Waterooding,
SPE Reservoir Engineering 12, no. 4 (November 1997):
269276.
53. RezaeiDoust A, Puntervold T, Strand S and Austad T:
Smart Water as Wettability Modier in Carbonate and
Sandstone: A Discussion of Similarities/Differences in
the Chemical Mechanisms, Energy & Fuels 23, no. 9
(September 17, 2009): 44794485.
54. Seccombe et al, reference 18.
55. Pu H, Xie X, Yin P and Morrow NR: Low Salinity
Waterooding and Mineral Dissolution, paper
SPE 134042, presented at the SPE Annual Technical
Conference and Exhibition, Florence, Italy,
September 1922, 2010.
56. Pu et al, reference 55.
57. Skrettingland K, Holt T, Tweheyo MT and Skjevrak I:
Snorre Low Salinity Water InjectionCore Flooding
Experiments and Single Well Field Pilot, paper SPE
129877, presented at the SPE Improved Oil Recovery
Symposium, Tulsa, April 2428, 2010.
58. For example: Onyekonwu MO and Ogolo NA:
Investigating the Use of Nanoparticles in Enhancing Oil
Recovery, paper SPE 140744, presented at the 34th
Annual SPE International Conference and Exhibition,
Tinapa-Calabar, Nigeria, July 31August 7, 2010.
59. Felber BJ: Selected U.S. Department of Energy EOR
Technology Applications, paper SPE 89452, presented
at the SPE/DOE Fourteenth Symposium on Improved Oil
Recovery, Tulsa, April 1721, 2004.
60. Vega B, OBrien WJ and Kovscek AR: Experimental
Investigation of Oil Recovery From Siliceous Shale by
Miscible CO2
Injection, paper SPE 135627, presented at
the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition,
Florence, Italy, September 1922, 2010.
61. For an example of in situ shale retorting: Fowler TD and
Vinegar HJ: Oil Shale ICPColorado Field Pilots,
paper SPE 121164, presented at the SPE Western
Regional Meeting, San Jose, California, USA,
March 2426, 2009.
38607schD5R1.indd 34 2/21/11 9:37 PM
Winter 2010/2011 35
Research has also progressed on accessing
reservoirs for EOR injection. The US DOE funded
development of microhole technology for bore-
holes ranging in diameter from 1
1
/4 in. to 2
3
/8 in.
and logging tools with
7
/8-in. diameter. The objec-
tive is to drill such holes with coiled tubing and
miniaturized BHAs to a depth of 6,000 ft [1,800 m].
Afterward, the program envisions injecting EOR
chemicals into the formation and using miniatur-
ized logging tools to evaluate the result.
59

Recently, there has been increased activity in
recovery of oil from tight formations such as the
Niobrara, Bakken and Eagle Ford shales in the US.
Although operators have only begun developing
these unconventional oil plays, the lead time for
developing EOR strategies for any play is long.
Investigators have already begun looking at meth-
ods such as CO
2
ooding for additional recovery.
60
Recovery from oil shales using in situ retorting
might eventually be classed as an EOR method
(see Coaxing Oil from Shale, page 4). Oil shale is
heated in situ to temperatures sufcient to con-
vert the kerogen into oil and gas, and the products
are produced through wellbores.
61
Several methods
are undergoiong eld test in the US.
EOR techniques run the gamut from labora-
tory successes not yet proved in the eld to suc-
cessful eld applications that have recovered
millions of barrels of additional oil over decades.
As mature elds approach their economic limits
for traditional recovery methods, the need for
EOR applications continues to grow. Since most
EOR methods have limitations on their applica-
bility, the industry needs to broaden and deepen
its expertise and prove applicability of more
methods. The prize is signicant: more oil pro-
duced from more known reservoirs. MAA

>
Oil bank from MicroPilot injection. Taken after injection of an ASP solution, an FMI image (Track 3) clearly shows evidence of an
oil bank and swept formation behind it: a circular bright area around a darker interior. A 3D cutaway (right, top) shows the
modeled displacement as the ASP ood (dark blue) pushes an oil bank (green) away from the small drilled injection hole (white). A
2D vertical section (right, bottom) of conductivity, taken from an ECLIPSE model, matches the dimensions of the bank in the FMI
image, with a swept area having a diameter of 28 cm [11 in.] and the outer range of the oil bank at 54 cm [21 in.] The water
saturation after injection approaches 100%, both in the CMR-Plus log (Track 1) and the Dielectric Scanner log (Track 2).
X6.4
X6.6
X6.8
X7.0
X7.2
X7.4
CMR-Plus
Water Saturation
Dielectric Scanner
Water Saturation
FMI Scaled Image After Injection
Station Measurement
After Injection
D
e
p
t
h
,

m
Station Measurement
Before Injection
CMR-Plus Station
Measurement
Before Injection
CMR-Plus Station
Measurement
After Injection
FMI Conductivity
Before Injection
After Injection
1 m
3
/m
3
0 1 m
3
/m
3
0
1 m
3
/m
3
0
1 m
3
/m
3
0
1 m
3
/m
3
0
1 m
3
/m
3
0
1 m
3
/m
3
0
1 m
3
/m
3
0
Before Injection
After Injection
0 degree
Resistive Conductive
360
0 100
Oil saturation, %
Conductivity, S/m
0 0.8
Oilfield Review
Winter 10
EOR Fig. 21
ORWIN10-EOR Fig. 21
Orientation from Top of Hole
Desaturation Desaturation
38607schD5R1.indd 35 2/21/11 9:37 PM
36 Oileld Review
Petroleum Potential of the Arctic:
Challenges and Solutions
Although Arctic oil and gas have been E&P targets for decades, the petroleum
potential of this region is far from being fully realized. The Arctic environment is
fragile, climate conditions are harsh and the operational season is short. Success in
this remote area will depend on appropriate selection of existing technologies and
development of novel, more efcient ones.
Andrew Bishop
Gatwick, England
Chad Bremner
Stavanger, Norway
Andreas Laake
Claudio Strobbia
Cairo, Egypt
Patrick Parno
Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Geir Utskot
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
For help in preparation of this article, thanks to Yuliya
Ekgardt, Gazprom dobycha Yamburg LLC, Novy Urengoy,
Russia; Hannes Grobe, Alfred Wegener Institute for
Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany;
Patrick McGinn, ExxonMobil, Houston; Jeffrey Philipp,
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada; Steve Rinehart,
BP Alaska, Anchorage; Betty Tsang, Calgary; and
Alexander Zarkhidze, Cairo.
ARCTICSET, CleanGEL, DAD, FracCAT, GelSTREAK, PCM,
PetroMod, PodSTREAK, Q-Land, UniQ, VDA and YF are
marks of Schlumberger.
The Arctic region has drawn attention since
ancient timesattention well beyond mere curi-
osity about the great unknown. Fur, n and
feather from the Arctic coasts were the earliest
attractions, enticing people from other regions to
these frigid waters and icy expanses. Legendary
treasures in distant Asian lands and the long, dif-
cult and often dangerous southern sea route to
obtain them impelled European travelers to
dream about alternative paths and turn their
eyes to the north.
Starting in the 16th century, explorers sought
the Northwest Passage to the Pacic Ocean along
the north coast of North America, as well as a
Northern Sea Route along the north coast of
Eurasia, often guided by fantastic notions of the
geography of the region (next page). In the late
19th century, exploration of these northern terri-
tories reached the highest latitude: the North
Pole. These far-reaching adventures and discov-
eries further enabled active scientic and com-
mercial enterprises. The age of oil was coming,
and explorationists extended their interest to
even more-remote areas in a quest for what is
now considered one of the greatest treasures of
the Arctichydrocarbon reserves.
This article reviews the rst hydrocarbon
discoveries in the Arctic and describes recent
estimates of its oil and gas reserves. The
difculties of Arctic exploration, development
and production of hydrocarbons are similar to
those of subarctic and other extremely cold
climates; this article also discusses the existing
solutions and novel technologies created to
address these challenges.
First Discoveries
The Arctic is variously dened in the E&P indus-
try. Its geographic denition covers territories
north of the Arctic Circle, at latitudes greater
than 6633'44" N. Other denitions include any
regions with Arctic-like conditions, such as a par-
ticularly cold climate, or with permafrost, oat-
ing ice and icebergs. These extended denitions
encompass vast areassuch as West Siberia and
Sakhalin, Russia; northern Canada; and Alaska,
USAwith rich hydrocarbon exploration and
production histories.
The indigenous Inuit people of Alaska had
long known about oil seeps on the Arctic coastal
plain. Russia owned the Alaskan territory until
1867, and Russian settlers were the rst western-
ers to report oil shows on the Alaska Peninsula.
1

The late 19th to early 20th century saw the rst
successful exploration and production efforts in
Alaska, but the rst major commercial oil and
gas elds there were discovered only as recently
as the late 1950s. However, all of these successes
were achieved in southern Alaska. The discovery
of the rst true Arctic commercial hydrocarbon
eld in Alaska occurred a decade later.
1. Alaska Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil
and Gas: Alaska Department of Natural Resources
Division of Oil and Gas 2006 Annual Report, (May 2006),
http://www.dog.dnr.state.ak.us/oil/products/publications/
annual/2006_annual_report/0.5_Introduction_2006.pdf
(accessed August 19, 2010).
2. BP: Prudhoe Bay Fact Sheet, (August 2006), http://
www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/us/bp_us_english/
STAGING/local_assets/downloads/a/A03_prudhoe_bay_
fact_sheet.pdf (accessed June 29, 2010).
3. Company names in this article are given as they existed
at the time. British Petroleum became BP, ARCO was
acquired by BP, and Standard Oil Company of New
Jersey became Exxon, now part of ExxonMobil.
38607schD6R1.indd 36 2/21/11 10:12 PM
Winter 2010/2011 37
On March 12, 1968, ARCO and Standard Oil
Company of New Jersey drilled a well that tapped
North Americas largest oil eld and the 18th-
largest in the worldthe Prudhoe Bay eld on
Alaskas North Slope.
2
British Petroleum drilled a
conrmation well in 1969.
3
An early estimate for
the eld was 1.5 billion m
3
[9.6 billion bbl] of
recoverable oil. By today's estimates, from the
4.0 billion m
3
[25 billion bbl] of original oil in
place (OOIP), 2.1 billion m
3
[13 billion bbl] of oil
can be recovered with existing technologies. The
eld also contains an estimated 1.3 trillion m
3

[46 Tcf] of natural gas in place in an overlying gas
cap and in solution with the oil, of which about
736 billion m
3
[26 Tcf] are classied as recoverable.
Moving Prudhoe Bay oil to market required
the operators to solve a variety of problems, from
climatic and technological to environmental and
legal. Completion of the Trans Alaska Pipeline
from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska, constructed
>
Septentrionalium Terrarum DescriptioDescription of the Septentrional (Northern) Lands. Created in 1595 by Gerardus Mercator, this map presents a
realistic depiction of Northern Europe, along with imaginary coasts of Asia and America and fantastic mysterious lands at and around the North Pole.
38607schD6R1.indd 37 2/21/11 10:12 PM
38 Oileld Review
between 1974 and 1977, allowed oil production in
the eld to begin (above).
In the Canadian Arctic, east of Alaska, indig-
enous people had also been aware of oil seeps for
centuries and had even used hydrocarbon pitch
to seal seams on canoes.
4
Oil seeping along the
banks of the Mackenzie River was rst reported
by westerners in 1789. Some subarctic elds were
discovered in the 1920s. But the rst purely
Arctic hydrocarbon eld in Canada, discovered in
1969 by Panarctic Oils, was the Drake Point gas
eld on Melville Island in the Canadian Arctic
Archipelago. The current estimated gas reserves
of the eld are 153 billion m
3
[5.4 Tcf]. In 1974,
Panarctic Oils discovered the rst Canadian
Arctic oil eldthe Bent Horn eld on Cameron
Island. Although relatively small, this is the
only Canadian Arctic oil eld that has been
commercially produced. The eld was abandoned
in 1997, but produced 453.16 thousand m
3

[2.85 million bbl] of crude oil from 1985 to 1996.
5

Today, natural gas is considered the most promis-
ing hydrocarbon reserve in the Canadian Arctic,
and the highest gas potential is expected from
the Mackenzie DeltaBeaufort Sea basin and
basins of the Arctic Archipelago.
The petroleum potential of Greenlandeast
of Canada and a self-governing territory of
Denmarkhas not been extensively explored
(below left). Much of Greenlands territory lies
north of the Arctic Circle. About 80% of the island
is covered by the Greenland ice sheetan ice
body generally more than 2,000 m [6,600 ft]
thickwhich complicates exploration activities
considerably. It was not until the early 1970s, the
time of a dramatic rise in oil prices, that the rst
large seismic surveys were carried out offshore
West Greenland, mostly within the Arctic Circle.
6

This exploration period lasted until 1978, with no
discoveries. Five exploratory wells were also
drilled in 1976 and 1977all dry holes.
Exploration resumed in the early 1990s, with the
rst oil seeps in Greenlands waters found in
1992. The Marraat-1 well, drilled in 1993, demon-
strated substantial oil leakage from cores. Since
then, seismic and airborne geophysical surveys
have been commissioned, and a few more off-
shore and onshore wells have been drilled. Some
structures with hydrocarbon potential have been
identied, and onshore oil seeps and offshore
slicks have been observed.
7
However, to date, no
oil or gas elds of any commercial signicance
have been discovered in Greenland.
8
Iceland, Greenlands neighbor, may also have
some Arctic petroleum potential.
9
In 1981,
Iceland and Norway agreed on a partition of the
Continental Shelf in the area between Iceland
and Jan Mayen Island and on a joint project to
map the subsea resources of the Jan Mayen
Ridge.
10
A 1985 seismic survey and subsequent
surveys identied two areas of the Icelandic shelf
that are thought to have potential for commercial
accumulation of oil and gas. In the Dreki area,
east and northeast of Iceland, the thick continen-
tal crust potentially includes Jurassic and
Cretaceous source rocks and is geologically
similar to hydrocarbon basins in Norway and
>
Trans Alaska Pipeline. This pipeline system extends for 800 mi [1,300 km] from the north coast of
Alaska to the south coast. The 4-ft [1.2-m] diameter pipeline is managed by the Alyeska Pipeline
Service Company, which is owned by BP Pipelines (Alaska) Inc., ConocoPhillips Transportation Alaska,
Inc., ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, Koch Alaska Pipeline Company, LLC and Unocal Pipeline
Company. (Photograph copyright of BP plc.)
>
The Polarstern vessel on a scientic research voyage off the coast of East Greenland. (Photograph
copyright of Hannes Grobe, Alfred Wegener Institute of Polar and Marine Research.)
38607schD6R1.indd 38 2/21/11 10:12 PM
Winter 2010/2011 39
Greenland. Gammur, on the northern insular
shelf of Iceland, is a relatively young sedimentary
basin of about 9 million years, from which gas
escapes have been reported.
11
In 2009, Iceland
held the rst licensing round for exploration and
production licenses in the Dreki area, and the
second round opens in 2011. However, existing
surveys estimate the probability of hydrocarbon
discovery as low.
Norway, conversely, is one of the worlds larg-
est petroleum producers and exporters. All of
Norways petroleum reserves are located on the
Norwegian Continental Shelf in three marine
regions: the North, Norwegian and Barents seas,
but only the Barents Sea has Arctic petroleum
production. Seismic surveying began in the
region in the early 1970s, followed by exploratory
drilling in 1980, when the Norwegian parliament
permitted drilling north of the 62nd parallel. In
1984, Statoil discovered the Askeladd, Albatross
and Snhvit elds, which are collectively called
the Snhvit development.
12
The Snhvit develop-
ment is now the worlds northernmost offshore
gas eld, and its estimated recoverable reserves
are 194 billion m
3
[6.8 Tcf] of natural gas,
18 million m
3
[113 million bbl] of condensate and
5.1 million metric tons [53 million bbl] of natural
gas liquids.
13
Elsewhere in the Barents Sea, exploration
activities continue, and this region is consid-
ered a promising area for hydrocarbon produc-
tion not only by Norway but also by Russia
(above right). The Kara Sea, the Barents Sea
and its southeastern part, the Pechora Sea, are
now the most explored areas of the Russian
Arctic. The first offshore Russian Arctic
fieldthe Murmanskoe gas fieldwas discov-
ered in 1983 in the Barents Sea.
14
The recover-
able gas reserves of this field are estimated at
122 billion m
3
[4.3 Tcf].
15
In 1986, the first
Russian Arctic offshore oil was discovered at
the Severo-Gulyaevskoe oil and gas condensate
field with estimated recoverable oil reserves of
11.4 million metric tons [84 million bbl].
16

Fifteen hydrocarbon fields have been discov-
ered to date in the Kara, Barents and Pechora
seas, including three supergiant fields
Shtokman, Rusanovskoe and Leningradskoe
4. Canada's Petroleum Heritage: Canada's Arctic,
http://www.albertasource.ca/petroleum/industry/historic_
dev_canada_arctic.html (accessed June 30, 2010).
5. Drummond KJ: Canadas Discovered Oil and Gas
Resources North of 60, Search and Discovery, Article
10102 (2006), http://www.searchanddiscovery.net/
documents/2006/06022drummond/index.htm (accessed
June 30, 2010).
6. GHEXISGreenland Hydrocarbon Exploration
Information Service Online: West Greenland Petroleum
Geology, Exploration History, http://www.geus.dk/
ghexis/expl-his.htm (accessed July 17, 2010).
7. Watts M: Petroleum Exploration, presented at the
Newfoundland and Labrador Oil and Gas Industries
Association Conference, St. Johns, Newfoundland
and Labrador, Canada, June 1618, 2010, http://www.
cairnenergy.com/uploadedFiles/Investors/Downloads/
Petroleum%20Exploration%20NOIA%20Conference,%20
St%20Johns.pdf (accessed July 13, 2010).
8. The most recent attempt was made by Cairn Energy.
By September 30, 2010, the end of the drilling season
in Greenland, Cairn Energy had drilled two of the four
planned wells in the West Disko area, Bafn Bay, West
Greenland. The company found traces of hydrocarbons
but no commercial discoveries.
Webb T: Cairn Energy Fails to Find Enough Oil off the
Coast of Greenland, guardian.co.uk (October 26, 2010),
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/oct/26/
cairn-energy-greenland-venture-fails (accessed
December 13, 2010).
9. All of the main island of Iceland is south of the Arctic
Circle; however, Grimsey, a small island north of the
countrys main island, lies on the Arctic Circle.
10. Jan Mayen, a volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean
between Greenland and northern Norway, is a part
of Norway.
Gunnarsson K, Sand M and Gudlaugsson ST: Geology
and Hydrocarbon Potential of the Jan Mayen Ridge,
Norwegian Petroleum Directorate and National Energy
Authority, Iceland, 1989, http://www.nea.is/media/olia/
gunnarsson89.pdf (accessed December 20, 2010).
11. Iceland National Energy Authority: Oil and Gas
Exploration, http://www.nea.is/oil-and-gas-exploration/
exploration-areas/ (accessed December 21, 2010).
12. Offshore-technology.com: Snhvit Gas Field, Barents
Sea, Norway, http://www.offshore-technology.com/
projects/snohvit/ (accessed July 14, 2010).
13. Traditionally, in countries using the metric system,
condensate is measured in metric tons (mass unit),
whereas in the US it is measured in barrels (volume
unit). Conversion of one unit to the other requires
knowledge of density. The US Energy Information
Administration provides an approximate conversion
factor of 10.40 bbl/metric ton that is used here. http://
www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/iea/tablec1.html (accessed
August 19, 2010).
14. Novikov YN and Gazhula SV: Preliminary Results and
the Lessons of the Overestimation of the Hydrocarbon
Fields Reserves of Undistributed Fund for the Western
Arctic Shelf of Russia, presented at the Fourth Arctic
Shelf: Strategy for the Future International Conference,
Murmansk, Russia, November 1214, 2008, http://
www.helion-ltd.ru/preliminary-results-and (accessed
July 15, 2010).
15. Khitrov AM, Popova MN, Novikova OV: Resource Base
of Russia and Possible Hydrocarbon Transportation
Routes During the First Part of the XXI Century,
Georesursy Geoenergetika Geopolitika 1, no. 1
(January 27, 2010), (in Russian), http://oilgasjournal.ru/
2009-1/3-rubric/hitrov.pdf (accessed September 3, 2010).
16. Khitrov et al, reference 15.
>
Arctic elds (red dots) and other locations mentioned in this article.
Valdez
Kenai
Inuvik
Liberty
Hammerfest
Dreki
Melville Island
Snhvit
Cameron Island
Gammur
Jan Mayen
Murmanskoe
Rusanovskoe
Yamburg
Drake Point
Bent Horn
CANADA
Alaska
Sakhalin
GREENLAND
ICELAND
NORWAY
RUSSIA
Marraat-1
90E 90W
60N
7
5
N
Shtokman
Tazovskoe
Zapolyarnoe
Leningradskoe
Prirazlomnoe
Kharyaga
Severo-Gulyaevskoe
Melkya
Prudhoe Bay
Endicott
M
a
c
kenzie River
B
r
o
o
k
s
R
a
n
g
e
A
rc
tic
C
ir
c
l
e
ARCTIC OCEAN
Barents Sea
N
o
r
t
h

S
e
a
N
o
r
w
e
g
ia
n
S
e
a
East S
ib
e
r
ia
n

S
e
a
K
ugmallit B
a
y
Chu
k
c
h
i
S
e
a
Kara Sea
Laptev Sea
P
e
chora Sea
38607schD6R1.indd 39 2/21/11 10:12 PM
40 Oileld Review
but none are producing yet. The Prirazlomnoe
oil field in the Pechora Sea is expected to
begin production in 2011. Its estimated recov-
erable reserves are 58.6 million metric tons
[430 million bbl].
17
Offshore regions farther
eastthe Laptev, East Siberian and Chukchi
seasare less explored but promising.
Almost all of the developed Russian oil and
gas elds are located onshore, and many impor-
tant ones, including giant elds, are north of the
Arctic Circle. The Yamburg oil and gas conden-
sate eld, for example, is the worlds third-largest
gas eld with estimated reserves of 4 trillion m
3

[141 Tcf] (above).
18
Explorationists rst investi-
gated this remote area in 1943, during World
War II, when the country was in acute need of
hydrocarbons. These endeavors were suspended,
and it was not until 1959 that exploration activi-
ties resumed. Discovered in 1962 near the Taz
Estuary in the northern area of West Siberia, the
Tazovskoe gas eld was the rst discovery in the
Russian Arctic. The eld has estimated gas
reserves of about 200 billion m
3
[7.06 Tcf].
19
The
Zapolyarnoe oil, gas and condensate eld, discov-
ered in 1965, was the rst Russian Arctic oil eld.
This is also the worlds sixth-largest gas eld with
2.7 trillion m
3
[95 Tcf] of recoverable gas.
20

However, the time from discovery to production
may sometimes take decades in this challenging
region. Although it was discovered 45 years ago,
this eld produced its rst gas only in 2001.
Arctic Petroleum Reserves Estimates
Since the time of these early discoveries through-
out the Arctic, explorationists have wondered
about the size of Arctic resources and how they
are distributed among different basins and coun-
tries. Estimates of Arctic reserves depend on the
parameter values and methods used, and may
change as new data become available or another
evaluation technique is applied. In 2000, the US
Geological Survey (USGS) estimated that the
Arctic, with 6% of the worlds area, holds 25% of
the worlds undiscovered oil and gas reserves.
The USGS obtained this gure after assessing
seven of the most studied oil and gas basins.
Since then, with improved data and a growing
level of interest in Arctic oil and gas, the estimate
has been updated.
In May 2008, the USGS completed a new
assessment, the Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal
(CARA), which was performed using a probabilis-
tic methodology of geologic analysis and analog
modeling.
21
The total undiscovered conventional
hydrocarbon resources of the Arctic were
estimated to be approximately 14.3 billion m
3

[90 billion bbl] of oil, 47.3 trillion m
3
[1,669 Tcf]
of natural gas and 7 billion m
3
[44 billion bbl] of
natural gas liquidsa total of 65.5 billion m
3

[412 billion bbl] of oil equivalent (next page).
This constitutes about 30% of the worlds undis-
covered gas and 13% of the worlds undiscovered
oil. Thus, the 2000 USGS estimate has been
rened: The undiscovered gas resources are
assessed as being even larger, whereas the undis-
covered oil resources are only half as much as the
earlier estimate.
However, none of the estimates is nal for an
area as underexplored as the Arctic, and the
CARA appraisal induced further interpretations
and criticism. On one hand, some believe that the
undiscovered oil resources of the Arctic, while
critically important to the interests of the stake-
holder countries, are probably not large enough
to signicantly shift the current geographic
17. Offshore-technology.com: Prirazlomnoe Oileld
Barents Sea, Russia, http://www.offshore-technology.
com/projects/Prirazlomnoye/ (accessed September 3,
2010).
18. Sandrea R: Equation Aids Early Estimation of Gas Field
Production Potential, Oil & Gas Journal 107, no. 6
(February 9, 2009): 3436.
19. Tutushkin A: Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District Opens
for Foreigners, Kommersant 173 (891) (September 20,
1995), (in Russian), http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.
aspx?DocsID=117850 (accessed September 7, 2010).
20. Sandrea, reference 18.
21. Bird KJ, Charpentier RR, Gautier DL, Houseknecht DW,
Klett TR, Pitman JK, Moore TE, Schenk CJ, Tennyson ME
and Wandrey CJ: Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal:
Estimates of Undiscovered Oil and Gas North of the
Arctic Circle, US Geological Survey Fact Sheet
2008-3049 (2008), http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2008/3049/
(accessed February 4, 2010).
22. Gautier DL: Results of the US Geological Survey
Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal (Cara), presented at
3P Arctic: The Polar Petroleum Potential Conference
and Exhibition, Moscow, September 30October 2, 2009.
23. Charpentier RR: Uncertainty in USGS Estimates of
Undiscovered Arctic Petroleum Resources, presented
at 3P Arctic: The Polar Petroleum Potential Conference
and Exhibition, Moscow, September 30October 2, 2009.
24. Kontorovich AE, Epov MI, Burshtein LM, Kaminskii VD,
Kurchikov AR, Malyshev NA, Prischepa OM, Safronov AF,
Stupakova AV and Suprunenko OI: Geology and
Hydrocarbon Resources of the Continental Shelf in
Russian Arctic Seas and the Prospects of Their
Development, Russian Geology and Geophysics 51,
no. 1 (January 2010): 311.
Kontorovich AE, Burshtein LM, Kaminsky V,
Kashirtsev VA, Prishchepa OM, Safronov AF,
Staroseltsev VS, Stoupakova A, Suprunenko OL and
Epov MI: Oil and Gas Resources in Eurasian Offshore
Sector of the Arctic Ocean, presented at 3P Arctic: The
Polar Petroleum Potential Conference and Exhibition,
Moscow, September 30October 2, 2009.
25. In particular, it was estimated that there is a 90%
probability that the initial in-place resources of
hydrocarbons in the Arctic Ocean exceed 90 billion
metric tons [660 billion bbl] of oil equivalent.
26. The average Arctic winter temperature is 34C [30F],
while the average Arctic summer temperature is 3C
to 12C [37F to 54F].
27. Taiga is an ecosystem dominated by coniferous forests.
Northern taiga, because of colder climate and stronger
winds, is more sparsely vegetated. Tundra is a treeless
zone with permanently frozen subsoil, north of the
timberline. Forest-tundra is a transition zone between
taiga and tundra in which islands of trees alternate with
tundra areas.
>
A drilling rig at Yamburg eld. The eld was discovered in 1969 and production began in 1986.
(Photograph courtesy of Gazprom dobycha Yamburg LLC.)
38607schD6R1.indd 40 2/21/11 10:12 PM
Winter 2010/2011 41
patterns of world oil production.
22
In addition, a
post assessment review of the risks that CARA
evaluated showed that the Arctic areas, on
average, are less likely to hold large elds.
23
On the other hand, a separate appraisal of the
Russian Arctic oil and gas potential suggests that
the Arctic basins collectively constitute one of
the worlds largest petroleum superbasins.
24

Scientists calculated probabilistic estimates of
hydrocarbon resources of Eurasian sedimentary
basins in the Arctic Ocean shelves using a
stochastic regression relationship between the
initial oil-in-place and gas-in-place resources and
characterization of the lling of the sedimentary
basins, making allowance for their ages. The esti-
mates suggested that, in the second half of the
21st century, the Arctic petroleum super basin
could provide consumers with energy resources
that are comparable to those of the Persian Gulf
or West Siberian petroleum basins.
25
Nonetheless, whatever the specic estimates,
it is clear that the Arctic petroleum reserves are
more than sufcient to attract exploration and
create a demand for oileld services. The follow-
ing sections describe how companies address the
challenges they face in nding and exploiting
Arctic reserves.
Logistics and Environment
Cold! For most people that is the main chal-
lenge of working in the Arctic. Indeed, in Arctic
areas, uncomfortably low temperatures dominate
for a considerable part of the year. To work in the
cold, companies must budget additional expenses
for everything from warm work clothing and non-
freezing fuels and oils to specially designed
equipment and vehicles.
However, the Arctic is not always cold;
temperatures vary signicantly with place and
season. The average temperatures in summer are
above freezing over all Arctic areas except the
central Arctic basin and interior Greenland.
26

In the warmer areas, when temperatures are
most comfortable for humans and suitable for
machines, the ground is free of snow and ice and
unfrozen to varying depths. But the result is
that northern taiga, forest-tundra and tundra
become almost impassable wetlands during the
warm season.
27
Because of this almost impenetrable land-
scape and the sparse population, permanent
roads are either uneconomical or impossible to
construct. The absence of roads is one of the rea-
sons the operational season for many onshore
exploration activities is restricted to winter, pro-
vided that the temperature drops sufciently low,
down to at least 20C [4F], for the ground to
be frozen hard enough to support heavy trucks
and equipment.
Furthermore, it is often necessary to con-
struct ice roads by taking water from beneath the
ice of neighboring rivers and lakes and pouring it
on the surface. Wherever possible, ice roads are
laid along frozen waterways near the road-
building materialwater. There are special
requirements for the thickness and strength of
>
A brief summary of the CARA 2008 results. The map shows the most promising areas for nding
undiscovered, or yet-to-nd (YTF), conventional hydrocarbon resources (top). The height of each
column represents the volume of YTF resources (red for gas, green for oil) in billions of barrels of oil
equivalent. The base of each column is plotted approximately at the basin location. The graphs
(bottom) present the Arctic YTF resource volume, type and location compared with the rest of the
world. The data indicate that most of these resources consist of natural gas in Russia.
90E 90W
60N
75N
A
rc
tic
C
ir
c
l
e
Oil NGL Natural gas
Distribution by Resource Type
Distribution by Country
US (Alaska) Canada Greenland
N
o
r
w
a
y
Russia
Arctic Region: Percentage of Worldwide Hydrocarbon Resources (USGS 2008)
Yet-To-Find Arctic Resources in Billion Barrels of Oil Equivalent
22%
13%
30%
20%
412 billion bbl of oil equivalent of YTF resources
90 billion bbl of oil
1,669 Tcf of gas
44 billion bbl of natural gas liquids (NGL)
34.71
14.03
61.76
135.95
10.84
37.28
4.4
72.77
22.31
17.06
38607schD6R1.indd 41 2/21/11 10:12 PM
42 Oileld Review
the ice roads, as well as driving and safety
requirements for vehicle operators (above).
28
In
addition, ice bridges are built to cross frozen riv-
ers and ponds, and sea-ice roads are constructed
on the frozen sea.
All these types of ice routes are used by
Schlumberger in the Northwest Territories,
Canada, to connect its base in Inuvik to locations
in the Mackenzie DeltaBeaufort Sea basin. The
southernmost parts of most of the roads are laid
along the frozen Mackenzie River, and north-
ward, many rivers and lakes are crossed via ice
bridges. On the Inuvik-Tuktoyaktuk road, the
northernmost leg is a sea-ice road along the coast
of the Beaufort Seas Kugmallit Bay.
Another equally important reason for taking
care with roads and transport is the extreme
fragility of the Arctic environment.
29
Arctic soil,
especially in tundra, is particularly vulnerable to
damage. Some remnants of seismic exploration
activitytrails made by drill, vibrator and
recording vehiclesmay persist for decades.
30
To
allow seismic operations to continue year-round,
WesternGeco introduced the rst rubber-tracked,
low ground-pressure vehicles to Alaskas North
Slope (below). These vehicles have wide rubber-
treaded tracks and a new drive system. When
making a turn, conventional tracked vehicles
lock one track, while keeping the other moving.
The locked track drags along the ground, often
causing damage. With the new drive system, both
tracks continue to move during a turn, but one of
them moves faster than the other, reducing
potential damage to the soil.
WesternGeco takes other measures to mini-
mize environmental impact. For example, drip
pans or sorbent materials are placed beneath
stopped vehicles to avoid contaminating the snow
with drops or spills of hydrocarbon-base products.
These sorbent materials, together with other
waste, are then disposed of in an on-site
computer-controlled high-temperature incinera-
tor. Another example of attention to detail is the
use of wooden stakes instead of plastic and wire-
pin ags for indicating source and receiver points
in land seismic surveys. Wood, if inadvertently left
in the eld, will biodegrade much more rapidly.
These measures and others signicantly reduce
damage to the sensitive Arctic environment.
Exploration Challenges
Along with infrastructure and logistics chal-
lenges, the use of basic technologies in Arctic
exploration can be difcult. Results of land seis-
mic surveys everywhere are affected by surface
roughness and near-surface heterogeneity. In the
Arctic, these problems are exacerbated. Glacial
erosion and deposition lead to a complex geomor-
phology with moraines, lakes, ridges and rapid
lithological changes. Thaw areas may induce low-
velocity anomalies for body waves, whereas the
ice cover may generate exural waves with large
amplitudes and very short wavelengths. In ground
with permafrost and seasonally frozen layers,
there are often abrupt transitions between the
frozen and melted zones.
31
These transitions
usually result in large and rapid variationsboth
vertical and lateralof elastic properties, induc-
ing seismic arrival-time differences that require
corrections, called statics.
32
An approach that uses instrumentation to
cope with coherent noise is point-receiver acqui-
sition, which WesternGeco introduced in 2002
with the Q-Land single-sensor land seismic sys-
tem.
33
The new-generation UniQ integrated point-
receiver land seismic system, launched in 2008,
was designed to work in complex-geology and
high-noise environments. The UniQ seismic sys-
tem is compliant with environmental regulations
in the Arctic and other sensitive locations.
>
The danger of thin ice. A Super-B-Train truck hauling diesel fuel broke through the Mackenzie River
ice crossing near Fort Providence, Northwest Territories, Canada. The truck weighed more than
60,000 kg [132,300 lbm], which is 15 times more than the maximum load limit of 4,000 kg [8,800 lbm] for
the Mackenzie River ice crossing. (Photograph courtesy of Jeffrey Philipp, Yellowknife, Northwest
Territories, and CBC News, reference 28.)
>
A rubber-tracked vibrator. Wide tracks deployed with rubber treads
produce less pressure on vulnerable Arctic soil, causing less damage.
38607schD6R1.indd 42 2/21/11 10:12 PM
Winter 2010/2011 43
WesternGeco performed a point-source,
point-receiver test in the Russian Arctic to dem-
onstrate how the effects of near-surface complex-
ities can be identied and removed.
34
The test
area was located in a plain, at the border between
tundra and taiga. The area is dominated by
moraine features and abounds in rivers, creeks
and glacial lakes. Along with glacial geomorphol-
ogy features, the main geophysical factor in the
survey was temperature, which affected the state
and properties of the ground and surface water.
Elastic properties of water change drastically
upon freezing, and as a consequence the seismic
velocity of unconsolidated sediments may
increase from 1,500 m/s [5,000 ft/s] to almost
4,000 m/s [13,000 ft/s]. Therefore, the near-
surface properties may vary with the season
(right). A thick, permanently frozen layer in con-
tinuous permafrost areas is characterized by high
seismic velocity. However, in large lakes and riv-
ers, the deeper water, which is insulated by the
ice cover, may remain liquid throughout the year,
thus forming low-velocity anomalies. Seismic
wave propagation in discontinuous and sporadic
permafrost areas and in areas with a thick sea-
sonally frozen layer is additionally complicated
by transitions between frozen patches and
unfrozen zones.
The survey was located at the southern edge of
the permafrost area, and continuous permafrost
was not expected. However, relict permafrost was
likely. Relict permafrost can be extremely hetero-
geneous laterally, representing the present or
past surface drainage system. Imaging this inter-
face by dense sampling in the near offset yielded
a useful survey result: Relict permafrost can be a
drilling hazard because it can seal underlying
natural gas accumulations. Also, relict permafrost
has a strong impact on seismic data, inducing
large long-wavelength traveltime distortion and
often generating strong multiples.
The test data were acquired as point-source,
point-receiver seismic data, which allowed the
detection and delineation of the extreme lateral
variations in the properties of the seismic data.
High-resolution refractions revealed the top of
the permafrost with a velocity exceeding
3,000 m/s [9,843 ft/s] at a depth of 100 m [328 ft].
The refractions travel as Rayleigh waves in the
solid ground and as exural Lamb waves in the
ice (below).
One of the biggest seismic data processing
challenges in permafrost areas is long-wavelength
traveltime distortion in the shallow part of the sec-
tion. A number of techniques are used to resolve
this effect, but many of them strongly depend on
28. CBC News: Fuel Truck Breaks Through Ice Road,
(January 12, 2000), http://www.cbc.ca/news/story/
2000/01/12/yk_truck.html (accessed December 7, 2010).
29. Read T, Thomas J, Meyer H, Wedge M and Wren M:
Environmental Management in the Arctic, Oileld
Review 5, no. 3 (October 1993): 1422.
Gibson D and Rice S: Promoting Environmental
Responsibility in Seismic Operations, Oileld Review 15,
no. 2 (Summer 2003): 1021.
30. US Fish & Wildlife Service: Seismic Trails, http://arctic.
fws.gov/seismic.htm (accessed July 20, 2010).
31. Permafrost is dened as a soil layer that remains at or
below the freezing point of water of 0C [32F] for two or
more years.
32. For more on near-surface complexities and solutions
in land seismic techniques: Bagaini C, Bunting T,
El-Emam A, Laake A and Strobbia C: Land Seismic
Techniques for High-Quality Data, Oileld Review 22,
no. 2 (Summer 2010): 2839.
33. Ait-Messaoud M, Boulegroun M-Z, Gribi A, Kasmi R,
Touami M, Anderson B, Van Baaren P, El-Emam A,
Rached G, Laake A, Pickering S, Moldoveanu N and
zbek A: New Dimensions in Land Seismic Technology,
Oileld Review 17, no. 3 (Autumn 2005): 4253.
34. Strobbia C, Glushchenko A, Laake A, Vermeer PL,
Papworth S and Ji Y: Arctic Near Surface Challenges:
The Point Receiver Solution to Coherent Noise and
Statics, First Break 27, no. 2 (February 2009): 6976.
>
An example of lateral variations and mode conversion (bottom) at the junction
of a partially frozen lake (blue, top left) and a moraine with discontinuous
permafrost (purple, top right). Statics (inset, bottom) are induced by the
transition between the frozen (ground) and melted (lake) zones in the presence
of a strong shallow reector. Shots on the ground with frozen zones generate
head waves (black arrows, top) refracted by a shallow horizon (green). In the
shallow subsurface, surface waves propagate (red arrows), which are Rayleigh
waves in the ground and pseudo-Lamb waves on the ice (white) of the lake.
T
i
m
e
,

s
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0.0
Refracted arrivals
Receivers Source
R
a
y
le
ig
h
w
a
v
e
F
l
e
x
u
r
a
l

L
a
m
b

w
a
v
e
Reflection
Statics
>
A near-surface section of permafrost ground. Contemporary permafrost (blue) is called continuous if
it underlies more than 80% of the ground. Between 30% and 80%, it is considered discontinuous, and
with less than 30%, sporadic. Talik is a layer of year-round unfrozen ground in a permafrost area. In
continuous permafrost regions, taliks often form beneath lakes and rivers in which the deep water
does not freeze in winter, and so neither does the soil underneath. Relict permafrost (purple) is the
remains of a frozen layer formed when the surface temperature was lower than at present.
250
200
150
100
50
0
Sporadic
Overburden
Oligocene deposits
Eocene deposits
Discontinuous
Contemporary permafrost
Relict permafrost
Continuous
Lake
50
100
E
l
e
v
a
t
i
o
n
,

m
0 50 100 km
0 50 100 mi
Talik
38607schD6R1.indd 43 2/21/11 10:13 PM
44 Oileld Review
well data. One method that does not require well
data or assumptions about geology uses grid-based
tomography to build a depth-velocity model of the
shallow subsurface.
35
This method was tested for
suitability for processing the data acquired in West
Siberia, Russia.
The permafrost-induced distortion was cor-
rected in two steps. First, geoscientists built a
high-resolution model of the shallow part of the
section that contains permafrost. Second, they
identied a shallow horizon below permafrost,
tied the nal depth-velocity model to well data,
where available, and calculated replacement
statics using either a constant velocity or gradi-
ent velocity eld above the chosen horizon. The
nal high-resolution depth-velocity model for the
shallow part of the geologic section showed a very
good match to the well data (above left). This
velocity model can be used for full depth migra-
tion or can serve as a basis for long-wavelength
statics derivation. In the case from West Siberia,
images produced from a model that incorporated
the permafrost correction produced geologically
realistic horizons, while those derived from the
uncorrected model contained sag and bulge
artifacts (above right).
Because exploration activities in the Arctic
are characterized by high costs and short operat-
ing time windows, Schlumberger is focusing on
integrating techniques to prioritize exploration
targets. For example, PetroMod petroleum
system modeling software helps assess basin
potential by tracking hydrocarbon generation,
maturation and accumulation throughout geo-
logic history.
36
The results are 3D geologic models
that are fully scalable from regional to prospect
scale. Through such modeling, exploration risk
assessments are improved in advance of eld
operations, and time and effort can be concen-
trated in the areas with greatest exploration
potential, while avoiding areas with lower
chances of success.
Schlumberger and the USGS undertook a
study combining basin and petroleum system
modeling (BPSM) on a regional scale with pros-
pect-scale modeling. This study was intended to
help geoscientists understand the petroleum sys-
tems in Alaskas North Slope and the Chukchi
Seaa region spanning vast underexplored ter-
ritories and areas containing signicant known
reserves. The study area covered 275,000 km
2

[106,000 mi
2
] and included data from more than
400 wells.
Simulation results showed that hydrocarbon
charging occurs quicklyinstantaneously on a
geologic time scale. If traps are not formed before
or as soon as hydrocarbons are ready to move,
there is a high risk the uids will not be trapped.
Events charts for two different areas overlying
the thermally mature Shublik source rock dem-
onstrate how relative timing between trap
formation and source-rock maturation can
>
Seismic sections (top) and corresponding time slices (bottom) with a statics error caused by
permafrost. Permafrost induces artifacts that cause the reecting horizons in the uncorrected images
(top left) to look rather curved. After correction for permafrost (top right), these horizons appear atter.
The time slices at 2,440 ms show bulges and sags before correction (bottom left) and gently dipping
layers after correction (bottom right). The yellow lines at 2,440 ms (top) indicate the projection of the
time slices on the seismic sections.
Seismic section
Without Permafrost Correction With Permafrost Correction
Seismic section
Time slice Time slice
400
3,000
Crossline
2,440
T
i
m
e
,

m
s
400
3,000
2,440
T
i
m
e
,

m
s
Seismic
section
Seismic
section
I
n
l
i
n
e
Crossline
I
n
l
i
n
e
>
The 3D seismic cube with the nal velocity
model after several iterations of common image
point tomography. The shallow section exhibits a
low-velocity zone (red) in the central portion.
3
.0
2
.5
2
.0
1
.5
1
.0
0
.5
1
.0
0
.5
2
.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
1
.5
V
e
l
o
c
i
t
y
T
i
m
e
,

s
C
ro
s
s
lin
e
a
x
is
N
38607schD6R1.indd 44 2/21/11 10:13 PM
Winter 2010/2011 45
impact risk (right). At Prudhoe Bay, trap forma-
tion preceded generation, migration and accu-
mulation by several million years, resulting in
major oil accumulations. On the other hand, the
events chart at a well in the foothills of the
Alaskan Brooks Range indicates signicant tim-
ing risks exist for stratigraphic traps, which
formed at about the same time as generation and
migration of uids from the Shublik Formation.
In addition, risk is high for the structural traps
because they can be lled only by remigration of
petroleum from older stratigraphic traps or by
hydrocarbon displaced from other areas.
Drilling in the Arctic
Drilling in Arctic areas is complicated both
onshore and offshore. In both environments,
the main subsurface challenge is permafrost,
which may be a drilling hazard because accumu-
lations of natural gas hydrates can exist within
and beneath it.
37
A dangerous gas kick may
occur when a gas hydratebearing layer is
penetrated or if free gas is trapped below the
gas-hydrate zone.
38
Most drilling problems encountered in gas
hydratebearing strata are attributed to gas-
hydrate dissociation, which can produce more
than 160 volumes of free gas for every volume of
gas hydrate affected. Typically, this can occur if
drilling operations or warm drilling mud alters
the temperature or pressure regime of the gas
hydrates within the formation sediments or
within drill cuttings. In situations where the tem-
perature equilibrium of the gas hydrates has
been disrupted, conventional well control meth-
ods, such as weighting up the drilling mud, may
have little effect because the gas is being pro-
duced as a result of thermal, not pressure, dis-
equilibrium. In a worst-case scenario, gas-hydrate
dissociation may be so vigorous that the drilling
mud is displaced, thus reducing the hydrostatic
head and creating the potential for an inux of
free gas. Drilling problems in the Mackenzie
Delta and northern Alaska have been attributed
in part to this phenomenon.
39
Because of the potential drilling hazard that
gas hydrates present, industry practice in most
regions typically has been to drill through gas
hydratebearing strata as rapidly as possible in
order to stabilize the interval and install surface
casing. However, in Arctic wells, chilled drilling
muds have worked effectively to maintain gas-
hydrate stability conditions. Therefore, the typi-
cal strategy employed when problems are
encountered is to slow the rate of penetration and
circulate the gas-hydrate cuttings out of the hole.
More recently, chemical agents have been added
to the drilling mud to stabilize the gas hydrates
both in the formation and in the drill cuttings.
40
35. Zarkhidze A, Yanchak D, Grechishnikova T and May R:
Correcting Long-Wavelength Traveltime Distortion in
the Presence of Inhomogeneous Permafrost Using
Grid-Based Tomography, paper H010, presented at the
68th European Association of Geoscientists and
Engineers Conference and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria,
June 1215, 2006.
36. Al-Hajeri MM, Al Saeed M, Derks J, Fuchs T, Hantschel T,
Kauerauf A, Neumaier M, Schenk O, Swientek O,
Tessen N, Welte D, Wygrala B, Kornpihl D and Peters K:
Basin and Petroleum System Modeling, Oileld
Review 21, no. 2 (Summer 2009): 1429.
>
Events charts for two northern Alaska areas. The event chronology for Prudhoe Bay (top) indicates
favorable timing for accumulation of hydrocarbons generated from the Shublik source rock. Timing is
favorable if trap formation precedes the critical moment (black), a time when more than 50% of
hydrocarbon generation, migration and accumulation has occurred. By the time hydrocarbons were
migrating in the mid-Cretaceous, many traps had formed and were available to capture uids. To the
south, in the foothills of the Brooks Range (bottom), events were not as favorably timed. However, while
traps may have formed too late to contain oil and gas generated in the Cretaceous, they might have
formed in time to hold remigrating uids, or those displaced from other areas (hatched red).
Paleozoic Cenozoic Mesozoic
300 200 100
Time, millions of years ago
Source rock
Reservoir rock
Seal rock
Overburden rock
Trap formation
Generation, migration, accumulation
Preservation
Critical moment
Prudhoe Bay
Geologic time scale
(some period names
abbreviated)
Petroleum system events
Geologic element
Process Favorable timing
M P Permian Tr Jurassic Cretaceous Pg Ng
Stratigraphic/structural
Stratigraphic Structural
Paleozoic Cenozoic Mesozoic
300 200 100
Time, millions of years ago
Source rock
Reservoir rock
Seal rock
Overburden rock
Trap formation
Generation, migration, accumulation
Preservation
Critical moment
Brooks Range Foothills
Petroleum system events
Unfavorable timing
Structural Stratigraphic
M P Permian Tr Jurassic Cretaceous Pg Ng
Geologic time scale
(some period names
abbreviated)
37. Natural gas hydrates are ice-like substances that form
when water and natural gas combine at high pressures
and low temperatures.
For more on natural gas hydrates: Birchwood R, Dai J,
Shelander D, Boswell R, Collett T, Cook A, Dallimore S,
Fujii K, Imasato Y, Fukuhara M, Kusaka K, Murray D and
Saeki T: Developments in Gas Hydrates, Oileld
Review 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 1833.
38. Yakushev VS and Collett TS: Gas Hydrates in Arctic
Regions: Risk to Drilling and Production, in Proceedings
of the Second International Offshore and Polar
Engineering Conference, vol. 1. Golden, Colorado, USA:
International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers
(June 1992): 669673.
39. Energy, Mines and Resources Canada: Report of
Investigation of Events Culminating in a Blowout of Gas
at Gulf et al Immiugak N-05, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada:
Energy, Mines and Resources Canada, 1989.
Schoeld TR, Judzis A and Yousif M: Stabilization of
In-Situ Hydrates Enhances Drilling Performance and Rig
Safety, paper SPE 38568, presented at the SPE Annual
Technical Conference and Exhibition, San Antonio,
Texas, USA, October 58, 1997.
40. Ohara T, Dallimore SR and Fercho E: JAPEX/JNOC/GSC
MALLIK 2L-38 Gas Hydrate Research Well, Mackenzie
Delta, N.W.T.: Overview of Field Operations, paper
SPE 59795, presented at the SPE/CERI Gas Technology
Symposium, Calgary, April 35, 2000.
38607schD6R1.indd 45 2/21/11 10:13 PM
46 Oileld Review
Drilling operations in Arctic conditions can
be improved by using casing while drilling
(CWD). This technique employs well casing as a
drillstring: The casing is equipped with a drill bit
at the bottom, rotated until the target depth is
reached and then cemented.
41
In this manner,
CWD allows the operator to drill and set casing
through problematic zones in one operation
with relatively low ow rates to avoid hole
enlargement. The lower ow rates also enable
use of smaller, lighter rig equipment, reducing
the minimum ice thickness required during rig
moves, thereby lengthening the winter-season
operating period.
42
Offshore operations in the Arctic encounter
the same subsurface difculties as those onshore,
but have more-severe surface challenges. The
open-water season is very short, and the condi-
tions are harsh. Strong currents, erce storms,
multiyear ice, intense oating ice motion and, in
some areas, icebergs all combine to increase the
danger associated with drilling in open water.
43
To
withstand such challenges, offshore drilling and
production facilitiesvessels, platforms and
submerged structuresmust be particularly
rugged. In shallow waters, articial islands,
typically made from gravel or ice, are the most
technically and economically efcient solution.
Gravel islands are constructed by dredging
and lling with gravel during the summer. In
Arctic areas, it is possible to truck the gravel over
the ice to the site in the winter and dump the
gravel through a hole excavated in the ice sheet.
Ice islands lack the stability of gravel islands.
The former are relatively thin and tolerate only
low-weight loads; therefore, they need to be pro-
tected against the lateral movement of the
surrounding ice.
Along with articial islands built from various
materials, different caissons, or retaining struc-
tures, are used as drilling facilities. For example,
in its Arctic activities, ExxonMobil uses gravel
islands, ice islands, caisson retained islands
(CRIs), concrete island drilling systems (CIDS),
Molikpaq and single steel drilling caisson (SSDC)
systems (above).
44
The CRI structure requires
less gravel than a traditional gravel island and is
less expensive and faster to install. A CIDS is a
reusable gravity-based structure developed to
further reduce construction costs. The heavily
instrumented Molikpaq drilling and oil produc-
tion platform is a steel caisson lled with
granular material.
45
An SSDC employs an ice-
strengthened, converted supertanker that rests
on a mobile steel platform, allowing for year-
round drilling.
The deeper the water, the larger the earth-
work required for building articial islands and
the more costly and more difcult they are to
build. An alternative in such cases is extended-
reach drilling. The two methods can be efciently
combined. A recent example is the BP Liberty
Project, which is estimated to cost more than
US$ 1 billion and will tap into a new 100 million-
bbl [16 million-m
3
] reservoir.
46
The Liberty eld is located in 20 ft [6 m] of
water inside the Beaufort Sea barrier islands off-
shore Alaska. The project will take advantage of
existing infrastructure in the BP-operated
Endicott oil eld, which has been producing
since 1987. BP plans to reach the Liberty oil res-
ervoir, about 6 mi [10 km] east of Endicott, using
state-of-the-art, extended-reach wells. The wells
will be drilled from the Endicott satellite drilling
island, which will be expanded for these drilling
operations (next page). Producing the oil through
these long-reach wells will eliminate the need for
a new drilling island and subsea oil pipeline. It is
expected that the Liberty eld will yield about
40,000 bbl [6,360 m
3
] of oil per day.
Preparing Arctic Wells
Well cementing in Arctic environments is partic-
ularly challenging. Cement setting is usually
accompanied by heat release in hydration reac-
tions of cement components. This property of
exothermicity, which may be ignored in many
other areas, becomes signicant in Arctic envi-
ronments because the heat release causes per-
mafrost to thaw. The formation, previously rm
and strong, becomes unconsolidated and unsta-
ble as liquid water forms around the borehole. If
the permafrost contains gas hydrates, they can
decompose to release methane in dangerous
quantities. These multiphase conditions around
the wellbore threaten its integrity. Because per-
mafrost thickness varies from less than 1 m [3 ft]
to more than 1,500 m [5,000 ft], extremely long
portions of the wellbore may be damaged if
cemented improperly.
47
Schlumberger developed a solution to this
problemARCTICSET cements, designed spe-
cically for low-temperature applications across
permafrost zones. The compositions of these
cements are selected so that the heat of hydra-
tion is low and the heat release in cement setting
is minimal. ARCTICSET cements do not freeze,
but set and develop adequate strength in wells
having temperatures as low as 9C [16F]. The
cements have low free-water separation, low
permeability, excellent durability to temperature
cycling and controllable pumping times and gel
strength properties. An antifreeze is used to
ensure that the mix water does not freeze before
the cement hydrates. ARCTICSET formulations
are available for a variety of conditions, including
wellbores that require low-density cements and
cements with lost circulation materials.
>
An articial island for offshore production. This caisson retained island (CRI) is located in the
Beaufort Sea. (Photograph copyright of ExxonMobil.)
38607schD6R1.indd 46 2/21/11 10:13 PM
Winter 2010/2011 47
Harsh, cold climates also pose difculties for
well stimulation operations. Hydraulic fracturing
and matrix acidizing share common logistics and
environmental safety challenges, but have their
own specic difculties related to handling
and storage of supplies, especially chemicals.
Hydraulic fracturing is a complex oileld service:
It requires equipment to transport and store
water and chemicals, prepare fracturing uid,
blend the uid with proppant, pump the uid
down the well and monitor the treatment. To
operate efciently in these conditions,
Schlumberger engineers designed a fracturing
eet for operations in West Siberia, including
Arctic areas.
48
41. Some CWD techniques employ a system for retrieving
the bottomhole assembly before pumping cement; other
systems require the bit to be cemented in place and this
option can be further modied by using a drillable bit
that can be removed by milling. For more on CWD:
Fontenot KR, Lesso B, Strickler RD and Warren TM:
Using Casing to Drill Directional Wells, Oileld
Review 17, no. 2 (Summer 2005): 4461.
42. Vrielink H, Bradford JS, Basarab L and Ubaru CC:
Successful Application of Casing-While-Drilling
Technology in a Canadian Arctic Permafrost
Application, paper IADC/SPE 111806, presented at the
IADC/SPE Drilling Conference, Orlando, Florida, USA,
March 46, 2008.
43. Multiyear ice has survived at least one melt season, may
be much thicker than rst-year ice and typically
continues to grow over time.
44. ExxonMobil: Arctic Leadership, (May 2008), http://
www.exxonmobil.com/corporate/les/news_pub_poc_
arctic.pdf (accessed October 12, 2010).
>
BP Endicott offshore eld (top). The main production island in the foreground is connected to the
satellite drilling island and to shore by a gravel causeway, along which an oil pipeline to shore is also
laid. The satellite drilling island will be expanded for the Liberty eld development. A close-up of
reinforcement structures of such islands can be seen at Northstar Island, a BP offshore oil eld
(bottom). (Photographs courtesy of BP.)
Satellite drilling island
45. The Molikpaq is an ice-resistant structure originally built
to explore for oil in the Canadian Beaufort Sea. It is
currently installed in the Astokh area of the Piltun-
Astokhskoye eld offshore Sakhalin Island, Russia, as
part of the Sakhalin II Project. Offshore-technology.com:
Sakhalin II, Sea of Okhotsk, Russia, http://www.
offshore-technology.com/projects/sakhalin/ (accessed
December 22, 2010).
46. BP: Reaching Out to Liberty, http://www.bp.com/
liveassets/bp_internet/us/bp_us_english/STAGING/
local_assets/downloads/l/nal_liberty70808.pdf
(accessed October 13, 2010).
47. International Permafrost Association: What Is
Permafrost? http://ipa.arcticportal.org/index.php/
what-is-permafrost.html (accessed August 5, 2010).
48. Ayala S, Barber T, Dessinges MN, Frey M, Horkowitz J,
Leugemors E, Pessin J-L, Way CS, Badry R, El Kholy I,
Galt A, Hjelleset M, Sock D and Yamilov RR: Improving
Oileld Service Efciency, Oileld Review 18, no. 3
(Autumn 2006): 6979.
38607schD6R1.indd 47 2/21/11 10:13 PM
48 Oileld Review
8 6 centrifugal pump
Hydration tank
Polymer-storage bin Hydration tank
>
GelSTREAK polymer hydration unit, fully winterized for the West Siberian climate. Unlike previous
continuous-mix systems, the GelSTREAK unit uses dry polymer to produce linear gel at concentrations
up to 6 kg/m
3
[2.1 lbm/bbl] and at output rates up to 6.4 m
3
/min [40 bbl/min]. The onboard storage bin
holds 1,810 kg [3,990 lbm] of dry polymer powder. Polymer hydration requires time and uid shearing.
Therefore, the onboard hydration tank has ve agitation compartments, each 23.8 m
3
[150 bbl] in
volume, through which the uid passes sequentially, providing rst-in, rst-out ow. Equipment
operation is automated and remotely controlled from the FracCAT computer-aided treatment carrier,
a part of the PodSTREAK unit.
Built on a Russian six-wheel-drive truck chas-
sis and powered by a 400-horsepower engine,
the GelSTREAK gel continuous mixing and hydra-
tion vehicle, which is easy to transport, is a com-
pact version of the PCM precision continuous
mixer (above).
The unit uses the CleanGEL hydrocarbon-free
polymer-base fracturing uidsrened, fast-
hydrating, dry guars that have higher molecular
weights than conventional products and there-
fore impart higher linear and crosslinked gel vis-
cosities, allowing a 20% polymer-concentration
reduction.
49
Using less polymer is benecial
because less ltercake is deposited on the frac-
ture face, and the proppant pack contains
less polymer residue after uid cleanup.
Schlumberger has developed a simplied and
robust uid that is compatible with Siberian
uid-preparation logistics and climatethe
YF100RGD crosslinked, water-base fracturing
uid. In this uids name, RGD is an acronym for
reduced guar, delayed, meaning that less guar
is required to attain a given uid viscosity, and
that crosslinking is delayed to reduce friction
pressure during uid placement.
The linear gel produced in the GelSTREAK
vehicle is fed to a winterized PodSTREAK stimu-
lation blending, monitoring and control unit. This
unit allows continuous mixing of all chemicals
required for the fracturing treatment, and an
operator in its cabin controls the operation.
Systems have also been designed for matrix
acidizing in a Russian Arctic oil eld.
50
Field
operator Total determined that a well was under-
performing in its Kharyaga eld in the Timan-
Pechora region of Russia 60 km [37 mi] north of
the Arctic Circle. The eld produces principally
from a Devonian-age carbonate reservoir. The
productivity index of the subject well dropped to
2.5 m
3
/(kPas) [1.1 bbl/d/psi] from the previous
6.5 m
3
/(kPas) [2.8 bbl/d/psi]. In this well, devi-
ated by 40 at the pay zone, the total length of the
perforated interval was 40 m [131 ft], and the
bottomhole static temperature was 42C [107F].
The permeability of the formation ranged from
20 to 150 mD. The 40 degree API gravity oil had
high parafn content (17% n-parafns) and a
wax-appearance temperature of 29C [84F],
which raised concerns about compatibility with
treatment uid as well as solidication. Exacer-
bating conditions included low-temperature
surface environment, long perforated intervals,
owback through an electric submersible pump
(ESP), and H
2
S presence in the oil. Planned
workover operations would not allow immediate
owback, and therefore the client selected a
polymer-free solution to avoid formation damage.
Total chose VDA viscoelastic diverting acid
for even distribution and the DAD dynamic acid
dispersion system for acid stimulation. VDA uid
can be used in a wide temperature range, main-
taining an ideal thin consistency while being
pumped into the well. Upon acid spending, the
49. Guar gum is a hydrophilic polymer extracted from the
seed of the guar plant. It is readily dispersible in water
and brines of various types and salinity. Its water
dispersions can be crosslinked by borax to yield a gel,
called linear gel.
50. Poitrenaud H, Ferrand P, Pouget P and Manire J:
Successful Acid-Fracturing in Adverse Conditions:
Lessons Learnt and Integrated Evaluation in the
Kharyaga Field, paper SPE 102475, presented at the
SPE Russian Oil and Gas Technical Conference and
Exhibition, Moscow, October 36, 2006.
51. McIntosh SA, Noble PG, Rockwell J and Ramlakhan CD:
Moving Natural Gas Across Oceans, Oileld Review 20,
no. 2 (Summer 2008): 5063.
38607schD6R1.indd 48 2/21/11 10:13 PM
Winter 2010/2011 49
>
Changing rheology of VDA viscoelastic diverting acid. The VDA uid in 20% hydrochloric acid has a
viscosity of less than 3 mPas (left). Upon reaction of hydrochloric acid with formation carbonate rocks,
VDA uid develops viscosity rapidly, and after completion of the reaction, it converts to a gel (right).
>
A sample of carbonate rock etched by DAD dynamic acid dispersion
treatment. The acid enhances permeability by creating large conduits that
facilitate the ow of oil.
uid rapidly develops viscosity in situ and
becomes self-diverting (above). The viscosity
buildup serves as a barrier to reduce the devel-
opment of dominating wormholes and allows
movement of the uids to stimulate other
untreated zones. VDA uid is polymer free and
nondamaging, and therefore well cleanup is eas-
ier than in conventionally stimulated wells.
Total selected the VDA system because an
extended shutdown was expected after the treat-
ment, prohibiting the use of any system that con-
tains either solids or polymer. Ball-sealer
diversion was excluded because the number of
perforation holes was too large (more than 600)
to ensure efciency of this type of diversion. In
addition, the owback through the ESP would
call for soluble ball sealers, which were consid-
ered less dependable than insoluble ones.
Polymer-base in situ crosslinking acid systems
were undesirable because they were known to
cause residual formation damage. Moreover, such
systems are iron-crosslinked, and the iron-com-
pound precipitation is difcult to control, partic-
ularly in the presence of H
2
S, which is contained
in the oil in this eld.
A mutual solvent was pumped as a preush
ahead of the acid treatment. Then, VDA uid was
bullheaded alternately with DAD uid. The DAD
acid-external phase emulsion includes a dispers-
ing and stabilizing agent often used as a preush
ahead of matrix acidizing treatments. It was used
to remove oily parafnic deposits and to simulta-
neously dissolve acid-soluble minerals (below
left). The well was owed back 14 days later with-
out incident, and the restored productivity index
was measured at 4.6 m
3
/(kPas) [2.0 bbl/d/psi],
which represented an 84% improvement.
Arctic Petroleum and Economic Challenges
Although aspects of technology, climate and envi-
ronment affect Arctic hydrocarbon production,
its potential is ultimately determined by a cumu-
lative factorprotability. The Arctic holds a
disproportionate amount of the world's undiscov-
ered gas and oil. Although these reserves occur in
a favorable concentration, they are mostly
stranded; the situation is even more difcult for
gas because it is more problematic to transport
than oil.
The development of liqueed natural gas
(LNG) technologies has made natural gas increas-
ingly available for remote consumers, but the
advantage of this technology has so far mainly
been realized by LNG plants built in low and mid-
dle latitudes. Of the 21 operating LNG plants, only
one, on the island of Melkya, Hammerfest,
Norway, is in the Arctic; others at Kenai, Alaska,
and Sakhalin Island, Russia, are located in simi-
larly harsh climates.
51
Nonetheless, the determining factor for the
future of Arctic oil and gas development seems
to be the worlds growing demand for energy.
The satisfaction of that demand may require
marshalling all conceivable hydrocarbon
resources, wherever they are located. Continually
improved technologies may help bring the hydro-
carbons of the remote Arctic within reach of
consumers worldwide. VG
38607schD6R1.indd 49 2/21/11 10:13 PM
Contributors
50 Oileld Review
Pierre Allix, who is Unconventional Resources
Program Manager for Total, is responsible for evaluat-
ing new technology applications for all types of uncon-
ventional resources worldwide. He is based at the Total
Scientific Research Center in Pau, France. Pierre
joined Elf Aquitaine (which later became Total) in
1981 after obtaining a PhD degree in geology from the
University of Aix-Marseille, France. He has led numer-
ous integrated exploration projects in Africa, Asia and
South America and, in 1990, worked as chief geologist
and deputy exploration manager for the Elf Aquitaine
subsidiary in Angola in the exploration of the deep off-
shore of the Lower Congo basin. Before taking his cur-
rent position, Pierre was in charge of new business for
North and South America.
Rifaat Al-Mjeni is a petrophysicist with Shell
Technology Oman in Muscat. He is currently involved
in building high-resolution static-sector simulation
models for understanding remaining oil saturations
and for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) screening pur-
poses. He also identifies surveillance technologies that
enable accurate assessment of EOR processes in pilot
tests. Before assuming his current post, he worked for
Petroleum Development Oman and Occidental
Mukhaizna, also in Oman. Rifaat received a BSc
degree in geophysics from the University of Leeds,
England, and an MSc degree in petroleum geosciences
and a PhD degree in petroleum engineering, both from
Imperial College, London.
Shyam Arora, based in Muscat, Oman, is the New Oil
Team Leader for the Fahud and Yibal clusters in the
North Oman Directorate for Petroleum Development
Oman (PDO). He began his career with Schlumberger
Brazil in 1985. He worked for Crocker Data Processing
and then the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial
Research Organisation (CSIRO), both in Perth,
Western Australia, Australia. He was the senior petro-
physicist working on the Tunu Field for Total
Indonesie in Balikpapan. Before joining PDO as petro-
physics discipline head of the South Oman
Directorate, he was senior petrophysicist for Brunei
Shell Petroleum in Seria. Shyam has BS and MS
degrees in engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology, Mumbai.
Andrew Bishop is Business Development Manager for
WesternGeco GeoSolutions, and is based in Gatwick,
England. He has been responsible for identifying inte-
grated upstream oil and gas reservoir technology
opportunities and the marketing and sales of
WesternGeco services since 2000. From 1994 to 2000,
he worked for Western Geophysical as business man-
ager for the Europe, Africa and Middle East Reservoir
Services Group, which he had established, overseeing
the management of reservoir characterization and seis-
mic time-lapse (4D) projects. Before that, he worked
for Halliburton Geophysical Services in Canada, the US
and Norway. He also was business development man-
ager for the USSR/CIS, and one of the first representa-
tives of western oil service companies to visit and work
with the geological and geophysical exploration organi-
zations in Russia. Andrew is a member of the Energy
Institute (formerly the Institute of Petroleum) and the
SPE. He earned a BS degree in geology at Queen Mary
College and an MS degree in geophysics at Imperial
College, both at University of London in England. He
also earned an MBA degree at The Open University,
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England, and is a
qualified PRINCE2 Project Management Practitioner.
Chad Bremner is the Oilfield Services Marketing
Manager for the Schlumberger North Sea GeoMarket*
region, based in Stavanger, Norway. Prior to his cur-
rent position, he managed a six-month project to study
the opportunities and challenges that exist in the
Arctic and develop an Arctic strategy for
Schlumberger. The project covered all Schlumberger
product segments and involved several GeoMarket
regions, including Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Norway
and Russia. Chad joined Schlumberger in Canada in
2002. He has held various positions in the Artificial
Lift segment with a special focus on REDA Hotline*
high-temperature electric submersible pumps. Chad
has a BS degree in petroleum engineering from the
University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.
Alan Burnham is the Chief Technology Officer for
American Shale Oil Company LLC, in Rifle, Colorado,
USA, where he leads the companys research and
development efforts. Previously, he worked for more
than 30 years at Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory (LLNL) in California, USA, in the areas of
oil shale processing, petroleum geochemistry, laser
fusion targets, large optics and energetic materials.
Alan holds three patents and has published approxi-
mately 250 journal articles, conference proceedings
and publicly available LLNL technical reports. He has
been active in numerous professional societies and
was the recipient of a Federal Laboratory Consortium
award for excellence in technology transfer in 1990.
He received a BS degree in chemistry from Iowa State
University, Ames, USA, and a PhD degree in physical
chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, USA.
Pradeep Cherukupalli works for Petroleum
Development Oman (PDO), in Muscat, as the surveil-
lance focal point for waterflood and polymer injection
projects of the PDO Marmul asset. He started his
career as a geophysicst with Oil and Natural Gas
Corporation (ONGC) in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.
During 21 years at ONGC, his assignments included
petrophysical laboratory studies, log analysis, data
management, software development and field develop-
ment studies. Before taking his current assignment, he
worked several years in the maturation team of the
exploration directorate of PDO. Pradeep holds a BSc
degree in physics and an MSc (Tech) degree in geo-
physics, both from Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam,
India, and an MTech degree in petroleum exploration
from the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, Jharkhand.
John Edwards is Schlumberger Technical Manager in
Muscat, Oman. Since joining the company in 1978, he
has worked in various operational, engineering and
management positions with a focus on the acquisition
and processing of various measurements deployed on
wireline, drillpipe or permanent completions. John
earned a BE degree in civil engineering from The
University of Auckland in New Zealand.
Betty Jean Felber is an Independent Consultant in
Sand Springs, Oklahoma, USA, with expertise in evalu-
ation and implementation of improved oil recovery
projects. Her career in the E&P industry began in 1971
with Amoco Production Company at the Tulsa
Research Center. She was the senior reservoir engi-
neer in charge of the Improved Recovery Group for
MAPCO Oil and Gas Company, which was bought by
CNG Producing Company. Later, she worked on world-
wide projects as director of reservoir description and
exploitation for Core Laboratories in Dallas and
Houston. In 1994, Betty joined the US Department of
Energy in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. She then served as
senior scientist and project manager for modeling all
US land and offshore oil and gas reserves at the
National Energy Technology Laboratory in Tulsa. She
received a BS degree from Oklahoma Panhandle State
University in Goodwell, MS and PhD degrees from
Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, all in chem-
istry, and a diploma from the Senior Executive Fellows
Program at Harvard University, Cambridge,
Massachusetts, USA.
Tom Fowler graduated from Michigan Technological
University, Houghton, USA, in 1981 with a BS degree in
mechanical engineering, and joined Shell later that
year. Since 1998, he has worked primarily on Shells
field testing of the emerging in situ conversion process
(ICP) for oil shale and the in situ upgrading process
(IUP) for heavy oil. He was involved in the recent
Colorado oil shale pilots and was project manager for
the large heavy-oil pilot in Peace River, Alberta,
Canada. Tom is currently the Commercial &
Integration Lead for Oil Shale in Shells Projects and
Technology group in Houston.
Omer Gurpinar, based in Denver, is Technical Director
of EOR for Schlumberger. He is responsible for develop-
ing technologies and services that increase oilfield
recovery factors. He has more than 35 years of industry
experience in various aspects of applied reservoir engi-
neering, with a focus on understanding the recovery
behavior of naturally fractured reservoirs, EOR and
compositional modeling. Omer started his professional
career in 1976 in Ankara, Turkey, with Trkiye
Petrolleri Anonim Ortakli gi (TPAO), then moved to
Calgary where he became chief reservoir engineer for
Scientific Software-Intercomp Inc. and later vice presi-
dent of reservoir simulation with INTERA. Since joining
Schlumberger in 1998, he has been vice president and
technology director for the Schlumberger Integrated
Product Management and Data and Consulting
Services groups and contributed to building the E&P
consulting group. He earned a BSc (Hons) and an MSc
degree, both in petroleum engineering, from Middle
East Technical University in Ankara.
Michael Herron is a Scientific Advisor at
Schlumberger-Doll Research (SDR) in Cambridge,
Massachusetts, and is an Adjunct Professor at Lamont-
Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, in New
York City. He works on the integration of geochemical
logging data into the mainstream of reservoir descrip-
tion and on applications of geochemical and statistical
methods for reservoir interpretation problems. He is
Coleader of the SDR Oil Shale research effort and has
recently begun work on gas shale interpretation
methodology. Prior to joining Schlumberger in 1982, he
studied the chemical stratigraphy of polar ice cores at
The State University of New York at Buffalo, USA, where
he received a PhD degree in geological sciences. Mike
also has a BA degree in chemistry from the University of
California, San Diego.
38607schD7R1.qxp:ORSPR04_contribs_01 3/1/11 9:43 PM Page 50
Winter 2010/2011 51
George J. Hirasaki is a Professor of Chemical
Engineering at Rice University in Houston. Since join-
ing the faculty in 1993, his research interests have
included nuclear magnetic resonance well logging,
reservoir wettability, surfactant enhanced oil recovery,
foam mobility control, gas hydrate recovery, asphaltene
deposition and emulsion separation. Prior to that, he
worked for 26 years for Shell, doing research in reser-
voir simulation, enhanced oil recovery and formation
evaluation. George received the SPE Lester C. Uren
Award and was named an Improved Oil Recovery
Pioneer at the 1998 SPE/DOE IOR Symposium. He also
received the Society of Core Analysts Technical
Achievement Award and is a member of the National
Academy of Engineers. He obtained degrees in chemi-
cal engineering: a BS degree from Lamar University,
Texas, USA, and PhD degree from Rice University.
Cuong Jackson is EOR Project Engineer in the
Schlumberger EOR Solutions Group. Based in
Houston, he manages EOR projects and an EOR labo-
ratory. Before joining Schlumberger in 2000, he was
a research and teaching assistant at Texas A&M
University, College Station. He conducted research on
live oil viscosity using a model based on the law of cor-
responding state. Cuong earned a BS degree in petro-
leum engineering from Texas A&M.
Robert Kleinberg is a Schlumberger Fellow at
Schlumberger-Doll Research in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. His area of interest is unconventional
fossil fuel resourcesoil shale, gas shale, heavy oil,
gas hydrates and geothermal energy. His other projects
at Schlumberger have been in ultrasonics, electrical
resistivity, nuclear magnetic resonance and gravime-
try, and include several tool inventions. Bob received a
BS degree in chemistry at the University of California,
Berkeley, and a PhD degree in physics from the
University of California, San Diego. Before joining
Schlumberger, he spent two years at the Corporate
Strategic Research Laboratory of Exxon Research and
Engineering Company in Clinton, New Jersey, USA.
Morten R. Kristensen is a Modeling and Simulation
Engineer at the Schlumberger Abingdon Technology
Center, England, where he develops ECLIPSE* model-
ing software. He began working for Schlumberger in
2008, specializing in the development of new software
features for chemical EOR. In 2010, he worked in Abu
Dhabi on chemical and CO
2
EOR projects. Morten has
MSc and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from
the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby, where
his work centered on thermal EOR processes.
Andreas Laake is the Geophysical Advisor at the
WesternGeco Research and Engineering Group in Cairo,
Egypt. He has 23 years of experience in seismic and
remote sensing with a focus on survey planning, data
acquisition and data integration. He worked in marine-
systems engineering on the design and manufacture of
streamers and airguns and later began the geophysical
design work for what is now Q-Land* technology.
Currently, he works on remote-sensing techniques and
their integration into the seismic and reservoir work-
flow. He developed an integrated workflow for the simu-
lation of near-surface effects on seismic data that allows
the prediction of noise features and the generation of
synthetic seismic data prior to seismic data acquisition.
Andreas obtained an MSc degree in physics and geology
and a PhD degree in physics and geosciences from the
University of Kiel, Germany.
Frank Limis a Senior Reservoir Engineering Advisor
with Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, The Woodlands,
Texas. Since 2007, he has led EOR efforts on the K2
Asset Area of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico operations. He
has more than 35 years of EOR experience, mostly
onshore in the US; his recent work is on the Patrick
Draw Monell and Salt Creek CO
2
flood pilot and expan-
sion floods in Wyoming, USA. He worked for Texaco, Gulf
and Union Pacific Resources in research and engineer-
ing capacities prior to joining Anadarko in 2000. Frank
obtained a BS degree in chemical engineering from the
University of Houston.
Clarence A. Miller is Louis Calder Professor Emeritus
of Chemical Engineering and part-time Research
Professor at Rice University, Houston. He conducts
research on surfactant oil-recovery processes and
emulsions. Clarence began his career at the Division of
Naval Reactors of the US Atomic Energy Division in
Washington, DC. In 1969, he joined the Chemical
Engineering Department at Carnegie-Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He moved to
Rice in 1981, and served several years as the chair of
the Department of Chemical Engineering. Clarence is
an elected Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical
Engineers. He earned BA and BS degrees from Rice
and a PhD from the University of Minnesota in
Minneapolis-St. Paul, USA, all in chemical engineering.
Patrick Parno is the Alaska Marketing and Sales
Manager for Schlumberger Oilfield Services, in
Anchorage. After earning a BS degree in physics from
the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Patrick
joined Schlumberger in 1980 as junior field engineer
for the Reservoir Evaluation Wireline (REW) Product
Group in Edson, Alberta, Canada. He has held various
engineering and managerial positions for REW, includ-
ing running the largest land district in the US (at the
time) with openhole and cased hole operations. He
then worked for Schlumberger Information Solutions,
Data Consulting and Services and Oilfield Services in
the US, Vietnam, China, The Netherlands, Scotland
and Canada. In these countries, Patrick held various
roles including operations manager, marketing man-
ager and global account director.
Raghu Ramamoorthy, Schlumberger Petrophysics
Advisor at the Abu Dhabi Regional Technology Center,
oversees petrophysical formation evaluation issues
affecting carbonates and EOR. He joined
Schlumberger as a wireline field engineer in 1982,
working in Egypt and other countries in the Middle
East. He worked as a log analyst at the Field Log
Interpretation Center in Muscat, Oman. In 1994,
Raghu moved to Schlumberger-Doll Research in
Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA, as a research scientist.
Before taking his current post in 2004, he was princi-
pal petrophysicist for Australasia and East Asia and
later Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Author of many tech-
nical papers and patents, he earned a BS degree in
mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of
Technology in Madras, Tamil Nadu, and an MS degree
in petroleum engineering from The University of Texas
at Austin. Raghu received the SPE Middle East, North
Africa, India Regional Award in 2010 for contributions
to petroleum engineering in the area of formation
evaluation. He has served on the board of the SPWLA.
Jeroen Regtien leads the improved oil recovery/
enhanced oil recovery, smart field, CO
2
storage and rock
and fluid science research and development activities in
the Shell Projects and Technology Group. His extensive
career in the upstream oil and gas industry has included
roles as technical manager, chief petroleum engineer,
manager of strategy and planning, head of geothermal
energy, asset manager and development manager during
assignments in Brunei, Australia, Oman, the USA and
The Netherlands. He is a member of the World Petroleum
Council and International Advisory Board of the Oman
Research Council. Jeroen is an experimental physicist
with an MSc degree from the University of Groningen,
The Netherlands.
Claudio Strobbia is a Research Geophysicist for the
WesternGeco Regional Technology Hub and
Development Center, Cairo. His main research activi-
ties are in data acquisition and processing techniques
for near-surface characterization and noise attenua-
tion. He joined Schlumberger in 2007 as a research
geophysicist in Gatwick, England, and with the Q*
Applications Research Group, Cairo. Before joining
Schlumberger, he was a research assistant at the
Polytechnic Institute of Turin and lecturer at the
University of Milan Bicocca, both in Italy. He also
worked as a researcher and member of the
Management Committee at the European Centre for
Training and Research in Earthquake Engineering
(EUCENTRE) and the Rose School, Pavia, Italy.
Claudio holds an MS degree in environmental engi-
neering and a PhD degree in geophysics, both from the
Polytechnic Institute of Turin.
Bill Symington joined Exxon Production Research in
1978 after receiving a bachelors degree from The
Cooper Union, New York City, and masters and PhD
degrees from California Institute of Technology (Caltech),
Pasadena, all in mechanical engineering. During his
30-year career with Exxon, now ExxonMobil, he has had
a variety of assignments in engineering and geoscience
research and exploration. Since the mid-1990s, Bills
research focus has been on the generation of oil and gas
from source rocks, with an emphasis on oil shale. He is
the principal inventor of ExxonMobils Electrofrac
process, and is currently Technical Team Lead for

ExxonMobils in situ oil shale research.
Geir Utskot, based in Calgary, has been the
Schlumberger Arctic Manager for Canada since 2006.
He is responsible for oilfield services for Schlumberger
in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. He
introduced Aboriginal Awareness training, created a
literacy program for aboriginal groups in the region
and established relationships with a number of local
aboriginal groups and government organizations. He
has worked for Schlumberger for 25 years. Geir began
in Canada in 2003, when he was the Well Completions
and Productivity (WCP) operations manager.
Previously, he worked as the WCP business develop-
ment manager for China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan,
based in Beijing. He has also worked in the Middle
East, Europe, North America and Africa. He earned a
degree in mechanical engineering at Agder University
College and a degree in petroleum technology at
Hgskolen i Stavanger, both in Norway.
John van Wunnik is the team leader of the EOR field
development study team for Petroleum Development
Oman (PDO) in Muscat. He started in the industry
with Shell in 1983, working on EOR research in
Rijswijk, The Netherlands. He later worked on Oman
waterflood developments, then served as special core
analysis laboratory team leader in Rijswijk. John also
worked on EOR projects in North Sea fields before
joining PDO in 2004. He has BSc, MSc and PhD
degrees in physics from the University of Amsterdam.
An asterisk (*) is used to denote a mark of Schlumberger.
Mark of ExxonMobil.
38607schD7R1.qxp:ORSPR04_contribs_01 3/1/11 9:43 PM Page 51
Oileld Review 52
NEW BOOKS Coming in Oileld Review
Information from Formation Water.
Analysis of formation water is a critical
step in hydrocarbon exploration and
production. It helps assess potential
for corrosion and scaling, provides
input to petrophysical evaluation and
aids in the understanding of reservoir
connectivity. This article explains the
causes of variation in formation water
chemistry and describes methods for
collecting pure water samples and
evaluating them downhole and in
surface laboratories.
Offshore Pipelines. In response to
maturing production in established
onshore and shallow-water basins,
many E&P companies are extending
their quest for reserves toward deeper
offshore prospects. Pipeline compa-
nies, in turn, must keep pace with this
push into deeper environments. The
many pipeline design considerations
have a direct bearing on operation
and maintenance practices. This article
provides a broad overview of offshore
pipeline construction, operations and
monitoring activities.
Dielectric Logging. Dielectric
logging tools, introduced to the oil and
gas industry in the late 1970s, operate
at frequencies in the microwave range.
They provide supplemental information
for analyzing freshwater reservoirs and
identifying movable hydrocarbons, which
is helpful in characterizing heavy-oil
reservoirs. A new logging tool offers a
dielectric dispersion measurement that
petrophysicists can use to evaluate
rock texture in carbonates and shale
effects in siliciclastics. This article
describes dielectric measurements,
including dispersion, and their applica-
tions. Case studies from freshwater,
heavy-oil and carbonate reservoirs
are included.
Managed Pressure Drilling. As
the length of horizontal wells contin-
ues to increase, limitsonce a
consequence of accepted safe drilling
practicesare being swept aside.
By lowering equivalent circulating
density, operators are able to cross
both virgin, pressured sands and
mature, depleted zones with the same
wellbore on their way to untapped
reserves. This article discusses the
relatively new automated managed
pressure drilling tool and its ability
to drill wells once deemed techno-
logically or economically impossible.
The Grand Design
Stephen Hawking and Leonard
Mlodinow
Bantam Books, an imprint of
Random House Publishing, Inc.
1745 Broadway
New York, New York 10019 USA
2010. 198 pages. US$ 28.00
ISBN: 978-0-553-80537-6
Theoretical physicists Hawking and
Mlodinow discuss theories of quantum
mechanics and relativity and how they
shape our understanding of the origins
of our universe. They further propose
that the Milky Way is just one of billions
of galaxies, each with its own set of laws
of nature. This Multiverse or M-theory
the theory of everythingthey posit, is
the unied theory that Einstein pursued.
Contents:
The Mystery of Being
The Rule of Law
What Is Reality?
Alternative Histories
The Theory of Everything
Choosing Our Universe
The Apparent Miracle
The Grand Design
Glossary, Index
The Grand Design . . . attempts to
outline . . . a complete scenario for
the nature of the universe and our
place in it. . . . Whether this ambitious
conception is actually correct remains
unclear. Its not especially idiosyn-
cratic; many theorists hold similar
views of the multiverse and the
anthropic principle. The important
lesson of The Grand Design is not so
much the particular theory being
advocated but the sense that science
may be able to answer the deep
Why? questions that are part of
fundamental human curiosity.
Carroll S: The Why? Questions, Chapter and
Multiverse, The Wall Street Journal (September 24,
2010), http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240
52748704358904575477583868227458.html
(accessed January 3, 2011).
The Planet in a Pebble: A
Journey into Earths Deep
History
Jan Zalasiewicz
Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue
2010. 234 pages. US$ 27.95
ISBN: 978-0-19-956970-0
Starting with a slate pebble found on a
beach in Wales, the author engages the
reader in a discussion of the grandeur
of time, physics and stellar matter.
Through an exploration of the science
of paleogeology, Zalasiewicz offers the
reader an understanding of the origins
of the universe, creation of oil elds and
the nature of vanished oceans.
Contents:
Stardust
From the Depths of the Earth
Distant Lands
To the Rendezvous
The Sea
Ghosts Observed
Ghosts in Absentia
Where on Earth?
Gold!
The Oil Window
Making Mountains
Breaking the Surface
Futures
Further Reading, Bibliography, Index
. . . Common elements and atomic
rarities, microfossils and ticking
radio-isotopes all make an appear-
ance . . . [in The Planet in a Pebble].
It builds to a satisfying picture of how
our planets history is etched into
every fragment of the pebble.
Zalasiewicz has a clear style, with
some nice lyrical touches. His story is
a celebration of the astonishing ways
geologists have found of sampling
stones secrets. Geology has a gifted
new popular science writer.
Turney J: New Scientist 207, no. 2778
(September 18, 2010): 47.
Science at the Nanoscale:
An Introductory Textbook
Chin Wee Shong, Sow Chorng Haur and
Andrew T.S. Wee
Pan Stanford Publishing Pte. Ltd.
Penthouse Level, Suntec Tower 3
8 Temasek Boulevard
Singapore 038988
2010. 214 pages. US$ 88.00
ISBN: 978-981-4241-03-8
This textbook, targeted at the
undergraduate level, introduces the
principles of nanosciencethe under-
pinnings of nanotechnology. The book
examines atomic, molecular and
solid-state physics as well as chemistry
as they relate to and dene nanotech-
nologies. A companion Web site pro-
vides solutions to chapter problems.
Contents:
Introduction and Historical Perspective
Classical Physics at the Nanoscale
Brief Review of Quantum Mechanics
From Atoms and Molecules to
Nanoscale Materials
Surfaces at the Nanoscale
Low-Dimensional Nanostructures
Formation and Self-Assembly at the
Nanoscale
Nanotools and Nanofabrication
Future Trends
Index
Science at the Nanoscale is a
valuable introductory course
resource. . . . In a certain way, the
book might be too introductory,
since . . . [the authors] . . . cover
many basic physical and chemical
principles in some detail, and not all
of this content specically relates to
nanotechnology. However, the
authors approach will allow less
experienced readers to follow the
presented concepts.
Giesche H: Choice 48, no. 4 (December 2010): 705.
38607schD8R1.indd 1 2/21/11 10:21 PM
the science behind ocean current
models such as the Great Ocean
Conveyor Belt as a trigger to explain
the mystery of the Earths intermittent
pattern of global ice ages. . . . Anyone
who has walked on a beach, thrown a
snowball, or own over the ocean will
be fascinated by this excellent book
geared to undergraduate scientists
and the general public.
Gordon ID: Choice 48, no. 1 (September 2010):
124125.
Predicting the Unpredictable:
The Tumultuous Science of
Earthquake Prediction
Susan Hough
Princeton University Press
41 William Street
Princeton, New Jersey 08540 USA
2010. 272 pages. US$ 24.95
ISBN: 978-0-691-13816-9
Geophysicist Susan Hough explores the
vagaries of earthquake prediction
through the failures and apparent
successes of earlier predictions, and
describes why predicting the unpredict-
able is such a challenge. From the
laboratory to the eld, Hough examines
the fact, ction and pseudoscience of
earthquake prediction, including unusual
earthquake prediction theories and why
they have not held up, even when
occasionally accurate.
Contents:
Ready to Rumble
Ready to Explode
Irregular Clocks
The Hayward Fault
Predicting the Unpredictable
The Road to Haicheng
Percolation
The Heyday
The Hangover
Highly Charged Debates
Reading the Tea Leaves
Accelerating Moment Release
On the Fringe
Complicity
Measles
Winter 2010/2011 53
Massive: The Missing Particle
That Sparked the Greatest Hunt
in Science
Ian Sample
Basic Books, a member of
the Perseus Books Group
387 Park Avenue South
2010. 260 pages. US$ 25.95
ISBN: 978-0-465-01947-2
The author explores the search for the
fundamental particle called the Higgs
boson. The book describes the world
science climate in the decades leading
to 1964, when Peter Higgs developed
the theory, and ends with present-day
work at the worlds particle accelera-
tors, which have yet to isolate the
Higgs boson particle.
Contents:
Long Road to Princeton
Shadow of the Bomb
Seventy-Nine Lines
The Enchanted Prince
An Earnest Revenge
Reagans Renegade
Massive Maggie
The End Is Not Nigh
The Gordian Knot
Chasing the Wind
Hidden World
Notes, Bibliography, Index
Ian Sample . . . shows a keen eye
for the personal equation even while
narrating large swatches of physics
history. . . . Mr. Samples exciting,
easy-to-read narrative captures the
collaboration, and competition,
among the theorists who became
involved in the search [for the Higgs
particle] over the decades.
Pesic P: The Wall Street Journal (November 13,
2010), http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424
052748704141104575588230844156338.html
(accessed January 6, 2011).
The Great Ocean Conveyor:
Discovering the Trigger for
Abrupt Climate Change
Wally Broecker
Princeton University Press
41 William Street
Princeton, New Jersey 08540 USA
2010. 172 pages. US$ 27.95
ISBN: 978-0-691-14354-5
The author, a leading authority on
sudden global climate change, explores
how our planets climate can abruptly
change based on uxes and shutdowns
of what he terms the Great Ocean
Conveyor. Broecker traces the evolution
of the science, describing how research-
ers work to probe the Earths past and
how they combine their ndings with
the newest technologies to try to
predict the future of climate change.
Contents:
The Setting
A Surprise
The Villain
Puzzles
Hot Clues
The Solution
A Confrmation
The Last Hurrah
Holocene Wobbles
The Anthropocene
Glossary, Supplementary Readings,
Index
Wally Broecker is one of the great
pioneers of paleoclimatology, the
study of past climate changes in
Earths history. He introduced the
term global warming and, in the
1980s, proposed the global ocean-
circulating system, which he dubbed
the Great Ocean Conveyor. . . . In The
Great Ocean Conveyor, Broecker
offers a history of his thinking on the
topic. Relating his breakthroughs and
setbacks, he portrays science as a
continual struggle to understand
more fully and more accurately how
the world really works.
Rahmstorf S: Nature 464, no. 7829
(April 1, 2010): 681.
In his latest book, . . . Broecker
investigates how the oceans vast
network of currents drives abrupt
climate change. The author explores
We All Have Our Faults
The Bad One
Whither Earthquake Prediction?
Notes, Index, Index of Earthquakes
by Year
. . . a comprehensive, broadly
accessible, and readable overview
of the ups and (mostly) downs of
earthquake prediction over the past
50 years. . . . Hough raises the thorny
questions of what responsibilities
the seismologist has with respect to
conveying warnings and how civil
authorities should treat predictions. . . .
[T]he author steers a balanced, fair,
and measured course between opti-
mism and pessimism. Anyone who
wants to know why earthquakes
are still unpredictable will nd the
answer here.
Musson R: Physics Today 63, no. 11
(November 2010): 4647.
There is something for everyone
in Predicting the Unpredictable,
whether they are seismologists,
students or senators. Even the nut-
cases will benet from Houghs
tactful discussions in this masterly
summary of why we cannot predict
earthquakes.
Bilham R: Nature 463, no. 7282 (February 11,
2010): 735.
38607schD8R1.indd 2 2/21/11 10:22 PM
ARTICLES
Big Things in Small Packages
Barron AR, Tour JM, Busnaina AA,
Jung YJ, Somu S, Kanj MY, Potter D,
Resasco D and Ullo J.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 3849.
Brazils Presalt Play
Beasley CJ, Fiduk JC, Bize E, Boyd A,
Frydman M, Zerilli A, Dribus JR,
Moreira JLP and Pinto ACC.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 2837.
Casabe: New Tricks
for an Old Field
Amaya M, Amaya R, Castao H,
Lozano E, Rueda CF, Elphick J,
Gambaretto W, Mrquez L,
Olarte Caro DP, Peralta-Vargas J
and Velsquez Marn AJ.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 417.
Coaxing Oil from Shale
Allix P, Burnham A, Fowler T,
Herron M, Kleinberg R and
Symington B.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011):
415.
Developments in Gas Hydrates
Birchwood R, Dai J, Shelander D,
Boswell R, Collett T, Cook A,
Dallimore S, Fujii K, Imasato Y,
Fukuhara M, Kusaka K, Murray D
and Saeki T.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 1833.
Diagenesis and
Reservoir Quality
Ali SA, Clark WJ, Moore WR
and Dribus JR.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 1427.
Extended-Reach Wells
Bennetzen B, Fuller J, Isevcan E,
Krepp T, Meehan R, Mohammed N,
Poupeau J-F and Sonowal K.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 415.
Has the Time Come for EOR?
Al-Mjeni R, Arora S, Cherukupalli P,
van Wunnik J, Edwards J, Felber BJ,
Gurpinar O, Hirasaki GJ, Miller CA,
Jackson C, Kristensen MR, Lim F
and Ramamoorthy R.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011):
1635.
Integrating Exploration Tools
to Reduce Risk
Bender AA, Bryant I, Chhibber R,
Campbell T, Lovatini A, Mavridou E,
Palmowski DB, Schenk O, Myers K,
Saragoussi E and Xu P.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 413.
Land Seismic Techniques
for High-Quality Data
Bagaini C, Bunting T, El-Emam MA,
Laake A and Strobbia C.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 2839.
The Next-Generation
Separator: Changing the Rules
Sims P.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 5054.
Permanent Monitoring:
Taking It to the Reservoir
Algeroy J, Lovell J, Tirado G,
Mayyappan R, Brown G, Greenaway R,
Carney M, Meyer JH, Davies JE
and Pinzon ID.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 3441.
Petroleum Potential of
the Arctic: Challenges
and Solutions
Bishop A, Bremner C, Laake A,
Strobbia C, Parno P and Utskot G.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011):
3649.
Resolving Carbonate
Complexity
Al-Marzouqi MI, Budebes S, Sultan E,
Bush I, Griffiths R, Gzara KBM,
Ramamoorthy R, Husser A, Jeha Z,
Roth J, Montaron B, Narhari SR,
Singh SK and Poirier-Coutansais X.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 4055.
Robots to the Rescue
Downton G, Gomez S, Haci M,
Maidla E and Royce C.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 1627.
Scanning for
Downhole Corrosion
Acua IA, Monsegue A, Brill TM,
Graven H, Mulders F, Le Calvez J-L,
Nichols EA, Zapata Bermudez F,
Notaoadinegoro DM and Sofronov I.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 4250.
NEW BOOKS
Earthquake and
Volcano Deformation
Segall P.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 59.
Engineering Geology:
Principles and Practice
Price DG; de Freitas MH (ed).
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 55.
The Essential Engineer:
Why Science Alone Will Not
Solve Our Global Problems
Petroski H.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 56.
Essentials of Paleomagnetism
Tauxe L, with contributions from
Butler RF, Van der Voo R and
Banerjee SK.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 60.
Exploration Geophysics:
An Introduction
Gadallah MR and Fisher R.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 55.
Geomorphology and Global
Environmental Change
Slaymaker O, Spencer T and
Embleton-Hamann C (eds).
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 59.
The Grand Design
Hawking S and Mlodinow L.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011): 52.
The Great Ocean Conveyor:
Discovering the Trigger for
Abrupt Climate Change
Broecker W.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011): 53.
Hydrogen Fuel: Production,
Transport, and Storage
Gupta RB (ed).
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 56.
In Praise of Science: Curiosity,
Understanding and Progress
Bais S.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 60.
Introductory Mathematics
for Earth Scientists
Yang X-S.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 60.
Massive: The Missing Particle
That Sparked the Greatest
Hunt in Science
Sample I.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011): 53.
Nanomaterials: Mechanics
and Mechanisms
Ramesh KT.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 58.
Nanoscale: Visualizing
an Invisible World
Deffeyes KS and Deffeyes SE.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 59.
The Nature of Technology:
What It Is and How It Evolves
Arthur WB.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 58.
No Small Matter: Science
on the Nanoscale
Whitesides G and Frankel F.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 56.
Our Threatened Oceans
Rahmstorf S and Richardson K.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 59.
Over the Coasts: An Aerial
View of Geology
Collier M.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 59.
The Planet in a Pebble:
A Journey into Earths
Deep History
Zalasiewicz J.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011): 52.
Predicting the Unpredictable:
The Tumultuous Science of
Earthquake Prediction
Hough S.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011): 53.
Principles of Igneous and
Metamorphic Petrology,
2nd edition
Philpotts AR and Ague JJ.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 60.
Sandstone Landforms
Young RW, Wray RAL, Young ARM.
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 55.
Science and Decisions:
Advancing Risk Assessment
National Research Council.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 58.
Science at the Nanoscale:
An Introductory Textbook
Chin WS, Sow CH and Wee ATS.
Vol. 22, no. 4 (Winter 2010/2011): 52.
The Sea: Tsunamis
Bernard EN and Robinson AR (eds).
Vol. 22, no. 1 (Spring 2010): 55.
Vanished Ocean: How
Tethys Reshaped the World
Stow D.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 59.
Vesuvius: A Biography
Scarth A.
Vol. 22, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 60.
The Wave: In Pursuit of
the Rogues, Freaks and
Giants of the Ocean
Casey S.
Vol. 22, no. 3 (Autumn 2010): 60.
54 Oilfield Review
Oilfield Review Annual IndexVolume 22
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11-OR-0001
Winter 2010/2011
Enhanced Oil Recovery
Arctic Operations
Oil Shale
Oilfield Review
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