The Prudhoe Bay field, located on the North Slope of Alaska, is the largest oil and gas field in North America.[1][2][3][4][5] The main Permo-Triassic reservoir is a thick deltaic high-quality sandstone deposit about 500 ft thick with porosities of 15 to 30% BV and permeabilities ranging from 50 to 3,000 md. The field contains 20 109 bbl of oil overlain by a 35 Tcf gas cap. The oil averages 27.6 API gravity and has an original solution gas-oil ratio (GOR) of about 735 scf/STB. Under much of the oil column area, there is a 20- to 60-ft-thick tar mat located above the oil-water contact (OWC).

This page discusses the primary manner in which the immiscible gas/oil displacement process has been used in qualitative terms. This is the use of gas injection high on structure to displace oil downdip toward the production wells that are completed low in the oil column. In many cases, an original gas cap was present, so the gas was injected into that gas cap interval (see Figure 1[1] for cross-sectional view of anticlinal reservoir with gas cap over oil column with dip angle α and thickness h). In this situation, the force of gravity is at work, trying to stabilize the downward gas/oil displacement process by keeping the gas on top of the oil and counteracting the unstable gas/oil viscous displacement process. If the oil production rate is kept below the critical rate, then the gas/oil contact (GOC) will move downward at a uniform rate.

This article presents brief summaries of detailed petrophysical evaluations of several fields that have been described in the SPE and Soc. of Professional Well Log Analysts (SPWLA) technical literature. These case studies cover some of the complications that occur when making net-pay, porosity, and water saturation (Sw) calculations. Prudhoe Bay is the largest oil and gas field in North America with more than 20 billion bbl of original oil in place (OOIP) and an overlying 30 Tscf gas cap. In the early 1980s, the unit operating agreement required that a final equity determination be undertaken. In the course of this determination, an extensive field coring program was conducted, which resulted in more than 25 oil-based mud (OBM) cores being cut in all areas of the field and some conventional water-based mud (WBM) and bland-mud cores in other wells.

Relative permeability and capillary pressure defined capillary pressure as the difference in pressure across the interface between two phases. Similarly, it has been defined as the pressure differential between two immiscible fluid phases occupying the same pores caused by interfacial tension between the two phases that must be overcome to initiate flow. With Laplace's equation, the capillary pressure Pcow between adjacent oil and water phases can be related to the principal radii of curvature R1 and R2 of the shared interface and the interfacial tension σow for the oil/water interface: The relationship between capillary pressure and fluid saturation could be computed in principle, but this is rarely attempted except for very idealized models of porous media. Methods for measuring the relationship are discussed in Measurement of capillary pressure and relative permeability. Figure 1 shows a sketch of a typical capillary pressure relationship for gas invading a porous medium that is initially saturated with water; the gas/water capillary pressure is defined as Pcgw pg-pw.

The Kuparuk River oil field is west of the supergiant Prudhoe Bay oil field on Alaska's North Slope and was discovered in 1969.[1][2][3][4] It has approximately 5.9 billion bbl of stock tank original oil in place (STOOIP) and covers more than 200 sq. The sandstone reservoir consists of two zones [A (62% of STOOIP) and C (38% of STOOIP)] that are separated by impermeable shales and siltstones. Sales oil is approximately 24 API with a viscosity at reservoir conditions of approximately 2.5 cp. The reservoir oil was approximately 300 to 500 psi undersaturated at the original reservoir pressure of approximately 3,300 psia.

The identification of a bed's lithology is fundamental to all reservoir characterization because the physical and chemical properties of the rock that holds hydrocarbons and/or water affect the response of every tool used to measure formation properties. Understanding reservoir lithology is the foundation from which all other petrophysical calculations are made. To make accurate petrophysical calculations of porosity, water saturation (Sw), and permeability, the various lithologies of the reservoir interval must be identified and their implications understood. Lithology means "the composition or type of rock such as sandstone or limestone." Lithology focuses on grains, while rock type focuses on pores. The list of rock types contains more than 250 classifications. Another term used in the literature is the Greek equivalent "petrofacies."

In certain situations, it is necessary to obtain a reliable measurement for connate water saturation (Swc) in an oil reservoir. The single well chemical tracer (SWCT) method has been used successfully for this purpose. The SWCT method has been used successfully for this purpose in six reservoirs.[1] The SWCT test for Swc usually is carried out on wells that are essentially 100% oil producers. The procedure is analogous to the SWCT method for Sor, taking into account that oil is the mobile phase and water is stationary in the pore space.

Interwell tracer tests are widely used. This article reviews some of the studies reported in open literature. The selection introduces different problems that have been addressed, but the original papers should be studied to obtain a more detailed description of the programs. The Snorre field is a giant oil reservoir (sandstone) in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. Injection water and gas were monitored with tracers, 18 and the resulting tracer measurements are discussed in this page.

Figure 1[1][2] shows the type of production response that is possible when applying a polymer gel treatment to a waterflood injection well to improve sweep efficiency. The figure shows the combined production-response of the four direct offsetting production wells to the gel-treated injection well. The gel treatment was applied for waterflood sweep-improvement purposes to the naturally fractured Embar carbonate formation surrounding Well O-7 of the highly mature SOB field in the Big Horn basin of Wyoming. The wide variations in water/oil ratio (WOR) and oil production rate are quite common in many of the well patterns of this highly fractured reservoir. Sydansk[2] provides more details regarding the 20,000 bbl gel treatment.

At the pore level (i.e., where the water and oil phases interact immiscibly when moving from one set of pores to the next), wettability and pore geometry are the two key considerations. The interplay between wettability and pore geometry in a reservoir rock is what is represented by the laboratory-determined capillary pressure curves and water/oil relative permeability curves that engineers use when making original oil in place (OOIP) and fluid-flow calculations. This article discusses these basic concepts and their implications for initial water- and oil-saturation distribution, relative permeability, and how initial gas saturation will affect water/oil flow behavior. Figure 1[1] is a schematic diagram of the water/oil displacement process. Wettability is defined in terms of the interaction of two immiscible phases, such as oil and water, and a solid surface, such as that of the pores of a reservoir rock.