US DOE Awards 23 Oil Technology Projects in Four Topical Areas
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 23 oil technology projects chosen from the first round of a broad-based solicitation the Department issued last December. The oil-related technology projects, organized in four technology topical areas, are:
Oil Technology: Critical Upstream Advanced Diagnostics & Imaging Technology
- Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University will integrate seismic, geologic and production data from Chevron’s Coalinga Field in California to improve knowledge of how oil flows through the reservoir.
- University of Oklahoma will combine seismic images with physical, mechanical and acoustic measurements of weak rock types for identification of potential hazards and damage at oil production sites.
- University of Alabama will integrate computer modeling of detailed rock and fluid information from carbonate reservoirs with well performance and seismic data, enabling identification of optimal fluid-flow paths.
- University of Kansas Center for Research, Inc. will develop an interactive Website offering assistance, software and tutorial support to oil researchers and operators in constructing real-time geo-engineering reservoir models.
- The University of Texas at Austin will integrate and periodically update seismic, well-log, production and geologic data into a unique, highly accurate computer model.
- Reservoir Engineering Research Institute will treat reservoir rock surfaces of a gas well with special polymers that will prevent precipitation of liquid films that clog rock pores and promote the free flow of gas to the well head.
- Electromagnetic Instruments, Inc. will apply subsurface electromagnetic sensing technology to obtain detailed descriptions of reservoir rock makeup and subsurface fluid movement.
- The University of Texas at Austin will study the size, clustering and connectivity of rock fractures for improved ability to plot how these features control the movement of reservoir fluids during injection or extraction.
- University of Tulsa will integrate seismic and production data with information on rock properties and their variations into reservoir models with improved ability to predict reservoir performance.
Oil Technology: Reservoir Efficiency Processes
- Stanford University will use X-ray technology, computer simulation and modeling to increase understanding of heavy oil thermal production mechanisms and enable design of more efficient processes.
- Columbia University will evaluate novel, cost-effective mixtures of surfactants that can be used under existing reservoir conditions and operations to reduce interfacial tension between oil and water in the reservoir, with minimal loss of chemicals.
- University of Utah will develop improvements to reservoir simulation, including affordable parallel reservoir simulation, performance monitoring, model updating, and a fractured-reservoir model, all implemented on the Internet for independent operator availability.
- The University of Texas at Austin will develop a new-generation chemical flooding simulator capable of modeling oil reservoirs with at least one million grid blocks, providing new capabilities in advanced oil-recovery numerical investigations.
- University of Pittsburgh will develop CO2 technology to increase the viscosity of the dense, high-pressure CO2 used in flooding to overcome its tendency to flow preferentially through permeable zones, bypassing significant oil.
- New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology will identify gel compositions that substantially reduce flow through rock fractures, and optimize gelant treatment that reduces permeability to water much more than that to oil to increase waterflood “sweep” efficiency.
- University of Southern Mississippi will develop two new classes of polymer that can control the flow behavior of water and oil in a reservoir: a soap-like polymer that will reduce surface tension; and a polymer whose flow can be reversed by pH or temperature to alter its capability to move or diffuse through the reservoir strata.
- The University of Texas at Austin will study the creation of foams during gas injection in oil wells, and the interactions of foam with chemicals, fluids and rock pores, to develop computer models with enhanced capabilities for predicting foam behavior.
- Stanford University will develop ultra-fast simulation tools for small-scale systems that can map the flow of injected gases through a reservoir and make field-scale predictions of injection performance.
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