--> The Origin, Prediction and Impact of Oil Viscosity Heterogeneity on the Production Characteristics of Tar Sand and Heavy Oil Reservoirs, by Haiping Huang, Steve Larter, Jennifer Adams, Ian D. Gates, and Barry Bennett; #90062 (2007)

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The Origin, Prediction and Impact of Oil Viscosity Heterogeneity on the Production Characteristics of Tar Sand and Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Haiping Huang, Steve Larter, Jennifer Adams, Ian D. Gates, and Barry Bennett
Petroleum Reservoir Group, Alberta Ingenuity Center for Insitu Energy, University of Calgary

The defining characteristic of heavy and super heavy oilfields is the large spatial variation in fluid properties, such as oil viscosity, commonly seen within the reservoirs. Traditional heavy oil and tar sand exploration and production strategies rely significantly on characterization of key reservoir heterogeneities and assessments of fluid saturations. While it is important to understand these reservoir variations, variations in fluid properties can often dominate production behavior but are usually ignored.

Heavy oil and tar sands are formed by microbial degradation of conventional crude oils over geological timescales. Constraints such as charge mixing, biodegradation rate and water and nutrient supply to the organisms ultimately dictate the final distribution of API gravity and viscosity found in heavy oil fields. Large-scale lateral and small-scale vertical variations in fluid properties due to interaction of biodegradation and charge mixing are common, with up to orders of magnitude variation in viscosity over the thickness of a reservoir. These variations are often predictable and can be input into reservoir simulation models in a manner similar to specifying geological heterogeneity. In this work, we describe and illustrate quantitative geological controls on fluid property variations in heavy oil reservoirs.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90062©2006 AAPG Hedberg Research Conference, Veracruz, Mexico