--> Application of Electroseismic Technology for Direct Hydrocarbon Detection in the Smackover formation of south Alabama

AAPG Southwest Section Annual Convention

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Application of Electroseismic Technology for Direct Hydrocarbon Detection in the Smackover formation of south Alabama

Abstract

Unlike resource plays, conventional exploration prospects contain a component of risk associated with the presence or absence of hydrocarbons. An emerging technology utilizes the physical phenomenon, occurring in a hydrocarbon bearing reservoir, where an electromagnetic field creates relative rock-fluid motion and a resulting pressure gradient in the grain space. The pressure gradient reacts against the grain matrix to generate a compressional seismic wave that can be measured and used to directly detect those hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbon significantly increases the electromagnetic-to-seismic conversion amplitude. Results from an electroseismic survey taken in 2015 over a part of the Little Cedar Creek Field in southern Alabama led to additional surveys of the Smackover formation in 2017. This paper discusses four new surveys acquired, two over structural closures previously tested by the drill-bit and two over undrilled structural closures. The undrilled structures were subsequently tested and well results are compared with predicted outcomes for these wells. The four electroseismic surveys were acquired in Clarke and Monroe counties, Alabama, about 25-30 miles west of Little Cedar Creek Field. Electroseismic surveys have also been acquired in various basins of Texas including the Permian Basin, the East Texas Basin, and along the Gulf Coast onshore.