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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
Houston Geological Society Bulletin
Abstract
Abstract: The 4-D
Gravity
Method and Water Flood
Surveillance at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska
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By
University of Texas at Dallas
It has long been recognized that repeated gravity
surveys could
be used to track changes in either elevation or mass distribution
in the Earth. The technology to effectively track mass distribution
changes resulting in μGal level signals over long periods of time
has matured in recent years. The Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, water
flood surveillance project has hastened that development and set
a new standard for the conduct of time
lapse or 4-D
gravity
surveys. This talk will
review the history of the Prudhoe Bay
efforts and some of the milestones achieved
along the way.
The Prudhoe Bay reservoir water flood is
the largest ever undertaken and is intended
to repressurize the gas cap and maintain declining production
over a period of decades. It is difficult to monitor the progress of
the water due to a lack of wellbores located in the gas cap. The
4-D seismic method will also be used, but it is limited by expense
and permafrost. In 1993 Jerry Brady and Don Walcott, then at
ARCO Alaska, started to consider the application of repeated
surface and borehole
microgravity surveys to monitor the
water flood.
The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) became involved in a
theoretical investigation of the possibility of gravity
surveillance.
An inversion procedure was formulated and tested on synthetic
gravity
data based on reservoir simulations. Various 4-D
gravity
noise scenarios were proposed and the resolution of the method
determined. At about the same time (1994), a program of field
experiments was initiated to refine procedures for actually
obtaining the type of data required for the modeling. It soon
became clear that the state of the art would require some
extension to achieve that goal.
In successive field experiments, conducted in the Arctic winter,
microgravity measurement techniques (both relative and
absolute gravity
meters) and geodetic measurements using the
Global Positioning System were refined. The noise levels to be
expected in the 4-D
gravity
data were characterized and a
long-term monitoring program was planned, involving about
300 stations. In 2002 a full-scale baseline survey was conducted
and late in that year water injection commenced. Repeat surveys
were conducted in 2003 and 2005, and a third survey is planned
for this year.
The 4-D data over the 2002 to 2005 interval has been modeled and the water flood has been detected. Model results resemble predictions from reservoir simulations but are also producing unexpected results that should help the reservoir engineers understand the actual situation in the ground. The methodologies and standards developed for this project are now being used to plan surveys in other areas.
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