Case Study: California Oil Producing Company accurately tracks steam front and heavy oil saturation with SLB’s Pulsar multifunction spectroscopy service

Accurately Tracking the Steam Front and Heavy Oil Saturation in a Freshwater Formation California

SLB worked with California Oil Producing Company, an operator of a California heavy oil reservoir being steamflooded, to monitor changes in the steam front and oil saturation in a freshwater formation. The challenge was that the formation water was so fresh that conventional cased hole tools could not distinguish oil from water, making it difficult to track reservoir changes reliably.

SLB used the Pulsar multifunction spectroscopy service in cased hole to measure elemental concentrations, TOC, sigma, porosity, and the new fast neutron cross section measurement. This allowed the company to quantify oil saturation and differentiate air- or steam-filled porosity from fluid-filled zones in a single run and with one tool, with TOC and saturation results matching openhole and core data closely.