Abstract

Using examples from the Permian Basin of Texas, the North Slope of Alaska, and the Bergan Field of Kuwait, this paper describes how oil geochemical fingerprinting can be applied to diagnose quickly and easily three production problems that may affect highly deviated wells.

High-Resolution Gas Chromatography can be used to quantify ~1,000 different compounds in an oil, and the relative abundances of those compounds form a geochemical fingerprint. Geochemical differences between fluids in adjacent reservoirs can serve as natural tracers for fluid origin, allowing changes in production in highly deviated wells to be understood.

Application 1: In wells that are fracture stimulated, oil fingerprinting can be used to assess whether induced fractures have propagated out of the target interval and into overlying or underlying formations. Oil fingerprinting can be used to quantify what percentage of the produced oil and gas is coming from each interval and how the effectiv…