SBIR Phase I: Dual-Modality Tomography Core Scanner for Oil Saturation Estimation at the Wellsite (iTomoSoS)

Itomography Corporation, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to make oil exploration and production (E&P) operations less risky and economically and technically more efficient. The new technology has the potential to achieve significant reductions in oil exploration drilling costs. The technology will also increase long-term commercial benefits for exploration and production companies due to more accurate and reliable estimates of the recoverable reserves and production planning over the decades-long reservoir lifecycle. These benefits will support global economic growth by ensuring a continued supply of hydrocarbons for the US and internationally during the critical transition to renewable energies. The new technology being developed under this SBIR project will also reduce the environmental impact, energy consumption, and overall carbon footprint of offshore/onshore E&P operations by reducing waste, pollution, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, thereby directly benefiting future generations. Successful completion of the project will further reinforce the leadership of the US in utilization of advanced hydrocarbon E&P technologies and support the goal of energy independence from global markets by making US producers more effective and competitive. This SBIR Phase I project proposes to demonstrate the feasibility of determining volumetric (3D) hydrocarbon distribution throughout large-diameter long cores with high spatial resolution (10 mm3), 95% accuracy, and 1 meter/hour throughput at the offshore/onshore wellsite. Today, this is not possible with any technology, i.e., logging data can be used to derive hydrocarbon estimates on a sparse set of points along the wellbore, while “special core analysis” at onshore laboratories takes weeks to complete. Neither of the current techniques can closely match the resolution and accuracy offered by the proposed solution. The disruptive innovation of this development is to combine 3-dimensional (3D) X-ray Multi-Energy Computed Tomography (MECT) and Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) in one wellsite core scanning instrument, thereby allowing for novel, synergistic combination of the information provided by the MECT and EIT modalities. Algorithms will be developed to combine the complementary datasets to yield 3D hydrocarbon distribution in the cores in near real-time. These algorithms will be tested on realistic digital core models. The ultimate goal of Phase I is to demonstrate that the specified target accuracy, spatial resolution, and scanning-imaging throughput for assessing 3D distribution of hydrocarbons in large cores can be achieved with the new wellsite instrument. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.