First Pilot of Borehole to Surface Electromagnetic in Saudi Arabia - A New Technology to Enhance Reservoir Mapping & Monitoring

The first Borehole to Surface Electromagnetic (BSEM) pilot field survey in Saudi Arabia — to identify oil and water bearing reservoir layers in an oilfield water injection transition zone — was successfully completed. The objective of a BSEM survey is to obtain resistivity and induced polarization (IP) maps based on an acquisition grid at the surface that covers a few kilometers around the transmitter well. The survey reveals oil and water bearing zones in the investigated reservoir layers. In this pilot field test, BSEM showed the potential to map water-front movements, in an area of about 4 km from the single well surveyed, evaluate the sweep efficiency, eventually identify bypassed-lagged oil zones and monitor the fluid displacements, if surveys are repeated in time. Furthermore, in addition to reservoir monitoring, BSEM can be very useful in non-diagnosed areas like exploration fields.