The Russian Federation Has Created a Georadar for Shale Oil and Permafrost
Using it, we can illuminate the subsoil with an electromagnetic field.
Russian scientists have developed a new method for studying one of the types of shale oil – the Bazhenov formation. This was announced by the director of the Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics of the SB RAS Vyacheslav Glinskikh during the scientific conference “Trofimukov Readings” (October 2-7, Novosibirsk).
“This is inter-well ground-penetrating radar sensing,” Interfax quotes him as saying. “The main idea is to use a ground-penetrating radar in a system of spatially distributed wells. Using this method, it is possible to map and localize oil-promising zones in the inter-well space.”
The method was developed based on data obtained from the fields of the Shirotny Ob region in Western Siberia. The device was tested on thick clay shales. Next, a test site for testing the device will be created.
The Bazhenov formation is often located several tens of meters above or below the traditional oil-bearing layers in which production and drilling are carried out. The new method allows you to study the Bazhenov deposits horizontally from above or below using a system of inclined horizontal wells. In this case, the interwell space is “transparent” with broadband radiation pulses, explained the director of IPGG SB RAS.
This method also makes it possible to study permafrost.
“The problem from the point of view of the propagation of electromagnetic fields is quite close,” added Vyacheslav Glinskikh. “It is possible to create an electromagnetic “thermometer” that could predict the thawing of permafrost, degradation under buildings and structures.”
Previously, IPGG scientists carried out a forecast of the oil content of the Bazhenov formation in the southeastern regions of Western Siberia. The most promising first category includes the Central Nyurolskaya zone. Here, detailed lithological, geochemical and petrophysical studies were carried out at Bazhen.
The second zone includes the North Nyurolskaya, East Nyurolskaya, South Nyurolskaya, West Parabelskaya and Ust-Tymskaya zones. Almost all of them are located within the Tomsk region. Only the South Nyurolskaya zone extends slightly beyond its boundaries into the Novosibirsk region. In these zones, it is necessary to carry out modern detailed studies to clarify the structure of the Bazhenov Formation.
The Bazhenov Formation is a group of oil source rocks covering an area of about 1 million square meters. km in Western Siberia. It opened in the late 1950s. Bazhen deposits were formed in sedimentary rocks of the seabed at the end of the Jurassic and beginning of the Cretaceous period (about 145 million years ago). Reserves of such oil are estimated at more than 10 billion tons.
