Iran Launches Smart Reservoir Management System
Mehdi Seyedsar, the head of the Center for Intelligent Well Reservoir Facility Management and Surface Facilities of Oil Fields, announced the launch of an integrated intelligent system to optimize production and manage reservoir dynamics.
“In old methods, reservoir studies were conducted based on past data and sometimes took up to two years, while the reservoir is a dynamic system,” he added.
“Today, with the intelligent WRFM system, information is processed in real time and decisions are made with high accuracy and speed,” Seyedsar said.
Earlier this year, Iranian researchers at the University of Tehran had discovered the importance of accurately assessing and predicting reservoirs in dolomitized carbonate formations while studying oil and gas reservoirs in the Persian Gulf.
In a recent study led by Hamzeh Mehrabi, a faculty member of the Faculty of Geology of the University of Tehran, in collaboration with Zahra Pouyafard and Mohammad Bahrevar, master’s degree graduates from the University of Tehran, and a professor from the University of Windsor, Canada, various models of dolomitization and its impact on the quality of oil and gas reservoirs in the Persian Gulf have been investigated.
“Dolomite is a type of sedimentary carbonate rock containing large amounts of the mineral dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2). One of the geological processes in parts of the Persian Gulf has been dolomitization, or the formation of dolomite rocks. This process has affected the reservoir quality of the Darian Formation in three oil/gas fields in the Persian Gulf. In this study, the dolomitization process in this formation was investigated by petrographic studies of core samples and thin sections with a cathodoluminescence microscope, carbon and oxygen isotopic analyses, and studies of the fluids involved,” Mehrabi said.
Elaborating on the dolomitization phenomenon, he stated, “In the hydrothermal dolomitization process, saddle dolomites are formed that fill fractures and cavities. Stylolite-related dolomitization occurs in the dominant mud facies and is concentrated as fine to medium-sized crystals with an opaque center and a clear margin, mainly along dissolution seams and stylolites. Bacterial dolomitization has been identified in algal facies, indicating a microbially mediated role in their formation.”
“This study shows that the dolomitization process specifically improves permeability, in a way that the highest reservoir quality is found in the dolomitized facies of the lower carbonate part of the Darian Formation,” Mehrabi said.
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