Measurements of the seismic properties of grosmont carbonate rock and fluids

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Measurements of the Seismic Properties of Grosmont Carbonate Rock and Fluids: The Grosmont carbonate reservoir contains upwards of 25% of Canada's bitumen resource. Despite this potential, there is no current production from this reservoir because of a poor understanding of the complex geological structure or the efficacy of modern in situ bitumen production techniques. One key aspect to further development hinges, too, on our ability to be able to interpret the results of active repeated '4D' seismic surveys that attempt to map the motion of expensive injected fluids into the subsurface. Such a survey has recently been obtained by Laricina Resources Ltd. as part of an experimental pilot project to extract highly viscous bitumen from the carbonate rocks. However, the time-lapse images produced show some enigmatic structures that are not so easily interpreted primarily because there is no quantitative understanding of how changes in temperature, effective pressure, and fluid content will affect the seismic properties of such rock. Here, we propose to adapt our existing experimental equipment to allow us to carry initial investigations of the P and S wave velocity of both produced bitumen and bitumen saturated core samples. These data should provide a working basis from which trends in the seismic imaging can be better interpreted and will lead to a more involved project that seeks to better integrate the extensive and existing log, core, and seismic data base already collected by Laricina. In the project, a research associate, a technician, and a summer student will develop the new experimental protocols and carry out a series of laboratory tests to obtain both data and to evaluate the methodology for future experiments.