Challenges:

Improved reservoir characterization sits at the heart of many technology challenges faced by the upstream sector in Kuwait today. In conjunction with improved subsurface imaging new approaches to reservoir characterization will be required to evaluate non-conventional, tight reservoirs, and more complex reservoirs, where formation evaluation methods may need to be adapted or designed. As conventional reservoirs move into IOR and EOR phases, greater understanding of variations in rock and fluid properties, and in particular the tracking of water and other injectants in the reservoir, will support the development of advanced static and dynamic reservoir models, whilst studies into multiphase fluid flow in increasingly complex reservoir situations will facilitate the design of the most appropriate approaches to maximizing ultimate recovery.

Research Objectives:

• To develop the formation evaluation techniques required to evaluate non-conventional reservoirs
• To improve predictions on rock, fluid and PVT properties to support efficient well planning
• To develop detailed and accurate models to facilitate the screening and selection of IOR and EOR methods
• To investigate mechanisms for the formation of contaminants in the reservoir (asphaltenes, H2S etc.)

Research Programs:

1. Formation Evaluation: Comprises research into the tools and procedures to acquire and interpret the data that is required as input to the building of static reservoirs with appropriate characteristics and at the right scale to model complex fluid flows.
2. Rock & Fluid Properties: Comprises the acquisition of rock and fluid properties data and research into new measurements and procedures that are necessary to describe complex rock and fluid interactions in the reservoir.
3. Fluid Flow: Comprises the development of advanced approaches to the modeling of fluid flows in complex reservoirs (e.g. thin beds), and in non-conventional, tight reservoirs where a smaller scale of investigation is required.