Abstract

One of the most popular ways to exploit highly viscous oil from heavy oil fields is in-situ combustion. However to optimize the recovery and locate the best possible location for drilling new wells one needs to map/track the flue gas front. In-situ combustion produces flue gases and this gas moves forward and pushes heavy oil towards producer wells. The areas in which flue gas has encroached are marked by lowering in bulk density of rock. By use of borehole gravity measurement one can track the presence or absence of flue gas in the surrounding of a well because lower density also affects the gravitational response of layer.