From Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin (www.beg.utexas.edu).
For more information, please contact the author.

Bureau Seminar, September 30, 2011

Overview of Electromagnetic Contrast Agent research

Dr. Alex Athey
Applied Research Laboratories, UT Austin

Electromagnetic interrogation has long provided valuable insight for the oil and gas industry.  In the near borehole regime many sensing modalities are possible, but at distances greater than ten meters from the borehole only electrical conductivity and inductive processes have proven value.  The Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC), managed by UT-BEG, has undertaken two research thrusts to investigate the possibility of significantly altering the other two electromagnetic properties of dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability via nanoparticle co-injection with water floods.  This talk will give a short overview of these EM Contrast Agent research areas including: a) status report on nanoparticle synthesis with consideration given to costs and scaling-up production, b) the remote sensing possibilities opened up by these particles, including high resolution EM measurements and low frequency EM interrogation free of steel casing effects, and c) the plans to demonstrate these concepts at large scales, employing UT facilities.