Molecular biology method to determine the connectivity within a reservoir, the efficacy of secondary enhanced oil recovery, and leakage out of zone

Abstract

A method of evaluating subsurface connectivity, including: extracting biological material from samples obtained from a plurality of hydrocarbon wellbores, the biological material including nucleic acids, proteins, and lipids; determining microbial community structures based on the biological material, which includes determining an abundance of various species included in the samples; generating a reservoir connectivity analysis model, wherein the reservoir connectivity analysis model identifies a connectivity between at least two of the plurality of hydrocarbon wellbores in accordance with similarities in the microbial community structures at a plurality of subsurface locations that establish a path of fluid communication between the at least two of the plurality of hydrocarbon wellbores, wherein the reservoir connectivity analysis model includes a timing of the connectivity based on molecular biology; and generating a subsurface image or visualization, from the reservoir connectivity analysis model, that indicates a flow of hydrocarbons in the subsurface between the at least two hydrocarbon wellbores.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.