oa Novel Approach to Reservoir Continuity Evaluation Through Gc-Ms Geochemical Fingerprinting

Geochemical fingerprinting of reservoir fluids represents a widely adopted methodology to address questions related to reservoir geochemistry, such as the assessment of continuity through the hydrocaron pool. This technique is based on the general assumption that disconnected reservoirs will produce oils with significantly different molecular fingerprints; therefore, the assessment of such differences can be used to infer the presence of compartmentalization. Currently, one of the main limitations of this technique resides in the need of representative reservoir fluids to test, which are often unavailable. The present work deals with the develompment of a GC-fingerprinting approach aimed to the analysis of residual oil in cuttings, wich allows to overcome the limitation related to the lack of proper reservoir oil samples. The main challenges, possible solutions and current limitations of this approach will be presented, along with a representative case history showing the successful application of this methodology and its potential.