• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.83-94
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• 2011

Extra heavy oil reservoirs are distributed over the world but most of them is deposited in the northern part of the Orinoco River in Venezuela, in the area of 5,500 $km^2$, This region, which has been commonly called "the Orinoco Oil Belt", contains estimated 1.3 trillion barrels of original oil-in-place and 250 billion barrels of established reserves. The Venezuela extra heavy oil has an API gravity of less than 10 degree and in situ viscosity of 5,000 cP at reservoir condition. Although the presence of extra heavy oil in the Orinoco Oil Belt has been initially reported in the 1930's, the commercial development using in situ cold production started in the 1990's. The Orinoco heavy oil deposits are clustered into 4 development areas, Boyaco, Junin, Ayachoco, and Carabobo respectively, and they are subdivided into totally 31 production blocks. Nowadays, PDVSA (Petr$\'{o}$leos de Venzuela, S.A.) makes a development of each production block with the international oil companies from more than 20 countries forming a international joint-venture company. The Eastern Venezuela Basin, the Orinoco Oil Belt is included in, is one of the major oil-bearing sedimentary basins in Venezuela and is first formed as a passive margin basin by the Jurassic tectonic plate motion. The major source rock of heavy oil is the late Cretaceous calcareous shale in the central Eastern Venezuela Basin. Hydrocarbon materials migrated an average of 150 km up dip to the southern margin of the basin. During the migration, lighter fractions in the hydrocarbon were removed by biodegradation and the oil changed into heavy and/or extra heavy oil. Miocene Oficina Formation, the main extra heavy oil reservoir, is the unconsolidated sand and shale alternation formed in fluvial-estuarine environment and also has irregularly a large number of the Cenozoic faults induced by basin subsidence and tectonics. Because Oficina Formation has not only complex lithology distribution but also irregular geology structure, geological evolution and characteristics of the reservoirs have to be determined for economical production well design and effective oil recovery. This study introduces geological formation and evolution of the Venezuela extra heavy oil reservoirs and suggest their significant geological characteristics which are (1) thickness and geometry of reservoir pay sands, (2) continuity and thickness of mud beds, (3) geometry of faults, (4) depth and geothermal character of reservoir, (5) in-situ stress field of reservoir, and (6) chemical composition of extra heavy oil. Newly developed exploration techniques, such as 3-D seismic survey and LWD (logging while drilling), can be expected as powerful methods to recognize the geological reservoir characteristics in the Orinoco Oil Belt.

• Magazine of the Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.2206-2217
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• 1971

Spillway and discharge channel of reservoirs require the Control of Large volume of water under high pressure. The energies at the downstream end of spillway or discharge channel are tremendous. Therefore, Some means of expending the energy of the high-velocity flow is required to prevent scour of the riverbed, minimize erosion, and prevent undermining structures or dam it self. This may be accomplished by Constructing an energy dissipator at the downstream end of spillway or discharge channel disigned to dissipated the excessive energy and establish safe flow Condition in the outlet channel. There are many types of energy dissipators, stilling basins are the most familar energy dissipator. In the stilling basin, most energies are dissipated by hydraulic jump. stilling basins have some length to cover hydraulic jump length. So stilling basins require much concrete works and high construction cost. Flip bucket type energy dissipators require less construction cost. If the streambed is composed of firm rock and it is certain that the scour will not progress upstream to the extent that the safety of the structure might be endangered, flip backet type energy dissipators are the most recommendable one. Following items are tested and studied with bucket radius, $R=7h_2$,(medium of $4h_2{\geqq}R{\geqq}10h_2$). 1. Allowable upstream channel slop of bucket. 2. Adequate bucket lip angle for good performance of flip bucket. Also followings are reviwed. 1. Scour by jet flow. 2. Negative pressure distribution and air movement below nappe flow. From the test and study, following results were obtained. 1. Upstream channel slope of bucket (S=H/L) should be 0.25<H/L<0.75 for good performance of flip bucket. 2. Adequated lip angle $30^{\circ}{\sim}40^{\circ}$ are more reliable than $20^{\circ}{\sim}30^{\circ}$ for the safety of structures.