Electromagnetic induction tomography field experiment at Lost Hills, CA

We have collected borehole to surface electromagnetic induction field data for a shallow steam injection that is underway at Mobil Oil� s Lost Hills-3 field in San Joaquin Valley. Earlier work had been done at the same site by Wilt et al. (1996). This site is an interesting test for techniques under development for environmental engineering, because it can be viewed as an excellent analog of a shallow environmental remediation using steam injection. Surface magnetic field data (vertical and radial fields, magnitude and phase) were collected using 18 receiver stations along two profiles which ran radially from the EM transmitter well from 5 m to 120 m. The data at each surface station were collected while the EM transmitter was raised slowly from a depth of 120 m to a final depth of 20 m. As part of this experiment, a calibration of the EM transmitter was also performed. Magnetic field data from Lost Hills were successfully collected, including both vertical and horizontal (surface radial) magnitude and phase data along a northerly profile and along a westerly profile. We have observed that the radial receiver data appear to be better behaved than the vertical receiver data, suggesting that these data may be less sensitive to environmental clutter (numerous metallic pipes crisscrossing the site at the surface) than are the vertical data. Some simple 1-D modeling has been done to confirm that the expected conductivity change in the steam zone should produce an observable anomaly in the measured data when comparing the pre-steam to the post-steam conditions. Results of this test were positive. Further analyses of these data making use of a new code developed in a companion paper are in progress and will presented separately.