Abstract

Evaluation of technologies for oil-sand mining and enhanced oil recovery in oil sands and other uncemented sandstone reservoirs requires high-quality undisturbed samples and special sampling, preparation, and testing techniques to minimize the effects of sample disturbance by expansion. This paper presents some methods developed for storage, preparation, and laboratory testing of the geomechanical properties of oil sands. These techniques have application to the handling of other earth materials that are difficult to prepare for testing.

Issue Section:
Research Papers
Keywords:
oil sands, sandstones, test procedures, permeability, compressibility, sample preparation

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