NanoCommunication-based Impermeable Region Mapping for Oil Reservoir Exploration

Oil continues to play a significant role in providing worldwide energy. Impermeable zones (i.e., underground areas that allow only few hydrocarbons-collecting fluids, to pass through) can cause significant challenges during the drilling and oil production periods. The problem of mapping an impermeable area has been investigated mainly using seismic sensors deployed on the Earth surface. The existing solutions continue to be imprecise. In this paper we propose a solution that employs nanodevices enabled with wireless THz communication capabilities. The nanodevices are deployed underground and collected as part of oil exploration and recovery. Wireless connectivity among nanodevices is used for mapping underground flow propagation paths, and implicitly, impermeable areas. Since the deployment underground of nanodevices is costly, in this paper we aim to reduce the number of insertion and collection/production wells. Through simulations, we show that our proposed solution achieves good accuracy in mapping impermeable zones, with a reduced cost.