USE OF LONG CHAIN ALCOHOLS, KETONES AND ORGANIC ACIDS AS TRACERS

摘要

Non-halogenated molecules having from 10 to 30 carbon atoms selected from the group consisting of aliphatic, aromatic, saturated, unsaturated (and combinations thereof) alcohols, ketones, organic acids, organic acid salts, sulfonated derivatives of these compounds, and combinations thereof are used as tracers to measure oil and/or water fluid returns, such as from a hydraulic fracturing job. The non-halogenated molecules may be absorbed onto and/or adsorbed onto substrates and introduced into a subterranean location, desorbed and recovered from the subterranean location with a fluid, reacted with a reagent (e.g. pentafluoro benzyl chloride, and the like) to give a derivatized tracer. The presence of the derivatized tracer is then detected in at least a portion of the recovered fluid. A different non-halogenated tracer may be used for each hydraulic fracturing stage, thus, it can be determined from which fracturing stage water is produced and from which fracturing stage oil is produced, for example.