scholarly journals Condensate banking removal: study on ultrasonic amplitude effect

Author(s):  
Aieshah Ainuddin ◽  
Nabilla Afzan Abdul Aziz ◽  
Nor Akmal Affandy Mohamed Soom

AbstractHydrocarbons in a gas condensate reservoir consist of a wide variety of molecules which will react varyingly with the change of pressure inside the reservoir and wellbore. The presence of heavier ended hydrocarbons such as C5 and above, condensate banking will occur as pressure depletes. Pressure drop below dew point pressure causes condensate buildup which will give a negative impact in the productivity index of a gas condensate reservoir. Gas condensate reservoirs experience liquid drop out when pressure depletion reaches below dew point pressure. This occurrence will eventually cause condensate banking over time of production where condensate builds up in pore spaces of near-wellbore formations. Due to increase in condensate saturation, gas mobility is reduced and causes reduction of recoverable hydrocarbons. Instead of remediating production loss by using unsustainable recovery techniques, sonication is used to assist the natural flow of a gas condensate reservoir. This study aims to evaluate the effects of various ultrasonic amplitudes on condensate removal in a heterogenous glass pack in flowing conditions with varying exposure durations. Experiments were conducted by using n-Decane and a glass pack to represent condensate banking and near-wellbore area. Carbon dioxide was flowed through the pack to represent flowing gas from the reservoir after sonication of 10%, 50% and 100% amplitudes (20 kHz and 20 Watts). Analysis of results shows recovery of up to 17.36% and an areal sweep efficiency increase in 24.33% after sonication of 100% amplitude for 120 min due to reduction in viscosity. It was concluded that sweeping efficiency and reciprocal mobility ratio are increased with sonication of 100% amplitude for 120 min. This indicates that mobility of n-Decane is improved after sonication to allow higher hydrocarbon liquid production. Insights into the aspects of the mechanical wave are expected to contribute to a better understanding of tuning the sonic wave, to deliver remarkable results in a closed solid and fluid system. This form of IOR has not only proved to be an effective method to increase productivity in gas condensate wells, but it is also an environmentally sustainable and cost-effective method.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 1202-1208

Having an increase in the discovery of gas reservoirs all over the world, the most common problem related to gas condensate wells while producing below dew point condition is condensate banking. As the bottom hole pressure drops below the dew point, the liquid starts to exist and condensate begins to accumulate. Relative permeability of gas will be reduced as well as the well productivity will start to decline. The effect of applying a hydraulic fracture to gas condensate wells is the main objective of this paper. A compositional simulator is utilized to investigate the physical modifications that could happen to gas and condensate during the production life of an arbitrary well. Performing a good designed hydraulic fracture to a gas condensate well typically enhances the production of such well. This increase depends basically on certain factors such as non-Darcy flow, capillary number and capillary pressure. Non-Darcy flow has a dominant impact on gas and condensate productivity index after performing a hydraulic fracture as the simulator indicates. The enhancement of gas and condensate production can be obtained for gas condensate reservoirs in which the reservoir pressure is above or around the dew point pressure to have a margin for the pressure to decline with time and also eliminate the probability of forming condensate in the reservoir. On the other hand if the reservoir pressure is below the dew point pressure, there will be definitely a condensate in the reservoir and a specific design for the hydraulic fracture is a must to get the required enhancement in the production.


Author(s):  
Sohail Nawab ◽  
Abdul Haque Tunio ◽  
Aftab Ahmed Mahesar ◽  
Imran Ahmed Hullio

The producing behavior of low permeable gas condensate reservoirs is dramatically different from that of conventional reservoirs and requires a new paradigm to understand and interpret it. As the reservoir pressure initiates to decline and reaches to dew point pressure of the fluid then the condensate is formed and causes the restriction in the flow in the reservoir rock which results, decrease in the well productivity near the wellbore vicinity which is known as condensate blockage. Henceforward, it is better to understand the behavior of the low permeable lean and rich gas condensate reservoirs by several perspectives through the compositional simulator. Besides this study involves the following perspectives; the increase in the number of wells and by varying the flowrate of the gas in six different cases for low permeable lean and rich gas condensate reservoirs. It was concluded that low permeable lean and rich gas condensate reservoirs have similar gas recovery factors. Whereas the CRF plays inverse behavior for both reservoirs as CRF is maximum for lean gas condensate at single producing well but for rich gas condensate reservoir the CRF increases as the number of wells escalates. Additionally, in second effect the varying gas flowrates lean gas condensate reservoir has maximum CRF at lesser flowrate but it is opposite for the low permeable rich gas condensate reservoir, for single or two producing wells the flowrate effect plays but when the number of wells is increasing there is not any significant change in CRF


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
R.. Hosein ◽  
R.. Mayrhoo ◽  
W. D. McCain

Abstract Bubble-point and dew-point pressures of oil and gas condensate reservoir fluids are used for planning the production profile of these reservoirs. Usually the best method for determination of these saturation pressures is by visual observation when a Constant Mass Expansion (CME) test is performed on a sample in a high pressure cell fitted with a glass window. In this test the cell pressure is reduced in steps and the pressure at which the first sign of gas bubbles is observed is recorded as bubble-point pressure for the oil samples and the first sign of liquid droplets is recorded as the dew-point pressure for the gas condensate samples. The experimental determination of saturation pressure especially for volatile oil and gas condensate require many small pressure reduction steps which make the observation method tedious, time consuming and expensive. In this study we have extended the Y-function which is often used to smooth out CME data for black oils below the bubble-point to determine saturation pressure of reservoir fluids. We started from the initial measured pressure and volume and by plotting log of the extended Y function which we call the YEXT function, with the corresponding pressure, two straight lines were obtained; one in the single phase region and the other in the two phase region. The point at which these two lines intersect is the saturation pressure. The differences between the saturation pressures determined by our proposed YEXT function method and the observation method was less than ± 4.0 % for the gas condensate, black oil and volatile oil samples studied. This extension of the Y function to determine dew-point and bubble-point pressures was not found elsewhere in the open literature. With this graphical method the determination of saturation pressures is less tedious and time consuming and expensive windowed cells are not required.


Gas condensate fields are quite lucrative fields because of the highly economic value of condensates. However, the development of these fields is often difficult due to retrograde condensation resulting to condensate banking in the immediate vicinity of the wellbore. In many cases, adequate characterization and prediction of condensate banks are often difficult leading to poor technical decisions in the management of such fields. This study will present a simulation performed with Eclipse300 compositional simulator on a gas condensate reservoir with three case study wells- a gas injector (INJ1) and two producers (PROD1 and PROD2) to predict condensate banking. Rock and fluid properties at laboratory condition were simulated to reservoir conditions and a comparative method of analysis was used to efficiently diagnose the presence of condensate banks in the affected grid-blocks. Relative Permeability to Condensate and gas and saturation curves shows condensate banks region. The result shows that PROD2 was greatly affected by condensate banking while PROD1 remained unaffected during the investigation. Other factors were analyzed and the results reveal that the nature and composition of condensates can significantly affect condensate banking in the immediate vicinity of the wellbore. Also, it was observed that efficient production from condensate reservoir requires the pressure to be kept above dew point pressure so as to minimize the effect and the tendency of retrograde condensation. Keywords: Condensate Banking, Phase Production, Relative Permeability, Relative Saturation, Retrograde Condensation


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