AICD Technology Reduces Water Cut and Improves Oil Recovery in Colombian Heavy Oil Field

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Guilmain ◽  
Steven Fipke ◽  
Michael Konopczynski
Keyword(s):  

Geofluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Zongyao Qi ◽  
Tong Liu ◽  
Changfeng Xi ◽  
Yunjun Zhang ◽  
Dehuang Shen ◽  
...  

It is challenging to enhance heavy oil recovery in the late stages of steam flooding. This challenge is due to reduced residual oil saturation, high steam-oil ratio, and lower profitability. A field test of the CO2-assisted steam flooding technique was carried out in the steam-flooded heavy oil reservoir in the J6 block of the Xinjiang oil field (China). In the field test, a positive response to the CO2-assisted steam flooding treatment was observed, including a gradually increasing heavy oil production, an increase in the formation pressure, and a decrease in the water cut. The production wells in the test area mainly exhibited four types of production dynamics, and some of the production wells exhibited production dynamics that were completely different from those during steam flooding. After being flooded via CO2-assisted steam flooding, these wells exhibited a gravity drainage pattern without steam channeling issues, and hence, they yielded stable oil production. In addition, emulsified oil and CO2 foam were produced from the production well, which agreed well with the results of laboratory-scale tests. The reservoir-simulation-based prediction for the test reservoir shows that the CO2-assisted steam flooding technique can reduce the steam-oil ratio from 12 m3 (CWE)/t to 6 m3 (CWE)/t and can yield a final recovery factor of 70%.



2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Reham Al-Jabri ◽  
Rouhollah Farajzadeh ◽  
Abdullah Alkindi ◽  
Rifaat Al-Mjeni ◽  
David Rousseau ◽  
...  

Abstract Heavy oil reservoirs remain challenging for surfactant-based EOR. In particular, selecting fine-tuned and cost effective chemical formulations requires extensive laboratory work and a solid methodology. This paper reports a laboratory feasibility study, aiming at designing a surfactant-polymer pilot for a heavy oil field with an oil viscosity of ~500cP in the South of Sultanate of Oman, where polymer flooding has already been successfully trialed. A major driver was to design a simple chemical EOR method, to minimize the risk of operational issues (e.g. scaling) and ensure smooth logistics on the field. To that end, a dedicated alkaline-free and solvent-free surfactant polymer (SP) formulation has been designed, with its sole three components, polymer, surfactant and co-surfactant, being readily available industrial chemicals. This part of the work has been reported in a previous paper. A comprehensive set of oil recovery coreflood tests has then been carried out with two objectives: validate the intrinsic performances of the SP formulation in terms of residual oil mobilization and establish an optimal injection strategy to maximize oil recovery with minimal surfactant dosage. The 10 coreflood tests performed involved: Bentheimer sandstone, for baseline assessments on large plugs with minimized experimental uncertainties; homogeneous artificial sand and clays granular packs built to have representative mineralogical composition, for tuning of the injection parameters; native reservoir rock plugs, unstacked in order to avoid any bias, to validate the injection strategy in fully representative conditions. All surfactant injections were performed after long polymer injections, to mimic the operational conditions in the field. Under injection of "infinite" slugs of the SP formulation, all tests have led to tertiary recoveries of more than 88% of the remaining oil after waterflood with final oil saturations of less than 5%. When short slugs of SP formulation were injected, tertiary recoveries were larger than 70% ROIP with final oil saturations less than 10%. The final optimized test on a reservoir rock plug, which was selected after an extensive review of the petrophysical and mineralogical properties of the available reservoir cores, led to a tertiary recovery of 90% ROIP with a final oil saturation of 2%, after injection of 0.35 PV of SP formulation at 6 g/L total surfactant concentration, with surfactant losses of 0.14 mg-surfactant/g(rock). Further optimization will allow accelerating oil bank arrival and reducing the large PV of chase polymer needed to mobilize the liberated oil. An additional part of the work consisted in generating the parameters needed for reservoir scale simulation. This required dedicated laboratory assays and history matching simulations of which the results are presented and discussed. These outcomes validate, at lab scale, the feasibility of a surfactant polymer process for the heavy oil field investigated. As there has been no published field test of SP injection in heavy oil, this work may also open the way to a new range of field applications.



2021 ◽  
Vol 73 (03) ◽  
pp. 46-47
Author(s):  
Chris Carpenter

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 201135, “Challenges in ESP Operation in Ultradeepwater Heavy-Oil Atlanta Field,” by Alexandre Tavares, Paulo Sérgio Rocha, SPE, and Marcelo Paulino Santos, Enauta, et al., prepared for the 2020 SPE Virtual Artificial Lift Conference and Exhibition - Americas, 10-12 November. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Atlanta is a post-salt offshore oil field in the Santos Basin, 185 km southeast of Rio de Janeiro. The combination of ultradeep water (1550 m) and heavy, viscous oil creates a challenging scenario for electrical submersible pump (ESP) applications. The complete paper discusses the performance of an ESP system using field data and software simulations. Introduction From initial screening to define the best artificial-lift method for the Atlanta Field’s requirements, options such as hydraulic pumps, hydraulic submersible pumps, multiphase pumps, ESPs, and gas lift (GL) were considered. Analysis determined that the best primary system was one using an in-well ESP with GL as backup. After an initial successful drillstem test (DST) with an in-well ESP, the decision was made, for the second DST, to install the test pump inside the riser, near seabed depth. It showed good results; comparison of oil-production potential between the pump installed inside a structure at the seabed—called an artificial lift skid (ALS)—and GL suggested that the latter would prove uneconomical. The artificial lift development concept is shown in Fig. 1. ESP Design ESP sizing was performed with a commercial software and considered available information on reservoir, completion, subsea, and topsides. To ensure that the ESP chosen would meet production and pressure boosts required in the field, base cases were built and analyzed for different moments of the field’s life. The cases considered different productivity indexes (PI), reservoir pressures, and water production [and consequently water cut (WC)] as their inputs. The design considers using pumps with a best efficiency point (BEP) for water set at high flow rates (17,500 B/D for in-well and 34,000 B/D for ALS). Thus, when the pumps deal with viscous fluid, the curve will have a BEP closer to the current operating point. Design boundaries of the in-well ESP and the ALS are provided in the complete paper, as are some of the operational requirements to be implemented in the ESP design to minimize risk. Field Production History In 2014, two wells were drilled, tested, and completed with in-well ESP as the primary artificial lift method. Because of delays in delivery of a floating production, storage, and offloading vessel (FPSO), the backup (ALS) was not installed until January 2018. In May 2018, Atlanta Field’s first oil was achieved through ATL-2’s in-well ESP. After a few hours operating through the in-well ESP, it prematurely failed, and the ALS of this well was successfully started up. Fifteen days after first oil, ATL-3’s in-well ESP was started up, but, as occurred with ATL-2, failed after a short period. Its ALS was successfully started up, and both wells produced slightly more than 1 year in that condition.



2012 ◽  
Vol 268-270 ◽  
pp. 547-550
Author(s):  
Qing Wang Liu ◽  
Xin Wang ◽  
Zhen Zhong Fan ◽  
Jiao Wang ◽  
Rui Gao ◽  
...  

Liaohe oil field block 58 for Huancai, the efficiency of production of thickened oil is low, and the efficiency of displacement is worse, likely to cause other issues. Researching and developing an type of Heavy Oil Viscosity Reducer for exploiting. The high viscosity of W/O emulsion changed into low viscosity O/W emulsion to facilitate recovery, enhanced oil recovery. Through the experiment determine the viscosity properties of Heavy Oil Viscosity Reducer. The oil/water interfacial tension is lower than 0.0031mN•m-1, salt-resisting is good. The efficiency of viscosity reduction is higher than 90%, and also good at 180°C.



2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 672
Author(s):  
Daniel León ◽  
John Scott ◽  
Steven Saul ◽  
Lina Hartanto ◽  
Shannon Gardner ◽  
...  

After successful design and implementation phases that included both subsurface and facilities components, an EOR polymer injection pilot has been operational for two years in Australia's largest onshore oil field at Barrow Island (816 MMstb OOIP). The pilot's main objective was to identify a suitable EOR technology for the complex, highly heterogeneous, very fine-grained, bioturbated argillaceous sandstone—high in glauconite, high porosity (∼23 %), low permeability (∼5 mD, with 50+ mD streaks)—reservoir that will ultimately increase the recovery of commercial resources past the estimated ultimate recovery factor with waterflooding (∼42 %). This was achieved using the in-depth flow diversion (IFD) methodology to access new unswept oil zones—both vertically and horizontally—by inducing growth in the fracture network. During the pilot operating phase, the main focus has been on surveillance and monitoring activities to assess the effectiveness of the process, including: injection pressure at the wellheads—indicating any increase in resistance to flow; pressure fall off tests at the injectors—to determine fracture growth, if any sampling and lab analysis at the producers—to identify polymer breakthrough; frequent production tests—quantifying reduction in water cut and oil production uplift; and, pressure build up surveys at the producers. These activities provided input data to the fit for purpose simulation model built in Reveal incorporating fractures and polymer as a fourth phase. With more than 96 % compliance to the surveillance plan, this paper will present the present findings and evaluation of the results, which may lead to the continuation of the pilot in other patterns of the reservoir and, possibly, to further expansion in the field.



2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (01) ◽  
pp. 60-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sixu Zheng ◽  
Daoyong Yang

Summary Techniques have been developed to experimentally and numerically evaluate performance of water-alternating-CO2 processes in thin heavy-oil reservoirs for pressure maintenance and improving oil recovery. Experimentally, a 3D physical model consisting of three horizontal wells and five vertical wells is used to evaluate the performance of water-alternating-CO2 processes. Two well configurations have been designed to examine their effects on heavy-oil recovery. The corresponding initial oil saturation, oil-production rate, water cut, oil recovery, and residual-oil-saturation (ROS) distribution are examined under various operating conditions. Subsequently, numerical simulation is performed to match the experimental measurements and optimize the operating parameters (e.g., slug size and water/CO2 ratio). The incremental oil recoveries of 12.4 and 8.9% through three water-alternating-CO2 cycles are experimentally achieved for the aforementioned two well configurations, respectively. The excellent agreement between the measured and simulated cumulative oil production indicates that the displacement mechanisms governing water-alternating-CO2 processes have been numerically simulated and matched. It has been shown that water-alternating-CO2 processes implemented with horizontal wells can be optimized to significantly improve performance of pressure maintenance and oil recovery in thin heavy-oil reservoirs. Although well configuration imposes a dominant impact on oil recovery, the water-alternating-gas (WAG) ratios of 0.75 and 1.00 are found to be the optimum values for Scenarios 1 and 2, respectively.



2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Farog ◽  
Haytham A.Mustafa ◽  
Enas Mukhtar ◽  
Husham Elblaoula ◽  
Badreldin A. Yassin ◽  
...  


2013 ◽  
Vol 734-737 ◽  
pp. 1434-1439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang Wu ◽  
Fu Ping Ren ◽  
Jing You ◽  
Ji Liang Yu ◽  
Ya Tuo Pei ◽  
...  

Based on the low-temperature and heavy oil reservoir of conventional injection well pattern separated two strains of oil degradation bacteria LC and JH which had satisfactory compatibleness with BaoLige oill field. In order to study the feasibility of enhancing oil recovery rate of the two strains, the experiment of huff and puff with 15 wells were carried out. The average concentration of bacteria increase from 4.7×102cells/ml to 8.1×106cells/ml. The average reduction of surface tension and viscosity is 33.1% and 31.9%. The accumulative total was 1163.2t. The ratio of input to output was 1:2.12. Microbial enhanced oil recovery can improve the low-temperature and heavy oil production status, which provide a effective method for the similar oil field.



2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangming Pan ◽  
Jianbo Chen ◽  
Caiqi Zhang ◽  
Dong Liu ◽  
Jintao Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  


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