The TM Sand Steam Stimulation Project
Authors: Yoelin Sherwin D. 
Published: December 2007

In this project a remarkable example of how a heavy-oil reservoir can respond to cyclic steam injection J-128 is king of the line. The well, drilled in 1962 and first steamed in 1965, has highballed through four cycles and shows an amazing ratio of oil recovered to steam injected of 4.0 to 1.

Introduction

The TM sand is the uppermost productive interval in the Huntington Beach Offshore field, Orange County, Calif. The reservoir is stratigraphically located just below the Pliocene-Miocene contact at a vertical depth of 2,000 ft subsea, and has an areal extent of 725 acres. The offshore structure containing the reservoir is an elongated anticline broken by numerous cross-faults and one major thrust fault. Dips are quite gentle on most parts of the structure but are somewhat steeper near the shoreline. Because it is extremely difficult to drill deviated holes from on shore surface locations to such a shallow reservoir and achieve acceptable sand control, current development of the TM reservoir is limited to 150 acres in the near-shore fault block areas of the PRC 392.1 Lease. The developed area of the TM PRC 392.1 Lease. The developed area of the TM reservoir is detailed in Fig. 1. The reservoir was formerly produced farther offshore from surface locations on the Signal Oil and Gas Co. Platform EMMY, but that part of the project was temporarily suspended because the well locations on the platform were needed to develop off shore areas of the highly successful Lower Jones waterflood. Recovery data presented in this report apply only to the near-shore presented in this report apply only to the near-shore areas of the TM reservoir.

The TM sand has a maximum oil sand thickness of 58 ft along the crestal axis of the structure, but it thins considerably toward the flanks. The water-oil contact has been delineated by deeper drilling, and no movement has been observed over the producing history of the TM reservoir. The primary depletion mechanism, based on production, pressure, and fluid property data, is a weak solution gas drive with less property data, is a weak solution gas drive with less than 40 Scf/STB in solution at the bubble-point pressure of 306 psi. pressure of 306 psi. Development of the reservoir for steaming over a 5-year period indicated that the most desirable spacing pattern is 5 acres per well. Areas where the oil sand pattern is 5 acres per well. Areas where the oil sand is less than 40 ft thick do not contain sufficient oil reserves in a 5-acre drainage area to economically justify the drilling of a new well; so all drilling is confined to those areas where oil sands are thicker than 40 ft.

Pertinent reservoir and fluid property data are summarized in Table 1.

The TM sand is unconsolidated, very fine, silty, and requires well designed sand control completions. Crude oil gravities, which range from 12 degrees to 15 degrees API, can be correlated both by fault blocks and with depth. Generally, the gravities within fault block groups decrease with depth from 1 degrees to 2 degrees API/100 ft.

Early Efforts To Produce the TM Sand Reservoir

Before the introduction of cyclic steam stimulation, the TM sand reservoir was considered to be only a marginal producer because of its low gravity and consequent low productivity potential. The very fine, unconsolidated sand added to the problems of producing this reservoir. Some degree of sand producing this reservoir. Some degree of sand control was achieved in three early completions using 15-mesh slotted liners, but the resulting production rates were less than 20 B/D/well gross. production rates were less than 20 B/D/well gross.

JPT

P. 987