bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Studies on Viscoelastic Surfactants for its Potential EOR Application in the Low Permeability Reservoirs
Authors: Zhu Youyi , Fan Jian , Liu Xiaoxia , Li Jianguo
Published: March 2016

Chemical flooding technology is one of the effective enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods for high water cut sandstone reservoirs with either medium and/or high permeability. Because of the small pore throat radius in the pore medium of low permeability reservoir, high molecular weight polymers cannot be injected in the low permeability reservoir. Therefore, many traditional chemical floodings (such as polymer flooding, alkali-surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding and surfactant-polymer (SP) flooding) cannot be effectively applied in this case. Small-molecule viscoelastic surfactant (VES) has special rheological properties in porous medium. It showed both viscosified function and reduction of oil/water interfacial tension (IFT) performances under certain conditions, thereby providing the possibility of IOR/EOR potential application in low permeability reservoirs.

Most of reservoirs in Jilin Oilfield belong to low permeability reservoirs with permeability of around 50 mD in average. The recovery percent of reserves in Fuyu was only 23% by water flooding with water cut as high as 93%. A candidate EOR technique with chemical flooding has been proposed. Studies on VES flooding EOR methods targeting this reservoir condition were conducted. The rheological property, IFT property, viscosifying ability of VES and core flooding experiments of VES system were studied.

From VES screening experiment, a type of zwitterionic betaine surfactant with long carbon chain was selected. It showed viscosifying behavior, shear thinning property and low IFT performances at reservoir conditions. VES of EAB solutions showed a good viscosifying action at low surfactant concentration. Moreover, based on its shear thinning property under the wide shear rate conditions, VES exhibited a good injectivity performance. IFT between crude oil and formation water with EAB was 10−3-10−2 mN/m order of magnitudes. The results could be obtained at the concentration ranges of surfactants from 0.1wt% to 0.4wt%. Ultralow IFT (10−3 mN/m order of magnitudes) could be obtained in the presence of co-surfactants or alkalis (such as sodium carbonate). Core flooding experiments of VES flooding showed that the incremental oil recovery factors could reach up to 13%-17% over conventional water flooding at Fuyu reservoir conditions. Test results indicated that VES flooding might become a promise alternative EOR method for low permeability reservoir after water flooding.

In contrast to the complexity of ASP/SP combination system, VES flooding could avoid chromatographic effects in the reservoir based on their simple formula (single surfactant compound). This new chemical flooding technique might have a great potential for EOR application in the low permeability reservoirs.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Study on Mechanisms of Oil Mobilization in Tight Reservoir Exposed to CO2 in Pore Scale
Authors: Wang Haitao , Lun Zengmin , Lv Chengyuan , Lang Dongjiang , Pan Weiyi , Luo Ming , Wang Rui , Chen Shaohua
Published: March 2016

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used to investigate the exposure between CO2 and matrix with permeability of 0.218 mD at 40 °C and 12 MPa. Before NMR experiment, the core was saturated with oil. To investigate the effects of exposure time on EOR, the saturated core was exposed to CO2 and T2 test was continuously performed with NMR system until the obtained T2 spectrum was unchanged. After the first exposure, CO2 and matrix reached equilibrium state. The second exposure started when CO2 injection was under a constant pressure of 12 MPa and at a constant rate to keep fresh CO2 in system. The procedure of T2 test was unchanged. The third and fourth exposures were conducted in sequence. The results showed that (1) Oil in all pores can mobilize as exposure time increases. (2) The recovery is 46.6% for oil in pores with the diameter of pore larger than 1 μm, this result is higher than the recovery (12.8%) for oil in pores with the diameter of pore smaller than 1 μm. (3) Recovery can be divided into two stages according to the exposure time: a fast-growing stage and a slow-growing stage. (4) Initially, the oil exists in pores with maximum radius of 21 μm in the originally saturated core. After CO2 injection, oil flows to pores with radius greater than 21 μm, suggesting that oil in tight matrix "diffuses" to the surface of core with exposure between CO2 and matrix. (5) The final recoveries of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th exposure experiments are 23.7%, 7.2%, 2.6% and 1.5%, respectively.
A New Screening Test for Chemical Improved Oil Recovery in Carbonate Formations
Authors: Dalmazzone C. , Mouret A. , Behot J. , Norrant F. , Gautier S. , Argillier J.-F. , Chabert M.
Published: March 2016

A majority of the worldwide oil reserves is contained in carbonate reservoirs. Most of these reservoirs are naturally fractured and produce less than 10% of the oil in place during the primary recovery operations. It is noteworthy that this particularly low recovery ratio is essentially due to a low permeability associated to an intermediate or preferentially oil wettability. Consequently, the recovery of residual oil from these specific reservoirs is a great challenge. Changing the wettability from oil wet to preferentially water wet by using chemicals is one of the EOR technique that may be advantageously used to enhance the production rate. This chemical treatment consists in injecting an aqueous solution of surfactants or chemical additives to increase the water wettability and favour spontaneous imbibition into the porous matrix. We present a new test allowing a fast screening of aqueous solutions of chemicals that may be used to improve oil recovery from carbonate reservoirs. The test consists in depositing a drop of aqueous solution on a porous carbonate slice that has been treated to be preferentially oil wet before being put into dodecane. The evolution of the drop profile is then monitored as a function of time by means of a camera, which permits a simultaneous measurement of the interfacial tension between oil and water, contact angle between the water drop and the porous matrix and spontaneous imbibition. Various types of non-ionic and anionic surfactants belonging to different families have been tested and ranked to identify the best candidates among these chemicals. Finally, a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance technique was used to follow spontaneous imbibitions of selected candidates in miniplugs representative of the carbonate slices used in the screening test. NMR's results confirmed the classification issued from the fast screening test.
Effects of Low-Salinity Waterflooding on Capillary Pressure Hysteresis
Authors: Wang Xiao , Alvarado Vladimir
Published: March 2016

Low-salinity waterflooding has been portrayed as an effective enhanced-oil recovery technology. Despite compelling laboratory and field evidence of its potential, the underlying mechanisms still remain controversial. In this study, the enhanced-oil recovery mechanisms are investigated considering a distinct interfacial effect, i.e. water-crude oil interfacial viscoelasticity, through analysis of capillary hysteresis. An experimental setup with an oil-wet and a water-wet media on each end face of the core sample was utilized to capture capillary and rock electrical properties hysteresis. Moreover, new improvements over the traditional quasi-static porous plate method were implemented to accelerate measurements. Two experiments were conducted on Minnelusa formation rock samples and TC crude oil, at low temperature (30 °C) and without any significant aging as to minimize wettability alteration. Two core plugs were flooded with high-salinity and low-salinity brines, separately. It is found that the dynamic-static method with a ceramic disk, i.e. a combination of continuous injection in drainage and stepwise quasi-static method in imbibition on short 1" long core samples, allows one to capture the correct envelopes of the capillary pressure curves and save ~ 30% of the total time; a thin membrane is anticipated to save ~90% with respect to traditional quasi-static porous plate method. The capillary hysteresis experiments at low temperature prove that low-salinity brine is able to suppress capillary hysteresis. This is attributed to the formation of a more visco-elastic brine-crude oil interface upon exposure to low-salinity brine, leading to a more continuous oil phase. In addition, we show that wettability plays an essential role on electrical resistivity and the more oil-wet, the more hysteresis occurs, namely that resistivity values in imbibition are higher than those in drainage. The findings in this paper demonstrate that low-salinity waterflooding can still increase oil recovery even in the absence of wettability alteration.
Simulation of Surfactant-Polymer Floods with a Novel Microemulsion Equation of State
Authors: Khorsandi Saeid , Qiao Changhe , Johns Russell T. , Torrealba Victor A.
Published: March 2016

Reservoir simulation is a valuable tool for assessing the potential success of enhanced recovery processes. Current chemical flooding reservoir simulators, however, use Hand's model to describe surfactant-oil-brine systems even though Hand's model is not predictive, and can fit only a limited data set. Hand's model requires the tuning of multiple empirical parameters using experimental data that usually consist of salinity scans at constant reservoir temperature and atmospheric pressure. Given experimental data supporting the change in microemulsion phase behavior with key formulation properties (e.g. temperature, pressure, salinity, EACN, and overall composition), there is a need for an improved model that can capture changes in these relevant parameters at the reservoir scale. The recent EOS proposed for microemulsion phase behavior (Ghosh and Johns 2014, 2016), which is based partially on the hydrophyllic-lypophyllic difference and net average curvature model (HLD-NAC, Acosta et al. 2003), has been supported by numerous experimental data and provides a more mechanistic phase behavior model than the Hand's model.

In this paper, the EOS model with the extension to two-phase regions is incorporated for the first time into the chemical flooding simulators, UTCHEM, and our new in-house simulator PennSim. Hand's model is only used for comparison purposes, and is no longer needed even for flash calculations in the type II- and type II+ regions. The results show excellent agreement between UTCHEM and PennSim both in composition space and for composition/saturation profiles. Further, the HLD-NAC based EOS model and Hand's models are fitted to the same experimental data and the results of these simulations are nearly identical when variations of salinity, pressure and temperature are small. For large gradients, the results of the physics-based EOS deviates from Hand's model, and shows it is critical to incorporate these gradients in recovery predictions at large scale.
Overview of CO2 Injection and WAG Sensitivity in SACROC
Authors: Ghahfarokhi Reza Barati , Pennell Steve , Matson Michael , Linroth Mark
Published: March 2016

This paper presents an overview of the SACROC Unit's activity focusing on different CO2 injection and WAG projects that have made the SACROC Unit one of the most successful CO2 injection projects in the world. The main objective of this work was to review CO2 injection and injection rate losses due to the CO2 /WAG miscible displacement process in the SACROC Unit and recommend an injection strategy for WAG-sensitive patterns.

Two types of pattern CO2 /WAG injection rate performance were observed, 1) WAG-sensitive and 2) WAG insensitive. WAG-sensitive patterns displayed loss of CO2 injectivity, exceeding 80% in some patterns, during water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection, and an apparent reduction in water injectivity during the follow-up brine injection. This injectivity loss was observed in over 150 injection patterns. Over time, CO2 injectivity tended to return to prior-to-WAG values. WAG-insensitive patterns suffer from these injectivity losses and were characterized by differences in 1) injectivity profiles, 2) Dykstra-Parsons coefficients, and 3) injectivity indexes.

In the majority of WAG-sensitive patterns, injectivity profiles redistributed after CO2 injection, while WAG-insensitive patterns did not show a significant change in their injectivity profiles over time. In a limited data set, the mean Dykstra-Parsons coefficient calculated for WAG-sensitive patterns was 0.83, while for WAG-insensitive patterns the mean Dykstra-Parsons coefficient was 0.76. However it was observed that in the lower Dykstra-Parsons patterns (WAG-insensitive patterns) much larger injectivity indexes were also observed; 19.5 bbl/day/psi, compared to 8.5 bbl/day/psi for higher Dykstra-Parsons patterns. This suggests that the WAG-insensitive patterns were dominated by fracture flow rather than matrix flow. These observations indicate that the WAG injection process in these heterogeneous SACROC wells is successful in diverting the injected fluids from zones with higher permeability to zones with lower permeability.

For wells with injectivity values of less than 10 bbl/day/psi it is recommended to begin CO2 /WAG injection with a long CO2 cycle since they are likely to show sensitivity to WAG.

A simulated 5-spot pattern was used to study the injection schedule for WAG-sensitive patterns. Longer CO2 cycles and shorter water cycles improved the injectivity and pattern production. Most importantly, it was observed that increasing producing BHP to MMP resulted in significantly lower GOR.
A Comparative Study of the Effect of Gas/Oil IFT Variation on Two- and Three-Phase Relative Permeability and the Performance of WAG Injection at Laboratory Scale
Authors: Jahanbakhsh A. , Sohrabi M. , Fatemi S. M. , Shahverdi H.
Published: March 2016

Gas/oil interfacial tension (IFT) is one of the most important parameters that impact the performance of gas injection in an oil reservoir. The choice or design of the composition of the gas injected for EOR is usually affected by the gas/oil IFT. In conventional reservoir simulation, IFT does not explicitly appear in the equations of flow and therefore its effect must be captured by the shape and values of relative permeability curves. A few studies have been previously reported for IFT effect on two-phase flow but very little have been done to investigate gas/oil IFT effect under three-phase flow conditions. The objective of this study is, firstly, to investigate the impact of gas/oil IFT reduction on two- and three-phase relative permeabilities using coreflood experiments. Secondly, to investigate the effect of changing gas/oil IFT value (immiscible and near-miscible) on the performance of WAG injections and residual oil saturation reduction at laboratory scale.

Two- and three-phase (WAG) coreflood experiments have been performed on water-wet and mixed-wet cores at three different gas/oil IFT conditions. These experiments were conducted on Clashach sandstone cores with a permeability of 65 and 1000 mD. The two- and three-phase relative permeabilities were estimated from the results of the coreflood experiments using our in-house software (3RPSim) and were compared with each other on the basis of their gas/oil IFT values. Moreover, the impact of gas/oil IFT reduction on the performance of gas and WAG injection and in particular on the reduction of residual oil saturation was investigated. The results of our studies were also compared with the existing literature on the laboratory investigation of WAG injection.

The results show that in two-phase gas/oil systems, the relative permeability of non-wetting phase is more affected by a reduction in the gas/oil IFT compared of the relative permeability of the wetting phase. Comparing the curvature of the gas and oil relative permeability curves shows that although the curvature decreases by a reduction in gas/oil IFT but it is still far away from straight line even at ultra-low IFT values. In three-phase flow system, reduction of gas/oil IFT affects the relative permeabilities of all the three phases (gas, oil and water).

The results show that at high gas/oil IFT or immiscible WAG injection, the most reduction in residual oil saturation is achieved in the first injection cycle and further WAG cycles do not result in a significant additional reduction in oil saturation. On the contrary, at low gas/oil IFT or near-miscible WAG injection, the residual oil saturation keeps decreasing as the number of WAG cycles increases. Moreover, the reduction in residual oil saturation was more effective when the immiscible WAG experiments started with gas injection (secondary WAG).
Essentials of Upscaling Surfactants for EOR Field Projects
Authors: Barnes J. R , Regalado D. Perez , Doll M. J. , King T. E. , Pretzer L. E. , Semple T. C.
Published: March 2016

Surfactant flooding is an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique that involves the injection of an aqueous solution of surfactant (and, optionally, alkaline and polymer) into an oil reservoir to mobilise and produce the remaining oil. The quantities of surfactants needed for pilots and future commercial scale projects are large (100s to 10,000s of tons) and necessitate large scale manufacture using existing processes and plants for the different manufacturing steps. Upscaling of surfactants requires a rigorous QA/QC process to control and ensure the quality of batches of surfactants produced. Case studies are described from the perspective of a surfactant manufacturer where 800 and 6000 ton of surfactant were manufactured (as 60% and 20% active concentrates respectively) for two multi spot pilots. These case studies illustrate: The need to define the laboratory tests for surfactant composition and performance. Plus associated repeatability data and specifications (minimum and maximum values) for clear, unambiguous decisions.How the QC is checked at each stage in manufacture from the initial feedstock, through various stages, to the final delivered surfactant concentrate/blend. This also applies to the scale-up procedure from the laboratory made scale (kg) to pilot scale (100s of kg) to the pilot/commercial scale (100s to 1000s of tons).Novel correlations between composition and performance (e.g. optimal salinity, via oil/water phase behaviour tests), developed during the surfactant pilot scale manufacture stage, to a) put more emphasis on verifying batch consistency with faster, easier to use composition tests, and b) give more assurance that large scale production gives the expected sub-surface performance. This requires R&D over an extended time, ahead of large scale manufacture.

Overall, the paper shows that industrial scale production of surfactants for chemical EOR is feasible and goes through the essential steps to achieve this. Control of large scale batch quality and performance is critical.

This paper also shows results for improved, highly active (60%+) surfactants concentrates with improved rheology behaviour which will be easier to pump, mix and dilute at the facilities than earlier products. This helps to reduce logistical costs thereby improving project economics.
EOR Potential for Lean Gas Reinjection in Zipper Fracs in Liquid-Rich Basins
Authors: Akinluyi Oluwanifemi , Hazlett Randy
Published: March 2016

Production from liquid-rich shale has become an important contributor to domestic production in the United States, but recovery factors are low. Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods require injectivity and interwell communication on reasonable time scales. We conduct a feasibility study for the application of recycled lean gas injection to displace reservoir fluids between zipper fracs in liquid-rich shales.

Using new analytical solutions to the Diffusivity equation for arbitrarily-oriented line sources/sinks plus superposition, we analyze the time for inter-fracture communication development, i.e. interference, and productivity index for both classical bi-wing fractures in a zipper configuration and complex fracture networks. We are able to map both pressure and pressure temporal derivative as a function of time and space for production and/or injection from parallel motherbores under the infinite conductivity wellbore and fracture assumption. The infinite conductivity assumption could be later relaxed for more general cases.

We couch the results in terms of geometrical spacing requirement for both horizontal wells and stimulation treatments to achieve reasonable time frames for inter-fracture communication and sweep for parameters typical of various shale plays. We further analyze whether spacing currently considered for primary production is sufficient for direct implementation of EOR or if current practice should be modified with EOR in the field development plan.
An Integrated German MEOR Project, Update: Risk Management and Huff'n Puff Design
Authors: Alkan H. , Klueglein N. , Mahler E. , Kögler F. , Beier K. , Jelinek W. , Herold A. , Hatscher S. , Leonhardt B.
Published: March 2016

This paper provides an update on a microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) project conducted by Wintershall and BASF. Overall nutrient development and planning of a single well field trial (huff'n'puff, HnP) including risk management are described. A nutrient solution is tailored to stimulate growth and metabolite production of a reservoir community of various indigenous microbial species in a Wintershall operated oil field with challenging reservoir characteristics, including high salinity (160,000 ppm). Up-scaled imbibition experiments performed with sandstone cores using MEOR-oil systems are compared with injection brine-oil systems and assessed for the implications on incremental oil. The results of sandpack and coreflood experiments performed with optimized nutrient solutions are discussed regarding incremental oil recovery and responsible EOR mechanisms. A MEOR modelling concept developed using STARS/CMG is used to estimate additional oil production under various feeding strategies after the calibration of the EOR mechanisms assigned.

As the laboratory and numerical works have indicated the feasibility of the MEOR field application, emphasis has been put on risk issues ranked in the register of the project. The key risk is potential souring of the reservoir due to the activation of the sulphate reducing bacteria (SRB) growing on the metabolites generated by the MEOR target community. Conventional mitigation measures have been tested in short and long-term experiments. An innovative solution had been developed to assure H2S free application without any consequences to the reservoir and to the MEOR application.

A single well pilot application is planned in a pre-selected well of the Wintershall field studied with two main objectives: (1) proof of the concept of risk mitigation and (2) stimulation of growth and metabolite production. Identification of operational issues as well as data gathering to improve the forecasting methods towards full-field predictions are secondary objectives. A monitoring plan has been initiated to establish a baseline in terms of microbiological and petro-dynamic parameters. Temperature and volumetric distributions have been predicted based on the results of an injectivity test performed in the well. The data is used to design the HnP operation and the surface setup for the injection rate of 100 m3/day nutrient solution under well-defined conditions.
Polymer-Enhanced Foams for Water Profile Control
Authors: Hernando L. , Bertin H. J. , Omari A. , Dupuis G. , Zaitoun A.
Published: March 2016

Foam injection has been proven to be an efficient technique for EOR applications, stimulation operations and profile control. However, foam is known to have low stability and poor oil tolerance but adding polymer is reported to be an efficient way to improve such foam stability. An extensive study has been undertaken with different surfactants (foaming agents) and polymers to screen out the surfactant/polymer combinations providing the highest foam stability.

We performed a systematic study consisting of static tests (foamability, stability) from which we selected two surfactants (nonionic and anionic) and two polymers (nonionic and associative polymer) expected to highly improve foam performances. Core-flood experiments were performed in high-permeability sandpacks in successive sequences starting with foam propagation, followed by a water flow and then an oil backflow. The Resistance Factor (RF) has been measured for each flow sequence.

Based on our experiments, polymer-enhanced foams is shown to be a promising way for profile control during waterflood and recommendation of use of an associative polymer instead of a classical nonionic polymer is discussed.
Evaluation of Gas Assisted Gravity Drainage GAGD in Naturally Fractured Reservoirs NFR
Authors: Silva R. R. , Maini B.
Published: March 2016

The EOR activity has been very restricted in naturally fractured reservoirs (NFR) because the fluid behavior on these reservoirs are strongly dependent of specific properties of the fractures such as direction, length, thickness, morphology and angle, and good tools were not available to get this information accurately from the reservoirs in the past. Today it is possible to get a lot of information on the fractures by using direct data sources like core samples, drill cuttings and downhole cameras; or even by indirect data sources like well log, well drilling, production history and seismic.

These advancements in the data acquisition have facilitated EOR applications and the EOR activity has increased in the past few years in NFR. GAGD is a promising technique that uses the gravitational flow to improve the sweep efficiency in the reservoir and increase oil recovery. Its benefits have been proven in some academic works and in field applications, such as the Cantarell Oil field that achieved outstanding results.

In this work, we have developed an experimental model that simulates the flow behavior of NFR from a Brazilian offshore oilfield. The model uses rectangular Berea Sandstones blocks that simulate the matrix rock in the experiments and these blocks are separated by small gaps using metal spacers. These gaps act as the fractures in the experimental model. The experimental conditions are close to the reservoir and the used configuration simulates the interaction between matrix and fracture, as well as the flow in the fractures.

In the experiments the blocks are packed in a high-pressure physical model in the desired configuration. The gas is injected from the top and the oil is produced from the bottom. This work investigated the influence of the gas injection rate on oil production. The experiments were history matched using the commercial numerical simulator GEM from CMG.

The experimental results showed good oil recovery performance with recovery factor as high as 40 per cent of OOIP, and it was observed that this value increases when higher gas rates are used. The numerical simulator has some limitations but provided a good history match with the results of the experiments.

This paper proves the efficiency of the CO2 injection in NFR and also presents a new procedure for experimental modeling of fractured systems.
Toward 70% Recovery Factor: Knowledge of Reservoir Characteristics and IOR/EOR Methods from Global Analogs
Authors: Lu Xiaoguang , Sun Shaoqing , Dodds Rich
Published: March 2016

This paper presents the basic reservoir characteristics and the key improved oil recovery/enhanced oil recovery (IOR/EOR) methods for sandstone reservoir fields that have achieved recovery factors toward 70%. The study is based on a global analog knowledge base and associated analytical tools. The knowledge base contains both static (STOIIP, primary and ultimate recovery factors, reservoir/fluid properties, well spacing, drive mechanism, and IOR/EOR methods etc.) and dynamic data (oil rate, water-cut, and GOR, etc.) for more than 730 sandstone oil reservoirs. These reservoirs were subdivided into two groups: heavy and conventional oil reservoirs. This study focuses on the reservoirs with recovery factors great than 50% for heavy oil, and recovery factors from 60% to 79% for conventional oil with a view to understand the key factors for such a high recovery efficiency. These key factors include reservoir and fluid properties, wettability, development strategies and the IOR/EOR methods.

The high ultimate recovery factors for heavy oil reservoirs are attributed to excellent reservoir properties, horizontal well application, high efficiency of cyclic steam stimulating (CSS) and steam flood, and very tight well spacing (P50 value of 4 acres, as close as 0.25 acres) development strategy. The 51 high recovery conventional clastic reservoirs are characterized by favorable reservoir and fluid properties, water-wet or mixed-wet wettability, high net to gross ratio, and strong natural aquifer drive mechanism. Infill drilling and water flood led to an incremental recovery of 20% to 50%. EOR technologies, such as CO2 miscible and polymer flood, led to an incremental recovery of 8% to 15%. Homogeneous sandstone reservoirs with a good lateral correlation can reach 79% final recovery through water flood and adoption of close well spacing.

The lessons learned and best practices from the global analog reservoir knowledge base can be used to identify opportunities for reserve growth of mature fields. With favorable reservoir conditions, it is feasible to move final recovery factor toward 70% through integrating good reservoir management practices with the appropriate IOR/EOR technology.
Modelling Viscosity and Mechanical Degradation of Polyacrylamide Solutions in Porous Media
Authors: Brakstad Kjetil , Rosenkilde Christian
Published: March 2016

A physically based generic viscosity model for synthetic polymer solutions has been created. It gives viscosities as a function of shear rates (Carreau curves). The input to the model is concentration, temperature, salinity and molecular weight (polymer type). A model for mechanical degradation of synthetic polymer solutions has also been developed. It calculates the solution viscosity after mechanical degradation by flow through a porous medium. The two models are linked through molecular weight distributions of the polymer solutions.

The viscosity model fits very well experimental data from viscometry. The mechanical degradation model also fits available experimental data when utilising a correction factor. The models have good predictive power and can be used for different purposes such as, estimating mechanical degradation for different plugging scenarioscalculating the added polymer concentration needed to achieve a given in-situ viscosity at a certain level of degradationcalculating the viscosity degradation for a diluted production fluid with known Mw (from analysis) and unknown concentration.estimating degradation during operation of a well based on the pressure datachoosing the best polymer solution for a specific fieldcalculating the effects of pre-shearing (before injection) and the optimal degree of pre-shearingperform case studies to investigate the impact of system parameters on polymer degradation

The models have also been used for further development to estimate polymer injectivity as well as degradation in process equipment.

Currently, the model predicts slightly increasing degradation for decreasing water salinity which is opposite the trend indicated by most experimental data. Reasons for the deviation are disussed together with suggestions for possible extention of the model.
Success and Lessons Learned from Polymerflooding a Ultra High Temperature and Ultra High Salinity Oil Reservoir - A Case Study from West China
Authors: Wu Xingcai , Yang Zhongjian , Xu Hanbing , Zhang Lihui , Xiong Chunming , Yang Huazhen , Shao Liming , Kang Bo , Fu Yaxiu , Tian Xiaoyan , Cao Huiqing
Published: March 2016

Though polymer flooding is widely considered as a good EOR method for heterogeneous fields, it's always a difficulty to be applied in high temperature and high salinity reservoirs, limited by polymer property. GS-E31 reservoir in West China has ultra-high temperature, 258.8°F (126°C), and ultra-high salinity, 18×104mg/L. It is highly heterogeneous, developed with flowing channels. Starting in July 2012, a new polymer (SMG) flooding was pilot tested, with success technically and economically.

Before SMG injection, tracer test was conducted in the pilot, figuring out the distribution position and direction of prevailing flowing channels. The microscopic pore structure and size were studied. The temperature and salinity resistance of the new particle-type polymer under reservoir condition was tested. The oil displacing effect was simulated on parallel dual core model. For the pilot test, two slugs with different particle sizes were designed. To guarantee the flooding effect, a preposed PPG (preformed particle gel) slug with larger size was designed to inhibit prevailing flow channels.

The lab studies showed the new polymer particles kept stable appearance within 100 days under the reservoir temperature and salinity, denoting high capacity of temperature and salinity resistance. And by physical simulation it could obtain EOR of 12.3%. The pilot test was started in July 2012 and ended in December 2013, and the total liquid injection amount was 12.2×104m3, which was 0.1 PV. During operation, the polymer particle size and concentration were adjusted based on the observing data. As a result, the monthly oil rate of the pilot was increased from 1313 t to 2049.6 t, with increase of 736.6 t; and the water cut was decreased from 91.7% to 84.1%. The cumulative oil incremental was 1.03×104t, and the cumulative water production decrease was 4.79×104m3. The input-output ratio was 1:2.09. Though the economical result was not ideal, it was still acceptable under such severe reservoir conditions. Besides, the surveillance showed the preposed channeling inhibition slug did not perform well, which affected the NPF effect, and especially led to the quick water cut rising in the follow-up water injection phase.

Summarizing the lat studies and pilot tests, the new particle-type polymer has obtained a large breakthrough for temperature and salinity resistance comparing to traditional polymer, and the EOR mechanism is different. The matching relationship between particle size and formation pore size is very important for polymer flooding effect. To further study on lab evaluation method and plan optimization is needed. The technology has important referencing meaning for efficiently developing high temperature and high salinity fields.
Estimation of Foam Flow Parameters for Local-Equilibrium Methods using Steady-State Flow Experiments and Optimization Algorithms
Authors: Cavalcante Filho Jose Sergio , Delshad Mojdeh , Sepehrnoori Kamy
Published: March 2016

In this paper, we estimate foam parameters and investigate foam behavior for a given range of water saturation using two local equilibrium foam models: the population balance and the Pc*. Our method uses an optimization algorithm to estimate foam model parameters by matching foam measured pressure gradient from steady-state coreflood experiments. We calculate the effective foam viscosity and the water fractional flow using experimental data and we then compare lab data against results obtained with the matched foam models to verify the foam parameters. Other variables, such as the foam texture and foam relative permeability are used to further investigate the behavior of the foam during each experiment. We propose an improvement to the Pc* model with a better match in high quality regime by assuming resistance factor and critical water saturation is a linear function of pressure gradient. Results show that the parameter estimation method coupled with an optimization algorithm successfully matches the experimental data using both foam models. In the population balance, we observe different values of the foam effective viscosity for each pressure gradient due to variations of the foam texture and shear thinning viscosity effect. The Pc* model presents a constant effective viscosity for each pressure gradient; we propose the use of resistance factor and critical water saturation as a linear function of pressure to improve the match in the high quality regime, when applicable. Foam has been successfully used in the oil industry for conformance and mobility control in gas injection processes. The efficiency of a foam injection project must be assessed by means of numerical models. Although there are several foam flow models in the literature, the prediction of foam behavior is an important issue that needs further investigation.
Polymer Flooding Economics, from Pilot to Field Implementation at the Example of the 8 TH Reservoir, Austria
Authors: Sieberer Martin , Jamek Karl , Clemens Torsten
Published: March 2016

As polymer injection has not reached the same maturity as waterflooding, implementing polymer injection projects at field scale requires a workflow comprising screening of the portfolio of an organization for oil fields potentially amenable for polymer injection, laboratory and field testing followed by sector- and field implementation and roll-out in the portfolio.

Going through the workflow, not only the subsurface uncertainty is reduced but also the knowledge about the cost structure and operating capabilities of the organization improved.

Analyzing the economics of polymer injection projects shows that costs can be split into polymer injector-producer (polymer pattern) dependent and independent costs. Knowing these costs, a Minimum Economic Number of Patterns (MENP) is defined to achieve Net Present Value zero. This number is used to determine a Minimum Economic Field Size (MEFS) for polymer injection which is taken into account in the screening of the portfolio.

Defining a robustness criterion for economics, the minimum number of patterns for polymer injection meeting this criterion is calculated. This criterion is applied to generate a diagram allowing for screening of fields for polymer economics using pattern dependent and pattern independent costs and Utility Factor.

The cost structure reveals how the NPV of polymer projects changes with number of patterns, incremental oil and injectivity. Injectivity is of particular importance as it determines the Chemical Affected Reservoir Volume (CARV) or speed of production.

A sensitivity analysis of the NPV showed that for the cost structure used here, in addition to the polymer costs, the well costs are important for the economics of a full-field polymer injection project.
Effective Extraction of Green River Oil Shale via Combustion
Authors: Kar Taniya , Hascakir Berna
Published: March 2016

The Green River, Utah holds the world's greatest oil shale resources. However, the hydrocarbon, which is namely kerogen, extraction from shales is limited due to environmental and technical challenges. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of the combustion process for shale oil extraction. Samples collected from the Green River formation were first characterized by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Then, series of dry combustion tests were conducted at different heating rates and wet combustion tests by water addition. The combustion efficiency was enhanced by mixing oil shale samples with an iron based catalyst. The effectiveness of dry, wet, and catalyst added combustion processes was examined by the thermal decomposition temperature of kerogen. Because the conventional oil shale extraction methods are pyrolysis (retorting) and steaming, the same experiments were conducted also under nitrogen injection to mimic retorting. It has been observed that the combustion process is a more efficient method for the extraction of kerogen from oil shale than the conventional techniques. The addition of water and catalyst to combustion has been found to lower the required temperature for kerogen decomposition for lower heating rate. This study provides insight for the optimization of the thermal methods for the kerogen extraction.
Determination of Individual Diffusion Coefficients of C3H8–n-C4H10-CO2-Heavy Oil Systems at High Pressures and Elevated Temperatures by Dynamic Volume Analysis (DVA)
Authors: Zheng Sixu , Yang Daoyong
Published: March 2016

By coupling heat and mass transfer for C3H8–n-C4H10-CO2-heavy oil systems as well as by treating heavy oil as multiple pseudocomponents, a new method and its computational scheme has been developed to determine individual diffusion coefficients of alkane solvents and CO2 in heavy oil at high pressures and elevated temperatures by dynamic volume analysis (DVA). Experimentally, well-designed diffusion tests have been conducted for an n-C4H10-heavy oil system, a CO2-heavy oil system, an n-C4H10-CO2-heavy oil system, and a C3H8–n-C4H10-CO2-heavy oil system by using a visualized PVT setup, respectively. The volume change of liquid phase is monitored and recorded during the measurements, while the gas chromatography method is employed to determine the compositions of gas mixtures at the beginning and the end of the diffusion tests, respectively. Theoretically, the volume-translated Peng-Robinson equation of state with characterizing heavy oil as multiple pseudocomponents has been incorporated to develop a two-dimensional heat and mass transfer model for the aforementioned systems. The alternating direction implicit (ADI) algorithm is applied to solve the two-dimensional difference equations into which a moving gas-liquid interface has been successfully incorporated. The discrepancy between the measured and calculated dynamic volume change and the discrepancy between the measured and calculated gas compositions at the end of diffusion tests have been minimized to determine the individual diffusion coefficients. Alkane solvents diffuse faster than CO2 in heavy oil, while addition of alkane solvent(s) into CO2 stream not only enhances mass transfer, but also achieves an improved swelling effect of heavy oil. Among the four diffusion tests, the largest dynamic swelling factor at the end of diffusion test is measured to be 1.118 for the C3H8–n-C4H10-CO2-heavy oil system.
Experimental Study of Nanocatalytic In-Situ Upgrading for Heavy Oil Production From Naturally-Fractured-Carbonate Reservoirs
Authors: Suarez Ricardo G. , Scott Carlos E. , Pereira-Almao Pedro , Hejazi S. Hossein
Published: March 2016

Nanocatalytic in-situ upgrading is a novel oil recovery method that involves chemical, thermal and miscible processes. In this work the main oil recovery mechanisms of nanocatalytic in-situ upgrading were studied, particularly the ones that promote additional oil production from low matrix permeability blocks.

Heavy oil recovery from Silurian dolomite cores was studied using a cylindrical core holder set-up. Fractures in the system were represented by a gap between the core sample and core holder wall. Oil recovery experiments were conducted in batch-mode using hydrogen and a trimetallic nano-catalyst. The cores were fully saturated with heavy-oil and the fractures were filled with hydrogen and vacuum residue with ultra-dispersed nano-catalyst at 300 °C and 1000 psig. The produced oil from the matrix was collected and the recovery factor for each experiment was calculated. Moreover, the residual oil in the core was extracted using a solvent. Both samples (i.e., produced and residual oil) were characterised by laboratory measurements and analytical techniques in order to assess oil quality distribution.

Experimental results revealed a significant increment in oil recovery with hydrogen injection. This increment suggests that during nanocatalytic in-situ upgrading oil is produced due to the presence of hydrogen in gas form. Results also demonstrated that, by use of an ultra-dispersed Ni-W-Mo nano-catalyst, the oils contained in both the fracture and matrix, were upgraded.

This research fosters the understanding of the main recovery mechanisms from carbonate matrix blocks by use of nanocatalytic in-situ upgrading. This study contributes to better understanding a recovery technique that will unlock heavy-oil resources contained in carbonate rocks.
Understanding Selective Plugging and Biofilm Formation of a Halophilic Bacterial Community for MEOR Application
Authors: Klueglein Nicole , Kögler Felix , Adaktylou Irini J. , Wuestner Marina L. , Mahler Eva , Scholz Justus , Herold Andrea , Alkan Hakan
Published: March 2016

MEOR (microbial enhanced oil recovery) is known as one of the emerging low-cost EOR technologies, which uses in-situ microorganisms living in the oil field. Some of the most promising microbial-induced mechanisms include production of extracellular polymeric sugars (EPS), biofilms as well as selective plugging caused by cell growth. However, there is limited data available concerning the way microbes and biofilms behave in contact to surfaces in porous media in the context of MEOR. The aim of this work was to investigate bacterial growth and biofilm production in the framework of an ongoing MEOR project conducted by Wintershall and BASF. We used various approaches to investigate cell behavior of a halophilic bacterial community derived from a Wintershall oil field. Bacterial growth was conducted in both batch cultures and under dynamic conditions. To visualize cell adhesion and also exopolymers occuring in biofilms we used specific fluorescent dyes. During incubation of the microbes over several weeks we could visualize different types of EPS under the microscope. This observation fits perfectly to a concurrent viscosity increase of the surrounding media. Modelling approaches were applied to estimate the potential contribution of these effects on additional oil recovery. The observations including cell clumping, sorption and polymer production were geometrically quantified and the effect of the modifications on permeability profile and resulting flow characteristics was numerically investigated with fluid dynamic simulations of the petrophysical changes. The potential implications of the observed changes on EOR capability by conformance control and wettability modification were further estimated with analytical approaches. With the developed methods for visualization and modelling of the microbes and biofilms in both batch and dynamic conditions, we are able to monitor the clumping and sorption behavior of the cells, which will help to interprete data obtained during an upcoming MEOR field trial.
Salinity-Sensitive Polymeric Particles for EOR
Authors: Panthi Krishna , Mohanty Kishore K.
Published: March 2016

The goal of this research is to improve oil recovery by reducing bypassing due to fractures, common in carbonate reservoirs. Salinity sensitive polymeric particles (SSPP) are synthesized in this study, which can plug fractures in reservoir rocks and divert fluid flow into the matrix. SSPP swell in brine; the swelling is a function of brine salinity. SSPP expand many times (~70 times) in DI water, but swell only about 3 times in very high salinity (20 wt% NaCl) brine. The swelling of the particles is independent of pH in the range of 2 to 12.6. The swelling process is reversible with salinity. These particles are stable at 60 °C for at least several months. Core flood results show that these small particles can be transported through fractures during high salinity brine injection and plug the fractures during low salinity brine injection. Then the injectant fluid flow is diverted into the matrix and recovers oil from previously unswept matrix. SSPP injection increases waterflood recovery in cores with full fractures and half fracture connected to the inlet. The SSPP placement also increases oil recovery for tertiary miscible floods.