Numerical Evaluation of the Impact of Steam Quality on Steam Flood Performance in a Kuwait Heavy Oil Reservoir

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yacob Al-Ali ◽  
Abdullah Al-Rubah ◽  
Marco Verlaan
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Heat Loss ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Energy Content ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Thermal Recovery ◽  
Steam Quality ◽  
Bottom Hole ◽  
Steam Flood ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The objective of this study is to assess any opportunities to improve field recovery or thermal efficiency by evaluating different steam quality scenarios and their impact on the performance of the cyclic steam stimulation and steam flood in Lower Fars reservoir. In this study, simulation history matching of the dynamic test data from the ongoing thermal pilots was used to validate the static and dynamic description. The process results in an improved dynamic model to be used specifically for the steam quality scenarios evaluation, which was then used in the prediction mode for deciding on an optimum steam quality percentage for the upcoming steam flood operation. Different bottom-hole steam quality scenarios are defined using different steam quality output values at the steam generator and a fixed amount of surface network heat loss. The wellbore heat losses are explicitly modelled to arrive at bottom hole steam quality corresponding to a boiler steam quality. The impact of the steam quality on the cumulative amount of oil produced is significant when an economic steam oil ratio cutoff is applied. There was an overall 40% difference in cumulative oil production between low and high steam quality cases, and a 30% difference when an energy cut off criterion was applied instead of the steam oil ratio cutoff. The highest steam quality resulted in the best performance in terms of oil recovery and energy efficiency. Analysis of the results show that the effect of steam quality is different during different periods of the CSS/SF process and mainly related to the different amount of enthalpy injected. During the CSS period a lower steam quality results in lower oil recovery but at a better efficiency compared to a high steam quality. In the steam flood phase the high steam quality results in both higher recovery and higher energy efficiency. The latter is caused by lower over and underburden heat loss. The bottom hole steam quality is a measure of the energy content of the steam that is delivered to the reservoir. This has a significant impact on the efficiency of the thermal recovery process. The steam quality can vary as function of well location and time for numerous reasons. Thus, it is essential to understand how these variables affect the recovery process.

Remote monitoring of the steam‐flood enhanced oil recovery process

Geophysics ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 52 (11) ◽  
pp. 1457-1465 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. F. Laine
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Heavy Oil ◽  
High Frequency ◽  
Oil Sands ◽  
Seismic Velocity ◽  
Color Image ◽  
Vertical Plane ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Steam Flood ◽  
Borehole Seismic

Cross‐borehole seismic velocity and high‐frequency electromagnetic (EM) attenuation data were obtained to construct tomographic images of heavy oil sands in a steam‐flood environment. First‐arrival seismic data were used to construct a tomographic color image of a 10 m by 8 m vertical plane between the two boreholes. Two high‐frequency (17 and 15 MHz) EM transmission tomographs were constructed of a 20 m by 8 m vertical plane. The velocity tomograph clearly shows a shale layer with oil sands above it and below it. The EM tomographs show a more complex geology of oil sands with shale inclusions. The deepest EM tomograph shows the upper part of an active steam zone and suggests steam chanelling just below the shale layer. These results show the detailed structure of the entire plane between boreholes and may provide a better means to understand the process for in situ heavy oil recovery in a steam‐flood environment.

scholarly journals Design and Operation of Laboratory Combustion Tubes

1966 ◽  
Vol 6 (02) ◽  
pp. 183-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.L. Penberthy ◽  
H.J. Ramey
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Heat Loss ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Combustion Process ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Combustion Tube ◽  
Design Procedures ◽  
Fuel Concentration ◽  
Burning Front ◽  
Design Construction

Abstract Experimental work on the combustion oil recovery process has consisted of both laboratory and field studies. Although field experiments are the ultimate test of any oil recovery process, they are costly, time consuming and difficult to analyze quantitatively. Laboratory combustion tube experiments can be operated far more rapidly and cheaply, but are subject to scaling and interpretation problems. This paper points out some important design problems, operational criteria and considerations important to interpretation of results. An analytical heat model of movement of a burning front axially along a cylinder with heat loss through an annular insulation was developed. The result was used to identify steady-state temperature distributions both ahead of and behind the burning front, with and without heat loss. Results indicate potential operating limitations on the minimum burning front velocity (or air flux) which may be used for any given combustion tube. Results also enable estimating the effective thermal diffusivity and over-all heat loss from experimental data and thickness of the burning zone. Results of operation of a combustion tube constructed recently verify this preliminary theory in the region immediately ahead of and behind the burning front surprisingly well. Introduction Many field and laboratory studies of the forward combustion oil recovery process have been conducted since the early publications of Kuhn and Koch and Grant and Szasz in 1953 and 1954. In view of the complex and costly nature of this type of investigation, it is not surprising that no complete theory of the nature of the forward combustion process is yet available. However, gross effects are understood well enough that reasonable design procedures are available for planning field operations. Nelson and McNeil have published two comprehensive papers concerning design procedures. One major consideration in planning field operations is the fuel concentration at the burning front. Fuel concentration controls air requirements - an important cost factor in forward combustion. Although fuel concentration can be estimated from field test results by various methods, results are subject to great uncertainty in view of natural limitations on experimental observations. Nelson and McNeil recommend that fuel concentration be determined from laboratory combustion tube studies. Fuel concentration is only one of many important factors which can be studied by combustion tube experimentation. An obvious goal of importance must be development of a comprehensive theory of the forward combustion process. If a theory of this process can be established which matches controlled laboratory experimentation, it should be possible to apply this theory to field operating conditions with some confidence. Laboratory combustion tube studies have already yielded important information concerning the combustion process. However, details concerning the design, construction and operation of combustion tubes are rare. Combustion tubes used by various investigators vary in size, length and mode of operation. Therefore, one purpose of this paper is to present considerations important to design, construction and operation of a combustion tube. In regard to previous combustion tube studies, attention is called to Refs. 1 through 9. These references describe a wide variety of equipment types and present a great deal of pertinent experimental data. In general, combustion tubes usually consist of thin-walled stainless steel tubes containing an oil sand pack mounted within a pressure jacket. Provisions have often been made to heat the tube externally by separately controlled heaters to reduce heat losses. This step usually permits operation at low air fluxes (air rate per square foot burning front surface) similar to those encountered in field operations. Burning is usually conducted from the air inlet end of the tube to the outflow end. The tube orientation used has been vertical or horizontal. For vertical tubes, burning has been conducted vertically downwards. SPEJ P. 183ˆ

scholarly journals Comparative Study of Using Sea-Water for Enhanced Oil Recovery in Carbonate and Sandstone Reservoirs: Effects of Temperature and Aging Time on Oil Recovery

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Madi Abdullah Naser ◽  
Mohamed Erhayem ◽  
Ali Hegaig ◽  
Hesham Jaber Abdullah ◽  
Muammer Younis Amer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Aging Time ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Spontaneous Imbibition ◽  
Effect Of Temperature ◽  
Injection Process ◽  
Reservoir Conditions ◽  
The Impact

Oil recovery process is an essential element in the oil industry, in this study, a laboratory study to investigate the effect of temperature and aging time on oil recovery and understand some of the mechanisms of seawater in the injection process. In order to do that, the sandstone and carbonate cores were placed in the oven in brine to simulate realistic reservoir conditions. Then, they were aged in crude oil in the oven. After that, they were put in the seawater to recover, and this test is called a spontaneous imbibition test. The spontaneous imbibition test in this study was performed at room temperature to oven temperature 80 oC with different sandstone and carbonate rock with aging time of 1126 hours. The result shows that the impact of seawater on oil recovery in sandstone is higher than carbonate. At higher temperature, the oil recovery is more moderate than low temperature. Likewise, as the aging time increase for both sandstone and carbonate rocks the oil recovery increase. 

Formation resistivity variation due to steam flooding: A log study

Geophysics ◽  
1992 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 488-494 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. P. Ranganayaki ◽  
S. E. Akturk ◽  
S. M. Fryer
Keyword(s):  
Enhanced Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Oil Field ◽  
Steam Flooding ◽  
Resistivity Logs ◽  
Resistivity Variation ◽  
Steam Flood ◽  
Formation Resistivity ◽  
Production Pattern

An investigation of the pre‐ and poststeam resistivity logs, in a production pattern in a heavy‐oil field in Southern California, shows that the formation resistivity in steamed formations decreases by a factor of two to three. Shales as well as sands are affected by the steam flood. The observed drop in the resistivity of the reservoir correlates well with the increase in temperature. The study shows the potential of using resistivity variations to map and monitor thermal enhanced oil recovery process.

scholarly journals An Experimental Investigation the Optimum of Salinity and Ph of Sea-Water to Improve Oil Recovery from Sandstone Reservoir as A Secondary Recovery Process

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 83
Author(s):  
Madi Abdullah Naser ◽  
Mohammed A Samba ◽  
Yiqiang Li
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Sea Water ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Core Flooding ◽  
Low Salinity ◽  
Seawater Salinity ◽  
Secondary Recovery ◽  
Two Parameters ◽  
The Impact

Laboratory tests and field applications shows that the salinity of water flooding could lead to significant reduction of residual oil saturation. There has been a growing interest with an increasing number of low-salinity water flooding studies. However, there are few quantitative studies on seawater composition change and it impact on increasing or improving oil recovery.  This study was conducted to investigate only two parameters of the seawater (Salinity and pH) to check their impact on oil recovery, and what is the optimum amount of salinity and ph that we can use to get the maximum oil recovery.  Several core flooding experiments were conducted using sandstone by inject seawater (high, low salinity and different pH). The results of this study has been shown that the oil recovery increases as the injected water salinity down to 6500 ppm and when the pH is around 7. This increase has been found to be supported by an increase in the permeability. We also noticed that the impact of ph on oil recovery is low when the pH is less than 7.

Dimethyl Ether as a Novel Solvent for Bitumen Recovery: Mechanisms of Improved Mass Transfer and Energy Efficiency

SPE Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Min Yang ◽  
Maojie Chai ◽  
Rundong Qi ◽  
Zhangxin Chen ◽  
Linyang Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Transfer ◽  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Dimethyl Ether ◽  
Oil Production ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Thermal Recovery ◽  
Production Performance ◽  
Reservoir Rock ◽  
Bitumen Recovery

Summary A solvent-based thermal recovery process has the advantages of low capital expenditure, less energy consumption, and less greenhouse gas emission. Dimethyl ether (DME), as a renewable solvent, has been considered as a novel additive in the thermal bitumen recovery process. Being soluble in both water and oil phases, DME has the potential to enhance mass transfer and improve oil production. In this work, a phase behavior model of the DME-bitumen-water system is first developed considering DME partitioning between oil and water. A field-scale numerical simulation model with fine gridblocks is developed to investigate the heat and mass transfer mechanisms between DME and bitumen in the interface of a DME vapor chamber. The numerical model is validated with physical experiment results. The close agreement between measured and simulated production profiles indicates that the mechanisms are adequately captured. Meanwhile, various simulation scenarios are performed to evaluate the production performance and the energy efficiency, which is defined as the energy/oil ratio. It is found that the oil production rate in DME injection is 15% higher than that in butane injection at the early stage of production. The solvent penetration depth in DME injection is larger than that in butane injection. This is attributed to the enhanced mass transfer between DME and bitumen caused by the high diffusion of DME in the water phase and preferential partitioning of DME into the oil phase. Furthermore, energy consumption in the warm DME injection process is 48% less than that in warm butane injection and 75% less than that in steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). This is because DME injection can be operated at a lower-temperature condition, leading to less energy transferred to heat reservoir rock/fluids and less heat loss to over/underburden. Therefore, DME is proved to be a technically promising and environmentally friendly solvent to enhance bitumen recovery. The DME-based thermal recovery technique exhibits superior advantages in unlocking poor-quality reservoirs, especially in high water saturation reservoirs and thin reservoirs.

From energy balance to energy efficiency indicators including water losses

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 889-895 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Lenzi ◽  
C. Bragalli ◽  
A. Bolognesi ◽  
S. Artina
Keyword(s):  
Energy Efficiency ◽  
Energy Balance ◽  
Water Supply ◽  
Distribution Systems ◽  
Water Distribution ◽  
Energy Content ◽  
Water Supply Systems ◽  
Water Losses ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Supply Systems

The collection and distribution of drinking water resources generally require large quantities of energy, that vary according to factors related to the characteristics of the served area, as well as to design and management choices. Energy intensity indicators (energy per unit of volume) are insufficient to assess the weight of different factors that affect the energy consumption and appear not suitable for the comparison of different water supply systems. The key step of this work is to define a methodology for assessing the energy efficiency of water supply systems. In particular, water losses in water distribution systems, generally assessed in relation to the quantity of high quality water dispersed in the environment, are herein considered in relation to their energy content. In addition to the evaluation of energy balance using the approach proposed by Enrique Cabrera et al. in ‘Energy audit of water networks’ (see J. Water Res. Plan. Manage.136 (6), 669–677) an overall efficiency indicator WSEE (Water Supply Energy Efficiency) is then proposed. Its decomposition finally leads to the definition of further indicators, which may help to assess how the structure of the network, leakage rate and/or pumps affect the energy efficiency of the water system. Such indicators can be used to compare different water supply systems and to identify the impact of individual interventions. The proposed energy analysis was applied to two case studies in Northern Italy.

scholarly journals A complete workflow applied on an oil reservoir analogue to evaluate the ability of 4D seismics to anticipate the success of a chemical enhanced oil recovery process

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noalwenn Dubos-Sallée ◽  
André Fourno ◽  
Jeanneth Zarate-Rada ◽  
Véronique Gervais ◽  
Patrick N. J. Rasolofosaon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Enhanced Oil Recovery ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Seismic Monitoring ◽  
Reservoir Modeling ◽  
Chemical Eor ◽  
Outcrop Analog ◽  
4D Seismic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Water Front

In an Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) process, one of the main difficulties is to quickly evaluate if the injected chemical products actually improve oil recovery in the reservoir. The efficiency of the process can be monitored in the vicinity of wells, but it may take time to estimate it globally in the reservoir. The objective of this paper is to investigate the ability of 4D seismics to bridge this gap and to help predict the success or breakdown of a production strategy at reservoir scale. To that purpose, we consider a complete workflow for simulating realistic reservoir exploitation using chemical EOR and 4D seismic modeling. This workflow spans from geological description to seismic monitoring simulation and seismic attributes analysis, through geological and reservoir modeling. It is applied here on a realistic case study derived from an outcrop analog of turbiditic reservoirs, for which the efficiency of chemical EOR by polymer and surfactant injection is demonstrated. For this specific field monitoring application, the impact of both waterflooding and proposed EOR injection is visible on the computed seismics. However, EOR injection induces a more continuous water front that can be clearly visible on seismics. In this case, the EOR efficiency can thus be related to the continuity of the water front as seen on seismics. Nevertheless, in other cases, chemical EOR injections may have more moderate impacts, or the field properties may be less adapted to seismic monitoring. This points out the importance of the proposed workflow to check the relevance of seismic monitoring and to design the most adapted monitoring strategy. Numerous perspectives are proposed at the end of the paper. In particular, experts of the different disciplines involved in the proposed workflow can benefit from the availability of a complete set of well-controlled data of various types to test and improve their own tools. In contrast, the non-experts can easily and quickly benefit from “hands-on” experiments for understanding the involved phenomena. Furthermore, the proposed workflow can be directly applied to geological reservoirs all over the world.

scholarly journals Impact of Chelating Agent Salt Type on the Enhanced Oil Recovery from Carbonate and Sandstone Reservoirs

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (15) ◽  
pp. 7109
Author(s):  
Amjed Hassan ◽  
Mohamed Mahmoud ◽  
Shirish Patil
Keyword(s):  
Contact Angle ◽  
Acetic Acid ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Chelating Agents ◽  
Chelating Agent ◽  
Recovery Process ◽  
Rock Surface ◽  
Dynamic Adsorption ◽  
Sandstone Reservoirs ◽  
The Impact

In this paper, chelating agents were introduced as standalone fluids for enhancing the oil recovery from carbonate and sandstone reservoirs. Chelating agents such as glutamic acid di-acetic acid (GLDA), ethylene-diamine-tetra acetic acid (EDTA), and hydroxyl-ethylethylene-diamine-tri-acetic acid (HEDTA) were used. Chelating agents can be found in different forms such as sodium, potassium, or calcium salts. There is a significant gap in the literature about the influence of salt type on the hydrocarbon recovery from carbonate and sandstone reservoirs. In this study, the impact of the salt type of GLDA chelating agent on the oil recovery was investigated. Potassium-, sodium-, and calcium-based high-pH GLDA solutions were used. Coreflooding experiments were conducted at high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) conditions using carbonate and sandstone cores. The used samples had porosity values of 15%–18%, and permeability values were between 10 and 75 mD. Seawater was injected as a secondary recovery process. Thereafter, a GLDA solution was injected in tertiary mode, until no more oil was recovered. In addition to the recovery experiments, the collected effluent was analyzed for cations concentrations such as calcium, magnesium, and iron. Moreover, dynamic adsorption, interfacial tension, and contact angle measurements were conducted for the different forms of GLDA chelating agent solutions. The results of this study showed that incremental oil recovery between 19% and 32% of the Original Oil in Place (OOIP) can be achieved, based on the salt type and the rock lithology. Flooding carbonate rocks with the calcium-based GLDA chelating agent yielded the highest oil recovery (32% of OOIP), followed by that with potassium-based GLDA chelating agent, and the sodium-based GLDA chelating agent yielded the lowest oil recovery. The reason behind that was the adsorption of the calcium-based GLDA on the rock surface was the highest without reducing the rock permeability, which was indicated by the contact angle, dynamic adsorption, and flooding experiments. The outcome of this study will help in maximizing the oil recovery from carbonate and sandstone reservoirs by suggesting the most suitable salt type of chelating agents.

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