A New Way of Compositional Simulation without Phase Labeling

Summary Current relative permeability models rely on labeling a phase as “oil” and “gas” and cannot therefore capture accurately the effect of compositional variations on relative permeabilities and capillary pressures in enhanced oil recovery processes. Discontinuities in flux calculations caused by phase labeling problems not only cause serious convergence and stability problems but also affect the estimated recovery factor owing to incorrect phase mobilities. We developed a fully compositional simulation model using an equation of state (EoS) for relative permeabilities (kr) to eliminate the unphysical discontinuities in flux functions caused by phase labeling issues. The model can capture complex compositional and hysteresis effects for three-phase relative permeability. Each phase is modeled separately based on physical inputs that, in part, are proxies to composition. Phase flux calculations from one gridblock to another are also updated without phase labels. The tuned kr-EoS model and updated compositional simulator are demonstrated for simple ternary cases, multicycle three-phase water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection, and three-hydrocarbon-phase displacement with complex heterogeneity. The approach improves the initial estimates and convergence of flash calculations and stability analyses, as well as the convergence in the pressure solvers. The new compositional simulator allows for high-resolution simulation that gives improved accuracy in recovery estimates at significantly reduced computational time.

Condensate-Banking Removal and Gas-Production Enhancement Using Thermochemical Injection: A Field-Scale Simulation

Condensate-liquid accumulation in the vicinity of a well is known to curtail gas production up to 80%. Numerous approaches are employed to mitigate condensate banking and improve gas productivity. In this work, a field-scale simulation is presented for condensate damage removal in tight reservoirs using a thermochemical treatment strategy where heat and pressure are generated in situ. The impact of thermochemical injection on the gas recovery is also elucidated. A compositional simulator was utilized to assess the effectiveness of the suggested treatment on reducing the condensate damage and, thereby, improve the gas recovery. Compared to the base case, represented by an industry-standard gas injection strategy, simulation studies suggest a significantly improved hydrocarbon recovery performance upon thermochemical treatment of the near-wellbore zone. For the scenarios investigated, the application of thermochemicals allowed for an extension of the production plateau from 104 days, as determined for the reference gas injection case, to 683 days. This represents a 6.5-fold increase in production plateau time, boosting gas recovery from 25 to 89%. The improved recovery is attributed to the reduction of both capillary pressure and condensate viscosity. The presented work is crucial for designing and implementing thermochemical treatments in tight-gas reservoirs.

PREDICTION OF CONDENSATE BANKING WITH RELATIVE PERMEABILITY TO OIL – GAS AND SATURATION IN A GAS CONDENSATE RESERVOIR

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

Impact of Hydraulic Fracturing on Productivity of Gas Condensate Wells

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.

A New EOR Technology: Gas Alternating Gas Injection

A new method of enhanced oil recovery has been developed and applied to a simulation using some of data from the fifth SPE paper " template from CMG ". The simulator was used in this paper is GEM in the Computer Modelling Group (CMG) advanced equation-of-state (EOS) compositional simulator. The new method is called Gas alternating gas injection(GAG). The Gas Alternating Gas process is a cyclic method of injecting alternating cycles of gas followed by gas and repeating. Sensitivity analysis showed this method can give a much better recovery factor for GAG compared with single continues gas injection. GAG benefits that will give low water cut and high oil recovery due to gas segregation between two gases and that will prevent heavier gas to go the top layers. This work indicate that the GAG injection is an economic method compared with continues injection. Especially when we use GAG (Air + CO2).