Summary The Foam Assisted Water Alternating Gas (FAWAG) project has been a full-scale field demonstration of foam for gas mobility control. It was carried out in the Snorre field on the Norwegian Continental Shelf from 1997 to 2000, with support from the European Commission's Thermie Program. A production well treatment to reduce the producing gas/oil ratio (GOR) was performed in 1996. The FAWAG was initiated in the Central Fault Block (CFB) of the Snorre field in August 1998. A commercial surfactant system, AOS (alpha-olefin-sulphonate), with a carbon chain length mix of C14/C16, was chosen as the foaming agent. Approximately 2000 tons of commercial grade AOS surfactant have been injected. Foam for mobility control in the CFB operation had to be aborted because of operative problems in the target injector P-25A. The main operational conclusion from the CFB operations was that surfactant alternating gas (SAG) injection is preferable to coinjection. Operationally, SAG injection is almost identical to water alternating gas injection (WAG), which is a well-known production method. The concluding demonstration was performed on the Western Fault Block (WFB) in well pair P32-P39. The target injector and producer wells are approximately 1500 m apart. A total of 380 tons of commercial grade surfactant was used. The surfactant was divided into two slugs, each followed by gas injection that lasted until original gas injectivity was restored. The production from WFB has shown that large volumes of gas have been stored, either temporarily or permanently, in the reservoir. It has been estimated that the FAWAG treatment has contributed approximately 250 000 Sm3 of oil. The cost of the treatment in WFB was approximately U.S. $1 million. Introduction Foam is a method to improve sweep efficiency during gas injection, and several field applications of foam have been reported.1–6 In the North Sea, foam application before FAWAG has mainly involved production well treatments.4–6 In 1996, a foam treatment was performed on production well P-18, located in the CFB of the Snorre field.6 Foam was used to reduce the producing GOR. The FAWAG project commenced in 1997 on the CFB of the Snorre field. Snorre is one of the major oil fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in the North Sea, located about 150 km off the coast. The reservoir is a massive fluvial deposit within rotated fault blocks. The field was originally developed with water injection as the main drive mechanism and came on stream in 1992. One of the first measures taken to increase production was implementation of a downdip WAG pilot in the CFB. This was later expanded to cover the three main fault blocks in the field. The demonstration of FAWAG was carried out in the CFB and WFB, as described in Fig. 1. The main target for the FAWAG was the Upper Statfjord reservoir zones S1 and S2. Upper Statfjord is a sandstone reservoir with upward coarsening sequences. The permeability is in the range of 400 to 3,500 md, and the blocks are dipping 5 to 9° toward the southwest. The injection is downdip. In the CFB, there is vertical communication between S1 and S2; this seems not to be the case in the WFB target area. In WFB, the injection is below the original water/oil contact. The Snorre oil is originally undersaturated by 260 bar. The injection gas used is identical to the export gas and is rich in intermediate components. Laboratory studies conclude that the gas is miscible with reservoir oil at pressures above 282 bar. The gas and water are injected downdip in all but one fault block in order to use existing water injectors and producers. In areas with direct communication from injector to producer, breakthrough times of gas on the order of 1 month were observed for well distances in excess of 1 km. In the Upper Statfjord sands, the gas will rapidly segregate and move updip. The gas will mix with the oil when the phases are in contact, but the amount of oil contacted is limited in later cycles. Local attics in the reservoir will be well swept by gas, and structural attics behind producers will form secondary gas caps. The principles behind FAWAG are illustrated in Fig. 2. The high mobility of the gas may result in early breakthrough of gas in the producers. On the Snorre field, it is believed that gas either moves on top of the reservoir zone or through other high-permeable zones. By generating foam in the reservoir, it is anticipated both that the gas sweep efficiency is improved and that the oil production is increased. To create the foam, a suitable foaming agent (surfactant) must be used. The surfactant can be applied in different ways. Both injection in a SAG mode and coinjection of aqueous surfactant solution and gas have been investigated in the FAWAG project. As part of the qualification plan for foam, it was decided to carry out two foam pilots: one producer treatment for gas shutoff, and one in-depth treatment to control gas mobility. The mobility-control operation had to be aborted because of operative problems in the target injector. Consequently, the operation was moved to the WFB of Snorre in 1999 for the concluding demonstration. This paper will give a summary of all foam applications on Snorre. Experiences from the foam tests involve logistics, evaluation of the gas-blocking effect, injection design, and gas storage. P-18 Gas Shutoff Treatment The producer treatment was carried out in well P-18 in July 1996,6 where a total of 32 tons of commercial-grade surfactant was used. P-18 was suffering from high GOR caused by premature gas breakthrough from WAG injection. The objectives of the test were to reduce the GOR in P-18 and to bring P-18 in production. The foam was placed in the target reservoir zone, which was isolated in the well during injection by a packer. It became apparent from downhole pressure measurements that a strong foam had been generated in the formation. The treatment resulted in a GOR reduction of more than 50% over a period of 2 months, resulting in a significantly increased oil production from lower reservoir zones. It is expected that a more gentle opening of the well after treatment could have increased the effective treatment period. Other North Sea foam treatments to reduce the producing GOR are discussed in Refs. 4 and 5.

TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractThe FAWAG Project (Foam Assisted WAG) is a full-scale demonstration by Saga Petroleum of the use of foam for gas mobility control. The injection of foam started in the Central Fault Block at the Snorre Field in August 1998, after a twoyear planning period and many years of active research. The first phase of the project, Surfactant-Alternating-Gas (SAG) injection was completed late 1998, and the co-injection phase is expected to be completed by Summer 1999. Approximately 2000 tons of commercial grade surfactant will be injected in the project. The project is partly sponsored by the European Commission's Thermie program.The paper presents the basic concept behind the method, the selection of chemicals, the logistics for handling of the chemicals and the technical modifications needed on the offshore facility to perform the injection. Preliminary results, particularly the response from the injector, is presented for the first phase of the project.

ABSTRAC T This paper discuses the design, field operatien, data acquisition and the perform ance of a foam pilot conducted in the North Sea Snorre field in m i d-1996. The foam pilot was carried out in P-18, a high volume producer witti peak production rate at 6000 Sm 3/day, which had been shot-in since it experienced premature gas breakthrough from WAG injection . The primary objectives of the pilot veere to transfer laboratory tested foam technology to field application, to reduce the high GOR of P-18, and to return [he well to production status. A comprehensive data aquisition programma was conducted for the interpretati on of results . The pilot operatien was carried out smoothly without major operational problems . The pilot demonstrated that it is possible to generate a s treng foam in an oil hearing formation and to selectively block gas flow in a high permeability zone . P-18 was return ed to production as a consequence of GOR being reduced by about 50% for more th an 2 months . The foam pilot further demonstrated that foam treatment is a .viable improved oil recovery pro cess for the Snorre reserv oirs . INTRODUCTIONSnorre is ene of the major oil fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in the North Sea, located about 150 kilomatras off the toast . The current estimate of ultimata recovery (proved and probable) is in excess of 200 million Sm3 of oil . The reservoir is a massive fluvial deposit, contained witpin rotated fault blocks. The field was originally developed witti water injection as the main drive mechanism and it was put on stream in 1992.At the time of production start up in 1992, a reserves enhancement potential was already identified and a plan to mature these reserves veere implemented . This included the testmg of reservoir continuity and the qualification of EOR and advanced well technologies through pilot testmg . Based on promising results from early studies of WAG injection, a pilot was implemented in 1994'2 which consisted of a 5-welf pattern in the tentral part of the field . Early gas breakthrough was realised in P-18, which had to be shutin due to export gas limitations . However, the remaining producers did not experience gas breakthrough like P-18. Witti positive response in the remaining pilot area and favourable economics, it was decided in 1995 to expand the WAG injection to cover the three main faalt blocks in the field.Witti this decision the injected gas volume will increase from about 1 million Sm3/day to 5 minion Sm3/day in 1998 . This highlights a large challenge to control gas breakthrough in the producers and to improve the sweep efficiency of the injected gas . The main candidate to meet this challenge is foam and the werk on the Snorre foam qualification programma was intensified . The qualification of foam technology started in parallel witti the Norwegian Government sponsored research programma RUTH3 and an activa collaboration witti RUTH on experimental and modelleng werk was carried out .Since P-18 was spat-in due to early gas breakthrough in 1994, it became a ...

This p aper w as selected for presentation by the Steering Committee, following revi ew of lnform a tion contained in en abstract submitted by the author(s). The paper, as presented hes not been reviewed by the Steering Committee .

Specific features of North Sea sandstone reservoirs and reservoir fluids determine quite special conditions for water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection which must be taken into account when tuning WAG parameters for the particular stratification and anisotropy of a heterogeneous reservoir. Combining advantages of waterflooding and gas injection, WAG can be very effective in stratified reservoirs. Even so, gravity segregation and early breakthrough may cause poor sweep, especially in reservoirs with low restriction to the cross-flow within the layers and with low permeable layers underlying high permeable layers. The first part of this paper presents results of WAG prediction and process tuning for a reservoir of this class. The second part introduces a new process for selectively controlling injectant flow, surfactant-alternating-gas-ameliorated (or SAGA) injection, which may yield further improvement. In this process, a foaming surfactant added to part of a water half-cycle preferentially enters the swept region. Foam that is generated by gas/surfactant displacement in a subsequent gas half-cycle will block or reduce further entry of gas and water into the high permeable layer, diverting injectant to unswept layers as the reservoir is maintained on WAG flood. Analytical estimates and numerical simulations indicate positive effects of SAGA injection on oil recovery and GOR over WAG injection. Simulation results quantifying the effect of foam plugging, injection parameters and time factor on WAG performance are discussed. Experiments in a physical stratified reservoir model demonstrate the selective placement of foamer, foam-plug generation, and effectiveness of the combined action of WAG and foam. The visualization of physical model experiments is essential for demonstrating foam process mechanisms and is useful in illustrating segregation and viscous/gravity effects in SAGA injection.