An Investigation into Enhanced Recovery under Solution Gas Drive in Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Kumar, R.; Pooladi-Darvish, M.; Okazawa, T.

doi:10.2523/59336-ms

Cited by 19 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 0 publications

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“…One very striking point is that gas relative permeabilities derived from the depletion experiments are an order of magnitude lower than those measured in the steady state experiments. Our findings are consistent with the extremely low gas relative permeabilities for solution gas drive systems observed by other workers 3,4 . As the depletion relative permeability is obtained from history matching, we show the results are robust in a later section.…”

Section: Numerical Modeling Of Depletion Experimentssupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Many authors have presented excellent reviews of these three mechanisms, for example Bauget and Lenormand 1 and Sheng et al, 2 . Several authors have shown higher critical gas saturations and lower gas permeabilities for solution gas drive experiments than external gas drive experiments [3][4] . Other authors have shown increased oil recovery with increasing solution gas-oil ratio 5 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predicting Primary Depletion Recovery of a Giant Light-Oil Carbonate Reservoir

Ayyalasomayajula

Kamath

Dehghani

et al. 2006

SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition

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TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractPredicting primary depletion recovery below the bubble point is a very difficult challenge, especially for carbonate reservoirs. Accurate predictions require sufficient laboratory data to cover the variability in response from the different rock types and laboratory procedures, and proper upscaling of laboratory data to simulation grid scales.Many recent studies have shown that laboratory-derived gas-oil relative permeability curves often depend on whether the tests were conducted using depletion drive or steady state methods. Though it may seem preferable to use laboratory data from depletion drive experiments for modeling solution gas drive recovery, these tests are complex and there is concern using data from tests conducted at pressure depletion rates much higher than that in the field. More significantly, such tests are expensive and it is not practical to conduct many depletion tests.We used mercury injection, porosity, permeability, CT scans, and thin section data to classify the giant carbonate reservoir into different rock types. Steady state gas-oil relative permeability tests on plug samples were then conducted to span these rock types, and P10-50-90 curves developed. We also carried out steady state and reservoir condition multi-rate depletion on select whole cores. This data was used to apply a correction to the steady state plug data, and this typically lowered the gas relative permeability curves.We next conducted numerous upscaling studies using sector models extracted from the full field simulation model. These studies showed that areal upscaling cause the core based critical gas saturation to be increased and the oil relative permeability to be decreased. Vertical upscaling, including the presence of high permeability streaks to represent fractured zones, has not yet shown much impact on the laboratory derived curves.Finally we developed a template to systematically modify the steady state relative permeability plug data to account for process and scale effects. The new P10-50-90 curves were then used in simulation predictions and results compared to that from the plug based curves.

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Section: Numerical Modeling Of Depletion Experimentssupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting Primary Depletion Recovery of a Giant Light-Oil Carbonate Reservoir

Ayyalasomayajula

Kamath

Dehghani

et al. 2006

SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition

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“…Although free gas starts to be produced, still the production of dispersed gas bubbles continues. This is in accordance with the behavior reported by Tang and Firoozabadi 20 , Pooladi-Darvish and Firoozabadi 21 , Kumar et al 22 and Ostos and Maini 17 , which show a dramatic GOR increase after critical gas saturation is reached. For instance, the low concentration test showed a general trend of slightly increasing GOR as in the higher concentration tests.…”

Section: Post Critical Gas Saturationsupporting

confidence: 92%

Effect of Foaminess on the Performance of Solution Gas Drive in Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Alshmakhy¹,

Maini²

2007

Canadian International Petroleum Conference

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Some of heavy oil reservoirs under solution gas drive show abnormally high final recoveries. One of the mechanisms to explain these phenomena is the foamy oil flow effect which occurs under a certain combination of capillary, viscous and gravity forces. It has been studied extensively, yet remains poorly understood and difficult to model. The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of oil foaminess on the performance of solution gas drive in heavy oil reservoirs.In this research, the first step was to find a foaming agent that will have a measurable effect on foam stability of a viscous mineral oil. An experimental procedure was developed to quantify the oil foaminess in the presence of added foaming agent. Several depletion tests were conducted with the added foaming agent at different depletion rates using a 2 meters long sand-pack. The experimental results showed that the foam stability had a positive effect on the solution gas drive performance. Such positive effects of enhanced oil foaminess were mainly observed at low depletion rates. It appears that foam stability plays an active role in the gas-phase build up during solution gas drive and the resulting production behavior.

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“…Afterwards, the pressure gradient near the outlet increases due to two-phase flow and the BPR pressure reaches zero. According to Kumar et al (8) this increase in pressure gradient suggests gas formation at the 16 m location, this coincides with the local pressure dropping below the bubble point. The highest-pressure gradient occurs at the outlet end of the pack, however this pressure gradient does not differ much from the pressure gradient that develops for the 16.1-12.8 m and 12.8-9.5 m sections.…”

Section: System 1 -Lower Permeabilitymentioning

confidence: 57%

“…As a result there have been numerous investigations in the literature that study the effect of the depletion rate (7)(8)(9)(10) . High depletion rates are considered representative of near wellbore behavior while low depletion rates represent field conditions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observations of Heavy Oil Primary Production Mechanisms From Long Core Depletion Experiments

Goodarzi¹,

Kantzas²

2006

Canadian International Petroleum Conference

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Foamy oil solution gas drive mechanisms are complex and our knowledge and understanding is limited despite the extensive studies in the literature. In order to advance our understanding of heavy oil solution gas drive mechanisms, long core depletion experiments were designed. These experiments were performed on sand-filled or glass beadsfilled tubes that are x-ray transparent and have pressure transducers along their length. The novelty of the experiments is the length (of over 18 m) that they extend and the duration of the experimental runs. The results of the longer experiments should be able to provide data that bridge the gap between the field scale and the shorter laboratory experiments that have been performed in the past. Thus production, pressure transient, and saturation data are presented in this "extended" scale. In addition, CT scanner images are expected to provide information about the evolution of gas.

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An Investigation into Enhanced Recovery under Solution Gas Drive in Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Cited by 19 publications

References 0 publications

Predicting Primary Depletion Recovery of a Giant Light-Oil Carbonate Reservoir

Predicting Primary Depletion Recovery of a Giant Light-Oil Carbonate Reservoir

Effect of Foaminess on the Performance of Solution Gas Drive in Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Observations of Heavy Oil Primary Production Mechanisms From Long Core Depletion Experiments

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