Condensate Recovery by Cycling at Declining Pressure

Havlena, Z.G.; Griffith, James D.; Pot, R.; Kiel, O.G.

doi:10.2523/1962-ms

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…During production, when the reservoir pressure drops below the dew point pressure, heavy hydrocarbons may condensate and precipitate around the borehole [ 1 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. The accumulation of condensate liquid poses a serious formation damage problem and thus may reduce gas productivity significantly [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. The formation damage becomes more serious in tight reservoirs, where the condensate bank becomes immobile and blocks the gas flow [ 3 , 10 , 11 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel Treatment for Mitigating Condensate Bank Using a Newly Synthesized Gemini Surfactant

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Condensate accumulation in the vicinity of the gas well is known to curtail hydrocarbon production by up to 80%. Numerous approaches are being employed to mitigate condensate damage and improve gas productivity. Chemical treatment, gas recycling, and hydraulic fracturing are the most effective techniques for combatting the condensate bank. However, the gas injection technique showed temporary condensate recovery and limited improvement in gas productivity. Hydraulic fracturing is considered to be an expensive approach for treating condensate banking problems. In this study, a newly synthesized gemini surfactant (GS) was developed to prevent the formation of condensate blockage in the gas condensate reservoirs. Flushing the near-wellbore area with GS will change the rock wettability and thereby reduce the capillary forces holding the condensate due to the strong adsorption capacity of GS on the rock surface. In this study, several measurements were conducted to assess the performance of GS in mitigating the condensate bank including coreflood, relative permeability, phase behavior, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements. The results show that GS can reduce the capillary pressure by as much as 40%, increase the condensate mobility by more than 80%, and thereby mitigate the condensate bank by up to 84%. Phase behavior measurements indicate that adding GS to the oil–brine system could not induce any emulsions at different salinity levels. Moreover, NMR and permeability measurements reveal that the gemini surfactant has no effect on the pore system and no changes were observed in the T2 relaxation profiles with and without the GS injection. Ultimately, this work introduces a novel and effective treatment for mitigating the condensate bank. The new treatment showed an attractive performance in reducing liquid saturation and increasing the condensate relative permeability.

show abstract