Gas Flood-Flow Pattern Evaluation: A Successful Interwell Field Study

Mercado, Modesto; Perez, Carlos; Asadi, Mahmoud; Casas, David

doi:10.2118/81005-ms

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 15 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…It is very simple, and it is still the most widely used technique in the petroleum industry (5,6) . This technique involves documentation of arrival and non-arrival of tracer at producing wells and it can provide unambiguous information on reservoir continuity and barriers.…”

Section: Qualitative Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances of Interwell Tracer Analysis in the Petroleum Industry

Guan

Johnson

et al. 2005

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The use of interwell tracer tests is becoming increasingly important to the petroleum industry. In addition, the interwell tracer test has proven to be an efficient tool to investigate reservoir flow performance and reservoir properties that control gas and water displacement processes. Tracer data has been used to reduce uncertainty attributed to well-to-well communications, vertical and horizontal flow, and residual oil saturation. Unfortunately, at present, analysis of the tracer response is still largely qualitative in nature, and most information provided through the monitoring of the tracers is not quantitative. Among the numerous papers found on tracer technology, only a few include history matching of water-tracer test results and only one paper includes history matching of gas tracer test results. This paper describes the development of interwell tracer analysis methods in the petroleum industry, from the first qualitative tracer study in the 1950s to the latest quantitative tracer study in 2000. The results of our study indicate that only a small number of interwell tracer studies employed advanced numerical modelling methods. In addition, tracer analysis methods in the petroleum industry are not well studied. However, they are far better studied in the hydrology industry. Tracer modelling methods deserve to be given more attention, so that petroleum engineers can take better advantage of results from costly interwell tracer tests. Introduction Although tracer tests(1) were developed for tracking the movement of groundwater in the early 1900s, they were neglected by the petroleum industry until the mid-1950s. At this time, petroleum engineers(2, 3) started to conduct tracer tests for determination of fluid flow in waterflooded reservoirs. In the petroleum industry, solvent is sometimes injected into oil or gas bearing formations for the purposes of producing more hydrocarbons. Tracers can be added to the injected solvent to determine where the injected solvents go. The subsurface flow in the reservoir is anisotropic, and the reservoirs are usually layered with significant heterogeneity. As a result, solvent movement in the reservoir is difficult to predict, especially in reservoirs containing multiple injectors and producers. However, the flow paths can be identified by tagging solvents at each injection well with a different tracer and monitoring the tracers that appear at each producing well. Therefore, multiple tracers are often used for interwell tracer tests in the petroleum industry. Interwell tracers can provide information on flood patterns within the reservoir. This information is reliable, definitive, and unambiguous. Thus, it helps reduce uncertainties about flow paths, reservoir continuity, and directional features in the reservoir. Therefore, petroleum engineers can obtain information on reservoir continuity from the amount of each tracer produced from each well. Reservoir barriers can be identified by non-recovery or delayed recovery of specific tracers. At the same time, tracer test data can help determine residual oil saturation. Tracer test results also provide information on fracture characteristics in a naturally fractured reservoir. Interwell tracer tests have been applied in many petroleum producing fields across the world. The majority of these fields are located in North America and Europe.

show abstract

Section: Qualitative Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances of Interwell Tracer Analysis in the Petroleum Industry

Guan

Johnson

et al. 2005

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Complete discussion and analysis of the results over the 18 months sample analysis are published in SPE 81005. 15 However, a brief discussion on the results is provided in the following section.…”

Section: Tracer Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Tracer Superimposed Tracer response curve for well 3A Tracer Tracer Tracer response curve for well15 …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gas flood-Flow Pattern Evaluation: Mesozoic Chiapas-Tabasco Basin Field Revisited

Mercado

Hdez

Asadi

et al. 2005

SPE Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. ProposalA gas interwell tracer program was designed and implemented to characterize the flow stream within the current injection/production pattern of the central part of the Mesozoic Chiapas-Tabasco Basin. The field includes one injector and four producers. Due to production, the average reservoir pressure fell and approached the dew point at reservoir conditions. Natural gas was injected to maintain reservoir pressure and optimize condensate production. A chemical interwell tracer was also injected to detect and evaluate the magnitude of any communication between the injection and production wells and to track the areal flow pattern within the field. The study was designed for 18 months and commenced in December 2000 and terminated in mid 2002. The results from the sample analyses provided information on the magnitude of highly permeable channels between the injector and producers as well as flow patterns within the field. Furthermore, the results provided valuable information on breakthrough time and fluid travel time.Sampling discontinued for over a year. In late 2003, it was decided to collect more samples from the same four production wells as well as one of the offset wells. The new sample analysis results indicated tracer concentrations at high levels from all of the wells except one. Based on these new results, a new sweep efficiency and total volume swept between the injection and production wells were calculated and are presented. Finally, an overview of formation heterogeneity, based on the three years interwell tracer study, is presented. NomenclatureR c = total tracer produced in kg C i = concentration of tracer in sample i in ppt q i = volume of gas produced between samples i and i+1 in SCF

show abstract