Monitoring Steamflood Performance through Fiber Optic Temperature Sensing

Abstract

Improving hydrocarbon recovery from reservoirs needs both a better understanding of fluid flow through the reservoir porous media and new technologies. This paper addresses the later. Early steam breakthrough, unknown heat distribution and existing exploitation policies inhibit recovery of the remaining reserve of millions of barrels of heavy oil. Integrated reservoir studies and numerical simulations results indicated that proper reservoir management practices such as, reservoir monitoring, heat management, and reservoir characterization can improve final recovery. In order to better manage heat distribution in heavy oil reservoirs, it is required that vertical and areal distribution of temperature fronts are known. Permanent well-bore temperature distribution profile was obtained by means of the deployment of a 2,500 ft-long fiber optic cable in two parallel SAGD horizontal wells in Tia Juana field, western Venezuela. A laser bean is sent through the fiber cable and its reflections are collected by a computer, which transforms light reflections into distributed temperature profile information. Distributed temperature profile when compare to resistivity logs easily indicates and correlates which pay zones are being contacted by steam. Distributed temperature profile information allows reservoir engineers and operators to anticipate which horizons are being swept by steam and which are not. Proper actions on the injection profile can be made in order to improve spatial steam distribution and heat management. Fiber optics applications also include pipeline monitoring, horizontal well production profiles, electrosubmersible pump monitoring, cross-flow detection, gas lift valve performance, energy management and other general safety application.

Downhole fiber optic sensing: the oilfield service provider's perspective: from the cradle to the grave

“…Steam injection or steam flooding is an expensive operation, and DTS temperature measurements of well-temperature profiles help optimize the process. 9,10,11,12 Some deep-water production projects have used DTS measurements to help ensure the mechanical integrity of a well completion. There is no standard industry accepted definition of deep water; however, for the purposes of this discussion, "deep water" is defined as any offshore location where ocean depth is in excess of 500m.…”

Supporting Technology for Enhanced Oil Recovery-EOR Thermal Processes Report IV-12

“…Observing the undrained test results (no 7), it can be seen that starting with an initial p' equal to 1500 psi, the stress path starts to bend almost immediately with the application of shear. If the sand were elastic and isotropic, the effective stress path under this undrained test would be a straight vertical line, it would bend when plasticity is reached.…”

“…The oil and water densities are approximated by (Aziz, 1984): 7;:; where the subscript STD refers to standard conditions.…”

“…Among them there are the Nor-Sand model [6] and the Lade two-cap model [5,7]. The Nor-Sand model is an elastoplastic model with isotropic hardening (similar to CAM-CLAY), specifically oriented for sands.…”

“…The Lade model is a mixed associative and non-associative model that uses two surfaces for describing the yield locus [7]. The plastic strain increment is expressed as the sum of two components.…”