New Downhole Fluid Analysis (DFA) Technologies Supporting Improved Reservoir
Management

Cañas, Jesús; Colacelli, Santiago; Freitas, Evie; Andrews, Ballard

doi:10.2523/108097-ms

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…• High fluid viscosity and the resulting low mobility of the fluid 4 • Artificial lift systems 4 used to move the oil from bottomhole to surface • Formation of water-in-oil emulsions 5 due to lift operations or high turbulent flow rates, or flow through constrictions such as valves and elbows • Sand and fines production in unconsolidated formations 4 • Presence of high levels of asphaltene 6,7 • Ultra-low permeability and tight-sand reservoirs, and shale oil Most heavy oil reservoirs require artificial lift systems to move the fluids from bottomhole to surface because of low reservoir energy and high oil viscosity. The fluid lift systems 8 can range from high pressure gas (N2) lift, sucker rod pumps, electrical submersible pumps (ESP), or progressive cavity pumps (PCP).…”

Section: Sample Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges of Heavy Oil Fluid Sampling and Characterization

Nagarajan

Dong

Mullins

et al. 2012

SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition

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A significant portion of the world's hydrocarbon reserves is found in heavy oil reservoirs. Heavy oils are often found in shallow and highly unconsolidated reservoirs, or sometimes in deep, tight formations. Often the high asphaltic content of these oils results in relatively higher oil density and viscosity; hence, their lower reservoir mobility poses significant challenges to both sampling and PVT data measurements. Furthermore, modeling these fluids for reservoir evaluation requires special techniques to capture their unique phase behavior.The challenges of representative down-hole or surface fluid sample acquisition demand customized sampling methods to deal with:• low oil mobility • sand production from unconsolidated formations • high asphaltene content and resulting high gradients • formation of water-in-oil emulsion during co-production of water or gas lift operations or addition of diluents In addition, the prerequisite for laboratory measurement is special sample preparation to remove emulsified water. These high viscosity oils exhibit slower gas liberation below the bubble point and hence delayed gas-phase formation, thus making "true" oil property measurements a challenge. Difficulties associated with fluid modeling include characterizing apparent bubble point behavior, large viscosity changes with pressure and temperature, and asphaltene dropout.In this paper, we present a comprehensive methodology for heavy oil sampling and characterization in unconsolidated sands as well as in low permeability reservoirs. We present field examples to highlight the challenges and illustrate the methodology for fluid sampling, down-hole fluid analysis, laboratory PVT data acquisition, and modeling. Sampling methods for heavy and asphaltic oils were custom designed with special tools and sensors to obtain representative samples and precise down-hole fluid analysis data. New laboratory techniques were developed to prepare the samples for analysis and to distinguish between the "true" and "apparent" bubble point behavior exhibited by the heavy oil due to its non-equilibrium behavior. Fluid models based on a special equations of state (EoS) were employed for accurate description of heavy oil fluid phase behavior. In particular, we successfully applied the industry's first EoS for asphaltene gradients in heavy oil reservoirs that match down-hole fluid data.

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