Revitalizing Indonesia's Potential for Oil Production: The Study of Electromagnetically Heated Gravel Packs for Steam-produced Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Abstract

Indonesia, like many other countries, is also a producer of heavy oil. An example is from Duri Field which has begun producing oil successfully by steam-injection since 1985. However, the relatively shallow and unconsolidated formations have been causing noticeable and sometimes significant sand problems (up to 500 cubic meters per day) resulting in excessive workover operations and loss in production. Delaying production due to workover in a steam-assisted production method is costly, because over time the viscosity of the movable oil will increase again due to the temperature drop. This condition will make the oil even harder to produce when the well is reopened. Thus, an inexpensive but effective solution is needed to remedy this problem. This paper proposes a new and cost-effective method for improving the efficiency of the steam injection methods for fields similar to Duri by using EM-heated proppant as gravel pack/frac-pack material in the production well. Installing an EM field generator in the wellbore and using EM-heated proppant will have a dual advantage over the conventional method by being more resistant to flow and being able to heat the near-wellbore region of the production well. By heating the near-wellbore region of the production well, the lowered-viscosity of the steam-contacted oil will be maintained as it enters the wellbore. From results of simple calculations, backed up with laboratory observation, heated-proppant is intended to transfer and sustain heat as well as other thermal stimulation methods. Production increment is predicted to be small due to smaller heated radius; however the increased well longevity before a workover schedule and hands-free operation should provide a more cost-efficient well for producing heavy oils, in-time covering the installation cost of the EM Generator.

The Prospect of Electrical Enhanced Oil Recovery for Heavy Oil: A Review

“…Chandra et al (2019) has mathematically studied for nano-particles assisted electromagnetic heating using nano-sized Fe2O3 (hematite) prepared on brine as a colloidal system with the optimum concentration to reduce oil viscosity and mobility ratio, in which Fe2O3 acted as conductive heat intermediary. Ferizal et al (2013) also suggest the application of Fe2O3 in electromagnetic heating process in the gravel-sand pack to prevent the sand production as well as increasing the production of heavy-oil well.…”

Effects of Various Steam Flooding Injection Patterns and Steam Quality to Recovery Factor

“…This research use CMG STAR to simulate the steam flooding process into the reservoir model. Table 1 fluid and rock properties are taken from Ferizal et al (2013). The reservoir model in this simulation is a cartesian grid with dimensions of 5 x 5 x 5 where permeability is 300 mD, 300 mD, and 150 mD respectively (Fig.…”

Spontaneous Imbibition Test of Low Salinity Injection at Low Saline Waxy Crude Carbonate

“…Steam injection and/or cyclic steam stimulation (Hidayat & Abdurrahman, 2018) is the current leading and proven EOR method implemented. Chemical injection such as polymer and gels (Putra & Temizel, 2018), Gas injection (Abdurrahman et al, 2013), Microbial, seismic vibration, and electrical EOR (Ferizal et al, 2013) methods have also been considered potential based on the results from the laboratory. Hidayat and Abdurrahman (2018) also mentioned the prospect of thermal recovery into the waxy reservoir.…”