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Collaborating Authors
Field-Scale Modeling of Interwell Tracer Flow Behaviour to Characterize Complex Fracture Networks Based on the Embedded Discrete Fracture Model in a Naturally Fractured Reservoir
Liu, Jinju (University of Regina) | Jiang, Liwu (University of Regina) | Liu, Tongjing (China University of Petroleum, Beijing) | Yang, Daoyong (University of Regina)
Abstract In this study, the newly proposed numerical models have been verified and used to characterize the fracture distributions in a naturally fractured reservoir conditioned to tracer transport behaviour. The stochastic fracture modeling approach is implemented to generate the randomly-distributed natural fractures which are dealt with the embedded discrete fracture model (EDFM) while ensuring its sufficient accuracy. To be specific, the matrix domain is discretized using the structured grids, within which each embedded fracture is divided into a series of segments. Subsequently, non-neighbouring connections allow us to couple the flow of fluid and tracer between the non-neighbouring grid cells, while the historical tracer profiles are matched to delineate the geometry and properties of the fractures by taking multiple tracer transport mechanisms into account. Furthermore, the influences of fracture number, fracture length, fracture orientation, and tracer dispersion on the tracer production concentration have been investigated through sensitivity analysis. The response of an interwell tracer model is sensitive to the fracture parameters rather than tracer properties. A fracture network with its orientation parallel to the mainstream direction will cause the earliest tracer breakthrough. The tracer breakthrough time with an average fracture length equal to 40 m is 110 days earlier than that with a mean fracture length value of 10 m, while the tracer production peak concentration for the former is nearly two times higher than for the latter. A larger fracture number results in an earlier tracer breakthrough and an intermediate fracture number will lead to the highest tracer production concentration. Additionally, the newly developed model has been validated through its comparison with the commercial ECLIPSE simulator and then extended to field applications to identify the possible fracture distributions by simulating multi-well tracer tests in the Midale field. The flexible and pragmatic EDFM-based method developed in this study can model the interwell tracer flow behaviour as well as characterize the properties and geometries of the natural fractures with better performance on accuracy and calculation efficiency in comparison with other fracture simulation methods (e.g., local grid refinement (LGR) method).
doi: 10.2118/212741-MS
SPE-212741-MS
asia government, Babadagli, Canada government, chemical tracer, complex reservoir, concentration, discrete fracture model, Engineering, fracture, fracture orientation, fractured reservoir, hydraulic fracturing, Journal, Modeling & Simulation, permeability, Petroleum Science, scientific computing, seismic surveying, subsystem, tracer dispersion coefficient, tracer slug, tracer test analysis, united states government, Upstream Oil & Gas
Country:
- North America > Canada (1.00)
- Asia (1.00)
- North America > United States > Texas (0.93)
Oilfield Places:
SPE Disciplines:
Technology:
Abstract Over the last few decades, tracers have provided crucial insights on fluid flow behavior assessing reservoir connectivity. For years, they had been viewed as mostly passive molecules that go with the flow of the injected fluid and uncover pathways between injectors and producers. The proposed paper sheds light on some interesting newer frontiers of tracer applications with unconventional uses to gain further flow insight from an oil and gas reservoir. Although primarily developed for interwell applications, newer and more sophisticated genres of tracers have found their way to assist with well fluid flow behavior. Inflow tracer applications, used for phase flow diagnostics, have been around for a few decades now. However, with several parameters like physical space restrictions, temperature, solid support selection, multi-phase flow, initial surge and target concentrations at play, it was soon realised that an extended lifetime was needed to provide techno-economic benefits during reservoir monitoring. Microencapsulation of tracer molecules is one of the newer developed techniques that has shown significant extension to tracer life in controlled release tracer applications as well as improved dispersibility within fracking fluid. Newer synthesis mechanisms like microencapsulation have been developed to linearize inflow tracer release profiles that has led to a substantial increase in tracer lifetime. As the research and development progressed, newer tracers such as frac bead tracers were developed allowing long term fluid flowback monitoring in fracture stimulated wells. In parallel, it is still an active field of investigation as to how tracers can be integrated with common downhole completion and topside equipment of a well to accurately detect early water breakthrough. The paper discusses the advances in these target areas where chemistry is constantly being upgraded to suit end user needs. Novel applications and ‘out-of-the-box’ uses have been developed in the last couple of years where inflow tracers have found a modified use within the gas lift system in a well and integrated with the top-side flow arm of the well, eradicating the need for individual sampling of wells and detection of water breakthrough at an early onset, thus aiding timely decision making and improved recovery from the well. Real time analysis of tracers have attracted attention for quite some time now. The paper also discusses the latest development in this area and the challenges associated with real field applications. While advancements in versatility of the tracer molecules have been published prior in literature, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no work has been published to date that discusses the latest advances in unconventional uses of the tracer molecules aiding EOR and IOR processes.
application, asia government, bead frac tracer, c-dot, chemical tracer, concentration, detection, flowback, frac tracer, Implementation, inflow tracer, microencapsulation, monitoring, particle, real time system, stability, tracer, tracer application, tracer technology, tracer test analysis, uae government, unconventional use, Upstream Oil & Gas
Oilfield Places: Asia > Middle East > Qatar > Arabian Gulf > Rub' al Khali Basin > North Field > Laffan Formation (0.99)
SPE Disciplines: Reservoir Description and Dynamics > Formation Evaluation & Management > Tracer test analysis (1.00)
Technology:
Abstract In this paper, the use of a single-well tracer test for hydraulic fracture diagnosis is explored. Existing methods for hydraulic fracture diagnosis (e.g. well logging and pressure transient testing) often do not provide accurate or unique solutions, so improved methods are needed. The principle behind the use of tracers for hydraulic fracture diagnosis is the dominance of the fracture on the flow field in a hydraulically fractured reservoir and the strong influence of fracture parameters on the flow field. This will be reflected in the tracer response curves of a single-well tracer test in a fractured well, making the tracer test diagnostic of the fracture and its parameters. Several kinds of tracers (conservative, sorbing, reactive and partitioning) have been tested for their diagnostic value by numerical modeling. The major factors of influence on the tracer response have been identified. These factors are combined in a ratio, the tracer influence ratio, which can be used for the estimation of the product of fracture length and fracture height. The tracer behavior is dispersion dominated, which implies that the tracer dispersivity must be known for the tracer test interpretation, or it could be estimated from another tracer test in the same well or another well in the formation. Extensive sensitivity analyses have indicated that the tracer test is only mildly sensitive to a large number of variables which is beneficial for the purpose of hydraulic fracture diagnosis. A conservative tracer appears to be the best candidate for hydraulic fracture diagnosis using a single-well test since it has the largest diagnostic value when the tracer test is optimized. Introduction A significant number of oil and gas wells are hydraulically fractured to enhance hydrocarbon production. Several methods for the diagnosis of hydraulic fractures are available in order to estimate fracture dimensions. Knowledge of hydraulic fracture parameters is necessary for evaluation of the fracture treatment and treatment design and in order to be able to predict the production potential of the fractured well. The existing methods for hydraulic fracture diagnosis (e.g. logging, pressure transient testing) have several drawbacks, mainly involving the accuracy and the uniqueness of the estimates (Davis et al., 1995; Gidley et al., 1989). This leaves considerable room for improvement of hydraulic fracture diagnosis. This research explores the potential of the application of existing tracer technology in order to improve hydraulic fracture diagnosis. Tracers are markers of fluids, either the fluid they are introduced with or fluids existing in the reservoir. Research has led to the identification of suitable chemical tracers for both liquids and gases. Tracers have been used in the oil field for several decades. The main purpose of a tracer test is reservoir characterization including the identification of trends of fluid movement, layering, flow barriers and saturations (Zemel, 1995). In a single-well test, the tracer is introduced and produced through the same well. The result of the test is the measured tracer concentration in the produced fluid, which can be plotted versus either time or produced volume. A single-well tracer test is mainly used for the estimation of residual oil saturation, although other variables can be estimated with this technique as well e.g. heterogeneity (Descant et al., 1989) and wettability (Ferreira et al., 1992). Tracer research at the University of Texas has led to the development of a numerical model, UTCHEM, used to design and evaluate tracer tests (Allison et al., 1991; Ferreira et al., 1992; Maroongroge et al., 1995). This model is a multiphase, multicomponent, three-dimensional finite-difference chemical compositional reservoir simulator. This paper extends these studies to include the use of tracers for the diagnosis of hydraulic fractures. P. 925
chemical tracer, conservative tracer, diagnosis, diagnostic value, formation porosity, fracture, fracture height, fracture length, hydraulic fracture diagnosis, hydraulic fracturing, influence ratio, normalized, Simulation, single-well tracer test, tracer, tracer concentration curve, tracer response, tracer test, tracer test analysis, Upstream Oil & Gas
SPE Disciplines:
Tracers are used in well to well tests to gather data about the movement and saturation of fluids and hydrocarbons in the subsurface. Chemical tracers can be used to gather data aboutwater or gas. This article discusses some of the commonly used chemical gas tracers for well to well tests. Chemical tracers can also be used in asingle well configuration to estimate residual gas saturation. As early as 1946, Frost[1] reported the use of helium as a tracer under gas injection.
cat, chemical tracer, Compound, concentration, detection, electron-capture detector, europe government, france government, galdiga, hydrocarbon, knowledge management, norway government, PFC, pfc tracer, reservoir, saturation, sf6, tracer, tracer test analysis, united states government, Upstream Oil & Gas
Country:
- North America > United States (0.16)
- Europe > Norway (0.16)
- Europe > France (0.16)
SPE Disciplines: Reservoir Description and Dynamics > Formation Evaluation & Management > Tracer test analysis (1.00)
Technology:
- Information Technology > Knowledge Management (0.41)
- Information Technology > Communications > Collaboration (0.41)
In certain situations, it is necessary to obtain a reliable measurement for connate water saturation (Swc) in an oil reservoir. The single well chemical tracer (SWCT) method has been used successfully for this purpose. The SWCT method has been used successfully for this purpose in six reservoirs. The procedure is analogous to the SWCT method forSor, taking into account that oil is the mobile phase and water is stationary in the pore space. Because oil is the mobile phase, it is used to carry the chemical tracers into and back out of the formation.
Oilfield Places: North America > United States > Alaska > North Slope Basin > Prudhoe Bay Field (0.99)
SPE Disciplines: Reservoir Description and Dynamics > Formation Evaluation & Management > Tracer test analysis (1.00)
Technology:
- Information Technology > Knowledge Management (0.43)
- Information Technology > Communications > Collaboration (0.43)
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