Layer | Fill | Outline |
---|
Map layers
Theme | Visible | Selectable | Appearance | Zoom Range (now: 0) |
---|
Fill | Stroke |
---|---|
Collaborating Authors
Results
Abstract The sustained lower oil price for the last three years has shifted tight oil industry interest from an intensive drilling and completion based approach to more cost effective methods aimed at maximizing rates and ultimate recovery from existing wells. In that framework, application of conventional EOR methods to unconventional tight oil well has gained momentum in the recent period, with theoretical and experimental evaluation of approaches ranking from water and CO2 flooding to huff'n puff with chemicals. For that purpose, usual EOR experiments used for conventional rock cannot always be applied due to the extremely low volumes and permeability of tight reservoir rocks. This can lead to inaccurate results or extremely long experimental times. Here, we present a novel method for rapidly evaluating oil production by EOR methods in micro-Darcy permeability reservoir rock, and apply it to evaluate various chemical EOR approaches for unconventional tight oil wells. Our method relies on a fast screening and a continuous NMR monitoring of fluid saturations during imbibition experiments at reservoir temperature in miniaturized plugs. This permits to evaluate oil and water saturations in the rock samples as a function of time without having to interrupt the experiment for carrying out measurements. We validate this method by evaluating recovery from 10 μD sandstones and carbonates during imbibition of LowIFT formulations with various chemical additives. Despite the extremely low permeability, oil production from plugs using various chemicals can be evaluated and compared in less than 72 hours. Our new protocol shall be of interest to all laboratories trying to adapt EOR techniques to unconventional reservoirs, by permitting a real-time accurate and quantitative evaluation of various EOR options. In addition, the data we generated using various chemical EOR techniques support the interest of using low-IFT inspired chemical EOR methods to improve the ultimate recovery from tight reservoirs.
- North America > United States > Texas > Permian Basin > Wolfcamp Formation (0.99)
- North America > United States > New Mexico > Permian Basin > Wolfcamp Formation (0.99)
- Europe > France > Paris Basin (0.99)
Abstract Fracture treatment performance in Bakken shale reservoirs can be improved by altering rock wettability, as measured with contact angle (CA), from oil-wet to water-wet. The use of chemical additives for altering wettability also results in alteration of the interfacial tension (IFT). The Young-Laplace equation relates the capillary pressure to IFT and contact angle. Thus, it follows that capillarity is significant in nano-pores associated with unconventional liquid reservoirs (ULR) and complex as the CA and IFT varies simultaneously. We carefully evaluate these interactive variables to improve oil recovery by alteration of capillary pressure by understanding the wetting state of siliceous and carbonate Bakken cores with and without chemical additives. We have observed that wettability can be altered from the ULR natural state of oil-wet to systems favoring frac fluid imbibition. Surfactants can be added to completion fluids, in proper concentrations, to alter wettability while hydraulic fracturing the formation. This experimental study evaluates and compares the efficiency of anionic, nonionic and blended surfactants as well as complex nanofluids (CNF) on recovering liquid hydrocarbons from Bakken shale cores by analyzing the effect of wettability and IFT alteration and their impact on spontaneous imbibition. The original wettability of Bakken cores is determined by CA measurements. Then, three surfactant types, anionic nonionic and nonionic-cationic, and CNF are evaluated to gauge their effectiveness in altering wettability. The results show that all surfactants and CNF are able to shift core wettability from oil-wet to water-wet. However, chemical additives efficacy strongly depends on rock lithology, surfactant, and CNF type. Moreover, to evaluate further wettability alteration, stability of surfactant and CNF solution films on the shale rock surface is determined by zeta potential measurements. Surfactants and CNF show higher zeta potential magnitudes than water without additives, as an indication of better stability and water-wetness, which agrees with CA results. In addition, the effect of IFT alteration is studied in solutions with surfactants and CNF, and Bakken crude oil. Higher IFT reduction is achieved by anionic surfactants, but all surfactants and CNF perform better than water alone. Surfactants and CNF potential for improving oil recovery in ultralow permeability Bakken cores is investigated by spontaneous imbibition experiments using modified Amott cells in an environmental chamber. Using computed tomography (CT) scan methods, water imbibition as penetration magnitude is measured in real time. In addition, oil recovery is recorded with time to compare the performance of surfactants, CNF, and completion fluid alone. The results suggest that surfactants and CNF are better on recovering oil from shale core displacing more oil and having higher penetration magnitudes than water without additives. In addition, oil recovery depends on surfactant and CNF type and rock mineral composition. These findings are consistent with CA, zeta potential, and IFT measurements. From the results obtained, it can be concluded that altering wettability and reducing IFT when surfactants and CNF additives are added to completion fluids can improve oil recovery in Bakken cores.
- North America > United States > South Dakota (1.00)
- North America > United States > North Dakota (1.00)
- North America > United States > Montana (1.00)
- Research Report > New Finding (1.00)
- Research Report > Experimental Study (1.00)
- North America > United States > South Dakota > Williston Basin > Bakken Shale Formation (0.99)
- North America > United States > North Dakota > Williston Basin > Bakken Shale Formation (0.99)
- North America > United States > Montana > Williston Basin > Bakken Shale Formation (0.99)
Abstract Improved Oil Reocvery (IOR) technologies may offer a new strategy to improve the initial production (IP) and slow the production decline from oil-rich shale formations. Early implementation of chemical IOR technologies largely have been overlooked during strategic planning of unconventional reservoirs. The purpose of this study is to improve understanding of the dynamic processes of oil displacement by surfactants and to investigate mechanism of how surfactants extract oil. A successful conventional surfactant "huff-n-puff' treatment is described with a focus on any relationship between increased oil production and the surfactant soaking period. Surfactant chemistry has been considered as one of a few ultimate IOR solutions. Despite being well proven as effective chemicals to recover oil from convenetional reservoris, surfactants commonly are used in hydraulic fracturing of unconventional reservoris are just to promote flow back of the injected aqueous fluid over a relatively short time frame. In order to better understand the functionality of surfactants for obtaining favorable oil interaction with both the stimulation fluid and rock matrix, a specifically-designed "oil-on-a-plate" (OOAP) setup and procedure is employed to examine the penetration of surfactant into the oil-film that is adhereing to a solid surface. In addition to the well-recognized spontaneous imbibition and surface wettability alternation processes, surfactant also can gradually penetrate and mobilize oil droplets, resulting in improved oil recovert. If properly selected and designed, the surfactant additives in stimulation/fracturing fluids could have multi-functions towards improving both IP and the longer-term oil production. Besides serving as a demulsifier and flowback enhancer to boost IP, the surfactants could continuously lift-up and mobilize adsorbed oil to increase recoverable oil in place.
- North America > United States > Texas (0.46)
- North America > United States > Oklahoma (0.29)
- Asia > China > Heilongjiang Province (0.28)
- (2 more...)
- North America > United States > West Virginia > Appalachian Basin > Utica Shale Formation (0.99)
- North America > United States > Texas > West Gulf Coast Tertiary Basin > Eagle Ford Shale Formation (0.99)
- North America > United States > Texas > Sabinas - Rio Grande Basin > Eagle Ford Shale Formation (0.99)
- (15 more...)
Abstract Low-salinity waterflooding has been portrayed as an effective enhanced-oil recovery technology. Despite compelling laboratory and field evidence of its potential, the underlying mechanisms still remain controversial. In this study, the enhanced-oil recovery mechanisms are investigated considering a distinct interfacial effect, i.e. water-crude oil interfacial viscoelasticity, through analysis of capillary hysteresis. An experimental setup with an oil-wet and a water-wet media on each end face of the core sample was utilized to capture capillary and rock electrical properties hysteresis. Moreover, new improvements over the traditional quasi-static porous plate method were implemented to accelerate measurements. Two experiments were conducted on Minnelusa formation rock samples and TC crude oil, at low temperature (30 °C) and without any significant aging as to minimize wettability alteration. Two core plugs were flooded with high-salinity and low-salinity brines, separately. It is found that the dynamic-static method with a ceramic disk, i.e. a combination of continuous injection in drainage and stepwise quasi-static method in imbibition on short 1" long core samples, allows one to capture the correct envelopes of the capillary pressure curves and save ~ 30% of the total time; a thin membrane is anticipated to save ~90% with respect to traditional quasi-static porous plate method. The capillary hysteresis experiments at low temperature prove that low-salinity brine is able to suppress capillary hysteresis. This is attributed to the formation of a more visco-elastic brine-crude oil interface upon exposure to low-salinity brine, leading to a more continuous oil phase. In addition, we show that wettability plays an essential role on electrical resistivity and the more oil-wet, the more hysteresis occurs, namely that resistivity values in imbibition are higher than those in drainage. The findings in this paper demonstrate that low-salinity waterflooding can still increase oil recovery even in the absence of wettability alteration.
A New Screening Test for Chemical Improved Oil Recovery in Carbonate Formations
Dalmazzone, C.. (IFP Energies Nouvelles) | Mouret, A.. (IFP Energies Nouvelles) | Behot, J.. (IFP Energies Nouvelles) | Norrant, F.. (IFP Energies Nouvelles) | Gautier, S.. (IFP Energies Nouvelles) | Argillier, J.-F.. -F. (IFP Energies Nouvelles) | Chabert, M.. (SOLVAY)
Abstract A majority of the worldwide oil reserves is contained in carbonate reservoirs. Most of these reservoirs are naturally fractured and produce less than 10% of the oil in place during the primary recovery operations. It is noteworthy that this particularly low recovery ratio is essentially due to a low permeability associated to an intermediate or preferentially oil wettability. Consequently, the recovery of residual oil from these specific reservoirs is a great challenge. Changing the wettability from oil wet to preferentially water wet by using chemicals is one of the EOR technique that may be advantageously used to enhance the production rate. This chemical treatment consists in injecting an aqueous solution of surfactants or chemical additives to increase the water wettability and favour spontaneous imbibition into the porous matrix. We present a new test allowing a fast screening of aqueous solutions of chemicals that may be used to improve oil recovery from carbonate reservoirs. The test consists in depositing a drop of aqueous solution on a porous carbonate slice that has been treated to be preferentially oil wet before being put into dodecane. The evolution of the drop profile is then monitored as a function of time by means of a camera, which permits a simultaneous measurement of the interfacial tension between oil and water, contact angle between the water drop and the porous matrix and spontaneous imbibition. Various types of non-ionic and anionic surfactants belonging to different families have been tested and ranked to identify the best candidates among these chemicals. Finally, a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance technique was used to follow spontaneous imbibitions of selected candidates in miniplugs representative of the carbonate slices used in the screening test. NMR's results confirmed the classification issued from the fast screening test.
Optimizing Water Chemistry to Improve Oil Recovery from the Middle Bakken Formation
Wang, D.. (University of North Dakota) | Dawson, M.. (Statoil Gulf Services LLC) | Butler, R.. (University of North Dakota) | Li, H.. (Statoil Gulf Services LLC) | Zhang, J.. (University of North Dakota) | Olatunji, K.. (University of North Dakota)
Abstract With the recent dramatic drop in oil price, production from ultra-tight resources, like the Bakken formation, may drop substantially. Since expenditures for drilling, completion, and fracking have already been made, existing wells will continue to flow, but oil rates will decline—rapidly in many cases. In a low oil-price environment, what can be done to sustain oil production from these tight formations? We are testing a surfactant imbibition process to recovery oil from shales. We measured surfactant imbibition rates and oil recovery values in laboratory cores from the Bakken shale. After optimizing surfactant formulations at reservoir conditions, we observed oil recovery values up to 10–20% OOIP incremental over brine imbibition. However, whether or not surfactant imbibition will be a viable recovery process depends on achieving sufficiently high oil production rates in a field setting—which requires that we identify conditions that will maximize imbibition rate, as well as total oil recovery. In this paper, we describe laboratory evaluations of oil recovery using different core plugs. These recovery studies involved (1) surfactant formulation optimization on concentration, salinity and pH, (2) characterization of phase behavior, (3) spontaneous imbibition, and (4) forced imbibition (flooding) with gravity drainage assistance. In preserved cores, we observed: (1) Formulations using 0.1% surfactant concentration at 4% TDS salinity showed favorable oil recoveries (up to 40% OOIP). (2) Generally, surfactant formulations at optimal concentration and salinity were stable at high temperature (115°C). (3) Injectivity/permeability enhancements up to 75 percent occurred after acidification using acetic acid or HCl. (4) Wettability alteration is the dominant mechanism for surfactant imbibition. Of course, actions that increase fracture width will aid gravity drainage and oil recovery. This information is being used to design and implement a field application of the surfactant imbibition process in an ultra-tight resource.
- North America > United States > North Dakota (1.00)
- North America > Canada > Saskatchewan (1.00)
- North America > Canada > Manitoba (1.00)
- Energy > Oil & Gas > Upstream (1.00)
- Materials > Chemicals > Commodity Chemicals > Petrochemicals (0.68)
- North America > United States > South Dakota > Williston Basin > Bakken Shale Formation (0.99)
- North America > United States > North Dakota > Williston Basin > Bakken Shale Formation > Middle Bakken Shale Formation (0.99)
- North America > United States > Montana > Williston Basin > Bakken Shale Formation (0.99)
- (4 more...)