concentration

Formation damage is the impairment of permeability of rocks inside a petroleum reservoir. This occurs during drilling, production, stimulation and enhanced oil recovery operations, by various mechanisms such as chemical, mechanical, biological and thermal. Near wellbore formation damages have a great impact on productivity of the damaged formation. Acidizing is a stimulation method to remove the effect of near wellbore damage through reacting with damaging materials or the formation rocks (carbonate or sandstone rocks) to restore or improve permeability around the wellbore. Several experiments are conducted to study the effect of temperature and acid concentration combined on the efficiency of matrix acidizing. Three different concentrations scenarios of hydrochloric acid (3%, 15%, and 28%) and 4 different temperatures scenarios (25 °C, 35 °C, 70 °C, and 100 °C) were tested to investigate pore-enlargement success effect on permeability. The purpose of this experiment is to introduce the concept of optimized temperature augmented with optimized acid concentration in carbonate matrix acidulation. Morphology of pore geometry and area measurement software is used. New Advancement in imaging that captured pore area enlargement as big-data necessarily for artificial intelligence modeling. Captured pores before treatment and captured pores after thermal-HCL acid treatment have demonstrated that image processing of the actual acidized rock data can select the optimized recipe concentration of acid that will increase permeability, hence recovery. The results show that matrix acidizing is an effective method to improve permeability and enhance production, as it demonstrates that using less acid concentration with the optimized temperature can result in a favorable and satisfying outcomes.

The hole cleaning is considered a key element of drilling operation as it impacts the economics of drilling operations, operational time of operations and the safety of operations. Inadequate hole cleaning can lead to blockages resulting in loss of circulation and premature wear out of the drill pipe. The transport of solids cuttings as a multiphase flow offers a solution to the hole cleaning issue, as it can aid to lower operational cost, reduce operation time, and enhance the quality of overall drilling operations.

Electrical resistance tomography (ERT) is a promising technology to visualize the 3D flow conditions involved in the hole cleaning process. ERT system is utilized to study and analyze the multiphase flow behavior and to provide in situ volume fraction distribution quantitatively through the drilling annulus. The motive of this work is to investigate the effect of different eccentricities (0-50 %), inner pipe rotation speed (0-120 RPM) and liquid flow rates (160-190 Kg/min) on the secondary phase (solids + air) transport across the annulus using the ERT system. The three-phase flow conditions (water, air, and solids) experiments were conducted in the horizontal flow loop with annulus at Texas A&M University at Qatar (TAMUQ) using ERT system. The flow loop annulus line consists of 6.16 m horizontal/inclined line. The inner diameter of the outer acrylic pipe and the outer diameter of the inner stainless steel pipe were 114.3 mm (4.5 in) and 63.5 mm (2.5 in), respectively. The glass beads (2-3 mm) were injected at a concentration of 5 wt%. The experimental results indicate that the ERT sensors have the capability of providing real-time quantitative images of annular multiphase flow regimes and it can be utilized effectively to observe the secondary phase (solids + air) transport across the opaque region of the annulus. It was also observed that the concentration of secondary phase (solids + air) tends to increase with an increase in the eccentricity of the inner pipe and the inner pipe rotation does not have a significant effect on the concentration of secondary phase (solids + air) at selected experimental conditions.

Summary

The use of nanoparticles for CO₂-foam mobility is an upcoming technology for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) in mature fields. Silane-modified hydrophilic silica nanoparticles enhance the thermodynamic stability of CO₂ foam at elevated temperatures and salinities and in the presence of oil. The aqueous nanofluid mixes with CO₂ in the porous media to generate CO₂ foam for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) by improving sweep efficiency, resulting in reduced carbon footprint from oil production by the geological storage of anthropogenic CO₂. Our objective was to investigate the stability of commercially available silica nanoparticles for a range of temperatures and brine salinities to determine if nanoparticles can be used in CO₂-foam injections for EOR and underground CO₂ storage in high-temperature reservoirs with high brine salinities. The experimental results demonstrated that surface-modified nanoparticles are stable and able to generate CO₂ foam at elevated temperatures (60 to 120°C) and extreme brine salinities (20 wt% NaCl). We find that (1) nanofluids remain stable at extreme salinities (up to 25 wt% total dissolved solids) with the presence of both monovalent (NaCl) and divalent (CaCl₂) ions; (2) both pressure gradient and incremental oil recovery during tertiary CO₂-foam injections were 2 to 4 times higher with nanoparticles compared with no-foaming agent; and (3) CO₂ stored during CCUS with nanoparticle-stabilized CO₂ foam increased by more than 300% compared with coinjections without nanoparticles.

Summary

Because of the higher cost of scale management for subsea (SS) operations compared with platform or onshore fields, and because of the more limited opportunities for interventions, it is becoming increasingly important to obtain and use real production data from wells rather than estimated zone flow contribution from simple permeability (k) and height (h) models for scale-squeeze-treatment design.

In this paper I discuss how scale-squeeze treatments were designed (coreflood evaluation of inhibitor retention/release) and deployed for three SS heterogeneous production wells. A permeability model and a layer-height model were initially developed for each well using detailed geological log data, estimated water/oil-production rates, and the predicted water-ingress location within the wells. Two wells were each treated three times using bullhead scale-squeeze treatments, with effective scale control being reported over the designed lifetime. A production log was acquired before the fourth squeeze campaign of these two wells. This information was incorporated into the squeeze simulation to allow review of the ongoing third squeeze and enhance design accuracy for the upcoming fourth squeezes. A third well was treated twice before production-logging data became available, and the performance of treatments to this well is also assessed.

The production-logging-tool (PLT) data proved very important in changing the understanding of fluid placement and the water-ingress location during production, resulting in changes to the isotherm values used to achieve effective history match to the inhibitor returns (with PLT data incorporated in all three wells), and most significantly affecting the squeeze lifetimes. It was possible to significantly extend the treatment lifetime of two of the wells (cumulative produced water to minimum inhibitor concentration), while the treatment life of one well was greatly reduced because of the PLT-data-modified model predictions.

In this paper I outline the process of reservoir/near-wellbore modeling that is used for most initial squeeze-treatment service companies deployed in the North Sea. I will highlight in detail the value that PLT data can provide to improve the effectiveness of squeeze treatments in terms of understanding of fluid placement during squeeze deployment and water-ingress location within heterogenous production wells. The intention of this paper is to highlight the value that these types of data can provide to improve scale management (squeeze treatment and water shutoff) such that the value created more than offsets the cost of acquiring such information for SS production wells.

For optimizing and enhancing hydrocarbon recovery from unconventional plays, the technological race is currently focused on development and production of state-of-the-art surfactants that reduce interfacial tension to mitigate obstructive capillary forces and thus increase the relative permeability to hydrocarbon (k_ro). This study provides insight into the pore-scale evaluation of the latest flowback enhancer technologies currently applied in the Permian Basin, Texas, USA. A multidisciplinary approach, including concepts of nanotechnology, was used to assess fluid-fluid and rock-fluid interactions occurring at the nanopore scale and their implications on enhancing oil recovery.

A heterogeneous dual-porosity dual-permeability microfluidic chip was designed and developed with pore geometries representing shale formations. This micro-chip simulated Wolfcamp shale with two distinct regions: (i) a high-permeability fracture zone (20 µm pore size) interconnected to (ii) a low-permeability nano-network zone (100 nm size). The fluorescent microscopy technique was applied to visualize and quantify the performance of different flowback enhancers during injection and flowback processes.

This study highlights results from the nanofluidic analysis performed on Wolfcamp Formation rock specimens using a microreservoir-on-a-chip, which showed the benefits of the multi-functionalized surfactant (MFS) in terms of enhancing oil/condensate production. Test results obtained at a simulated reservoir temperature of 113°F (45°C) and a testing pressure of 2,176 psi (15 MPa) showed a significant improvement in relative permeability to hydrocarbon (k _ro) in the nanomodel when MFS was added to the stimulation fluids at loadings as low as 0.05% v/v. The results were compared against other premium flowback enhancers.

Measurements using a high-resolution spinning drop tensiometer showed a 40-fold reduction in interfacial tension when the stimulation fluid containing MFS was tested against Wolfcamp crude at 113°F (45°C). Also, MFS outperformed other premium surfactants in Amott spontaneous imbibition analysis when tested with Wolfcamp core samples.

This work used a nanofluidic model that appropriately reflected the inherent nanoconfinement of shale/tight formation to resolve the flowback process in hydraulic fracturing, and it is the first of its kind to visualize the mechanism behind this process at nanoscale. This platform also demonstrated a cost-effective alternative to coreflood testing for evaluating the effect of chemical additives on the flowback process. Conventional lab and field data were correlated with the nanofluidic analysis.

This paper presents a new optical sensor configuration using a multivariate optical computation (MOC) platform in order to enhance chemical analysis during formation tester logging operations. The platform allows access up to the mid-infrared (λ ~ 3.5 microns) optical region, which has previously not been accessible for in-situ real-time chemical measurements in a petroleum well environment. The new technique has been used in the field for the analysis of carbon dioxide and synthetic drilling fluid components such as olefins.

MOC is a technique that uses an integrated computational sensor to perform an analog dot product regression calculation on spectroscopic data, optically, rather than by electronic digital means. Historically, a dot product regression applied to spectroscopic data requires both a spectrometer and a digital computer in order to perform a chemical analysis. MOC sensors require neither and because the key sensor component, the multivariate optical element (MOE), is a stable temperature robust solid-state element, the technique is well suited for downhole petroleum environments. A new dual-core configuration using two MOEs designed to work in parallel enhances the sensitivity of the measurement enabling a mid-infrared analysis.

Spectroscopic measurements were performed on 32 base oils that were reconstituted to reservoir compositions over a wide temperature and pressure range up to 350°F and 20,000 psi for a total of 12 combinations for each base oil. Live gas compositions (i.e. reservoir conditions) were achieved by adding multiple methane, ethane, propane, and carbon dioxide charges to each base fluid. The reconstituted petroleum fluids were further mixed with olefin-based synthetic drilling fluid (SDF). This rigorous experimental design data therefore allowed for solid state MOEs to be designed to operate under the same reservoir conditions. Laboratory validation showed measurement accuracy of +/-0.43 wt% for a range of 0 to 16 wt% CO₂ and +/-0.4% from 0 to 10 wt% SDF. A wireline formation tester optical section was modified with the MOC dual-core configuration to enable the mid infrared detection of both carbon dioxide and olefins. This formation tester was then deployed in five wells collecting seven samples from various locations. The downhole SDF and carbon dioxide measurements were subsequently found to be in good agreement with laboratory analysis with field results for valid pumpouts showing an accuracy of 0.5 wt% CO₂ and 1.0 wt% olefins cross a range of 1.2 to 22 wt% CO₂ and 1.4 to 9.7 wt% SDF.

Carbon dioxide is an important component of petroleum whose presence and concentration affects completion options, surface facilities, and flow assurance, which thereby affects operational costs of petroleum production. Olefins are a primary component of synthetic drilling fluid (SDF), although other mid-infrared active components such as esters, ketones, alcohols, and amines also can be present. High concentrations of SDF in openhole formation tester samples lower the quality of laboratory phase behavior analysis and thereby force greater monetary risk in development of assets, especially when conducting reservoir production simulations. Therefore, it is important to monitor both components during formation tester sampling operations.

Challenges on EOR process upscaling have been discussed extensively in the industry and effects of diffusion, dispersion, heterogeneity, force balance and frontal velocity -among others, recognized and qualified, along with the importance of understanding the numerical model finite difference equations and modeling strategy. Augmenting the upscaling complexity is the often-limited understanding/data on the EOR displacement at different scales (from micro to full field), including the EOR agent/rock/fluid interactions that is often available at the early stages of the EOR process de-risking.

A common denominator for the EOR process characterization and upscaling (along with the discretization of the displacement) is the non-uniqueness nature of the problem. As the complexity of numerical representation of the EOR process increases (thus increasing data characterization requirements), so does the number of plausible solutions and challenges when dealing with an otherwise incomplete dataset. Digital rock has evolved as a strong alternative to complement laboratory corefloods, allowing for EOR agent optimization on a high-resolution digital representation of the pore structure, detailed digital fluid model of both reservoir fluids and EOR agents and physical rock-EOR agent-reservoir fluid interaction, thus providing several calibration points to ensure the finite-difference model calibration and upscaling preserve the process behavior.

This paper discusses the use of digital rock solutions on the EOR deployment, particularly on translating the results to numerical finite difference models, addressing the inherent laboratory measurement uncertainty and proposing a fit-for-purpose multi-scale upscaling strategy that addresses both effects of heterogeneity and EOR agent characterization during the upscale process.

This paper addresses the challenges of chemical flooding upscaling, particularly polymer by using a real-life polymer injection case where digital rock, corefloods and more importantly pilot results are available to test and validate our observations. Using a polymer coreflood and digital rock results as input, numerical finite difference simulation models were built and calibrated to effectively reproduce the displacement physics observed on both digital rock and corefloods, digital flood results were used to bridge the laboratory-to-numerical model step by providing effective upscaled polymer properties as well as intrinsic rock properties such as relative permeability and capillary pressures, which are then taken through a series of multi-scale finite difference models to identify, validate and quantify upscaling requirements, addressing polymer deformation through pore throats and effective simulation viscosity. Digital rock is used to rank and resolve ambiguity on the finite difference model calibration by providing an otherwise rare opportunity to visualize the displacement in the 3D space. The analysis shed a new light on fluid-fluid and fluid-rock interaction at pore scale and enabled us to improve on the finite difference model generation and polymer properties.

This study aims to demonstrate the true benefit of an innovative salt tolerant high viscosity friction reducer (HVFR) that excels at promoting extended proppant suspension and vertical distribution into the fracture when it is used as a base fluid for the Capillary Bridge Slurry (CBS) and other conventional fracturing fluid systems in combination with nitrogen.

The completion of super-lateral wells now being drilled in tight oil and gas shales in North America, with record lengths close to 4 miles, demand for greater carrying capability of low viscosity (slickwater) fracturing fluids, where significant sand settling can occur before the proppant even reaches the fractures. This has sparked recent interest in the development and application of salt tolerant polyacrylamide-based friction reducers, referred to as High Viscous Friction Reducers (HVFR). The downfall of these first generation HVFR's is the lack of compatibility with high salinity brines such as recycled and flowback water, and diminished ability to reduce friction pressure during hydraulic fracturing treatments when compared to industry standard FR's.

Herein, we report the field application of a unique salt tolerant HVFR (HVFR-ST), that consistently provides higher viscosity values (corresponding industry standard HVFR loading comparison) when tested in brines, without sacrificing friction reduction effectiveness. Additionally, a new concept of fracturing fluid referred to as Capillary Bridge Slurry (CBS) has been successfully implemented in North America, where through a surface modification to the proppant, the addition of a gas phase such as N₂, and the use of a polyacrylamide-based friction reducer, the proppant becomes part of the fluid structure and is no longer the burden to be carried. The combination of HVFR's and the surface modified proppant can effectively combat the issues faced with proppant transport in long laterals.

This paper will highlight the results on the analysis of the governing proppant transport mechanisms (suspended and bed) of CBS system formulated with HVFR-ST, in the presence of nitrogen (N₂), where no detrimental effect in the average distance traveled of the sand particle in the Proppant Transport Test Bench (PTTB) was observed when the brine concentration of the base fluid was increased from 1% to 5% in comparison to industry standard HVFR (HVFR-FW).

Field production data on wells stimulated with CBS show a significant upside (~ 50%) in liquid hydrocarbon production than offsetting wells over a ~ one year period of time.

Friction loop data carried out at 45 L/min (11.89 gals/min) flow rate in an internal diameter pipe of 0.305" shows a reduction on friction pressure in excess of 70%, when HVFR was tested in 5% API brine (4% (w/v) NaCl and 1% (w/v) CaCl₂·2H₂O) at loadings as low as 0.1%. Furthermore, dynamic measurements within the viscoelastic regime/behavior of the HVFR at different loadings in the oscillatory viscometer will provide learnings on the elasticity-proppant transport relationship of the different fracturing fluid systems.

Through the use of laboratory testing and field study cases, this paper will illustrate the true benefits on the use of salt tolerant HVFR's as a base fluid with the increasing demand of re-cycled and flowback water use in fracturing fluid systems.

Waterflooding of heavy oil reservoirs is commonly used to enhance their productivity. However, preferential pathways are quickly developed in the reservoir due to the significant difference in viscosity between water and heavy oil, and hence, the oil is trapped. Here, we propose a platform for designing ultra-low IFT solutions for reducing the capillary pressure and mobilizing the heavy oil.

In this study, mixtures of organic acids and bases were formulated. Three different formulations were tested: (i) Ionic liquid (IL) formulation where bulk acid (4-dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid) and base (Tetra-N-butylammonium hydroxide) were mixed using general protocols for ILs synthesis, (ii) Acid-Base solution (ABs) where the acid (4-dodecylbenzene sulfonic acid) and base (Tetra-N-butylammonium hydroxide) were mixed in low weight fractions directly in water, and (iii) Acid Salt-Base solution (ASBs) where the acid salt (sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate, SDBS) was used instead of the acid. All the formulations have a 1:1 stoichiometric ratio of acid and base. Salinity scans were conducted to determine the optimum salinity that gives the lowest IFT for each formulation. Corefloods were conducted in hydrophilic and hydrophobic sandpacks to evaluate the three formulations at their optimum salinities for post-waterflood heavy oil recovery.

The IL and ABs formulation are acidic solutions with pH around 3. The ASBs formulation is highly basic with a pH around 12. Non of the formulations salted out below 14 wt% of NaCl. While conventional surfactant, SDBS, precipitated at salt concnetration less than 2 wt% of NaCl. The formulation solutions (1 wt%) have different optimum salinities: 2.5 wt% NaCl for ASBs, 3 wt% NaCl for IL and AB. Although IL and AB have the same composition and molar ratio of the components, their performances are completely different, indicating different intermolecular interactions in both formulations. Corefloods were conducted using sandpack saturated with Luseland heavy oil (~15000 cP) and at fixed Darcy velocity of 12 ft/day. A slug of 1 PV of each formulation was injected after waterflooding for 5 PV and followed by 5 PV post-waterflooding. In the hydrophilic sandpacks, IL and AB formulation produced an oil bank, consisting mainly of W/O emulsion, with oil recovery that is 1.7 times what was recovered by 11 PV of waterflooding solely. Majority of the oil was recovered in the 2 PV of waterflood following the IL slug. ASBs formulations produced O/W emulsions with prolonged recovery over 5 PV waterflooding after the ASB slug. The recovery factor for ASBs was 1.6 times that recovered for 11 PV of waterflooding only. In the hydrophobic sandpacks, The ASB formulation slightly increased the recovery factor compared to only waterflooding. While for IL and AB formulation, the recovery factor decreased.

This work presented a novel platform for tuning the recovery factor and the timescale of recovery of heavy oil with a variable emulsion type from O/W to W/O depending on the intermolecular interactions in the system. The results demonstrate that the designed low IFT solutions can effectively reduce the capillary force and are attractive for field application.

This work proposes a novel boundary-element based approach to model fluid transport in unconventional shale gas reservoirs with complex hydraulic fracture networks. The fluid flow model employed in this work considers multiple fluid transport mechanisms identified in in gas transporting process in shale nanopores including diffusion, sorption Kinetics, Knudsen diffusion, and sorbed-phase surface diffusion. Accordingly, two governing partial differential equations (PDEs) are written for free and sorbed gases. In the proposed method, boundary integral formulations are analytically derived using the fundamental solution of the Laplace Equation for two governing nonlinear PDEs and Green's second identity. The domain integrals considering the nonlinear terms due to multi-mechanism effects, are transformed into boundary integrals employing the dual reciprocity method (DRM). The resulting boundary integral equations for free and sorbed gas later are solved in terms of a series of discrete nodes after coupling with fracture flow model. The validity of proposed solution is verified using several case studies through comparison with a commercial finite-element numerical simulator COMSOL.