Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Reservoir oil pressure'

Exploitation of ultradeep, high pressure oil reservoirs is always associated with numerous risks, challenges, and obstacles. One of the most pronounced constraints in development of such fields is the number of wells, which is imposed by massively high cost of drilling. Low number of wells may lead to high pressure isolation regions left after primary production (pressure depletion) of the reservoir. Ultradeep reservoirs with high pressure are more prone to such leftover high pressure isolation regions due to their low permeable characteristic. These high pressure isolation regions can, subsequently, deteriorate the efficiency of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) as the injected fluid cannot access the residual oil in these regions. Therefore, well placement and inter-well spacing optimizations is of greater importance in ultradeep, high pressure oil reservoirs to ensure higher ultimate oil recovery at lower costs. Furthermore, due to high cost of development of ultradeep, high pressure oil reservoirs, the EOR strategy and commencement time for the selected EOR strategy are very critical. The objective of this thesis is to demonstrate how optimization of well placement, well spacing, and startup time for miscible CO2 flooding can enhance the incremental and ultimate oil recoveries in an ultradeep, high pressure oil reservoir. To do this, a synthetic grid model was made to run different simulation scenarios on it. The model was initialized with rock and fluid properties within the range of those in the ultradeep, high pressure Wilcox formation in the Gulf of Mexico to ensure that it mimics an ultradeep, high pressure oil reservoir.The obtained results showed that optimization of well placement, well spacing, and commencement time for any EOR strategy such as miscible CO2 flooding is very critical in the course of making a Field Development Plan (FDP) for an ultradeep, high pressure oil reservoir.The results, discussions, and conclusions were finally used by the author to shed light on potential further work on each of the aforementioned challenges in ultradeep, high pressure oil reservoirs such as Wilcox formation in the Gulf of Mexico.

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Geológica (Georrecursos)
This dissertation is based on a curricular training period done at company Total EP Angola between July and December 2013. The data presented relate to a real case study of an exploration block, which for reasons of confidentiality is designated by Block Michocho. The fluids pressure measurement in the geological formations can be inferred from the formation resistivity log. In not perpendicular wells to the layers, resistivity curves show higher values than the expected due to the anisotropic effect of the formation thus the inference of the pressure of fluids from resistivity logs can lead to unrealistic values. Most of the developments wells drilled on Block Michocho in Angola are highly deviated, if not sub-horizontal, in the reservoir section. The objective of this work is to correct the anisotropic effect of the resistivity of Block Michocho due to non-perpendicularity of the wells when intersect the geological formations. In this study, the correction of the resistivity is based on the formula proposed by Moran and Gianzero in 1979 and involves the dipping angle of the induction logging tool and the coefficient of anisotropy of the rock formation. Prior to application of this formula for the corrections of resistivity of the Block Michocho wells logs, a set of validation tests were made. Due to lack of data on development wells (highly inclined wells) the validation test was carried out in five exploration wells where resistivity is available in the two principal directions. It was assumed that the formula would be approved for resistivity corrections if the horizontal resistivity obtained by the formula had a good correspondence with the horizontal resistivity obtained by the induction logging tool. After this validation step, the coefficient of anisotropy to be used in the formula was calibrated as well as the correction of the curves of resistivity of the remaining development wells, those much more diverted regarding the rock layers. The corrected resistivity can be applied for pore pressure prediction in low permeability rock formations, in which the main objective is to identify regions where fluid pressure is higher than normal pressure, i.e. overpressure regions. For illustration purposes, a resistivity curve from an exploration well was chosen and the pressure of the fluids in low permeability rocks was computed by using the formula proposed by Eaton in 1975. With this well data, a potential overpressure region was identified and should be avoided in drilling activities.

It is observed that the flowing bottom-hole temperature (FBHT) changes as a result of production, injection or shutting the well down. Variations in temperature mainly occur due to geothermal gradient, injected fluid temperature, frictional heating and the Joule-Thomson effect. The latter is the change of temperature because of expansion or compression of a fluid in a flow process involving no heat transfer or work. CMG STARS thermal simulation sector model developed in this study was used to analyze FBHT changes and understand the reasons. Twenty three main and five additional cases that were developed by using this model were simulated and relation of BHT with other parameters was investigated. Indeed the response of temperature to the change of some parameters such as bottom-hole pressure and gas-oil ratio was detected and correlation was tried to set between these elements. Observations showed that generally FBHT increases when GOR decreases and/or flowing bottom-hole pressure (FBHP) increases. This information allows estimating daily gas-oil ratios from continuously measured BHT. Results of simulation were compared with a real case and almost the same responses were seen. The increase in temperature after the start of water and gas injection or due to stopping of neighboring production wells indicated interwell communications. Additional cases were run to determine whether there are BHT changes when initial temperature was kept constant throughout the reservoir. Different iteration numbers and refined grids were used during these runs to analyze iteration errors
however no significant changes were observed due to iteration number differences and refined grids. These latter cases showed clearly that variations of temperature don&rsquo
t occur only due to geothermal gradient, but also pressure and saturation changes. On the whole, BHT can be used to get data ranging from daily gas-oil ratios to interwell connection if analyzed correctly.

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Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico
Nowadays, most of the hydrocarbon reserves in the world are in the form of heavy oil, ultra - heavy or bitumen. For the extraction and production of this resource is required to implement new technologies. One of the promising processes for the recovery of this oil is the Expanding Solvent Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (ES-SAGD) which uses two parallel horizontal wells, where the injection well is situated vertically above the production well. The completion of the process occurs upon injection of a hydrocarbon additive at low concentration in conjunction with steam. The steam adds heat to reduce the viscosity of the oil and solvent aids in reducing the interfacial tension between oil/ solvent. The main force acting in this process is the gravitational and the heat transfer takes place by conduction, convection and latent heat of steam. In this study was used the discretized wellbore model, where the well is discretized in the same way that the reservoir and each section of the well treated as a block of grid, with interblock connection with the reservoir. This study aims to analyze the influence of the pressure drop and heat along the injection well in the ES-SAGD process. The model used for the study is a homogeneous reservoir, semi synthetic with characteristics of the Brazilian Northeast and numerical simulations were performed using the STARS thermal simulator from CMG (Computer Modelling Group). The operational parameters analyzed were: percentage of solvent injected, the flow of steam injection, vertical distance between the wells and steam quality. All of them were significant in oil recovery factor positively influencing this. The results showed that, for all cases analyzed, the model considers the pressure drop has cumulative production of oil below its respective model that disregards such loss. This difference is more pronounced the lower the value of the flow of steam injection
Atualmente, a maior parte das reservas de hidrocarbonetos no mundo se encontram na forma de ?leo pesado, ultra-pesado ou betume. Para a extra??o e produ??o desse recurso ? necess?ria a implanta??o de novas tecnologias. Um dos processos promissores para a recupera??o desse ?leo ? a drenagem gravitacional assistida com vapor e solvente (ESSAGD) que utiliza dois po?os horizontais paralelos, onde o injetor ? disposto acima do produtor. A realiza??o do processo se d? mediante a inje??o de um aditivo de hidrocarboneto em baixa concentra??o em conjunto com vapor. O vapor contribui com calor para redu??o da viscosidade do ?leo e o solvente ajuda na miscibilidade, reduzindo a tens?o interfacial entre ?leo/solvente. A principal for?a atuante neste processo ? a gravitacional e a transfer?ncia de calor ocorre por meio da condu??o, convec??o e pelo calor latente do vapor. Neste estudo foi utilizado o modelo discretizado, onde o po?o ? discretizado da mesma forma que o reservat?rio, sendo cada se??o do po?o tratada como um bloco da grade, com conex?o interblocos com o reservat?rio. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a influ?ncia da perda de carga e calor ao longo do po?o injetor no processo ES-SAGD. O modelo utilizado para estudo trata-se de um reservat?rio homog?neo, semissint?tico com caracter?sticas do Nordeste Brasileiro e as simula??es num?ricas foram realizadas atrav?s do simulador t?rmico STARS da CMG (Computer Modelling Group). Os par?metros operacionais analisados foram: porcentagem de solvente injetado, vaz?o de inje??o de vapor, dist?ncia vertical entre os po?os e qualidade de vapor. Todos eles foram significativos no Fator de Recupera??o de ?leo. Os resultados demonstraram que, para todos os casos analisados, o modelo que considera a perda de carga apresenta produ??o acumulada de ?leo inferior ao seu respectivo modelo que desconsidera tal perda. Essa diferen?a ? mais acentuada quanto menor o valor da vaz?o de inje??o de vapor

Research, pilot scale and field developments of In-Situ Combustion (ISC) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in shallow, low pressure, heavy oil reservoirs intensified between the first and the second oil crisis from 1973 to 1981. A decline of interest in EOR followed the collapse of the oil prices in 1986. Renewed interest on in-situ combustion EOR research in the late 1980’s and beginning of the 1990’s was expanded and focused on high pressure medium and light oil reservoirs. The applicability of air injection in deep high pressure light petroleum reservoirs was established by research work of Greaves et al. in 1987 & 1988, Yannimaras et al. in 1991 and Ramey et a l in 1992. Accelerating rate calorimeter (ARC) tests were used to screen the applicability of various types of light oil reservoirs for in-situ combustion EOR by Yannimaras and Tiffin in 1994. The most successful light oil air injection project in the 1990s in the Medicine Pole Hills Unit, Williston Basin, N. Dakota started in 1987 and was reported by Kumar, Fassihi & Yannimaras, in 1994. Low temperature oxidation of light North Sea petroleum was studied at the University of Bath. A high-pressure combustion tube laboratory system was built at Bath University to evaluate performance of medium and light petroleum in-situ combustion processes. Gravity effects and the impact of horizontal wells in Forced Flow In-Situ Combustion Drainage Assisted by Gravity (FFISCDAG) were studied with three-dimensional combustion experiments. In this study, the university of Bath combustion tube experiments have been simulated and history matched. The tube experiments were up-scaled and field simulation studies were performed. A generic PVT characterization scheme based on 5 hydrocarbon pseudo-components was used, which was validated for light Australian and medium ‘Clair’ oil. A generic chemical reaction characterization scheme was used, which was validated for light Australian and medium ‘Clair’ oil. Advanced PVT and chemical reaction characterizations have been recommended for future work with more powerful hardware platforms. Extensive front track and flame extinction studies were performed to evaluate the performance of currently available non-iso-thermal simulators and to appraise their necessity in air injection processes. Comparative ISC field scale numerical simulation studies of Clair medium oil and light Australian petroleum were based on up-scaled combustion tube experimental results. These studies showed higher than expected hydrocarbon recovery in alternative EOR processes for both pre and post water flood implementation of ISC. Further in this study field scale numerical simulation studies revealed high incremental hydrocarbon recovery was possible by gravity assisted forced flow. The applicability of light oil ISC to gas condensate and sour petroleum reservoirs has been examined in this study with promising results. Light petroleum ISC implemented by a modified water flood including oxidants such as H2O2 and NH4NO3 are expected to widen the applicability of ISC processes in medium and light petroleum reservoirs, especially water flooded North Sea reservoirs.

Benefited from the efficiency of hydraulic fracturing and horizon drilling, the production of unconventional oil and gas resources, such as shale gas and tight oil, has grown quickly in 21th century and contributed to the North America oil and gas production. Although the new enhancing oil recover (EOR) technologies and strong demand spike the production of unconventional resources, there are still unknowns in recovery mechanisms and phase behavior in tight rock reservoirs. In such environment, the phase behavior is altered by high capillary pressure owing to the nanoscale pore throats of shale rocks and it may also influence minimum miscibility pressure (MMP), which is an important parameter controlling gas floods for CO2 injection EOR. To investigate this influence, flash calculation is modified with considering capillary pressure and this work implements three different method to calculate MMP: method of characteristics (MOC); multiple mixing cell (MMC); and slim-tube simulation. The results show that CO2 minimum miscibility pressure in nanopore size reservoirs are affected by gas-oil capillary pressure owing to the alternation of key tie lines in displacement. The values of CO2-MMP from three different methods match well. Moreover, in tight rock reservoirs, the heterogeneous pore size distribution, such as the ones seen in fractured reservoirs, may affect the recovery mechanisms and MMP. This work also investigates the effect of pore size heterogeneity on multicomponent multiphase hydrocarbon fluid composition distribution and its subsequent influence on mass transfer through shale nanopores. According to the simulation results, compositional gradient forms in heterogeneous nanopores of tight reservoirs because oil and gas phase compositions depend on the pore size. Considering that permeability is small in tight rocks and shales, we expect that mass transfer within heterogeneous pore size porous media to be diffusion-dominated. Our results imply that there can be a selective matrix-fracture component mass transfer during both primary production and gas injection secondary recovery in fractured shale rocks. Therefore, molecular diffusion should not be neglected from mass transfer equations for simulations of gas injection EOR or primary recovery of heterogeneous shale reservoirs with pore size distribution.
Master of Science
The new technologies to recover unconventional resources in oil and gas industry, such as fracturing and horizontal drilling, boosted the production of shale gas and tight oil in 21st century and contributed to the North America oil and gas production. Although the new technologies and strong demand spiked the production of tight oil resources, there are still unknowns of oil and gas flow mechanisms in tight rock reservoirs. As we know, the oil and gas resources are stored in the pores of reservoir formation rock. During production process, the oil and gas are pushed into production wells by formation pressure. However, the pore radius of shale rock is extremely small (around nanometers), which reduces the flow rate of oil and gas and raises capillary pressure in pores. The high capillary pressure will alter the oil and gas phase behavior and it may influence the value of minimum miscibility pressure (MMP), which is an important design parameter for CO2 injection (an important technology to raise production). To investigate this influence, we changed classical model with considering capillary pressure and this modified model is implemented in different methods to calculate MMP. The results show that CO2 -MMP in shale reservoirs are affected by capillary pressure and the results from different methods match well. Moreover, in tight rock reservoirs, the heterogeneous pore size distribution, such as fractures in reservoirs, may affect the flow of oil and gas and MMP value. So, this work also investigates the effect of pore size heterogeneity on oil and gas flow mechanisms. According to the simulation results, compositional gradient forms in heterogeneous nanopores of tight reservoirs and this gradient will cause diffusion which will dominate the other fluid flow mechanisms. Therefore, we always need to consider molecular diffusion in the simulation model for shale reservoirs.

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Nearly 3 x 1011 m3 of medium and light oils will remain in reservoirs worldwide after conventional recovery methods have been exhausted and much of this volume would be recovered by Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods. The in-situ combustion (ISC) is an EOR method in which an oxygen-containing gas is injected into a reservoir where it reacts with the crude oil to create a high-temperature combustion front that is propagated through the reservoir. The High Pressure Air Injection (HPAI) method is a particular denomination of the air injection process applied in light oil reservoirs, for which the combustion reactions are dominant between 150 and 300?C and the generation of flue gas is the main factor to the oil displacement. A simulation model of a homogeneous reservoir was built to study, which was initially undergone to primary production, for 3 years, next by a waterflooding process for 21 more years. At this point, with the mature condition established into the reservoir, three variations of this model were selected, according to the recovery factors (RF) reached, for study the in-situ combustion (HPAI) technique. Next to this, a sensitivity analysis on the RF of characteristic operational parameters of the method was carried out: air injection rate per well, oxygen concentration into the injected gas, patterns of air injection and wells perforations configuration. This analysis, for 10 more years of production time, was performed with assistance of the central composite design. The reservoir behavior and the impacts of chemical reactions parameters and of reservoir particularities on the RF were also evaluated. An economic analysis and a study to maximize the RF of the process were also carried out. The simulation runs were performed in the simulator of thermal processes in reservoirs STARS (Steam, Thermal, and Advanced Processes Reservoir Simulator) from CMG (Computer Modelling Group). The results showed the incremental RF were small and the net present value (NPV) is affected by high initial investments to compress the air. It was noticed that the adoption of high oxygen concentration into the injected gas and of the five spot pattern tends to improve the RF, and the wells perforations configuration has more influence with the increase of the oil thickness. Simulated cases relating to the reservoir particularities showed that smaller residual oil saturations to gas lead to greater RF and the presence of heterogeneities results in important variations on the RF and on the production curves
Aproximadamente 3 x 1011 m3 de ?leos m?dios e leves restar?o nos reservat?rios ao redor do mundo ap?s a aplica??o dos m?todos convencionais de recupera??o e grande parte desse volume seria recuper?vel com o uso de m?todos especiais. A combust?o in-situ (CIS) ? um m?todo de recupera??o avan?ada de petr?leo no qual um g?s que cont?m oxig?nio ? injetado no reservat?rio onde reage com o ?leo cru para criar uma frente de combust?o de alta temperatura que se propaga pelo reservat?rio. O m?todo HPAI (High Pressure Air Injection) ? uma denomina??o particular do processo de inje??o de ar aplicado em reservat?rios de ?leos leves, onde as rea??es de combust?o s?o dominantes entre 150 e 300?C e a gera??o de flue gas ? o principal fator de deslocamento do ?leo. Um modelo de simula??o de fluxo de um reservat?rio homog?neo foi constru?do para o estudo, o qual foi inicialmente submetido ? produ??o prim?ria, por 3 anos, e em seguida, ao processo de inje??o de ?gua por mais 21 anos. Nesse ponto, com a condi??o madura estabelecida no reservat?rio, foram selecionadas tr?s varia??es desse modelo, de acordo com o fator de recupera??o (FR) obtido, para o estudo da t?cnica de combust?o in-situ (HPAI). Em seguida realizou-se uma an?lise de sensibilidade sobre o FR de par?metros operacionais pr?prios do m?todo: vaz?o de inje??o de ar por po?o, concentra??o de oxig?nio no g?s injetado, esquema de inje??o de ar e configura??o dos canhoneados dos po?os. Essa an?lise, para um per?odo adicional de at? 10 anos produ??o, foi efetuada com o aux?lio da t?cnica de planejamento composto central. O comportamento do reservat?rio e os impactos de par?metros envolvendo as rea??es qu?micas e de particularidades de reservat?rio sobre o FR tamb?m foram avaliados. Adicionalmente foram elaborados uma an?lise econ?mica e um estudo de maximiza??o do FR do processo. As simula??es foram realizadas com o simulador de processos t?rmicos em reservat?rios STARS (Steam, Thermal and Advanced Process Reservoir Simulation) da CMG (Computer Modelling Group). Os resultados mostraram que os FR incrementais foram baixos e que o valor presente l?quido (VPL) ? impactado negativamente pelos elevados investimentos iniciais para compress?o do ar. Observou-se que a ado??o de maiores concentra??es de oxig?nio no g?s injetado e do esquema de inje??o de ar tipo five spot tende a favorecer o FR, e que a configura??o dos canhoneados dos po?os apresenta influ?ncia crescente com o aumento da espessura porosa com ?leo do reservat?rio. Casos simulados referentes ?s particularidades de reservat?rio indicaram que menores satura??es residuais de ?leo ao g?s levam a FR maiores e que a exist?ncia de heterogeneidades resulta em varia??es consider?veis nos FR e nas curvas de produ??o

Extremely small pore size, low porosity, and ultra-low permeability are among the characteristics of shale rocks. In tight shale reservoirs, the nano-confinement effects that include large gas-oil capillary pressure and critical property shifts could alter the phase behaviors, thereby affecting the oil or gas production. In this research, two in-house simulation models, i.e., a compositionally extended black-oil model and a fully composition model are developed to examine the nano-pore confinement effects on convective and diffusive multicomponent multiphase fluid transport. Meanwhile, the effect of nano-confinement and rock intrinsic properties (porosity and tortuosity factor) on predicting effective diffusion coefficient are investigated. First, a previously developed compositionally extended black-oil simulation approach is modified, and extended, to include the effect of large gas-oil capillary pressure for modeling first contact miscible (FCM), and immiscible gas injection. The simulation methodology is applied to gas flooding in both high and very low permeability reservoirs. For a high permeability conventional reservoir, simulations use a five-spot pattern with different reservoir pressures to mimic both FCM and immiscible displacements. For a tight oil-rich reservoir, primary depletion and huff-n-puff gas injection are simulated including the effect of large gas-oil capillary pressure in flow and in flash calculation on recovery estimations. A dynamic gas-oil relative permeability correlation that accounts for the compositional changes owing to the produced gas injection is introduced and applied to correct for changes in interfacial tension (IFT), and its effect on oil recovery is examined. The results show that the simple modified black-oil approach can model well both immiscible and miscible floods, as long as the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) is matched. It provides a fast and robust alternative for large-scale reservoir simulation with the purpose of flaring/venting reduction through reinjecting the produced gas into the reservoir for EOR. Molecular diffusion plays an important role in oil and gas migration in tight shale formations. However, there are insufficient reference data in the literature to specify the diffusion coefficients within porous media. Another objective of this research is to estimate the diffusion coefficients of shale gas, shale condensate, and shale oil at reservoir conditions with CO2 injection for EOR/EGR. The large nano-confinement effects including large gas-oil capillary pressure and critical property shifts could alter the phase behaviors. This study estimates the diffusivities of shale fluids in nanometer-scale shale rock from two perspectives: 1) examining the shift of diffusivity caused by nanopore confinement effects from phase change (phase composition and fluid property) perspective, and 2) calculating the effective diffusion coefficient in porous media by incorporating rock intrinsic properties (porosity and tortuosity factor). The tortuosity is obtained by using tortuosity-porosity relations as well as the measured tortuosity of shale from 3D imaging techniques. The results indicated that nano-confinement effects could affect the diffusion coefficient through altering the phase properties, such as phase compositions and densities. Compared to bulk phase diffusivity, the effective diffusion coefficient in porous shale rock is reduced by 102 to 104 times as porosity decreases from 0.1 to 0.03. Finally, a fully compositional model is developed, which enables us to process multi-component multi-phase fluid flow in shale nano-porous media. The validation results for primary depletion, water injection, and gas injection show a good match with the results of a commercial software (CMG, GEM). The nano-confinement effects (capillary pressure effect and critical property shifts) are incorporated in the flash calculation and flow equations, and their effects on Bakken oil production and Marcellus shale gas production are examined. The results show that including oil-gas capillary pressure effect could increase the oil production but decrease the gas production. Inclusion of critical property shift could increase the oil production but decrease the gas production very slightly. The effect of molecular diffusion on Bakken oil and Marcellus shale gas production are also examined. The effect of diffusion coefficient calculated by using Sigmund correlation is negligible on the production from both Bakken oil and Marcellus shale gas huff-n-puff. Noticeable increase in oil and gas production happens only after the diffusion coefficient is multiplied by 10 or 100 times.
Doctor of Philosophy
Shale reservoir is one type of unconventional reservoir and it has extremely small pore size, low porosity, and ultra-low permeability. In tight shale reservoirs, the pore size is in nanometer scale and the oil-gas capillary pressure reaches hundreds of psi. In addition, the critical properties (such as critical pressure and critical temperature) of hydrocarbon components will be altered in those nano-sized pores. In this research, two in-house reservoir simulation models, i.e., a compositionally extended black-oil model and a fully composition model are developed to examine the nano-pore confinement effects on convective and diffusive multicomponent multiphase fluid transport. The large nano-confinement effects (large gas-oil capillary pressure and critical property shifts) on oil or gas production behaviors will be investigated. Meanwhile, the nano-confinement effects and rock intrinsic properties (porosity and tortuosity factor) on predicting effective diffusion coefficient are also studied.

Дисертація присвячена дослідженню гідродинамічних і термохімічних процесів, які відбуваються у свердловині та привибійній зоні пласта та розробці нових методів інтенсифікації нафтогазовидобутку. Розроблено математичні моделі процесів кольматації привибійної зони під час первинного розкриття пласта, відновлення вибійного тиску і його розподілу в пласті в процесі циклічного депресійно-репресійного впливу, витіснення рідини з свердловини стисненим газом і водогазовими подушками. Створено нові технології та технічні засоби гідроімпульсного впливу на привибійну зону пластів. Проведено теоретичні і експериментальні дослідження з вивчення низки хімічних реакцій, на основі котрих розроблено нові комплекти реагентів і технології термохімічних та термокислотних оброблень привибійної зони пласта. Розроблені технології та технічні засоби захищено 12 авторськими свідоцтвами та патентами, 6 з котрих успішно впроваджені в нафтогазовидобувних свердловинах. Захищаються 40 наукових робіт.
Диссертация посвящена исследованию гидродинамических и термохимических процессов, происходящих в скважине и призабойной зоне пласта и разработке новых, методов интенсификации нефтегазодобычи. С учетом результатов анализа и систематизации основных причин снижения продуктивности скважин, разработана математическая модель процесса кольматации призабойной зоны при первичном раскрытии пласта. Проанализированы и классифицированы основные гидродинамические методы воздействия на призабойную зону пластов. Предложены методики расчета восстановления забойного давления и его распределения в пласте во время цикличного депрессиснно-репрессионного воздействия с использованием методов последовательной смени стационарных состояний и суперпозиции, а также теории гармонических колебаний. Разработана обобщенная математическая модель процесса вытеснения жидкости из скважины сжатым газом, аэрированной жидкостью и водогазовыми подушками с учетом работы пласта в условиях неустановившейся фильтрации. Созданы новые гидроимпульсные технологии и технические средства, основанные на депрессионно-репрессионном и имплозионном воздействии на призабойную зону пластов, которые направлены на восстановление и увеличение проницаемости пластов, а при необходимости и ее снижение в высокопроводимых и обводненных интервалах. Проведены теоретические и экспериментальные исследования по изучению ряда химических реакций, предложены новые реагенты для экзотермических реакций, на основании которых разработаны новые технологии термохимических и термокислотных обработок призабойной зоны пласта с использованием мелкодисперсного магния и азотной кислоты, в том числе синтезированной из коррозионнонеактивных реагентов; гипохлорита натрия или калия и аммиака с последующим взаимодействием продукта этой реакций - гидразина - с перекисью водорода; солей гидразина или гидроксиламина и нитритами щелочных металлов или аммония. Указанные технологии позволяют получить значительно большее количество тепла по сравнению с известными способами, они более технологичны и эффективны. Разработаны новые технология закачки суспензий смеси разных дисперсных реагентов в пласт, технология и техническое средство направленного реагентного воздействия на выбранные пласты. Разработанные технологии и технические средства защищены 12 авторскими свидетельствами и патентами, 6 из которых внедрены в нефтегазодобывающих скважинах ОАО „Укрнефгь”. В результате промышленного внедрения доказана высокая технологическая эффективность новых технологий, которая выражается в получении значительных объемов дополнительно добытой нефти и газа, а также улучшении характера вытеснения и повышения текущего коэффициента нефтеотдачи. Защищаются 40 научных работ.
The dissertation is devoted to research of hydrodynamic and thermo-chemical processes that take place in the well and wellbore zone and to development of new methods for oil and gas recovery intensification. There have been developed mathematical models of wellbore zone mudding processes during initial reservoir drilling-in, bottom-hole pressure recovery and its distribution at the reservoir during cyclic depression-repression influence, fluid displacement from the well with compressed gas and water-gas cushions. There have been created new technologies and technical means for hydro-impulse influence on wellbore zone of the reservoirs. There have been done theoretical and experimental researches of some chemical reactions. New set of reagents and technologies of thermo-chemical and thermo-acid treatments of wellbore zone have been developed on their base. The developed technologies and technical means are protected with 12 author's certificate and patents, 6 of them are successfully introduced in oil and gas production wells. 40 scientific works are under defense.

This work is concerned with the application of finite difference simulation to modelling the pressure response in partially penetrating oil wells. This has relevance to the oil and hydrology industries where pressure behaviour is used to infer the nature of aquifer or reservoir properties, particularly permeability. In the case of partially penetrating wells, the pressure response carries information regarding the magnitude of permeability in the vertical direction, a parameter that can be difficult to measure by other means and one that has a direct influence on both the total volumes of oil that can be recovered and on the rate of recovery. The derivation of the non-linear differential equations that form the basis for multiphase fluid flow in porous media is reviewed and it is shown how they can be converted into a set of finite difference equations. Techniques used to solve these equations are explained, with particular emphasis on the approach followed by the commercial simulation package used in this study. This involves use of Newton's method to linearize the equations followed by application of a pre-conditioned successive minimization technique to solve the resulting linear equations. Finite difference simulation is applied to a hypothetical problem of solving pressure response in a partially penetrating well in an homogenous but anisotropic medium and the results compared with those from analytical solutions. Differences between the results are resolved, demonstrating that the required level of accuracy can be achieved through selective use of sufficiently small grid blocks and time-steps. Residual discrepancies with some of the analytical methods can be traced to differences in the boundary conditions used in their derivation. The simulation method is applied to matching a complex real-life well test with vertical and lateral variation in properties (including fluid saturation). An accurate match can be achieved through judicious adjustment of the problem parameters with the proviso that the vertical permeability needs to be high. This suggests that the recovery mechanism in the oil field concerned can be expected to be highly efficient, something that has recently been confirmed by production results.
Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.

This work addresses the poroelastic effect on the processes involved in hydraulic fracturing and post-fracture production using a finite element based fully coupled poroelastic model which includes a triple system of wellbore-fracture-reservoir. A novel numerical procedure for modeling hydraulic fracture propagation in a poroelastic medium is introduced. The model directly takes into account the interaction of wellbore, hydraulic fracture and reservoir in a fully coupled manner. This allows realistic simulation of near fracture phenomena such as back stress and leak-off. In addition, fluid leak-off is numerically modeled based on the concept of fluid flow in porous media using a new technique for evaluating local pressure gradient. Besides, the model is capable of accommodating the zone of reduced pressure (including intermediate and fluid lag zones) at the fracture front so as to capture the behavior of fracture tip region more realistically. A fully coupled poroelastic model for gas reservoirs has been also developed using an innovative numerical technique. From the results of this study it has been found that fracture propagation pressure is higher in poroelastic media compared to that of elastic media. Also high formation permeability (in the direction normal to the hydraulic fracture) and large difference between minimum horizontal stress (in case of it being the smallest principal stress) and reservoir pressure reduce the rate of fracture growth. Besides, high pumping rate is more beneficial in elongating a hydraulic fracture whereas high viscous fracturing fluid is advantageous in widening a hydraulic fracture. It has been also shown that rock deformation, permeability anisotropy and modulus of elasticity can have a significant effect on fluid flow in a hydraulically fractured reservoir. Furthermore, it has been shown that long stress reversal time window and large size of stress reversal region can be caused by high initial pressure differential (i.e. the difference between flowing bottomhole pressure and reservoir pressure), low initial differential stress (i.e. the difference between maximum and minimum horizontal stresses) and low formation permeability in tight gas reservoirs. By taking advantage of production induced change in stress state of a reservoir, this study has also shown that a refracture treatment, if carried out in an optimal time window, can lead to higher economic gain. Besides, analysis of stress reversal region has depicted that a small region with high stress concentration in the vicinity of the wellbore could impede refracture from initiating at the desired place. Moreover, re-pressurization of the wellbore can result in further propagation of the initial fracture before initiation or during propagation of the secondary fracture.

"February 2003"
PhD (by publication).
Includes bibliographical references.
vii, 21, [49] leaves : ill. (some col.), maps, photos (some col.) ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Australian School of Petroleum (ASP), 2004

Heavy oil production depends on the understanding of mechanical and flow properties of unconsolidated or weakly consolidated sands under different loading paths and boundary conditions. Reconstituted bitumen-free Athabasca oil-sands samples were used to investigate the geomechanics of a steam injection process such as the Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). Four stress paths have been studied in this work: triaxial compression, radial extension, pore pressure increase and isotropic compression. Absolute permeability, end-point relative permeability to oil & water (kro and krw), initial water saturation and residual oil saturation were measured while the samples deformed. Triaxial compression is a stress path of increasing mean stress while radial extension and pore pressure increase lead to decreasing mean stress. Pore pressure increase experiments were carried out for three initial states: equal axial and confining stresses, axial stress greater than confining stress and confining stress greater than axial stress. Pore pressure was increased under four boundary conditions: 1) constant axial and confining stress; 2) constant axial stress and zero radial strain; 3) zero axial strain and constant confining stress; and 4) zero axial and radial strain. These experiments were designed to mimic geologic conditions where vertical stress was either S1 or S3, the lateral boundary conditions were either zero strain or constant stress, and the vertical boundary conditions were either zero strain or constant stress. Triaxial compression caused a decrease in permeability as the sample compacted, followed by appreciable permeability enhancement during sample dilation. Radial extension led to sample dilation, shear failure and permeability increase from the beginning. The krw and kro increased by 40% and 15% post-compaction respectively for the samples corresponding to lower depths during triaxial compression. For these samples, residual oil saturation decreased by as much as 40%. For radial extension, the permeability enhancement decreased with depth and ranged from 20% to 50% while the residual oil saturation decreased by up to 55%. For both stress paths, more shear-enhanced permeability was observed for samples tested at lower pressures, implying that permeability enhancement is higher for shallower sands. The pore pressure increase experiments showed an increase of only 0-10% in absolute permeability except when the effective stress became close to zero. This could possibly have occurred due to steady state flow not being reached during absolute permeability measurement. The krw curves generally increased as the pore pressure was increased from 0 psi. The increase ranged from 5% to 44% for the different boundary conditions and differential stresses. The kro curves also showed an increasing trend for most of the cases. The residual oil saturation decreased by 40-60% for samples corresponding to shallow depths while it increased by 0-10% for samples corresponding to greater depths. The reservoirs with high differential stress are more conducive to favorable changes in permeability and residual oil saturation. These results suggested that a decreasing mean stress path is more beneficial for production increase than an increasing mean stress path. The unconsolidated sands are over-consolidated because of previous ice loading which makes the sand matrix stiffer. In this work, it was found that over-consolidation, as expected, decreased the porosity and permeability (40-50%) and increased the Young’s and bulk moduli of the sand. The result is sand which failed at higher than expected stress during triaxial compression. Overall, results show that lab experiments support increased permeability due to steam injection operations in heavy oil, and more importantly, the observed reduction in residual oil saturation implies SAGD induced deformation should improve recovery factors.
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New decline curve models have been developed to overcome the boundary-dominated flow assumption of the basic Arps’ models, which restricts their application in ultra-low permeability reservoirs exhibiting long-duration transient flow regimes. However, these new decline curve analysis (DCA) methods are still based only on production rate data, relying on the assumption of stable flowing pressure. Since this stabilized state is not reached rapidly in most cases, the applicability of these methods and the reliability of their solutions may be compromised. In addition, production performance predictions cannot be disassociated from the existing operation constraints under which production history was developed. On the other hand, DCA is often carried out without a proper identification of flow regimes. The arbitrary application of DCA models regardless of existing flow regimes may produce unrealistic production forecasts, because these models have been designed assuming specific flow regimes. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the possible benefits provided by including flowing pressures in production decline analysis. As a result, it have been demonstrated that decline curve analysis based on pressure-normalized rates can be used as a reliable production forecasting technique suited to interpret unconventional wells in specific situations such as unstable operating conditions, limited availability of production data (short production history) and high-pressure, rate-restricted wells. In addition, pressure-normalized DCA techniques proved to have the special ability of dissociating the estimation of future production performance from the existing operation constraints under which production history was developed. On the other hand, it was also observed than more consistent and representative flow regime interpretations may be obtained as diagnostic plots are improved by including MBT, pseudovariables (for gas wells) and pressure-normalized rates. This means that misinterpretations may occur if diagnostic plots are not applied correctly. In general, an improved forecasting ability implies greater accuracy in the production performance forecasts and more reliable reserve estimations. The petroleum industry may become more confident in reserves estimates, which are the basis for the design of development plans, investment decisions, and valuation of companies’ assets.