SPE 87054 Challenges in Oil Production Technologies Affecting the Sustainable Development of Daqing Oilfield

Liu He, SPE, Yan Jianwen, Wang Qunyi, Sun Xishou, Daqing Oilfield Co., Ltd.

Copyright 2004, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc. This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Asia Pacific Conference on Integrated Modelling for Asset Management held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 29-30 March 2004. This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE Program Committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper, as presented, have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material, as presented, does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Papers presented at SPE meetings are subject to publication review by Editorial Committees of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper for commercial purposes without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper was presented. Write Librarian, SPE, P.O. Box 833836, Richardson, TX 75083-3836 U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435.

Abstract The paper introduces some problems that subdivision injection and production technology is facing in the stage of extra-high water cut production in Daqing Oilfield, the problems have become main factors affecting sustained development of Daqing Oilfield, like subdivision water injection, separate layer fracturing in thin restraining barrier and injecting surfactant to reduce pressure problem, each of them is close to challenge technical limit. Introduction Daqing Oilfield is a giant, heterogeneous, multilayer sandstone oilfield with 80-120 small layers, interlayer permeability difference of over 60 times. After having developed for 42 years, Daqing Oilfield has performed a miracle of keeping stable production of 50 million ton for 27 years. Till the end of 2002, field-wide recovery factor is up to 47.2%, 50.4% in La-Sa-Xing reservoirs. Daqing Oilfield has entered into extra-high water cut development period, oilfield development will face many contradictions. From the eye of an oil production engineer, in extra-high water cut development period, the development difficulty of oil production technology will increase greatly, and two nagtive influence factors will be faced: Firstly, new and old contradictions make the difficulty of oil production technology increases greatly, its difficult for the current technology to suit for the continuous change features of field development; secondly, the personality of technology makes adaptability of technology drop obviously, some technologies for mediumhigh water cut development phase have exposed some inadptabilities,which brings some challenges to technical limit for oil production engineering.

Challenge 1: Subdivision Separate Layer Production and Water Injection Technology Tbe effects of separate layer injection and production With the improvement of geological research and development degree, the requirements to water injection are also higher than before. The development of water injection technology in Daqing oilfield experienced the following four processes: (1) Commingled water injection, (2) concentric injection, (3) eccentric injection, and (4) integrated injection. Through the above improvements, the development technology improved quickly: (1) The struck distance of separate layer is reduced from over 8m to 2m. (2) The average time of testing and allocation per well is reduced from over 7d to 2d that also cuts the cost. (3) The testing accuracy is improved with direct measurement than with successive subtraction method. (4) Through separate layer injection, interlayer contradication is eliminated which also meets the requirement of reservoir engineering, makes it possible for subdivision separate layer production. The application of commingled water injection Before 1964, according to the development strategy aimed at keeping a stable reservoir pressure and commingled water injection was applied. And water flushing and experienmented injection technologies were developed which ensured the water was injected into all kinds of reservoirs and the reservoir intook the water in a certain degree. As the result, the oilfield kept a constant natural flow capability in the early stage. The application of separate layer injection and production Low water cut period after 1964, the problem of commingled water injection emerged that water breakthrough occurred in the interlayer, interval and horizontal directions very quickly. In order to control the rate of water breakthrough, a series technologies and tools were developed, for example, the hydraulic expandable packer and Model 745-4 fixed water flow regulator. The seprated water injection technology was formed including sealing inspection, channeling inspection, snubbing operation and zonal testing techniques. Because Model 745-4 fixed water flow regulator couldnt adjust water injection rate repeatly, a Model 655 removable water flow regulator was developed which consisted of mandrel and removable core, adjusting the water injection rate by changing the size of nozzle of removable core which realized 4 layers water injection in a single well.

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SPE 87054

Medium water cut period In 1970s, the water cut of the oilfield was at a mediem degree (under 70%). In this stage, with the development area and number of water injection wells increased constantly, the operation capacity of downhole testing and allocation couldnt meet the requirement of water injection. And Model 665 eccentric water flow regulator was developed which realized removable water regulation. The testing instrument was also developed which could be runn and fished by wire, improving the water injection layers per well to 4-6. High water cut period in 1990s, the water cut of Daqing oilfield was above 80%. In this stage, the oilfields development strategy was Stabilizing the oil (rate) and controlling the water (cut). And subdivision separation water injection and production technology was brought forward. In order to meet the requirement of subdivision, a series of subdivision separated layer development technologies like forced alignment washable compressional packer, concentric testing and adjustment integrated and bridge eccentric etc., were developed. By reduction of struck distance of stratification, injection layers are further subdivided. By the end of 2002,Daqing oilfield kept 12604 separate injections well in 17644 water injection wells with a separate injection rate of 71.4%, full whole seal ratio of 90.2%, average 3.75 water injection layers in a single well, good results were obtained. But heterogeneity of layer is very serious in Daqing oilfield, because of the limitation of subdivision injection technology, its difficult to subdivide injection layer to execute stratified waterflooding. In low and medium water cut development period, based on sand body feature and permeability, reservoir was divided into restricted layer (high permeability zone of extensive distribution), alternative zone (medium, low strip sand body) and reinforcement layer (low, thin permeability zone). During medium and high water cut, according to the change of water cut, pressure and productivity parameter of the reservoir, the water injection methodology was adjusted: In the direction of relatively lower pressure, lower production rate and lower water cut layer, the strength of water injection sould be enhanced; and for higher pressure, higher production rate and higher water cut zone, the strength of water injection should be controlled in a lower degree. Numerical simulation and experiments on site showed that, for a single zone, the difference of interlayer permeability had better not exceed 4-5 times, the number of small layer not exceed 6-8 layers, and the thickness of oil layer not exceed 4m.The upper limit of separate layer was 4-6 layers, the lower limit of stuck distance was 2m. In the future, oil field will enter into high water cut stage, with the development of further geological research and the adjustment of subdivision, restricted layer, alternative layer and reinforcement layer will be further subdivided, in some area, lower limit of struck distance will be less than 2m,upper limit of separate layer will be over 7 layers, testing efficiency will be within 1 day. The technical requirements make stratified water flooding technology face some challenges.

Challenge 2: Separate layer fracturing technology in thin restraining barrier The background and mechanism of separate layer fracturing technology With the constant development of oil field production, production objectives are tabulated thin, poor reservoir and untabulated reservoirs which only fracturing technology can develop. Because the reservoirs hares the following features such as thin restraining barrier (the thickness of most of restraining barriers is less than 2.0m), oil layer and high water cut layer interactive existence, adaptability of fracturing technology is poor, the degree of vertical transformation is low, conventional fracturing technology cant meet the requirement of development. According to the research results of reservoir engineering, when the thickness of restraining barrier in internal thin, poor reservoir is reduced from 2.0m to 1.0m,recoverable reserves will be increased 136.88million ton. Only fracturing can produce the reserves. The reserves mainly include untabulated and tabulated reservoirs, oil layers have the following features, like small thickness of single zone, disperse distribution, low permeability, complex relation of oil and water. The thickness of single zone is between 0.4-1.0m.Distribution interval of oil layer is 200-300m,target bed alternates with high water cut zone, restraining barrier is 0.4-1.0m.In recent years, in the light of the features, many balance protection fracturing string technology have been developed. According to different position of restraining barrier and oil layer, 7 strings are designed. A trip string can protect 2-4 thin restraining barriers, interval spacing is over 400m.Application of finite element analogy to compute force distribution of restraining barrier have made a great breakthrough. Using protection restraining barrier fracturing strings made field experiments in 20 wells, 20 restraining barriers were protected (10 upper restraining barriers, 9 lower restraining barriers, 1 middle restraining barriers), maximum thickness of restraining barrier is 1.7m,minimum thickness of restraining barrier is 0.6m,average thickness is 1.15m.The highest operation pump pressure in experimental wells is 50Mpa with a pressure time of 1446min.The inspection of channeling in 11 wells prefracture and postfracture showed no channeling. In addition, most of balance zone are high water cut zone. Analysis of fracturing results in operation wells showed that average water cut of postfracture dropped 7.5%. The bottleneck of the tecgnology Based on the horizontal fractures created by reservoir fracturing, the technology starts with bearing mechanism of restraining barrier and the reasons causing interlayer channeling to develop protection restraining barrier fracturing string and matching tools, comprehensive considering the factors such as lithology, physical property and cement quality etc., combination with the protective conditions provided by current technologies, systematically analyzes and determinates the lower limit of the restraining barrier. Main contents of study include the study on force and bearing ability of restraining barrier, analysis of the least limit, thickness of shear breakage in restraining barrier and the study on matching tools. Protection restraining barrier fracturing string can assemble according to different requirements to realize to protect upper, lower and middle restraining barrier respectively. It has the adaptability of protection 0.8m

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restraining barrier. But because of the complication of vertical thin, poor and restraining barrier distribution, the technology cant realize separate fracturing on all restraining barriers over 0.4-0.6m now, needs some further improvements on string, tool and technology. Challenge 3: The technology on injection of surfactant to reduce injection pressure The background of the technology In peripheral oil field in Daqing, physical property of reservoir is poorer, the injection pressure of many injectors exceed fractureing pressure or close to it, water cant be injected into reservoirs or allocation cant be completed, these factors affect seriously injection efficiency of injectors and the incremental results of oil wells. There were 1418 wells whose daily oil production rate of single well was less than 1t/d, 808 wells below 0.5t/d, 610 below 0.5-1t/d in No.7-10 oil production Factory in 2002.In developed Fuyu reservoir, oil wells of daily oil production rate below 2t accounts for 34.4% of reserves. The highest injection pressure of Gaotaizi reservoir in No.9 oil production factory is 24Mpa,average injection pressure in No.11 oil production factory is 26Mpa. The analysis shows the existence of extralow permeability creates higher starting pressure besides near well bore plugging. In waterflooding development period, starting pressure gradient must be overcome to build an effective driving pressure differential to achieve the goal of driving oil. Therefore, the urgent problems are to overcome reservoir flow resistance caused by starting pressure gradient, reduce injection pressure of injector, and increase water injection displacement results. In the light of the conditions, a study on injection of surfactant to reduce injection pressure is developed. The technology on injection of surfactant to reduce injection pressure mainly studies indoor depressure mechanism of surfactant, surfactant formulation and performance evaluation (including oil/water interfacial tension, stabilization test of interfacial tension for surfactant system, depressure physical modeling experiment on core displacement oil) and field experiment. The application results of the technology Indoors surfactant displacement experiment obtained a good result. When displacing surfactant of 0.5PV in artificial core, successive waterflooding displacement pressure drops by an average of 35.3%; when surfactant displacement rate is over 5PV, successive waterflooding displacement pressure drops over 50%; When displacing surfactant of over 0.5PV in artificial core, successive waterflooding displacement pressure drops over 24.3%; when surfactant displacement rate is over 5PV, successive waterflooding displacement pressure drops by an average of 39.7%. Indoor study on determination of injection rate shows that, seen from the depressure physical modeling experiment on core displacement oil, when artificial core and natural core displace surfactant of 5-10PV,depressure result of core is good. When displacing surfactant of 10 PV, wash resistant of successive waterflooding is better. Field experimental results of surfactant arent as good as that of indoor experiment. In Oct. 2002,field experiments of 4 wells were made in Chaoyanggou oil field. Well Chao 9810,98-2 are new converted water injection wells, Well Chao

118-50,Caho 66-160 are old water injection wells, stimulation results, pressure and injection rate hade no obvious difference with that of poststimulation. The problems of the technology The technology on injection of surfactant to reduce injection pressure exists main problems: The interfacial tension of surfactant system and crude oil is up to an order of 10-2mN/m, and no better stabilization, depressure result of indoor core experiment is better, but field experiment result is not as good as that of indoor experiment. Main problems are as follows: we dont understand clearly the effect of surfactant absorption, the size of interfacial tension of surfactant, crude oil and the oil saturation on the influence rule of field result; relative permeability experiment, the study on surfactant volume, optimizing soft design and field experiment need a lot of improvement works. All the factors restrict the development of the technology. Conclusions 1. Daqing oil field has entered into the very high water cut developing process. The development and application effects of subdivision water injection and fracturing technology have come to near the limit in theory. And these problems are the main affected factors restricting the sustained development of Daqing oil field. 2. Currently, the application of some new technologies has entered the experiment stage which are used to solve these technique-limited problems in oil field development. But there is still some distance for these techniques to enter the large scale of industrialization application stage. 3. It is not easy to solve the problems with conventional technologies and methods. In that case, it is neccessay to search for some new and revolutionary technologies to breakthrough these bottlenecks. Acknowledgement The authors gratefully acknowledge the management of Oil Production Engineering & Research Institute and the partners for their support to finish, implement, and publish this work. In addition we wish to thank partners of No.1 and No.4 Oil Company for supporting some important data in this paper. References 1 Wang Demin, Tang Jiali: Production Technology of Daqing Oilfield During its High Water-Cut Stage, paper SPE 14847 presented at the SPE 1986 International Meeting of Petroleum Engineering held in Beijing, China March 17-20, 1986. 2 Wang Zhiwu, Zhang, Jingcun, Jiang, Yanli: Evaluation of Polymer Flooding in Daqing Oil Field and Analysis of Its Favourable Conditions, paper SPE 17848 presented at the SPE International Meeting on Petroleum Engineering held in Tianjin, People's Republic of China, 1-4 November, 1988.

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SPE 87054

Barrier

Mandrel Packer

Balanced zone Equalizer Protected barrier

Fractured zone Sand blower 2

Barrier

Fractured zone

Sand blower 1

Barrier Plug

Fig1. The treatment draft of separate layer fracturing technology

4 Displacement Pressure (MPa) 3 2 1 0 0 100 Displacement Pore Volume Multiple Fig 2. Natural Core Displacement Pore Volume Multiple Displacement Pressure Curve 200 (PV)

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