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3243
A Proposed Model and Mechanism For Anomalous Foamy Heavy Oil Behavior
ABSTRACT Background
A model of foamy heavy oil behavior Smitlilappears to be the first
is proposed which implemented in a to have published on the subject of
reservoir simulator is found to be the anomalous behavior of what have
capable of matching the principal come to be called foamy crude oils.
characteristics observed in primary At the time of Smithcs publication,
cold oil production, namely, a well the only reported foamy crude oil
productivity several times the value behavior is that reported for the
expected from the recombined oil vis- LLoydminster area of western Canada.
cosity and the rock permeability to Since then, other heavy oils in Cana-
oil phase, and a producing gas-oil da and elsewhere in the world have
ratio close to the initial solution been found to exhibit similar behav-
gas-oil ratio. The low gas-oil ratio ior.
results in slow pressure decline and The apparent mobility of such
high ultimate primary oil recovery as reservoir-crude oil systems is very
compared to non-foamy crude oils. large. The cause for such high mo-
bility could be either a high rock
References and illustrations permeability, a low crude oil viscos-
at end of paper ity, or both. Laboratory
--- reported
. ..
permeabilities are typically in the
9
2 A Proposed Model and Mechanism for Anomalous Heavy Oil SPE 29243
Behavior
10
SPE 29243 Elmond L. Claridge and Michael Prats 3
11
4 A Proposed Model and Mechanism for Anomalous Heavy Oil SPE 29243
Behavior
l~foamy~
oil production behavior and move with the oil throuqh Dore
non-foamy1oil production behavior. throats with the oil phase v=loc~ty.
In attempting to simulate As more gas is released from solu-
!cfoamyt~
heavy oil production behav- tion, more tiny bubbles will appear
ior, Islam and Chakma used a critical and will become similarly coated with
gas saturation of 40% (as shown in asphaltenes and resins.
their Fig. 14) in Approach 3, but the The gradual removal of the asph-
mixture viscosity relationship with altenes from colloidal suspension in
micro-bubbles showing greatly reduced the oil phase causes a significant
viscosity in their Approach 1. The reduct~on in the oil phase viscosity,
iatter snows aimost straight iine oil
and Wi=
~- ..- -
i= ~he Ldu== Of ~h h@hY
recovery versus timel up to 28 % of well productivity which is obsened.
OOIP at 20 years, while Approach 3 At any given pressure level
gave about 15% in the same time. below the bubble point pressure, the
Approach 2, using conventional rela- gas contained in the bubbles plus the
tive permeability curves gave a re- gas still dissolved in the oil amount
covery of about 13% at 20 years. to the initial gas present in associ-
Neither the single-phase-with-micro- ation with the oil. Similarly, the
bubble-reduced-viscosity case (Ap- asphaltenes coagulated on the bubbles
proach 1) nor the extremely high plus the asphaltenes still in colloi-
critical gas saturation of Approach 3 dal dispersion amount to the initial
seem to us to be reasonable as ade- asphaltene content of the reservoir
quate representations of ~cfoamyoil oil. Hence, as this mixture of phas-
behavior. es moves with a common velocity to
Our paper extends Smithss views oil wells, the producing gas-oil
that the low viscosity of foamy oils ratio will remain essentially at the
is associated with the asphaltenes by initial solution gas-oil ratio.
proposing a plausible model or mecha- Of course, this eminently desir-
nism for the apparently low in situ able situation cannot survive a very
crude oil viscosity. large or very swift pressure reduc-
tion: the asphaltic films will rup-
Proposed Foamy Heavy Oil Model ture or will not have time to form or
re-form after rupture, and the gas
The model assumes that as tiny will coalesce and escape from the oil
gas bubbles form during slow pressure as a separate phase. The large pres-
decline below the bubble-point pres- sure drop as oil is produced up tub-
sure in the reservoir, asphaltene ing will do this, and most of the gas
molecules, which are normally dis- forms a separate phase in the gas-oil
-----
p=L==d i~l mmllA4a-1 4=
QUAAUJ.UaA LULIU
,.,4+A
W&baa
~==~~* enn=ws+nv u.at +ha
m=yu~u.u. .aa-
czlvFfaPn-
-------- ~~~e~e~i
molecules as the dispersing agent and it is observed that enough gas re-
which contribute strongly to the oil mains dispersed in the produced oil
viscosity, migrate together with the that the volume is about three times
resins to the bubble surfaces and that which results after over-night
@n-
&wLa. = _att:*:=:=
catn--vlrr~d ~na+-{ncf.
--.,. ----- 7- ~~j.~ Settlincf.of course; this is only a
coating, when complete, prevents small p~-rt of the gas which enters
further bubble growth and coales- the well with the oil, but it is
cence. enough to make it clear that there is
Since the bubbles are unable to difficulty in achieving complete bub-
coalesce, they remain tiny enough to ble coalescence, and that a much
12
SPE 29243 Elmond L. Claridge and Michael Prats 5
13
6 A Proposed Model and Mechanism for Anomalous Heavy Oil SPE 29243
Behavior
that, for example, for a dead crude halfway between and so equally at-
oil of 10,000 cp (mPa.s) viscosity tracted to asphaltenes and to (ali-
*L.
GLL=~i.$vr= ~~tu~=~~~ -r; cmnc++<7mLay he
v A-wu-A.~
nhati~)
&**----/
nil-
----
about 1000 to 1500 cp (mPa.s), while This does not directly explain
the viscosity of the asphaltene-free adherence of the resins to a gas-oil
live oil may be about 100 to 200 cp interface. However, a similar behav-
,-
(mra.Sj .
4-- Av
Au&
<m -----t-a
&=puAG=u
*ha n-a knna#4n4a-
371 kALG UA- N=Aa=bA-&u
Then a dilute suspension in tion process of flotation12. In this
asphalt-free live oil of asphaltenes process, ores of zinc, lead, copper
completely coagulated around gas etc. are ground to a fine powder,
micro-bubbles could have an effective then suspended in water to which a
viscosity only mildly greater than small amount of oil and of a surfac-
this - say, 200 to 400 cp (mPa.s). tant such as sodium xanthate has been
For incomplete removal of the asphal- added. The oil wets the exposed
tenes from the oil, the effective surfaces of the valuable metal miner-
viscosity would range between that al in the presence of large amounts
for the original live oil and that of of silicate minerals, and the surfac-
the completely de-asphalted live oil. tant adheres to the oil surface. In
This is consistent with point b). the vessel containing this ore slur-
Such coagulation of asphaltenes ry, air is introduced through a spar-
and their associated resins around ger as fine bubbles. The surfactant
gas bubbles apparently does not occur sticks to the air bubbles as well as
with all asphaltic crude oils. If to the oil film on the valuable metal
such behavior does occur as postulat- ore surface. The froth which spiiis
ed here, then there must be some over a weir from the top of the flo-
characteristics of the resin or as- tation cell into another vessel is
phaltene compounds which make them enriched many fold in valuable metal
surface-active with respect to a gas- ore content.
oil interface. Carnahan and Quin- This suggests that the key to
tero9~10 have presented data indicat- resin behavior with respect to adher-
ing that resins in the asphaltene/oil ence to gas bubbles and to asphalten-
system can be as strong surfactants es may lie in the porphyrin-type
as the typical sodium petroleum sul- metal compounds present both in res-
fonates are in the light oil/brine ins and in the asphaltenes. When the
system. In their earlier study9, structure is such as to expose these
they had estimated that resins have metals to the resin surfactant, and
an affinity for asphaltenes and for the resins also can behave like the
alkanes such that their characteriz- sodium xanthan in adhering to a iiq-
ing number similar to the HLB (Hydro- uid-gas surface, then the mechanism
philic/Lyophilic Balance) Number for proposed may be effective. Obvious-
sodium sulfonates should be similar ly, further research on this subject
in value. For the latter system, the would be needed if the research re-
HLB Number for a typical sulfonate, commended here shows that indeed the
al--a-3a
iV=uuu*~ iS
k-+,.,---
==bw==l~
~ .~ a~,d1K *4.4,
~ ?.?+
wAbaA
+h vae;me and --=-------
*-*.*---- aenhal tenas--- a Ye
--- sticzkina
---------=
the higher number corresponding to to gas bubbles in foamy heavy oil
higher mol weightsll. In their most reservoirs.
recent paper, they have derived an It is further necessary that the
AOB (Asphaltene/Oil Balance) Number resin and asphaltene content be high
of 5 on a scale of zero to ten, thus enough to coat the amount of gas
14
SPE 29243 Elmond L. Claridge and Michael Prats 7
16
SPE 29243 Elmond L. Claridge and Michael Prats 9
17
10 A Proposed Model and Mechanism for Anomalous Heavy Oil SPE 29243
Behavior
itself verify the assumptions of the 4. Maini, B.B., Sarma, H.K., and
model. George, A.E.: Significance of Foamy-
Oil Behavior in Primary Production of
4. Laboratory experiments should be Heavy Oils, paper No. CIM 92-77,
performed to determine whether the 1992 Annual Technical Conference of
proposed mechanism (or model) is the Petroleum Society of CIM, Calga-
------ . W..=A-J
uu&LeGt
...--*--A-..1 .4 u=
J3Ap=LUUeIl v= aAluu.Lu
AA ~== -r*.%-
71 n
~Y ? u Ull=
{J.U.
18
11
SPE 29243 Elmond L. Claridge and Michael Prats
~~~~~,t!
ionic-CosurfactarltFlicellar
Resins, paper presented at the Sixth SPERE (Aug. 1988) 801-808.
UNITAR/UNDP International Conference
on Heavy Crude and Tar Sands, Hous-
ton, Texas, Feb. 12-17, 1995. 12. Wills, B.A.: Mineral Processing
Technoloavq 4th Ed., Pergamon Press,
11. Kremesec, V.J., Raterman, K.T. New York, 1988, Ch 12: Froth lOta-
and Taggart, D.L.: Laboratory Evalu- tion.
ation of a Crude-011-Sulfonate/Non-
19
COMPARISON OF OIL PRODUCTION RATES
sTBm
300@
0 VIORMALG*
LOM Case
A LVM case
o ~
o 10 M m ls 30 M
Le.Yam Figurcf
scFKIB
?
4N0
ml
100
.
+?
a
n
2#
i. OOIP
10
M
o NonBIAI,
w
:
,;~
i s Is n s xl
Tim&#
29
Fii;
COMPARISONOF PRESSUREDECLINECURVES
?slA
SW
4n
c;
L ,,
O NORMAL(he
IGM Cue
ALVM ad
0 s It ls 29 n n % 4B
TiiFiG ~is Fig8re 4
20