52nd US Rock Mechanics/ A new methodology for the wormhole initiation and propagation

Geomechanics Symposium
2018 Seattle, Washington, USA Alejandra Arbelaez-Londoño, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellin Campus, aarbelal@unal.edu.co
Guillermo Arturo Alzate-Espinosa, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellin Campus, gaalzate@unal.edu.co
ARMA 18 - 1206 José Gildardo Osorio, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Medellin Campus, gosorio@unal.edu.co

Cold heavy oil production with sand is a primary recovery method widely used in the world as a profitable and easily technology. This single well technique produces massive sand due to high oil rates, generating foamy-oil
flow and wormholes formation as the governing mechanisms of the massive sand influx. The wormholes are channels of high-porosity and high-permeability, which are created during the early stage of aggressive sanding.
These channels are cavities or volumes in which there is no grain-to-grain contact, and are plenty of slurry. A new methodology is proposed to model the initiation and propagation of wormholes under critical production
conditions incorporating failure criteria, and porosity and permeability changes during massive sanding. The wormholes initiate due to mechanisms such as in-situ stresses, failure criteria, pressure gradient and erosion,
defining four zones around the well: liquefied zone, yielded zone, transition zone and intact zone, each one with different mechanical and petrophysical properties, which change during the oil and sand production. A single
well model that couples a fluid flow model and an elastoplastic geomechanical model is the tool to implement the wormhole methodology. The general characteristics of the coupled model are described and a flow chart is
proposed for the implementation of the methodology and the definition of the four different zones. A preliminary case is run to illustrate the wormhole formation and its effect on the well productivity with suitable results in
terms of increment in porosity and permeability, and a advance in the wormholes up to 0.5 ft.

CHOPS and wormhole formation Preliminary case

Fig. 1. Mechanisms of CHOPS (Dusseault, 2002) (Modified).

Results

Fig. 2. Wormhole formation. (Dusseault, 2002) Fig. 3. Zones around the wellbore during Fig. 5. Porosity and permeability evolution
(Modified). massive sand production (Arbeláez-Londoño et during simulation time.
al., 2014).

Coupled model Wormhole flow chart Concluding remarks

• 3D single well model that couples fluid flow and
geomechanics - cylindrical coordinates.
• Three-phase fluid flow model (oil, gas and water)
- Finite Difference Method.
• Elastoplastic model - Finite Elements Method -
with a yield surface (Dracker-Prager surface) and
a flow rule and a hardening / softening law.
• Sand production model - sanding onset and sand
production criterion.
• Foamy oil model with two parameters: endpoint
entrained gas fraction and apparent bubble
point, and three elements: inflow performance
with three phases: dissolved gas, oil and
entrained gas, fluid characterization changing
the PVT properties, and relative permeability
curves.
• Wormhole model: conceptual model.
For each time step:
• Calculate displacements and pore pressure
with initial conditions of saturation.
• Calculate pressure gradient.
• Calculate saturation changes for each phase
due to pressure gradient.
• Update saturation dependent properties as
relative permeability for each phase.
• Calculate pore pressure and deformation again
with the new reservoir properties and iterate to
numerical precision.
• If deformation are large enough, the rock will
yield, and the sand production will initiate.
• Define four zones:
• Yield zone: 𝜀 𝑝 > 0.
𝑝
• Intact zone: 𝜀 = 0.
• Sanding front: 𝜀 𝑝𝑠 .
• Wormhole zone: 𝜙 ≥ 0,52.
Fig. 4. The change of porosity and plastic shear
parameter with the radius and wormhole
formation map.
The wormholes formation causes a significant
improvement in porosity and permeability, resulting in
drainage area increment and production increase. The
results of the preliminary study show that this
methodology is a suitable strategy to model this
phenomenon. However, a sensitivity study is required to
stablish the advance of the wormhole and its effect on
well productivity. It must be considered in further study
the foamy-oil behavior and softening / hardening to
complete the complexity of this cold recovery technique.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thanks to COLCIENCIAS and
Ecopetrol S.A. for financing this project. Also to the
Applied Geomechanics Research Group (GIGA) of the
Universidad Nacional de Colombia – Medellin Campus.