Lecture-2 :

Classification of Hydrocarbon Production

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 Fundamentals of Fluid Production

overall recovery efficiency E.

macroscopic displacement efficiency

microscopic displacement efficiency

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 Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes

Miscible flooding processes

Chemical flooding processes

Thermal flooding processes

Microbial flooding processes

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 Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes

Miscible flooding processes

Chemical flooding processes

Thermal flooding processes

Microbial flooding processes

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 Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes

Miscible flooding processes

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 Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes

Miscible flooding processes

single-contact miscible process (LPG , Alcohol,. )

multiple-contact, or dynamic, miscible process (methane, inert

fluids , ..)

Miscible flooding processes challenges:

Viscous fingering and gravity override frequently occur.

Operational problems (transportation, corrosion, and separation

and recycling of the miscible flooding agent)

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 Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes

Miscible flooding processes

Chemical flooding processes

Thermal flooding processes

Microbial flooding processes

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 Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes

Thermal processes

steam cycling

steam drive ( steam flooding, SAGD)

in situ combustion

Thermal processes challenges:

poor sweep efficiencies.

Heat losses.

poor injectivity.

Operational problems (emulsions, corrosion, firing control, and

effects on the environment.).

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Table 2.1: Screening Criteria:

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HEAVY OIL PRODUCTION METHODS
Unsuitable methods for FNE oil field:
Open-pit Mining:
Water Flood:
Supercritical fluids (e.g. CO2):
Suitable Methods for FNE oil field (Pilot test, Experimental and Research
stage)
Solvent without heat or steam (e.g. Vapex):
Solvent with heat or steam:
In situ combustion (Fire flood with vertical and horizontal wells):
Downhole steam generation (CSS, steam flood, SAGD):
Electric, induction or RF heating:
Biotechnology:
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SUITABILITY OF FNE OIL FIELD FOR HEAVY OIL PRODUCTION METHODS

Commercial suitable methods for FNE oil field:

Cold production with sand (CHOPS):

Cold-production horizontal wells & multilaterals:
Steam Stimulation Processes
Steam Drive Processes
SAGD Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage
In Situ Combustion (Fire flood with vertical wells (~20 API oil only)

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1.Open-pit Mining:
This method is suitable for reservoirs at depth less than
50 m (FNE reservoir depth is 529m). The overburden
formation is stripped then oil sands are mined,
transported, and mixed with water to separate the oil.
The recovery factor is up to 90% of the original oil in
place. Mining operations have greater environmental
impacts than subsurface techniques. These include
water usage, footprint, land reclamation, reforestation,
and the disposal of byproducts such as sulfur, fine
tailings, acid, and heavy metals.

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2. Water Flood :
This method is used to maintain the reservoir
pressure and to improve the sweep efficiency. It
requires low oil viscosity compared with water
viscosity, solution gas or high formation
temperature and high permeability. Unfortunately;
these conditions are not meeting FNE field
conditions except the permeability, and; since
Bentiu1 formation has strong bottom water, the
water flooding is not going to improve its recovery

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3. Supercritical fluids (e.g. CO2):
In this method the heavy oil can be miscible with
CO2 under supercritical state. Studies assumed
that CO2 will reach supercritical state (T > 31.1 C
and P > 7.38 MPa (1070 pai) 35, where FNE initial
reservoir pressure is only 567 psi.

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4. Solvent without heat or steam (e.g. Vapex):

Vapex is a heavy oil recovery employing the

gaseous hydrocarbon solvent injection, leading to
a considerable decrease of the oil viscosity. This
method is suitable with the reservoirs that have
unfavorable thermal conditions, where thermal
methods are unprofitable, (for example, in offshore
and deep reservoirs). This method requires two
horizontal wells drilled one under the other; the
injection well is above the production well.
Owing to the high cost of these gases, per an oil
barrel, the economic merits are low and still under
development.
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Solvent with heat or steam :
This method is a combination between the
injection of viscofiering solvents and thermal
method, with good vertical and horizontal
permeability, to decrease the heavy oil viscosity,
however the commerciality of this method is
unproven.

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In situ combustion (Fire flood with vertical and
horizontal wells) :
The objective is better control of the fire front by
reducing the distance the moved oil has to travel to
the producer. Since the horizontal producer lies
directly below the combustion front, the mobile
heavy oil can drain into the producer. Combustion
gases rise to the top of the oil zone, and therefore
do not breakthrough into the producing well. A pilot
project is underway where the air is injected in a
series of vertical wells and produced in a number
of parallel horizontal wells.
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Downhole steam generation (CSS, steam flood,
SAGD) :
Simply this technique is to generate the steam near
to the sand face, by injecting air, fuel and water to
the downhole steam generator, for using in CSS, SF
and SAGD. The objective is to avoid heat losses
from boiler, surface distribution as well as wellbore.
In addition, the combustion products (CO2 and
nitrogen, and water) are injected into the reservoir
rather than being released to the atmosphere, which
will enhance the oil movement. This method still
under experiment and research and proven yet to be
used for commercial application.

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Electric, induction or RF heating:
This method is downhole heating for the viscous
oils reservoirs with electricity Resistance,
induction, radio-frequency (RF). The commerciality
and reality of this method is unproven with limited
field successes. In addition; it needs abundant
electric source near to the oil field, which is not
reliable in FNE oil field. .

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1.Biotechnology:
under the subject (microbial flooding), and the
success of this method is still unknown. At present
it is risky to try this method in FNE oil field without
sufficient laboratory and pilot test.

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Cold-production horizontal wells & multilaterals:
Cold production is those technologies which do not
use heating of the formation to reduce the viscosity
of heavy oil to make it flow readily into the
reservoir. The new approach to produce heavy oil
with low enough viscosity is by using networks of
horizontal wells with multiple lateral branches
which can maximize reservoir contact .

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 Mother well

Branch well

Well configuration for heavy oil field in Venezuela.

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Cold production with sand (CHOPS):

Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand (CHOPS) is a

production technique that operates contrary to the
conventional wisdom that sand should be controlled to not
enter a well. CHOPS technology encourages production of
sand from unconsolidated sandstone reservoirs. As the
produced sand moves from the formation into the well, it
leaves behind channels referred to as wormholes. This
increases permeability near the wellbore and allows more oil
to reach the wellbore, which could stimulate the area around
the wellbore.
CHOPS technology typically uses vertical wells fitted with
Progressive Cavity Pumps (PCPs) to move the large volume
of sand to the surface.

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Steam Stimulation Processes:
The steam stimulation process was discovered by
accident in the Mene Grande Tar Sands,
Venezuela, in 1959. During a steam injection trial,
it was decided to relieve the pressure from the
injection well by back flowing the well. When this
was done, a very high oil production rate was
observed. Since this discovery, many fields have
been placed on steam stimulation.

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Steam Stimulation Processes:
The steam stimulation process, also known as the
steam huff and puff, steam soak, or cyclic steam
stimulation (CSS), begins with the injection of 5000
15,000 bbl of high-quality steam. This can take a
period of days to weeks to accomplish. The well is
then shut in, and the steam is allowed to soak the
area around the injection well. This soak period is
fairly short, usually from 1 to 5 days. The injection
well is then placed on production. The length of the
production period is dictated by the oil production
rate but can last from several months to a year or
more. The cycle is repeated as many times as is
economically feasible. The oil production will
decrease with each new cycle.
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Steam Stimulation Processes:
Mechanisms of oil recovery due to this process
include (1) reduction of flow resistance near the
well bore by reducing the crude oil viscosity and
(2) enhancement of the solution gas drive
mechanism by decreasing the gas solubility in oil
as temperature increases.

Often, in heavy-oil reservoirs, the steam

stimulation process is applied to develop injectivity
around an injection well. Once injectivity has been
established, the steam stimulation process is
converted to a continuous steam drive process.
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Steam Stimulation Processes:
The oil recoveries obtained from steam stimulation
processes are much smaller than the oil recoveries
that could be obtained from a steam drive.
However it should be apparent that the steam
stimulation process is much less expensive to
operate. The cyclic steam stimulation process is
the most common thermal recovery technique.
Recoveries of additional oil have ranged from 0.21
to 5.0 bbl of oil per barrel of steam injected.

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Steam Drive Processes:
The steam drive process (steam flooding) is much
like a conventional water flood. Once a pattern
arrangement is established, steam is injected into
several injection wells while the oil is produced
from other wells. This is different from the steam
stimulation process, whereby the oil is produced
from the same well into which the steam is
injected. As the steam is injected into the
formation, the thermal energy is used to heat the
reservoir oil. Unfortunately, the energy also heats
the entire environment such as formation rock and
water. Some energy is also lost to the under
burden and overburden.
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Steam Drive Processes:
Once the oil viscosity is reduced by the increased
temperature, the oil can flow more readily to the
producing wells. The steam moves through the
reservoir and comes in contact with cold oil, rock,
and water. When the steam comes in contact with
the cold environment, it condenses and a hot
water bank is formed. This hot water bank acts as
a water flood and pushes additional oil to the
producing wells.

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Steam Drive Processes:
Several mechanisms have been identified that are
responsible for the production of oil from a steam
drive. These include thermal expansion of the
crude oil, viscosity reduction of the crude oil,
changes in surface forces as the reservoir
temperature increases, and steam distillation of
the lighter portions of the crude oil.

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Steam Drive Processes:
Steam applications have been limited to shallow
reservoirs because as the steam is injected it loses
heat energy in the well bore. If the well is very
deep, all the steam will be converted to liquid
water. Recently, interest has been shown in down
hole steam generation. Research to develop an
economical system is continuing in this area.

Steam drives have been applied in many pilot and

field scale projects with very good success. Oil
recoveries have ranged from 0.3 to 0.6 bbl of oil
per barrel of steam injected.

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Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD):
SAGD is a thermal method used for enhancing the
heavy oil or bitumen recovery. Similar to other
conventional thermal methods, it reduces the oil
viscosity through an increased temperature.
During SAGD, two parallel horizontal wells are
used, 500 to 1000 m long. They are drilled one
above the other, usually at a small distance of 5 to
10 m (Figure 4.2). The lower well is localized near
the bottom of the deposit.

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Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD):

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Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD):

Steam is injected to the upper well, from where it

penetrates the space, gradually forming a steam room
above the well. The steam precipitates in the room, giving
off the heat to the reservoir. Heated oil and condensed
steam gravitationally flow down towards the lower
production well, where the fluids are recovered. The steam
room zone expands in all directions during the process.
For optimizing the SAGD process it is required that the
whole length of the lower part of the room is located
immediately above the production wells, and the steam
produced from this part of the room is minimal. There are
attempts to minimize the steam breakthrough by using
foam to control the steam mobility, this method called Foam
Assisted SAGD (FA-SAGD).

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Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD):
Expected oil recovery for this method can exceed 50%
of resources; and Steam oil ratio is about two which is
significantly lower. This means using two barrels of
water, injected as steam, to produce one barrel of oil.
Horizontal wells, also reduces sand production.
The optimization of well placement is required, in
SAGD wells because no heavy oil can be produced
that lies below the producing (lower) well. If the heavy
oil zone is 10 m thick and the producer well is 3 m off
bottom, then 30% of the oil lies below the producer and
is not recoverable. Similarly, the injector well must be
accurately positioned above the producer (typically 5
1 m).
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Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD):
To improve SAGD method of heavy oil recovery a
multilateral technology was applied, lying in drilling
of two horizontal off-sections. The upper section is
used for the steam injection and the lower one for
the oil recovery .

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Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD):
The multilateral well construction is still considered
to be risky. Despite their potential multilateral
systems are still accepted with a caution. It should
be remembered that a multilateral well may
substitute a number of conventional wells,
significantly increase recovery rates and enabling
the management of small reservoirs.

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In Situ Combustion (Fire flood with vertical wells (~20 API
oil only):
Early attempts at in situ combustion involved what is
referred to as the forward dry combustion process.
The crude oil was ignited down hole, and then a
stream of air or oxygen-enriched air was injected in
the well where the combustion was originated. The
flame front was then propagated through the
reservoir. Large portions of heat energy were lost to
the overburden and underburden with this process.
To reduce the heat losses, researchers devised a
reverse combustion process. In reverse combustion,
the oil is ignited as in forward combustion but the air
stream is injected in a different well.
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In Situ Combustion (Fire flood with vertical wells (~20 API
oil only):
The air is then pushed through the flame front as
the flame front moves in the opposite direction.
Researchers found the process to work in the
laboratory, but when it was tried in the field on a pilot
scale, it was never successful. What they found was
that the flame would be shut off because there was
no oxygen supply and that where the oxygen was
being injected, the oil would self-ignite. The whole
process would then revert to a forward combustion
process .

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In Situ Combustion (Fire flood with vertical wells (~20 API
oil only):
When the reverse combustion process failed, a new
technique called the forward wet combustion process
was introduced 46. This process begins as a forward
dry combustion does, but once the flame front is
established, the oxygen stream is replaced by water.
As the water comes in contact with the hot zone left
by the combustion front, it flashes to steam, using
energy that otherwise would have been wasted. The
steam moves through the reservoir and aids the
displacement of oil. The wet combustion process has
become the primary method of conducting
combustion projects.
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In Situ Combustion (Fire flood with vertical wells (~20 API
oil only):
Not all crude oils are amenable to the combustion
process. For the combustion process to function
properly, the crude oil has to have enough heavy
components to serve as the fuel source for the
combustion. Usually this requires an oil of low API
gravity. As the heavy components in the oil are
combusted, lighter components as well as flue gases
are formed. These gases are produced with the oil
and raise the effective API gravity of the produced oil.
The number of in situ combustion projects has
decreased since 1980. Environmental and other
operational problems have proved to be more than
what some operators want to deal with.
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In Situ Combustion (Fire flood with vertical wells (~20 API
oil only):
The objective of in situ combustion is that; steam
injection pressures are limited because most heavy
oil deposits are relatively shallow. Hence, the
maximum steam temperature is limited by the ideal
gas law. For example, at 1,000-m depth, the
formation pressure will be approximately 10 MPa,
permitting a steam temperature of approximately only
300C. This is too low to provide significant
upgrading on a short time scale. In situ combustion is
capable of much higher temperatures (approximately
700C) which should allow significant upgrading.
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Summary:
While heavy oil production could be increased
using commercial methods, advances in
technology could mitigate all of the challenges; but
FNE oil field is not large enough to do all new
technologies pilot tests, so; only the above
mentioned suitable methods and proven
commerciality for FNE oil fields; would be studied
and modeled by reservoir simulators to find out
that the greatest recovery factor, and then the
potential impact of methods on economics,
environmental effects, and manpower
requirements could be substantial.
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