Production Process and Operations

1. Hydrocarbon Industry Overview 1. Resources- Reserves Production 2. Conventional 3. Unconventional 4. Colombian Quick Overview 2. Upstream, Midstream and Down Stream 3. Exploration and Production Live Cycle 4. Exploration Process and Operations

5. Production Process and Operations Primary- Secondary and Tertiary Recovery 6. Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

Production Process and Operations Cycle of Oil Production Process

Exploration
Abandon Tertiary Recovery Secondary Recovery

Discovery Exploration and Production Cycle

Delimitation

Development

Primary Recovery

Production Process and Operations Cycle of Oil Production Process

Oil Production, BOPD

Secondary Recovery

Ternary Enhanced Oil Recovery

12 - 15 % OOIP

Primary Recovery

10 - 15 % OOIP

5 - 25 % OOIP

Time

Reserves

Production Process and Operations Primary recovery

Production reservoirs usually start such as natural production taking advantages of gas or water drive reservoirs that gives a formation pressure high enough to force crude oil into the well and sometimes to the surface through the tubing. However, many oil reservoirs enter production with a formation pressure high enough to push the oil into the well but not up to the surface through the tubing. In these cases, some means of artificial lift must be installed.
Pumps at the bottom of the production tubing that is operated by a motor. Gas lift, uses gas bubbles to lower the density of the oil, allowing the reservoir pressure to push it to the surface.

The means by which the initial production is achieved, in many cases, a secondary recovery method, such as waterflood, is required to maintain an economical reservoir production rate.

Production Process and Operations Primary recovery: natural drive and artificial lift
The First and Most Important Step Primary oil recovery is the first phase, which happens once a well has been drilled from the surface to an underground reserve. Gravity, along with the pressure inside the reservoir, forces the oil into the wellbore. From here, the oil is brought to the surface through mechanical means, like a pump jack. The primary phase of oil recovery continues until the pressure inside the well is no longer enough to produce oil in quantities that make it financially worthwhile.

Production Process and Operations Primary recovery: natural drive and artificial lift
Once an accumulation of oil has been found in a porous and permeable reservoir, a series of wells are drilled in a predetermined pattern to effectively drain this oil pool. Wells may be drilled as close as one to each 10 aces (660 ft. between wells) or as far apart as one to each 640 acres (1 mile between wells) depending on the type of reservoir and the depth to the pay horizon. The rate of production is highest at the start when all of the energy from the dissolved gas or water drive is still available. As this energy is used up, production rates drop until it becomes uneconomical to operate although significant amount of oil still remains in the reservoir.

Production Process and Operations

When Primary methods are Not Enough

Primary oil recovery is the first option to the oil-exploration industry. There are also secondary and tertiary recovery methods. These methods make it possible to access another 20 - 30 percent of a reserve's crude supply.

Production Process and Operations Secondary recovery: injection of gas or water

Secondary recovery is based on the injection of fluids for supplying extra energy into the reservoir and push the oil to the production wells. Secondary recovery is accomplished by injecting GAS or WATER into the reservoir to replace produced fluids and thus maintain or increase the reservoir pressure. When gas alone is injected, it is usually put into the top of the reservoir, where petroleum gases normally collect to form a gas cap. When water is injected, it is pumped into the oil reservoir from several sites around the field; (inset) within the formation, the injected water forces oil toward the production well.

Connate water

Grains of sand

Oil

Gas

Production Process and Operations Secondary recovery: injection of gas or water

An even more widely practiced secondary recovery method is Water injection waterflooding . After being treated to remove any material that might interfere with its movement in the reservoir, water is injected through some of the wells in an oil field. Water moves through the formation, pushing oil toward the production wells. Water injection is the most widely applied enhanced recovery technique. The source of water to be injected comes from: Water that is produced and separated from the oil in the initial production phase. Water coming from external sources, like subsurface aquifers or surface streams.

Production Process and Operations Secondary recovery: water injection

Production Process and Operations Secondary recovery: water injection

The waterflooding is a cheap process and also is a very efficient mechanism to produce oil in most of the cases. These are some of the reasons to be worldwide used as the most common secondary recovery process. Nevertheless, the injection water helps to produce de mobile oil in the reservoirs pushing the oil toward to the production wells. This is a dragging process that depends on oil-water viscosity ratio. The mobility of the water and oil is controlled by the mobility ratio M among others variables, and help to define the efficiency of the waterflooding process.

M = f (o/w)

M = (Kw/w)/ (Ko/o)

Production Process and Operations Secondary recovery: water injection

Injector Producer

Instead of have a piston like displacement, the differences in viscosity allow the water to find paths to the producer, leaving and important amount of oil behind the water front. This phenomena is called fingering, and reduces the water injection efficiency.

Good sweep process

Fingering Effects

Production Process and Operations Secondary recovery: water injection

Injector

Producer

Production Process and Operations Tertiary recovery

Tertiary recovery, involves all methods to maximize the oil recovery beyond the primary and secondary processes, this is usually considered the last step in the life of a reservoir. It is commonly called Enhanced Oil Recovery - EOR. Enhanced recovery techniques are used to: 1. Improve the sweep efficiency and 2. Mobilize the remaining oil. There are three common approaches: Thermal recovery . Use of heat to make the oil flow more easily, and increase pressure forcing it to the surface. Steam injection into the formation. In-situ combustion air injection Gas injection. Miscible - immiscible process. Use of gas to drive oil or lower its viscosity and increase flow. CO2, propane, methane or other gases. Chemical flooding. involves mixing dense to increase the water viscosity and improve the mobility ratio, and also to reduce the interfacial tension (IFT), to remove some oil sticked in the reservoir rock. water-soluble polymers with water and, water-soluble Surfactant Polymer solution

Production Process and Operations Ternary recovery

Production Process and Operations Secondary versus Tertiary Recovery

Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

Enhanced Oil Recovery Thermal Process

In this process steam in injected into the reservoir, the hot water front is formed and the heat is transferred from the this front to the reservoir fluids, increasing the temperature of the fluids and reducing the viscosity, hence improving the mobility ratio. There are two ways to inject steam: Cycling Steam Injection Continuous Steam Injection

Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

Enhanced Oil Recovery Thermal Process

The cycling process consist on injecting steam in the producer well for some time and then close the well to allow the heat transfer, and finally open the well to production again.

This process takes at least 4 to 6 cycles and the it is necessary to move forward to the continuous steam injection process.

Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

Enhanced Oil Recovery Thermal Process

This is basically a thermodynamic process, where air is injected and an ignition is initiated to promote combustion process using the reservoir oil. The Oil is splitted or cracked into small molecules with lower viscosity and then is more ease to move toward the production wells.

Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

Enhanced Oil Recovery Non Thermal Process
This process concerns the injection of gas into the oil zone. The injected gas along with oil emerges shortly after taken. There is miscible and immiscible injection gas process. In the miscible process, the gas goes into the oil body reducing the viscosity in a process called swelling. The immiscible process allow the injected gas to increase the reservoir pressure and push the oil to the producer wells.

Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

Enhanced Oil Recovery Non Thermal Process
The Chemical flooding can be divided into two process To improve the sweep efficiency. To reduce the Residual Oil Saturation. For sweep efficiency, the most common method is to inject water-soluble polymers along with the water, to have a denser fluid pushing the oil to the production wells. The process improves the oil recovery because the front moves more like piston displacement.

Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

Enhanced Oil Recovery Non Thermal Process
Once the polymer flooding push all the oil to the producer well, into the reservoir there are still an important amount of oil, but it is basically non- mobile. To allow this oil the be movable, is it important to reduces de cohering forces, reducing the interfacial tension (IFT), between oil and water and allow the oil to move. To do this it is necessary to inject an chemicals that reduce IFT, the most common products used are the Surfactants.

Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

Enhanced Oil Recovery Non Thermal Process

The application of Surfactants into the reservoir has the For sweep efficiency, the most common method is to inject water-soluble polymers along with the water, to have a denser fluid pushing the oil to the production wells. The process improve the oil recovery because the front moves more like piston displacement.

Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

Enhanced Oil Recovery Non Thermal Process
In summary Chemical flooding can be divided into to groups:
Surfactants is produced primary by saponification process, same as any soap. That means that surfactants can be produced by interaction of Alkalis and organic acids.

Injection of Polymer

Linear polymer Cross linked polymer

Injection of Surfactants Surfactant Polymer (SP) Alkali Surfactant Polymer (ASP)

When the oil contains important amount of acid components, it is possible to inject some Alkalis to allow they to react and produce in-situ surfactant.

Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

Enhanced Oil Recovery Non Thermal Process
Ususally the batches injected in the different chemical process are:

Tomado de Oil Recovery Enhancements, Course 2011, Mojdeh Delshad

Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

SUMMARY
Han visualizado procesos afines a la ingeniera Qumica en los diferentes mtodos de recobro de Petrleo? El flujo de fluidos en un medio poroso es muy diferente al flujo por tuberas?? Que tipo de ecuaciones se utilizan para evaluar el flujo de fluidos?

Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

SUMMARY
Han visualizado procesos afines a la ingeniera Qumica en los diferentes mtodos de recobro de Petrleo?

Darcys Equation Viscous forces

Capillary forces

Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

SUMMARY

Son los procesos de EOR afines a la ingeniera qumica?

Procesos de Cracking Transferencia de Energa Transferencia de masa Proceso de viscosificacin - dilucin

Fluid Flow in Porous Media

Reacciones qumicas (saponificacin)

Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

3 2 1
Sostener la produccin de campos actuales en ms de 800 KBDE
Aumentar la produccin con nuevas reservas Desarrollar HNC y continuar estrategia de compras de oportunidad

1,3 MBPED

1 MBPED

Hallazgos
30%
Potencial Factor de Recobro de campos actuales

23%
Factor de Recobro Proyectado 2013 Campos actuales

18%

Factor de Recobro actual

Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies

GRACIAS