SPE 88453

Simulation Analysis of Microbial Well Treatment of Bokor Field, Malaysia

Zahari Ibrahim, SPE, Petroleum Management Unit, Mohd Ismail Omar, SPE, Khor Siak Foo, SPE, and Ezrin J ohanna
Elias, PETRONAS Research & Scientific Services and Mohamad Othman, SPE, PETRONAS Carigali
Copyright 2004, Society of PetroleumEngineers Inc.

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and
Exhibition held in Perth, Australia, 1820 October 2004.

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Abstract

A total of eight wells in Bokor field, Sarawak were subjected
for microbial treatment using the huff and puff method. All
treated wells responded differently to the treatment. Increased
gross liquid production and reduced water-cut were the
primary means of net oil gained in some of the wells while
others showed no significant changes after treatment. Well
production performances and laboratory analysis are
insufficient to conclude these discrepancies.

To further evaluate and understand the well performances, an
extensive simulation study has been conducted using the
CMG-STARS simulator on two treated wells, which are B-1
and B-3. The simulation results were compared and matched
to the actual well production trends to verify the well model
built. Sensitivity analysis was performed to quantify various
possible treatment impacts. The approach developed
successfully represents the well responses and gives an insight
look at the microbial behavior responsible for oil recovery.

Introduction

Microbial well stimulation treatments have been advancing
rapidly and fast becoming a promising well production
enhancement technique in many parts of the world. The
success of any microbial treatment project very much relies on
the candidate well characteristics and the treatment program
applied.

In many of the field cases carried out worldwide so far,
facultative bacteria were used as they can grow as aerobes if
oxygen is present or as anaerobes if otherwise. This group of
bacteria produces relatively large amounts of surfactants
(lipopeptides surfatin and rhamnolipid), solvents (acetone,
ethanol, butanol, iso-propanol and 2,3-butanediol), organic
acids (acetic, lactic, butyric) and large quantities of gases
(carbon dioxide, methane and nitrogen). Each of these oil
recovery-enhancing chemicals has contributed differently on
the oil recovery mechanism. One product may have a more
profound recovery impact than the others depending on the
environment that the cells are subjected to in the reservoir.
The nutritional conditions that support the cell growth and cell
viability has also shown to determine the recovery mechanism.

Project Background. PETRONAS has conducted microbial
stimulation treatment on a total of 8 wells of the Bokor Field,
Sarawak in 2000 and 2002. Background on the field and its
applications can be found in References 1 and 2. Generally, all
the treated wells responded differently to the treatment.
Increased gross liquid production and reduced watercut were
the primary means of net oil gained in some of the wells while
others showed no significant changes after the treatment.

The objective of this study was to simulate the treatment and
subsequent performance of two selected wells, which are the
B-1 well and B-3 well. These two wells were chosen due to its
ambiguous well response following microbial treatment in
J uly 2000. The additional oil gains recorded from the well
may one thought as the direct impacts from the microbial
treatment or it might due to the changes in gas lift setting after
the treatment. Combination of both effects could have also
been perceived as giving the positive benefit.

Well production performances and laboratory analysis lack the
quantitative measures needed to understand the discrepancies
of the varied results. This study has successfully provided a
methodology and an approach for simulating possible
processes and provides an improved understanding of the
contributing factors to incremental production and
mechanisms that took place.

Well History

B-1 indicates a general decline in production rates from about
1200 bpd to about 200 bpd over 20 years of production period.
Watercut had shown significant decrease following the
microbial treatment. As for B-3, it also shows a production
decline trend over the same period from approximately 1600
bpd to about 600 bpd. It is observed that there is an apparent
increase in liquid production rate after implementation of
microbial treatment in J uly 2000 (Reference 1).