Field Testing and Diagnostics of Radial-Jet WellStimulation for Enhanced Oil Recovery from

Marginal Reserves
09123-03
Robert Balch
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
RPSEA Onshore Production Conference: Technological Keys to Enhance Production Operations
June 27, 2013
Wichita, Kansas
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rpsea.org

Project Information
o Principal Investigator Robert Balch
Research Engineer - Tongjun Ruan
Graduate and Undergraduate students

o Participants:
Harvard Petroleum Co. LLC
Petroleum Recovery Research Center

o Project Cost -

$1,404,804

RPSEA Share: $656,537

Cost Share:

$748,267

o Timeline:
Project Start Date: 3/28/2011
Project End Date: 3/29/2014
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Objectives

The objectives of this project are to:

o Field-demonstrate a short radius lateral technology
for production enhancement from mature oilfields
o To identify the feasibility and cost efficiency of using
short radius laterals for enhanced oil recovery
o Develop diagnostic methods for tracking the
placement of laterals
o Optimize the design of lateral patterns and fieldvalidate modeling techniques

What is Short Radius Lateral Well Stimulation?

A low cost and low impact drilling system able to make a
right turn in the well-bore and create a short, small radius,
lateral. The most commonly referenced technology is jet
drilling with claimed ranges of ~300ft.

What is Short Radius Lateral Well Stimulation?

o Can replace need

for infill drilling
o Targets bypassed
pay zones
o Targets untapped
compartments

Technologies Jet Drilling

o Casing drill and water jet deployed through a 1

coiled tubing unit
o Weak acid-water pumped through micro jets on a
cutting head
o Jet tip and water supply hose are 0.5 diameter
o Cutting jets on tip eat away at carbonate rock or
carbonate cemented sandstones
o Drive jets push jet tip and pulls hose up to 300 away
from the well bore and helps flush rock residue from
the lateral
o A jagged ~1 jetted lateral increases drainage
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How Does it Work?

1. Drill Through Casing

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Source: radialdrilling.com

2. Switch to Jet Assembly

8
Source: radialdrilling.com

3. Jet the Lateral

9
Source: radialdrilling.com

4. Rotate to Next Hole

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Source: radialdrilling.com

5. Repeat Drilling

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Source: radialdrilling.com

Major Challenges
I.

Develop modeling techniques to allow for

predictive design of optimal lateral placement
A. Simulate effect of laterals
B. History match response from field tests

II. Develop technologies to determine lateral

placement
A. Sensors
B. Remote sensing

III. Quantify feasibility and cost-effectiveness of using

the technology for EOR
A. Perform three field tests in typical Permian basin wells
B. Measure stimulation response
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Development of Modeling Techniques

Sensitivity Study
o Four Modeling cases are under consideration:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Simulate with radials along x and y axis of a square grid

Simulate with radials along axes of a radial grid
Simulate with local grid refinements along laterals
Develop a new equation for well-bore radius

o Refinements to these cases include:

1. Optimizing number of laterals
2. Optimizing lateral length for a variety of spacing's

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Model 1: Square Grid

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Model 2: Radial Grid

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Model 3: Grid Refinements

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Analytical Model

Model basic assumptions:

o

o
o
o

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The pressures at the inner and outer boundaries

are maintained constant (steady-state) by the
boundary aquifer surround reservoir model.
The fluid is single phase and slightly compressible
Mechanical skin is assumed to be zero
The four optional models used for hydraulic lateral
holes are that of Joshi, Giger, Odeh and MIEX
analytical solution adjusted for anisotropy

Analytical Model

Well definition and constraints:

o A vertical production well placed in the geometric
center of the simulation grid
o First production from Jan 1st, 1990 constraining
minimum bottom hole pressure to 28 psi

Hydro Jetting Lateral Placement:

o Four Laterals placed around the vertical well in a
cross-shaped pattern
o With a 1 inch diameter and 300 ft length
o Laterals emplaced in 1990, 2000, or 2010
o Predictive models run until 2020
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Results: Model 1

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Results: Model 2

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Results: Model 3

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Comparison of Incremental Oil

Observations:
o
o
o
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Ultimate recovery is higher with laterals

Ultimate recovery is essentially the same no matter
when laterals are emplaced
Acceleration can occur with earlier placement

Model 2 Refinement: Number of Laterals

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Comparison of Incremental Oil

Observations:
o
o
o
o

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~22.7% Incremental by adding a single lateral

~26.6% Incremental by adding a second lateral
~28.9% Incremental by adding a third lateral
~29.9% Incremental by adding a fourth lateral

First Target

o The first target

well is the "Barbie
State NO.1" which
is located in
Millman Field,
Eddy County, New
Mexico
o San AndresGreyburg, mixed
carbonates and
sandstones
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Building Reservoir Geomodel

o Utilizing Well log data, core data, and depositional

understanding to build a facies based model which
represents our best understanding of the geology
o Will start by history matching production and
pressure to date of the stimulation
o After the stimulation occurs:
Will model the stimulation effect and match 3-6
months of new production data
Determine best type of gridding algorithm to use

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Digitized Contour Map Top of Structure

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3D model and Layers

o Layers determined
by log analysis
o 5 layers were used

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Major Challenges
I.

Develop modeling techniques to allow for

predictive design of optimal lateral placement
A. Simulate effect of laterals
B. History match response from field tests

II. Develop technologies to determine lateral

placement
A. Sensors
B. Remote sensing

III. Quantify feasibility and cost-effectiveness of using

the technology for EOR
A. Perform three field tests in typical Permian basin wells
B. Measure stimulation response
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Develop Technologies to Determine Lateral

Placement

Some Significant Challenges

o Sensor must be self contained
No direct contact with surface since sensor needs to be
deployed on end of a water hose

o Must operate in a hostile environment

Weak acid water, oil, other chemicals
Heat up to 180oF
Up to 300gs of acceleration as nozzle moves down channel

o Must be very small

Approximately 0.5inch diameter and 1.5 inches long

o Must be inexpensive to fabricate/replace

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Develop Technologies to Determine Lateral

Placement

Small and durable components exist:

o Piezoelectric accelerometers
Small scale and high g
Can measure very small deviations from a
known point

o Programmable control chip

On-chip memory
Readable by a laptop or portable device at
surface

o Battery

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Must be able to log continuously for about an

hour while tool is deployed and ran out to end
of jetted lateral

Component Sizes

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System Architecture
Microcontroller
SCK
SDI
SDO
PIC12F1840
INT
CS1
CS2

3-Axis Accelerometer
SCK
SDO
SDI
INT
CS

LIS331

SCK
SDO SST25VF06
SDI 4C
CS
Serial Flash Memory

Software Design (C and Assembler)

o Downloaded, Installed and Configured MPLAB X
IDE v1.2
o Ordered MPLAB XC8 C compiler
o Collected useful open source, example and sample
codes
o Based on the datasheets of:
PIC12F1840(Micro Controller)
LIS331(3-axies Accelerometer)
LIS331 breakout
SST25VF064C(Serial Flash Memory)
o Application notes and XC8 Manual etc.
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Why Use C?
o C is an intermediate language. Assembler is a low level
language
o Assembly language is used to program the Microcontroller,
Sensor and SST25VF64C chips.
Hexadecimal, converts to binary on chip
o C can handle pages and math operation
o C code is easy to read and maintain
o C codes efficiency is very good and provides a bridge
between the mind of the programmer and the machine level
of the chips

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C Program to Assembly Program

CProgram
CCompiler
AssemblyProgram
Assembler
Binarycode
PIC12F1840
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MPLAB

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X IDE

Software Flow Diagram

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Interrupt Service Routine

ReadFromLIS311
WriteintoSST25VF64C
Return

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Development Tool - REAL ICE

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Test Circuit on Breadboard

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Signal wave format

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SF600 - Serial Flash Memory

o SF600 is a programmer
to Read and Erase the
SPI Flash memory
soldered on board
o Controlled by DediProg
Software on PC
through the USB bus

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44

45

Build into PCB and Test in LAB

o Cut a piece of PCB

from Prototype
PCB
solder on
PIC12F1840 and
SST25VF064C
o Connect with
LIS331 break out

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Put into D x 1 L hose

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Positive Test with Logic Analyzer!

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Testing the Device

o Testing:
Ran through a
curved PVC pipe a
few times
Took it for a walk
Drove around in car
Dangled and swung

o After several hours

disconnected battery
and read memory

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Total 2.5+ hours

SF600 read out the
data
Nearly 5.5 MB data.
Battery (3.07v2.9v)/3.07 =0.026
Drop (2.6%)

Raw data read by SF600

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Data Process algorithm, Software and 3-D

Display/Animation
o Currently Developing Data Processing algorithm
o Software - Using Java to develop
have developed a routine to translate raw data into X-Y-Z
table (Eclipse Java IDE)

o 3-D Display/Animation - Open Source SciDaVis

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Data Processing using Java

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Data Translated into an X-Y-Z Table

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Data Processing Flow Chart

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Data Transformation and Noise Filter

o Recorded acceleration raw data (integers)
are converted into real numbers (double
precision)
o Then transformed:
o A(t)=A(t)*scale_6g*9.81 for X Y and Z axis
respectively

o A moving average digital noise filter is used

to reduce the noise

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From Acceleration to Position

Based on the filtered accelerations the position

data can be obtained with a double integration.

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Tri-Axis Tilt Sensing and Calculation

X, Y and Z axes tilt relative to ground

o and represent the angles that the X and Y

accelerometer maxes make with the fixed reference XY
plane, and is the angle of the Z axis relative to gravity,
these angles can be calculated:
o = arcsin(Ax)
o = arcsin (Ay)
o = arccos (Az)
o Based on the angles we can identify if the sensor was
turning(Tilt) from the vertical well into the jetted lateral
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Recorded Data (Transformed, Un-filtered)

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Computed Position

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SciDaVis Software

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Current Work

o Finalizing development of the algorithm and software to

process the raw data and display the results
o Draw a PCB design and find a company to make PCB and
solder the devices on PCB
TinyDataLogger
TinyDataLogger with Gyro chip

o Work with drilling contractor on casing

o Test in real world

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Oilfield tests with Harvard Petroleum

Major Challenges
I.

Develop modeling techniques to allow for

predictive design of optimal lateral placement
A. Simulate effect of laterals
B. History match response from field tests

II. Develop technologies to determine lateral

placement
A. Sensors
B. Remote sensing

III. Quantify feasibility and cost-effectiveness of using

the technology for EOR
A. Perform three field tests in typical Permian basin wells
B. Measure stimulation response
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Quantify Feasibility and Cost-Effectiveness

o Three sites selected in Permian basin
Site 1: San Andres (Carbonate)
Site 2: Greyburg (Shallow Carbonates/Sandstone)
Site 3: Upper Delaware (Sandstone)

o Each is a work over of an existing well

Allows for immediate measurement of stimulation impact
Provides ample data for simulation and modeling

o Data will be used to calibrate predictive modeling

techniques
Simulation models?
Custom key word for effective radius for jetted laterals?

o Current Status:
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Finalize contract with drilling company

Waiting field equipment for first test

Questions?

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Contacts

PI: Robert Balch

balch@prrc.nmt.edu
575.835.5305

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RPSEA PM: Charlotte Schroeder

cschroeder@rpsea.org
281.690.5506