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Surfactant as a successful enhanced oil recovery (EOR) agent has been widely used in many mature
reservoirs. This research focuses on the description of surfactant solution at low permeability
condition. A new three-dimensional, two-phase, three-component surfactant simulator is presented.
The simulator is based on the non-Darcy flow characteristics of surfactant flooding in the low
permeability formations. The change of threshold pressure and influences of surfactant on convection,
diffusion, adsorption, and retention, are all considered. A new equation for the calculation of surfactant
adsorption is employed, which can significantly promote the matching degree between the
mathematical model and field practice. This mathematical model was adopted to conduct a field scale
simulation modeling for a surfactant flooding pilot of the Chao-522 field, Daqing.
Key words: Surfactant flooding, simulation, threshold pressure, pilot test.
INTRODUCTION
Oil-production from enhanced oil recovery projects
continues to supply an increasing percentage of the
worlds oil. Taber et al. (1997) estimated that more and
more of the worldwide oil production would come from
EOR. That number has continued to increase and in the
future it is expected that EOR will eventually produce the
majority of the worlds oil. In China, the use of polymer in
Daqing has already obtained a great success. Surfactant
functions work by adding certain concentrations of
surfactants to injection water to reduce the interfacial
tension (IFT) between displacing and displaced phases
(Hornof et al., 1983; Gao et al., 2010). Flow of the
surfactant formulation through the reservoir allows the
trapped oil droplets to deform and become mobile oil.
These oil droplets then coalesce and form a new flowing
oil bank.In the process of surfactant flooding, the
surfactant adsorbs onto the oil-water interface and
surface of rock which may also make a wettability change
of rock (Kang and Liu 1996). The experiment shows that
the oil drops are becoming easier to deform when the oilwater interfacial tension reduces, so the resistant force
lowers when the oil drops flow through the pore throat.
Ming
107
KK
The reservoir simulation software that includes the
threshold pressure is not reported. Because of the
existence of threshold pressure, current commercial
simulators cannot exactly reflect the flow of surfactant
solution in the low-permformations. In order to overcome
this obstacle, the investigation of a simulator for
surfactant floods with threshold pressure was conducted.
Because the cost of surfactant is comparatively high,
the amount of surfactant used is one of biggest concerns
and should be first determined for the field application to
obtain the maximum economic benefit. Thus, it is very
important to conduct reservoir numerical simulation study.
On the basis of compositional model, a mathematical
model of surfactant flooding was established, in which the
changes of threshold pressure and relative permeability
which are caused by surfactant flooding (Yin et al., 2010),
and influence of adsorption and retention of surfactant in
the reservoir are included in the model. This model was
used to optimize the injection plan for pilot test of
surfactant flooding in Chaoyanggou oilfield of Daqing to
provide a theoretical basis of decision for the
development of oilfield.
ro
KK
o
rw
o Co2 (po o gz Dp e)
Cw 2 (pw w gz Dp e)]
( s C s C ) q C q C
o o o2
w w
w2
o o o2
w w
w2
t
(2)
[Do3 so(3Co3 ) Dw3 sw (3Cw3 )] K[
Krw
o gz Dp e)
Kro 3
Co3 (po
sC
Cw3 (pw w gz Dp e)] t ( 3 o o3 3ao3
pc po pw
(4)
s o sw 1
(5)
M Co3 / Cw3
(6)
Mathematical Model
phase,
MODELING
Co
KK ro o
o1
(p
gk
o
D e)
p
KKw w
C
o1
o1
q C
o
o1
(7)
Continuity equations
KKro o
s C
o
(po o gz Dpe)
KK rw w
rw
K[ o MCw3 (po o gk Dp e) w
C
w3
(pw w gk Dp e)]
(9)
(1)
108
1
2
xi
1
2
j 1
1
2
y j
k1
k 1
zk
n1
i, j ,k
a
k
n
i, j ,k
; e is
unit vector, e i j k .
The choice of positive or negative sign for threshold
pressure is determined by the signs of
o3
w3
(11)
(12)
meet
the
following
conditions:
Bi (0) 0 , Bi (1) 1.
l p n (l=x, y, z),
Model solution
The method of implicit pressure, explicit saturation,
andimplicit concentration is used to solve equation, the
steps are as follows: Difference Equations (7), (8), (4)
and (5) are used to implicitly calculate pressure; The
values of pressure are substituted into difference
equation (8) to explicitly calculate values of water
saturation; then substituting pressure value po and value
of saturation sw into Equations (6) and (9) to implicitly
compute values of concentration Co3 , Cw3 .
Adsorption treatment
th
(10)
s
oNi
Cw3i .
s s
o
ori
s s
1
(13)
When the surfactant concentration in some place of oil
wc
ori
s orx s ori
w3 x
C
w3i 1
w3i
C
w3i
(s ori 1 s ori )
(14)
Ming
109
Year
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
Non-major layers
Permeability
Permeability
of water
of water
absorbing
absorbing
thickness (%)
layers (%)
91.0
85.7
59.7
61.1
61.1
52.1
55.9
47.3
60.3
56.5
64.1
57.1
61.3
58.5
Non-connected layers
Permeability of
Permeability
water
of water
absorbing
absorbing
thickness (%)
layers (%)
48.1
50.0
52.9
33.3
85.1
75.0
45.2
40.9
56.6
40.0
30.0
50.0
Total
Permeability of
Permeability of
water
water absorbing
absorbing
thickness (%)
layers (%)
87.8
81.4
82.2
76.6
76.0
69.5
67.1
61.1
63.8
61.4
59.3
54.6
60.9
57.7
Water
injection
3
(m /d )
<10
10-20
20-30
>30
total
No. of
wells
8
15
14
9
46
Effective
thickness
(m)
8.5
9.2
9.3
10.1
9.3
Thickness
of connected
layers (m)
6.5
7.6
7.1
7.8
7.3
Fracturing
pressure
(MPa)
14.1
14.1
13.9
14.0
14.0
C C
K rox K roxi
w3x
C
w3i1
w3i
so is:
(K roxi1 K roxi )
Injection
pressure
(MPa)
14.6
14.2
13.5
13.9
14.0
Allocated
injection
3
(m )
110
310
420
480
1320
Actual
injection
3
(m )
60
267
401
442
1170
Water injection
intensity
3
(m /dm)
0.88
1.93
3.08
4.86
2.73
w3i
(15)
The interpolation method of relative permeability of water
phase is the same as the oil phase.
110
Decrease of
pressure (%)
53.6
51.5
42.8
42.6
40.7
Increase of
recovery (%)
5.4
5.3
4.8
5.0
4.6
Core
No.
1
2
3
4
5
(%)
20.0
17.1
14.2
12.5
10.7
K
-3
2
(10 m )
21.6
15.7
9.8
4.3
2.1
S0i
(%)
64.1
66.2
59.5
63.6
58.6
Injection
rate (%)
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
Injected
PV
2.8
3.5
4.1
2.7
3.9
Initial injection
pressure (MPa)
2.2
2.6
2.1
2.7
2.7
Final injection
pressure (MPa)
0.91
1.28
1.20
1.55
1.60
16
2000
1999
15
1998
14
1997
13
0
50
100
150
Water injection(m )
Figure 2. Water injection curve for Well Chao 84-144
concentration, water saturation.
Ming
111
Scheme
1
2
3
4
Concentration
Slug volume
Cost increase
(%)
(PV)
(104 RMB)
Injection
increase
(104m3)
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.02
16.9
33.8
50.7
67.6
0.974
1.331
1.428
1.504
Recovery
Increase
(%)
0.88
1.37
1.42
1.47
Cumulative
oil increase
(104t)
Revenue
increase
(104 RMB)
Net benefit
increase
(104RMB)
0.216
0.336
0.348
0.360
245.1
381.6
395.5
409.5
228.2
347.8
344.7
341.8
Cumulative
oil increase
(104t)
0.476
0.778
0.905
1.017
Revenue
increase
(104 RMB)
540.3
882.8
1027.6
1126.9
Table 5. Development indexes and economic indexes of schemes at the different slug volumes.
Scheme
5
6
7
8
Concentration
Slug volume
Cost increase
(%)
(PV)
(104 RMB)
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
0.05
0.10
0.20
0.40
84.6
169.2
338.4
676.8
Injection
increase
(104m3)
1.822
2.716
3.451
3.874
Recovery
Increase (%)
1.94
3.17
3.69
4.05
Net benefit
increase
(104 RMB)
455.7
713.6
689.2
450.1
Scheme
Concentration
(%)
9
10
11
1.0
1.0
1.0
Slug
volume
(PV)
0.10
0.10
0.10
Slug
mode
2
3
4
Cost
increase
4
(10 RMB)
172.5
179.0
188.0
Recovery
increase
(%)
3.23
3.27
3.30
Cumulative
oil increase
4
(10 t)
0.793
0.802
0.810
Revenue
increase
4
(10 RMB)
899.5
911.8
919.0
Net benefit
increase
4
(10 RMB)
727.8
732.4
631.0
Injection process
Pilot testing
112
Conclusions
1. The laboratory experiments showed that the surfactant
flooding lowered the threshold pressure by more than
40% and increase the oil recovery efficiency of low
permeability by 5.0% of OOIP at Chao-522 reservoir
conditions;
2. A three-dimensional, two-phase, three-component
mathematical model for surfactant flooding is established,
which is able to reflect the changes of threshold pressure,
influence of convection, diffusion and adsorption of
surfactant on rock;
3. The method to calculate surfactant adsorption quantity
and treatment of relative permeability curve are improved,
which increase the matching between simulation results
and field application, the calculation error of main
development indexes is within 6.0%;
4. The pilot test shows that surfactant flooding can
Ming
113
K
Nomenclature: K , Permeability;
ro
relative
phase
permeability;
permeability;
porosity;
, gas
rg
oil phase
relative
o , oil viscosity;
g ,
gas viscosity;
water
difference
saturation;
C w3x ,
orx
, residual oil
surfactant concentration;
C w3i , ith
a, b , adsorption coefficients;
Cr , adsorption concentration.
REFERENCES
Feng Y, Ji B, Gao P (2010). An Improved Grey Relation Analysis
Method and Its Application in Dynamic Description for a Polymer
Flooding Pilot of Xingshugang Field, Daqing. SPE 128510,
presented at the North Africa Technical Conference and Exhibition,
14-17 February 2010, Cairo, Egypt
Gao P, Towler B, Zhang X (2010). Integrated Evaluation of SurfactantPolymer Floods. SPE-129590, presented at the 2010 SPE EOR
Conference at Oil & Gas West Asia, 11-13 April 2010 in Muscat,
Oman.