Vous êtes sur la page 1sur 1

SPE 153602 Unusual Asphaltene Phase Behavior of Fluids from Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela

D. L. Gonzalez, Schlumberger; M. E. Garcia, PDVSA; O. Diaz, Schlumberger

Copyright 2012, Society of Petroleum Engineers This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Latin American and Caribbean Petroleum Engineering Conference held in Mexico City, Mexico, 1618 April 2012. This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract Reservoir fluids from the Lake Maracaibo have reportedly caused asphaltene operational problems ranging from plugging of wellbores, pipelines and flowlines to clogging of facilities [Garcia et al, SPE 65009, 2001]. Production of fluids from some part of the region has dramatically reduced due to asphaltene precipitation and deposition [Vladimir et al., SPE 130559, 2010]. Asphaltene and wax precipitation is a serious problem in production, transport and processing of reservoir fluids. Of particular concern are the effects of asphaltene precipitation and their potential to disrupt production due to deposition in the near-wellbore regions and production tubulars. This phenomenon is directly influenced by changes in temperature, pressure and composition. Commonly, low temperatures within the well and flow lines increase the probability of asphaltene precipitation; however, experimental studies on this fluid demonstrated unusual asphaltene phase behavior. As part of a Formation Damage investigation, this project involved experimental studies on fluid phase behavior. The main challenges with these fluids from the Maracaibo area are the relative high H2S content (1-3%), high reservoir temperature (270F) and the asphaltenic nature of the crudes. The asphaltene precipitation envelope was determined using different laboratory methods, such as Solid Detection System (SDS) / Near Infrared (NIR), High Pressure Microscope (HPM), Particle Size Analysis (PSA) and gravimetric techniques. As expected, a significant amount of asphaltene was observed that precipitates during depressurization. However, good reversibility of the precipitated asphaltene was also observed below the bubble point and during re-pressurization. What was unusual about this fluid was the unconventional asphaltene precipitation onsets found at low temperatures. For most of the crude oils worldwide, asphaltene precipitation onset pressure increases at low temperature; however, the fluids in evaluation have shown a non typical behavior. Such behavior was earlier reported by Ting et al, 2003 on the Maracaibo oils, however, no reports been published since. Introduction The Maracaibo basin of western Venezuela is considered one of the most oil prolific areas in the world [Goddard et al, 2002]. The petroleum production in this region began around 1911 when several oil seeps were found [Goddard et al., 2002]. It was only after 1946 that the first wells were drilled and produced. Later, in 1970, new developments were completed; commercial exploitation started in 1982. The field of this study is located in the western and center parts of the Lake Maracaibo basin. The location of the field is presented in Figure 1. The field covers an area of 798.6 km2 with a total of 116 wells drilled. It has three main producing zones from Miocene, Eocene and Cretaceous ages, with depths ranging from 8,000 to 17,500 ft true vertical depth (TVD). Since 2006, the field has been operated by Petroregional del Lago, a joint venture formed by Petroleos de Venezuela-PDVSA (60%) and Shell (40%)

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi