Chapter 5: Exploration and General Methods for Oil Recovery Notes

Petroleum is found in the microscopic pores of sedimentary rocks such

as sandstone and limestone.
Not all pores have petroleum, some have water or brine
Seismic Surveys are used to predict where oil fields may be
But only way to make sure is to drill
Each reservoir is different due to geometry, pressure, depth, rock type
and permeability, and fluid properties. Due to this each reservoir will
have different production rates

The 3 Recovery Techniques

Primary- The natural pressure of the reservoir or gravity drive oil into
the well bore and artificial techniques such as pumps bring the oil to
the surface. Typically, 10% of reservoirs original oil is recovered.
Secondary- Injecting water or gas to displace oil and drive it to a
production well bore, resulting in recovery of 20 40 % of the O.O.I.P
Tertiary Lowering the viscosity of crude oil by using thermal energy to
increase oil mobility
The ultimate recovery of the original-in-place may be as high as 33%
for oil and 80% or more for gas
Typically only about 10 % of reservoirs original oil in place is produced
during primary recovery

In limestone reservoirs rocks, acid is pumped down the well and out
the perforations. The acid creates channels in the limestone that lead
oil into the well.
In sandstone reservoirs rocks a specially blended fluid containing
proppants (sand, walnuts shells, aluminum pellets) is pumped down
the well and out of the perforations
The pressure from this fluid makes small fractures in the sandstone
that allow oil to flow into the well
The proppants hold these fractures open
In most wells, acidizing or fracturing the well starts the oil flow.
Once the oil is flowing the oil rig is removed from the side, and the
production equipment is set up to extract the oil from the well.
Directional drilling is also used to reach formations and targets not
directly below the penetration point or to drill form shore to locations
under water

 Drilling does not end when production commences.

Extension wells must be drilled to define the boundaries of the crude
oil pool.
In-field wells are necessary to increase recovery rates and service wells
are used to reopen wells that have become clogged
Additionally, wells are often drilled at the same location but to different
depths to test other geological structures for the presence for the oil
Often, multilateral wells are drilled into the same reservoir to
enhance production
5.1: Exploration

Best place to find new crude oil is near where it has already been
found
Petroleum is extracted by drilling wells from the surface into the
hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir. The wells control and contain all fluid
flow.
First stage in extraction of crude is to drill a well into the reservoir.
(Often many wells are drilled)
If underground pressure in oil reservoir is sufficient, the oil will be
forced to the surface (Primary Recovery)
Christmas Tree (arrangement of valves) is placed on the wellhead to
connect the well to a pipeline network.
Over lifetime of the well, the natural pressure will fail. Secondary
recovery techniques inject water, CH4, gases to increase the
reservoirs pressure. On avg 1/3 of O.O.I.P is recovered by 1ary and
2ndary techniques. But can range from 5 to 80%.

Exploration
Once the final depth has been reached the well is competed to allow oil
to flow into the casing in a controlled manner
First a perforating gun is lowered into the well to the production depth
The gun has explosive charges that create holes in the casing through
which oil can flow!!

 After the casing has been perforated (holes made) a small diameter
pipe (tubing) is run into the hole as a conduit for oil and gas to flow up
the well and a packer is run down the outside of the tubing.
When the packer is set at the production level, it is expanded to form a
seal around the outside of the tubing.
Finally, a Christmas tree is installed at the top of tubing and cemented
to the top of the casing. Christmas tree allows control of the flow of oil
from the well.

Finally, the drilling job is complete when the drill bit penetrates the
reservoir
The reservoir is evaluated to see whether the well represents the
discovery of a prospect or it is a dry hole
Evaluation is initiated by examining the cuttings from the well bore for
evidence of hydrocarbons.
At this time, a wire line is lowered into the hole and an electric log is
run to help ascertain possible producing intervals, presence of

hydrocarbons and detailed information about the different formations

throughout the well bore

These are physical measurements made by instruments lowered into

the well hole
They include measurements of temperature the produced rate of oil
and gas that is being produced in the well radioactivity levels, rock
permeability and porosity fluid resistivity, etc..
Secondary Recovery Methods
The usually recover an additional 20 % to 40 % of OOIP
Two objectives are to maintain the pressure and push oil into
production well
They employ various techniques such as water/steam/gas injection to
aid in recovering oil from depleted or low pressure reservoirs
Sometimes, pumps such as beam (horsehead) and electrical
submersible pumps are used to bring the oil to the surface

 Secondary wells may be used to pump water, steam, acids or various

gas mixtures into the reservoirs to raise or maintain the reservoir
pressure in order to maintain an economic extraction rate
Primary and secondary recovery methods produce about 1/3 of the
OOIP
However recoveries from individual reservoirs can range from less than
5% to as high as 80% of the OOIP
Tertiary Recovery Methods
These methods rely on reducing the viscosity of the oil and increase oil
mobility, compared to the natural or induced energy methods of
primary and secondary recover.
These methods are applied before secondary recover techniques are
no longer enough to sustain production
Recovery Operation
Production rates from reservoirs on a number of factors, e.g.
1. Reservoirs geometry (primarily formation thickness and reservoir
continuity)
2. Pressure and depth
3. Rock type and permeability
4. Fluid saturation and properties
5. Extent of fracturing
6. Number of wells and their locations
7. The ratio of the permeability of the formation to the viscosity of the
oil
Production can be intensified by
1. fracturing the reservoir to open new channels for flow
2. Injection gas and water to increase the reservoir pressure or
3. lowering oil viscosity with heat or chemicals
Reservoir heterogeneity such as fractures and faults can cause
reservoirs to drain inefficiently by conventional methods
Also, highly cemented or shale zones can produce barriers to the flow
of fluids in reservoirs and lead to high residual oil saturation
Reservoirs containing crude oils with low API gravity often cannot be
produced efficiently without application of EOR methods because of
the high viscosity of the crude oil
Solution Gas Drive
The oil is propelled upward by the dissolved gas
This drive is the least efficient natural drive because of poor control of
the gas-oil ratio
The bottom hole pressure drops rapidly and the total eventual recovery
of petroleum from the reservoir may be less than 20%

Gas Cap Drive

Gas overlies the oil beneath the seal is compressed and drives the oil
into wells situated at the bottom of the oil bearing zone
By producing oil only from below the gas cap, it is possible to maintain
a high gas oil ratio in the reservoir until almost the very end of its life
However, any bypassing of the gas may leave behind an undue
proportion of oil
Typical recovery from a reservoir in a gas cap field is 40% to 50%

Water Drive
It is the most efficient natural drive
The pressure of the water forces the oil out of the reservoir
In anticlinal accumulations, the lowest wells around the flanks are the
first to come into the water
Then the oil-water contact plane moves upward until only the wells at
the top of the anticline producing oil

 The recovery from water drive may run as high as 80%

The force behind the water drive may be hydrostatic pressure, the
expansion of the reservoir, or a combination of both.

Gravity Drive

This drive becomes important when oil columns are of several

thousand meters as in some North American fields
Oil Drains down due to gravity and collects near the production well
Compared to solution gas drive, much higher recoveries are obtained
with water and gas cap drives
Gravity drive when present further promotes oil production
Improvement of Formations
Formation characteristics can be improved by using acidizing and
fracturing
Acidizing involved injecting an acid into soluble formation, such as a
carbonate, where it dissolves rock. This process enlarges the existing
voids and increases permeability
Fracturing (fracking) involves injecting a fluid into the formation under
significant pressure. This makes existing small fractures larger and
creates new fractures.
Heavy oil reservoirs are subject to only one recovery technology
Primary and secondary recovery methods are not applicable to oil
sands because bitumen is not mobile at reservoir conditions
Therefore oil sands developments generally start with a thermal
recovery technology which would be considered a tertiary or enhanced
recovery method for conventional oil
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Slides-------------------------------------------

Recovery Efficiencies
Displacement Efficiency: The fraction of oil that has been recovered
from a zone swept by a waterflood or other displacement process
Areal sweep efficiency (horizontal sweep efficiency): the fraction
of the flood pattern area that is effectively swept by the injected fluids
Vertical displacement efficiency: The ratio of the cumulative height
of the vertical sections of the pay zone that are contacted by injection
fluid to the total vertical pay zone height.

Breakthrough: Access of reservoir fluids to production well.

Screen factor: A qualitative measure of viscosity in polymer flooding.
Ratio of time taken by polymer solution to flow due to gravity through
screen viscometer to that taken by a brine solution.
Secondary Recovery
Begins when underground pressure is not sufficient to force the oil to
the surface
Up to 70% of oil may be left in the reservoir when primary recover
ends
Usually involves, injection of gas or water into the reservoir
Shallow reservoirs tend to have both low pressures and small amounts
of dissolved gas. They are more open to secondary recovery methods.

 Conversely deeper oil reservoirs tend to have higher pressures, more

dissolved gas and consequently fare better with primary recovery
methods
This replaces the space left by produced fluids and maintains or
increases reservoirs pressure
There is no change in the state of oil
Gas used alone is usually injected to the top to form a gas cap
When water is used, the process is water flooding; with gas, gas
flooding
Separate wells are often used for injection and production
Injection wells are located in a pattern that will best push oil toward the
production wells

In reservoirs with high permeability and high vertical span, gas flooding
from the top or into the gas cap may result in high recovery factors
due to gravity segregation
Water flooding is suitable in reservoirs with low permeability and or
thickness
While oil is produced, gas or water are injected at suitable rates to
maintain pressure in the reservoirs at or near the original levels
This helps to keep up production as long as possible.
Produced gas or water can be recycled and disposed of safely in this
manner
Fresh gas or water is also conserved
Mobility: A measure of the ease with which a fluid moves through
reservoir rock. It is the ratio of rock permeability (k) to apparent fluid
viscosity ()
=

 Mobility ratio: The ratio of mobility of an injection fluid to mobility of

fluid being displaced
The mobility ratio (M) is the mobility of the flooding fluid divided by the
mobility of oil
M < 1: indicates a favourable displacement as oil moves faster than
the injected fluid
M > 1 indicates otherwise
The mobility ratio of injected fluid remains constant before
breakthrough but increase after breakthrough

Flooding Patterns
A proper flooding pattern provides the injection fluid with the
maximum possible contact with the crude oil and minimizes bypassing
In a four-spot pattern, three injection wells form an equilateral triangle
with production well at the center. Distance is equal between all wells.
Used when Injectivity is high or heterogeneity is minimal
In a five-spot pattern, four injection wells form a square with a
production well at the center

In a seven-spot pattern the injection wells are located at the corner of

hexagon with a production well at its center
A nine-spot pattern is similar to five-spot pattern but with an extra
injection well drilled at the middle of each side of the square

 Line drives

If a reservoir has lower injectivity or higher heterogeneity then seven

or nine-spot pattern is used
If a reservoir has higher injectivity or lower heterogeneity then inverted
seven or nine-spot pattern is used
Production and injection wells are interchanged in inverted spot
patterns
In the direct line-drive pattern, the lines of injection and production are
directly opposite to each other
This pattern is good for low injectivity or large heterogeneity in the
reservoir

 A staggered line-drive pattern is similar to the direct line-drive pattern,

but wells are offset by a specified distances depending on well-type
and spacing between in the injector and producer wells
A pattern with more producer wells is needed if the mobility ratio is
high
More injector wells are needed in the pattern if the mobility ratio is low
More water would flow through the larger passages in the reservoir,
bypassing smaller ones and leaving oil therein
Flooding by a miscible fluid (liquid butane and propane at high
pressure) helps salvage that oil
The fluid dissolves in the oil and carries it out of the smaller passages
Post Secondary Recovery Operation
The oil is left behind in the pore space of reservoir rock at a lower
concentration than originally existed
The residual oil remains as droplets (or ganglia) trapped in pores
The oil may also remain as films partly coating the pore walls
Entrapment of this residual oil is predominantly due to capillary and
surface forces and pore geometry

Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) Methods

These methods target this residual oil and reservoirs with extra heavy
oil
EOR methods kick in after secondary recovery becomes unfeasible or
for reservoirs with extra heavy oil
The intent is to increase the effectiveness of oil removal from pores of
the rock (displacement efficiency) and to increase the volume of rock
contacted by injected fluids (sweep efficiency)
EOR methods include thermal and non-thermal methods in general
Thermal methods are steam-based (cyclic steam injection, steam
flooding, etc.) or utilize in situ combustion
Normal-thermal methods rely on chemicals (surfactants, polymers,
gases, etc.)
EOR methods use thermal, chemical, or fluid phase behavior effects to
1. Reduce or eliminate the capillary forces that trap oil within pores
2. Thin the oil or otherwise improve its mobility
3. Alter the mobility of the displacing fluids
These are the only recovery methods for reservoirs containing viscous
oils and tars
In in-situ combustion, some reservoir oil is burned to heat the
surrounding oil
Steam-based methods are the most technically advanced
These methods have been applied almost exclusively in relatively thick
reservoirs containing viscous crude oil

Thermal Recovery Methods

Add heat to the reservoir to reduce oil viscosity and or to vaporize oil
A driving force (pressure) is exerted to the oil to move to producing
wells
The oil is thus made sufficiently mobile and is effectively produced
Steam injection is the most common form of thermally enhanced oil
recovery and is used extensively to increase oil production.
Steam drive injection is the continuous injection of steam into injection
wells to move oil toward production walls
Cyclic steam-injection is the alternating steam injection and oil
production from the same well(s)
Steam generated at the surface is injected in a well and the same well
is subsequently put back on production
Cyclic Steam Stimulation
The method has two steps:
1. Steam stimulation of production wells, that is, direct steam
stimulation, and
2. Steam drive by steam injection to increase production from other
wells (indirect steam stimulation)
When injection well is used for the production, the method is called
huff and puff or steam soak
The period of steam injection is followed by production of reduced
viscosity oil and condensed steam (water)
One mechanism that aids production of the oil is the flashing of hot
water (originally condensed from steam injected under high pressure)
back to steam as pressure is lowered when a well is put back on
production

 The first stage is of injection, during which a measured amount of

steam is introduced into the reservoir
The second stage is the soak period during which the well is shut (for
several days) to allow uniform heat distribution to reduce oil viscosity
The third stage is the production of the now-mobile oil through the
same well
The stages are cycled as long as the oil production is feasible
In Situ Combustion
In situ combustion is the combustion of oil or fuel in the reservoir to
displace unburned oil toward production wells
Combustion is sustained by injection of air, oxygen, or supplemental
fuel
This method may include the concurrent, alternating, or subsequent
injection of water

 Performance depends on the

1. Quantity of oil in the reservoir
2. Quantity of air required to burn a portion of the oil
3. Extent to which vigorous combustion can be sustained
4. Mobility of air and combustion product gases
Since gases are lighter and less viscous than oil, the burning front
tends to override reservoir liquids
The method is most effective for the recovery of viscous oils in
moderately thick reservoirs, which provide effective gravity drainage or
with close well spacing
Combustion may be short (<30days) or long (about 90 days),
depending upon requirements
COFCAW Process
It is combination of forward combustion and water flooding (COFCAW),
which displaces more oil
Forward combustion involves the injection of air to sustain a
combustion zone that moves through the reservoir
During water flooding, some of the water (and air) remains in the
burned-out region behind the combustion zone. The remaining water is
converted into steam, which flows through and ahead of the
combustion zone and displaces much of the oil
Modified In Situ Extraction

A large-diameter vertical shaft is dug into the reservoir

Horizontal drifts from the shaft bottom are excavated
Injection and production wells drilled horizontally from the drifts
The injected heat rises from the injection wells through the reservoir
The oil drains down to the production wells
Miscible Gas Displacement

In this method, the injected fluid dissolves in the oil forming a less
viscous liquid that flows more easily to the production well

 Injection fluids include alcohols, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons mixtures

of ethane, propane, butane, and pentane
The method may include the concurrent, alternating, or subsequent
injection of water
Light hydrocarbons are generally too valuable to be used commercially
N2 and flue gases have also been used for commercial miscible floods
Minimum miscibility pressures for these gases are usually high
They are more suitable in high-pressure, high-temperature reservoirs
Passing through the reservoir, the miscible solvent slug gets more and
more enriched with oil and less and less effective in scavenging oil
As the oil is produced, the injected fluids can be really separated from
the oil and brine via pressure reduction

Miscible CO2 Displacement (part of miscible gas displament)

CO2 is injected at sufficiently high pressure to render it miscible with oil
The mobility ratio is very high and may lead to fingering and bypassing
This unfavorable phenomenon is controlled by keeping the injection
pressure sufficiently high
The volume of carbon dioxide injected ranges from 20-40% of the
reservoir pore volume
Miscible Gas Displacement
CO2 not only extracts hydrocarbons from the oil but also dissolved in it
Miscibility is achieved at the displacement front when no interfaces
exist between the hydrocarbon-enriched carbon dioxide mixture and
the carbon dioxide-enriched oil
Thus, by a dynamic (multiple-contact) process involving interphase
mass transfer, miscible displacement overcomes the capillary forces
that otherwise trap oil in pores of the rock
CO2 also swells crude oils, thus increasing the volume of pore space
occupied by the oil and reducing the quantity of oil trapped in the
pores
CO2 also reduces the oil viscosity
All of these effects enhance the mobility of the oil

Surfactant Flooding
It is a complex method, which requires detailed laboratory testing to
support field project design