How we do it in Romania?

Two of the main issues recently discussed in Romania regardes the deposits of shale gas, the
technique of hydraulic fracturing, and one of the most controversial exploitation processes,
so called in situ combustion.

They are two main questions:

I.Why the romanian deposits of shale gas, lying underground, which could provides us
the energy independence are not exploited and what are the risks brought by hydraulic
fracturing?

Shale gas refers to natural gas that is trapped within the shale formation.The drilling technique
, called hydraulic fracturing, for these gases have been developped in the US and managed to
revolutionize the energy industry, incresing the production with 80% in the past eight
years.That lead to an attempt to exploit resources in European countries.

Romania its ranked on the third place in Europe regarding the potential of shale gas
exploration.First place its occupied by France and Poland, each with reserves estimated at
5,000 billion cubic meters, being followed by Norway.But the big players in this field remain
US and Canda.Its estimated that Romania could extract 1.44 billions cubic meters of shale
gas.The only european country which exploited shale gas, by hydraulic fracturing was Poland
while in France this technique was forbidden.

Resources oh shale gas have been discovered in Romania, in what we, romanians, call the
southern part of Moldova,in the Barlad Plateu and southern Dobrogea. But the situation its
differnt in Romania, where specialists , first of all, need to find out if shale gases can be
exploited, therefore requires a depth drilling. In Romania, for example, shale gas is about
3500 - 4000 meters deep. To appreciate the size of the geological formations that determines
otherwise, how cost-effective or not such exploitation, it takes at least three such exploration
drilling.
Experts afirmed that the technique of hydraulic fracturing its being used in Romania from the
60s-70s in conventional oil and gas exploitation. The deposits of conventional oil, when oil or
gas could not get out of there by natural pressure, it was necessary the introduction under
pressure of a quantity of water, which contains a mixture, to mobilize hydrocarbons under the
respective reservoirs .So, the method its not new for Romania.

How does hydraulic fracturing works?

To remove gas trapped in rock requires deep drilling, followed

by rock pressure injection of a mixture of water, sand and
additives. 99.5% of this mixture its water and sand.And 0.5%
are some chemical additives , substances added there to create
better circulation of fluids formations to the well.

These substances would include the addition of bentonite clay

powder, a barium sulfate, hematite, or to reduce a viscosity of
the fluid concerned, a glycol or acrylates.

What are the risks of hydraulic fracturing?

According to specialists the risks of shale gas are:

Producing earthquakes up to 2.5 on the Richter scale in areas where wells are drilled and ,
under certain conditions, water contamination by drilling fluid consisting of water, sand and
additives;
A risk would be when the drilling columns or cementing the well has not benn made perfect, it
wasnt considered all the conditions imposed by the technology.That would mean that some of
the fluids used in drilling systems to interfere with aquifers at various depths
There is also a risk that a part of the craks, in certain geological formations, which have or do
not have, contact with large amounts of water to come aut of their natural balance.And coming
out of their natural balance, causing a vibration of a certain intensity, an earthquake.Such
vibration can cause damage;
Another issue ist o use this technology to large amount of water.

The main company involved in shale gas exploration?

Chevron, its an american company who tried to bring up to the surface the shale gas deposits
of Romania.In 2013 Chevron got the permission to explore this deposits and made and
agreement with the government to pay royalties from 3.5% to 13%.
This technique and the risks that are involved in the exploration of shale gas lead to protests in
villages and in Bucharest, as a result Chevron decided to suspend its activities.

For the moment the romanian shale gas deposits remain underground
II.Did you know that Suplacu de Barcau its the only place in Romania, where the
process of in situ combustion was applied?

In-situ combustion (ISC) is an enhanced oil recovery method in which the air is injected into
the reservoir, burning the heaviest crude oil components generating heat and combustion
gases that enhance recovery by reducing oil viscosity and pressurizing the system. In this
process, highly exothermic reactions occur in the porous medium resulting in significant
increases in the temperature.

In-situ combustion has been used in the field since 1920. In the US, more than 230 projects
have been implemented. Many of those were technically and economically successful.
Failures resulted from:

Unfavorable reservoir and fluid characteristics;

Poor design;

Engineering or operational problems;

Most of the failed projects were small pilot projects implemented in unfavorable reservoirs.
Worldwide, combustion accounts for approximately 10% of the oil produced by thermal
methods.

Description of the Method

In this method the air is injected to the crude
oil reservoir. After ignition, the generated heat
by combustion keeps the combustion front
moving toward the producer well. Combustion
front burns all the fuel in its way. Usually 5 to
10% of the crude oil is used as a fuel and the
rest is going to be produced in the production
well. The heat of reaction vaporizes initial
water and also the light components of the oil
in front of combustion front. The steam is
condensed while distancing from the hot
region.

Although in-situ combustion method has been widely used for heavy crude oil reservoirs, it
has been successfully applied to the light crude oil reservoirs. Increase in temperature
decreases the viscosity of the crude oil. The fuel of the combustion is mainly composed of
asphaltene and heavy fractions of the crude oil. These heavy components hinder the
production of the crude oil. So the removing of these components from the crude oil helps the
recovery. In-situ combustion not only removes these components but also combusts them to
make heat and flue gases. The flue gases are miscible in the crude oil. So in-situ combustion
includes miscible gas injection as well.
Suplacu de Barcu oil field:

The Suplacu de Barcu oil field is located

in Suplacu de Barcu, Bihor County. It was
discovered in 1956 and developed
by Petrom.

The reservoir is located in the

Northwestern part of Romania, 70 km from
the town of Oradea. It is a Panonian
formation, and it was formed by the
moulding of the underlying crystalline
basement.

It represents an East-West oriented (less than 1.4 MPa or 200 psi) in a very
anticline upfold, axially faulted by the shallow reservoir (less than 180 m or 600
major fault of Suplacu de Barcau, limiting ft) using a small well spacing (50 to 100 m
the field to the South and East. distance between wells).

The Suplacu de Barcau project uses a dry

ISC process conducted at low pressure

The total proven reserves of the Suplacu de Barcu oil field are around 310 million barrels
(43.7106tonnes), and production is centered on 8,500 barrels per day (1,350 m3/d).
Suplacu de Barcau is the worlds largest combustion project; it started in 1964 and is operated
in a line-drive mode from the top downward. Videle and Balaria are other in-situ combustion
projects.

With 5000 wells, Suplacul de Barcau is Romanias largest oil field. Although the financial
part has improved the living standard, there are voices complaining about the excessive
pollution of water and land.
All in all, in-situ combustion is a method of the crude oil recovery in which the air is injected
to the crude oil reservoir to burn the heavy fractions of the crude oil and make heat to ease the
production. Combustion of the crude oil is very complex to be understood. The complexity of
transport makes the process even more difficult to be modeled and engineered.

Bibliography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale_gas_in_Romania
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012%E2%80%9314_Romanian_protests_against_shale_gas
http://www.shale-gas-information-platform.org/what-are-the-risks.html
http://www.zf.ro/business-international/gazele-de-sist-in-polonia-o-bula-sparta-15368940
http://www.mediafax.ro/economic/chevron-renunta-la-explorarea-gazelor-de-sist-in-romania-
proiectul-nu-poate-concura-cu-alte-oportunitati-globale-13866202
http://petrowiki.org/In-situ_combustion
http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2010/ph240/bazargan1
http://www.terrapinn.com/2012/eor-and-heavy-oil-world-mena/Data/statusofiscprojects
http://www.ebihoreanul.ro/mobile/index.php?
&categ_id=6&categ_name=qmlob3jlyw5..&news_id=110112&action=display_news

Authors: Balanescu Alexandra Laura

Corlean Oana-Alexandra
Gheorghe Alin-Marian