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A9STELACT
r.~LiO#ud
by n decreasein recoverywhile the rate continuesto
“;~:r~,toooi.e.
the existenceof a criticalrate of pressure
:asLir\o
at which&zd.mw recovery 18 obtained.This observation
!ir:fira
fromotherlaboratoryhrperimentson depletion by solu-
have indicatedonly an Incr”ease~n rectoveqy
t~oogm drive,which,
~ithincreasingratb of pressure“decline.
The above observationhas been explainedby a new so-
L’;tLon
gas drivemechanism.From this new mechanismit has been
that solutiongas &ive recoveries
:~ncluded for high viscosity
OIM mm low due to *he failure of aohievinga rate of pressure
$?clinewhich wou~d allow a great number of gas bubbles to be
:ormd in the porousmedium after the pressure has dropped
./.
a2-
INTRODUCTION
Very few data have been reported
to raobvoryobtainablefrom high visoosity 011 reservoirsby
,
solutiongaa drive. In suah oases ultimate recoveriesare,
hosovor,known
%0 be very low as comparedto the ‘valuesobtained
lD the conventionaloil reservoirs,whereultimateprimary rec30-
vorionas Mgh as 3W may be obtaineL !lhus,forinstanoe,inthe
i~~g Sandy Fleld,U.S.A.
,containingcrude oil of 63 @p viscoai~,
araultimaterecoveryof only 97$could be obtained,10and in the
ilhtaand IaregsklFields,USSR,whioh initiallyproduced by so-
lU~iongas drive,the ultimaterecover~eswere about 5-8% 2; sub-
oo~uontlymining techniqueshave been applied to produce the
V4MQOU6011 from the Uh’taField. In the Howard “AB(Y’Rowland
k’tolds,USA,
where the ViSCOSl~ of the crude o$J la 48 cp,an ‘
ultimateprimaryrecove~ of 10.8$43 has been’esttiated.~d-
lctioncalculationsassuminglow Initial solution ratios c30mpa-
rableto those encounteredin high visooeA@ oil reservoirs,
— ./.
i f
-3-
), f-
PRELIMINARYLABORATORYWORK
The objectiveof the laboratoryexperimentsWas to
nChiOVO both very low rates of pressure ~e~lmscomp=abie ‘*o
mm ommmtered *n actual oil fiel~~and rates of’Pressure
dacllaoas high as poss~ble.The
. tests were carried out on
LWI@W from 5.5 om to 463 cm in length. Since no proper
\q!Joa
coroooouldbe obtainedfrom the loose Ponti~ 8~a in SupLa-
c~l do BarcAuto be used In laboratorytesta,an average.f3ample
MU aolloetedfrom the sand producedwith the oil from Inn we%~
m.1 tho sand removedin remedial~lean-up
Fig.1
~lug (4) ~d prov%dedat the bottom with cloth and metal sieve.
TM dlr~ sand was placed in funnelt(3).The tube (2) was flex- ‘
ltI17connwted to tQe vacuum pump. In this way the sand could
be gore thorougfiycleanedand h a shorter ttieo The sand was
than dried Ln an oven at 1000 Cto remove waties.Then again it
WFM wmhod with gasolinetdter which the sand was thoroughly
.
gnuhodwith crude gasoline~d *ied at iOOO C to eliminatethe
#iltor
posoibl~ycontainedin the fir- g-ol~e” s~b-$luentlY
tho mnd wa$ kept fos 30 ~no iR ~ e~e~tricaloven at 400-500° 0
The prelimtiav treatmentof the mmi”took
:~~ degr8~8iR/3.
shout36 daysa
For the grain size analyais an average sample.was
takenfrom the sand p~epared as above. The results of the ana-
Lynioare 8hown in Flg.2.
,the
Xt appearsthat the sand is not homogeneous non-unifomity
cooffloient
bebg 4cP*Grainsize ranged between 0.06 and 3.00
sxn,mdmore than 5W0 of the tot&l sand was retained on the
0.8 mm and l.Omm sieves.
From the lithologicaldescriptionthe Pontian sand
fromSupla~ulde Elax@iuappears to be fine-grainedto metium
and coarsegrahedtalso containingwell-roundedfragmentsof
the crystallinebasement,aswell as mica fragments.
Xn order to simulateactual field contitions,l$ve
crudeoil from the field was used throughoutthe tests”.Forty-
two crudesampleswere taken from a depth coz?respon@ to “
the top of the pay zone. The samples were transferredtito
/
.
-6-
Fig.3
Jr the air pressuresupply (2),thepnessureregulator (3)~We
~.l:or
vessels(4),thel%ve oil .ta~ (~),thesand packed tube (1)
.
.
.1
,
-7-
;~rUYL.IOd at both en~ with valves (6) and the oontrolvalve (7), “
:P.O~WIIJUrO gauges (8) and the graduatedcylinder (9) for COLlee-
Fig.4 and ~
EXPERIMENTALPROCEDURE
.
TQ preparefor teats the flexible aonnectioq(4) was
“ ~~l~e~with dead oil and the burette with water.Nr.2~3P4,~tubes
w~~9Coatedwith paper and three Iqers of a$best’oscord to el&-
d~~to -blent teweratu~ effects OR the flowing viscous oil.
In carryingout the tests$5 tubes of various length
an!ematruct~onwere used: ~ bronze tube and four piastZc tubes.
:y,o
Ulzeof the tubes aqd the propertiesof the sand are sho~
13 %ble 16
TABLE 1
Tube size and sand properties
:.,:O Length I.D. Porosity Permeability Interstitial‘
ebr
* water saturation
(cm) (cm.)
. (8)” (Daroy) (%)
1 5*5 4.74, 30.9 1.360 6.00
2 36.0 4*8O 28.0 2,190 6.60
3 100.0 5,23 29.3 605)90 7000 “
4 414.o 4.94 2809 5 909
● 6.70
5 463.0 4.94 29.2 6.610 ~~ 6.92
Pig.6
i~
●☛
~:~a~UPport(2).The hose (4) was comected to a @ass vessel
/
,,) ti:~Ic~
containeda measused WantiW of deaeratedtap water,
to OPOZAW
:’::OP valve (3) the water level in vessel (~) was at
3:;0 OAZICJ bightaS the bottom of tube (1). After opening the
(j) t~o vessel (5) was S1OW1Y raiaed so that the water
‘ta!’o’o
GJ’J~d ontortube (l). To prevent air
bubble fomation on the
-IJ - ‘
.
to
C:i. o;> displacementthe tubes were pressure tested.~or thie
the tubeswere ~losed ?* both en~ for 72 hours under
;.J~yXla
TO procnwe The Uve oil from nr,1 and m,
J:;O
Or thesewas opened (see Table z)’ The produoed orude OKL
ua~eolle~ted
-d weighed in order to”~etemine the ultimate
~O:avO~.The
extre~ely%ow mount of gas dissolved in the live
JiLWSBCO~idered to have no e$fect on the specific gravity,
,j:CM oxnade.
The sand packed tubes were held l; horizontal “
.,.,
●
iaA~iOII for all runs. After the crude stopped flowing the
* •d~Weretilted30-40° but no additionalo*1 was produoed.
8’+.
The installationused for runs 4,5,6,7,8,9and 10 ‘
\O~ 2 tubeand those oarried out on nr.4 and ~ tub.es9is
S20J~in Fig.4.After olosingvalves (2) and preaqure-testang
.“
:MItubesfor 72 hours under 6 atm,thevalve (2) wae opened
mt thecrudeC@ procluomonwas aontroAed by means of valve
{j)so as to obtain the medetezmined rate of pressure deeline.
W producedoil togetherwith the gas,was colleotedin burette
(~)andmeasured.All runs were conductedat the room temp@ra-
tIJroof 23°0 approachingthe reservoirtemperature(20°C).
During runs 4 through 10 (nr.2 tube) and runs I (nr.
+ md 5 tubes)the tubes were rotated 180° every houx?to dimi-
alghgravitationaleffects.The predeterminedrate of’ddly
:s~wuredecllnedur~ng these runs was obtainedby continuously
:screasing
the pressure in the models by means of ‘thecontrol
“dve (3).During this ttme the differentialpressure at the
~s& of the tubes was generallycomtant.
./.
-12- .
TABLE 2
RESULTS
The results at the laboratorytests are presentedin
Table 2.
Three tests were carrZed”out on nr.1 tmbe,~.s cm
in length,atrates of pressure decline of 2.660, 7.200,and
18.000 atm/h respectively.The recoveriesobtainedat these
rates were 25.1, 22.6 and 20.7% respectively.Upon removing
the screw caps at both ends of the tube,onlyoil was initially
flowing over the entire Gross-sectionof the tube,andthe
\ bubbles of gas appearedafter about 3 minutes. It should be
pointed out that bubble foxmaationoccurred irregularlyover
the moss-section of the tube. Fiz%t,tndividualbubbles
appeared,aftersome time they jo~ned in a olusteroIn the
containersin which oi~ was collected,thegas bubbles remained
aa clusters for a long Wm.
“Siailarultimaterecovmies (22s2 %) were also ob-
.
●/.
.
.
-14-
I’*$.7 .’
.
. .
-15-
ti~ro
10%. In the same ra~e of pressure deoline the gas-ozl
SaCiO had very low values~generallybelow 0’.25- 0,~0 Nm3/m3.
After reachi~ the’lW~ recovem the pressure declined
sosoDlowlyand the slope
. approacheda straight lgne. During .
t~i~periodof linearpressuredeoline,whenthe pressure
ti~p~d from about 2.5 to 1.5 atm,the recoveriesaveraged4@
:or rms 4 and 5,iSe. a .4-foldincreaseover the recovery ob-
wl~od duringthe early stages Duriw PUM 6 and 10 the pres-
~u.soroduationwaa very G1OW aa “comparedto “theprevious pres-
odm drop for 10%reOoveryO resultingin’reooverlesof only
ito. a 3-fold~ncrea~e The gas-oil ratio for nun 5 renained
~$’~, ●
~ar.~idored$however~that
this is attributableto some extents
:0 tho errorsin ,readingthe pressure and the amounts of oil
n~JgM producedfor each xwn~
Since tests on long models are time consuming,
on,ly
Jao tout was oarriedout on the 414 -om nr,4 tube and on 46~-cm
nr.> tube.The objective.ofthe test on nr.4 tube was to obtain ,
~~ low a rate of pressuredecline as was possible under labora-
toryconditionswith the viscous oil fnom Suplacul de Barc&u
(0.0011 atm/h or 0.026 atm/day).!l?his
test took about 227 d&.
.
Early during this test the preesuxe dropped rapidly
from 6 to 2.75 atm and the recoverywas 1% at low values or vne
MX?,i.e.b~lowO.~ Nm3/m~,Fig.8.
Fig.8
.,
-17-
Fig.9 and 10
.
●I
-18-
DISCUSSIONOF RESUIA?S
The initialincreasein oil recove~ with increasing
..~:~O: pressuredeuline$followedby a decrease in oil recovery
r,
; zho rate of pressuredecline aontinuesto increase$iaan ob-
.’waclonwhich differsfrom other observationsmade in such
“~uor~~ory
.* experiments.As was said before,alllaborato~ teats
:“’);a~~od
so fax?,izadioate
only the increase in recoverywith ia-
:~’~f;~ing
rate of production.In the tests describedhere%n it
u.~is
foundout that there is a rate of pressure decline fOr
~r;lch
oil recoveryby solutiongas drive may reach a maximum
v~Luo,inthi8 case slZghtlyexceeding55%. It appeara that
t :;ooo experimentalobservations
,as well as those obtainedby
otho.r investigators,are
in disagreementwith Muskat theory pre-
dictingthe reservoirbehaviourunder solution gas dz%tve.
A quantitativeexplanationof tha meehanism observed
io d$fficultbecauseOZ the complexityof the phenomenaoccurring
UU n re8ultof the lack of thermo~nam~~ equllibrkumbetween
./.
OLL and gas after the pressurehas declinedbelow the initial
0~ti4rotion
prcssureo
In the followi~ an attemptwill,however,bemade to
;,rovide a qualitativeemlution,in other,worti,todeSOsibea
~o~utio~ga tiive mechanismbased on our present knowledgeCOU-
Lng the evolutionof gas from liquids Slowing throughpOZ?OUS
z~>rn
~QdiJWtW2d3
There Is no radicalUfference between the meohanism
J: ~olutiong- drZve.p=oposedherein and the me~rn descr$bed
:Y o~horinvestl~atom 6S8~10 to explain the disagreementbetween
.
obsewatio~ ahd fduskat theoxnwhich
zkolrlaboratox?y is known
: J h basedon the assumptionthat a continuousthemodynamie
.
exis$s between phases. Thus~a d?oz?easein pressure
~1~uiilbrlurn
JOLOW bubblepoint causes the oil to become supersaturatedand
3:35M ot gas appear at a rate which aepends upon me degree
uf ~uporsaturation.
As 8oon as the first bubbles are fomed,a
!L~fusionprocessocours and the gas diffuses out of the locally
s~por~aturated
oil into the bubbles already formed.
Rnth g= bubble fo~ation and ~fusion tend ‘to retxnm
tho ayatemTO vw zhemodynamzu equilibrium.~~y auring thks
process,
when only a few bubbles of gas are psesen~,diff
usion I&i
slowdue to the diffusionpaths being long, !l!his
leads to an o
laereasein supersatura~ion,oausi~new gas bubbles to be formed
at a higherrate. The rapid Znoreasein the number of bubbles.
J
rwults In shorter’
diktus~onpaths and thus in an Inoreased
Uffuaion-uontpolled
gaa saturation,wMoh An %urn speeds lap
~atura%ionpressurereduction.When d%ffusiongrows to the poln~”
.
$>~tthe z?ateof saturationpreasu~e”deuline ie hi8her than “
~hatof the staticpressure,super.aatunation
begins td deoreaae.
.
. *
-20-
-21-
:,;
J$oo:f~ringthe le8st r.esis*anCe
to flow~i.e-the largest
‘..:o
* CtI.NLWla~ At this s@3e the #sas-Oil ratio begins to increaae ‘
.. I
.,, . oil dl~placementbecomes increasinglyditficult,as the
. .:iLQi201J5 gas pW8e contributesvev l~ttle to displace the
>:: f~O=porestAt the same time “pressuredecl~nes at an in-
to be noted.however~tkt while larger
a continuoustkread of ga~~~heinuvidual
effic~entlyUsplace the oil until they
thread-likegas phase or fozm a new gasous
;‘.tJo.
This observationjustifiesthe v~ew expressedabove,that
● I* rOCOVe~
&b dependsupon the number of bubbles of gas being
:.j.=d.Oil displacementce-ses titer all bubbleS of gas”have
;~i~odin a continuousphase. This behaviour is illustratedby
“.:.-
t~ut~shown in Flgo7 md 8. lt appears t~t “ifby an abrupt
;:..~joqro
declinea ve~ large number of gas bubbles has been
f:caod,the
continuousgas pkse may occur at a lower recoveqy .
L:.:~n
thatobta~nedat a .1OWrate of pressure decline,dueto the
: .it~t)l~~ beingforced closer together and the dZtfusionpath
;o~~thbeoomingmuch shorter.
This phenomenonmtght prov~de an explanationfor the
o>~orvations
made durbg the experimentsdescribedhere,namely,
that initially021 recoveryincreasesas the rate of pressure
~tocline
increases,then
a maximum is reached Xollowedby a
l!~crease
kn recoVe~ as the rate of pressure deoline wmbinuea
W increase,
Fig.9 and 10. A continuousinorease $n recovery
~ith increasingrate o% p~es$ure decline has been reported
t’rom otherlaboratoryexpex?tie~ts ●
./.
.
*
,
-22-
-23-
-25-
.I**.
*U. , ..~J:hmlfJa dmcrlbed
W
herein and they can not be e~ected
‘, J ?..=i”*’o 3 ~;roiit
*nfluenceon recoveq~
If the depletionmechanismpresented here is correct,
, ,, concepts
...o;,~tiso~t and equatiom for the heterogenouaflow
*
~!;rJJ$h pomuti me~a can not be used to quantitativelydes-
‘@fi~~~IO:JS
1- hborato~ tests on the solution gas drive mecha-
:,:,7:; .:~i~h viscosifu
,;$L:; crude oils have intioatedthe z?eoovery
’931:.-. increasing
‘*”+JfJu~ ‘~ith sate of p%assure deoline,followed
y it :,}~r~{~~o
in recovery,i.e. the presence OZ a maximum ultimate
:’OL! .“:~~z“ora c~itlcal x?ateof pressure decline. Based on this
,.,:~-~;:ltio~
a DOW cozwpt has been developed,showi~ that the
,.71
.zI~agas drivo mechanismis principallycontrolledby
;i;’
‘:.
!,,?+urat~on;inward diffus~oa,poregeometqy and the charac--
.
“-
,,
.
-28-
. .
l{unt$E.D.
,Mr~,T.J.:” Evolutionof Gas from L%quids
PM?::: fhroughPorous Media’t ,A.1.Oh.E.Journal,(Deoem-
ber,1956)~, 560-567.
. .
? *
,*
-29-
14. Chatenever,A.,In&a,M.Pm,Kyte,J*R~:tt
MicroscopicObser-
vations of SolutionGas-DriveBehaviour**,J~Fet.Teoh.
(June,1959)~.3-15.
.
,
. .
.
, ,
.’
I gosohe
. I
.
.
%.
. ,
?IG, !-APPARATUS USED FOR WASHING w
. THE SAN9
..
● .
,, , ,s 1
☛✎
6Wd7in”s}ze, mm
FIG.2 -RESULTS OF GRAIN SIZE A’NALYS150F THE PONTIAN SAND
FROM SUPIACU DE BARCkJ *
,. *-
,..
1
*
,
..
●
..
\ -1
“$
.
FIG. 4-SCHEMATIC SKiTCH OF THE INSTALLATION USED FOR STUWIMG’
THE SOLUTION GAS DRiV~ MECHANISM FOR H!QH VISCOSITY OILS
# .
‘!~.
. .
,
,. --
.. -
I
. .
●
0
,?.
,
,
..
7 4
1 . ●
. . “IYP.I ???/be
0
.94
..
,.
.,
fIG. 5- TEST..t TUBES USED IN LA80RAT0Ry EXperimentS
..
.:.
●
.
● ✎
✎
,..
‘.. . .. . .. . .
“.x
.,...... ;
::..
? ..
.
::
. ..
b J;
. .
?“ ...,
“’i
.’,,
:.
.
.,
-,
.“
.
..
-.
..
~:
.
.L
.-
,.
z 4
FIG. 4 -SCHEMATIC
.
/’+
1 ., —’
. .
i 1 i
\
L RUN 4, PRESSURE DgCLINE R4Tfi tI.048 atm Idav RECOVERV S1.8 %
---- . S- #.”.-” D.Z411 ‘ ‘ H 5s:5 ?.
.— . 6 U-* &7zQ : ,. - S!*1 x
<
—.— . 7.- @ 0.960 0 u 53.5 x
—.. — . tl --- 0.970 : 0
9 ● .-, - Limo 0
10 u - “ 4.320 : *
-,
●
i
.
●-N
‘~-—.
-..
, ----------
I
1 1
2i7 .
.
m.7- VARIATION IN PRESSURE AND GOR Vs. THE RATIO OF CUMULATIVE pRoDUcED olL To oR@lNAL OIL IN P@E ( RECOVERY FAcTofl 100&,%)
FORWNS 4,5,6,7,8,9,10 (O?d THE 36-cim TUBE) AT DIFFERENT RATES OF PRESSURE ‘DECLINE
. . ,.
. ● -
T .
?.
. . .
*
.
..’
, Ii
Ii
– o T4tj M!+tube,wnl,rdeof Pessure
declfne LM?Z6atmlday, d /?tm8fe
rgcovefly 283%
., —
,1.
t~~
--1o Akstube ruffl,
tvteof Pessure
!
decline @Z4 di77/dey,UIImete
11”
recovery 262% .1- 1I
II “ ~
1
●
“1
.
. ,,
.
1
. .
- “la
.. .
. k
1“ , l!
-+1--
* . ●
II
“1 I
. I I
1.
X
--/\
1“
I
.1
..
RATIO OF CUMULATIVE ;ROOuCED OIL TO “ORIGINAL OIL IN PLACE. RECOVERY
s .
.
t ●
4
Y. .
,.
.“
-
● m-t-h Itttttii
w Mlllllll I ! HIM I I HIIIIP4 Iwllbw I.111111 I I HIM
.
.
, .
,’. *-
.
. .
: #. “
.
..
●
*
‘%
.
9
*
TrTmlllI I
. .
t)S’fAINED FOR NR.1,2,3,415 TIJ8E3 ●
‘*. ,. )* .
... ●
.
. ..+.
. .
,. .,,
✎
● ✍
✎
✎ ✌✎✎ ✌✎
●✎ ✎ ✍✍
. . .
.’. .
./ .“
. .
0“