Hydraulic fracturing has emerged as one of the best and most economical methods for enhancing oil recovery from low permeability reservoirs. However, its performance will be negatively affected by fines migration due to the hydraulic fracturing process. In the present study, it has been tried to experimentally investigate the efficiency of synthesized nanosilica particles in reducing fines migration. To this end, two sets of static and dynamic experiments, namely glass bead funnel test and core displacement analysis, were implemented, respectively. In the static test, increasing the soaking time and addition of nanosilica led to the clearer effluent fluid, resulting in fewer concentrations of clay particles in solution. When the mixture of nanosilica and glass beads was available in the solution, a higher differential pressure was obtained during a dynamic condition in comparison to only glass beads, which means the lower permeability of the porous media. Moreover, Derjaguin-Landau-Verwey-Overbeek theory was applied to demonstrate the clay particles absorption on the sand proppants surfaces. Consequently, it was observed that the use of nanosilica particles mixed with sand proppant can effectively reduce fines migration; thereby, it can enhance the hydraulic performance of the fracturing operation.
Once reservoir fluid is brought to the surface it is separated to discrete streams of oil and gas in production unit. This should be conducted with consideration of maximizing oil production and to decreasing total costs as well. The regulation of separators pressure is a key point to achieve the highest oil recovery in this process. In addition, estimating the optimum number of separation stages, would augment the design of production plant economically. Adjusting separator pressure is usually conducted by employing PVT data which are provided through flash or equilibrium separation tests. In case of experimental tests unavailability, an alternative method could be empirical correlations. However, such tentative methods contain inaccuracy and are also time consuming which may limit their utility. In this study the issue was addressed by applying genetic algorithm (GA) as well as flash calculation through a case study on one of Iranian oil field. It has been tried to optimize set point pressures of each stage and enhance liquid share of the fluid with respect to minimized gas oil ratio (GOR). Prior to this, four scenarios were considered for determining the number of separation stages. To determine the prime scenario, a cost evaluation was implemented which leaded to the selection of four-separator scenario as the most economical case.
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