After two decades of relative calm, chemical EOR technologies are currently revitalized globally. Techniques such as alkaline surfactant-polymer flooding, originally developed by Shell, have the potential to recover significant fractions of remaining oil at a CO2 footprint that is low compared to, for example, thermal enhanced oil recovery, and they do not depend on a valuable miscible agent such as hydrocarbon gas. On the other hand, chemical EOR technologies typically require large quantities of chemical products such as surfactants and polymers, which must be transported to, and handled safely in, the field. Despite rising industry interest in chemical EOR, until today only polymer flooding has been applied on a significant scale whereas applications of surfactant-polymer (SP) or alkaline surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding were limited to multi-well pilots or to small field scale. Next to the oil price fluctuations of the past two decades, technical reasons that discouraged the application of chemical EOR are excessive formation of carbonate or silica scale and of strong emulsions in the production facilities. Having identified significant target oil volumes for ASP flooding, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), supported by Shell Technology Oman, carried out a sequence of single-well pilots in three fields, sandstone and carbonate, to assess the flooding potential of tailor-made chemical formulations under real subsurface conditions, and to quantify the benefits of full- field ASP developments. The paper discusses the extensive design process that was followed. Starting from a description of the optimisation of chemical phase behaviour in test tubes as well as core-flood experiments, we elaborate how the key chemical and flow properties of an ASP flood are captured to calibrate a comprehensive reservoir simulation model. Using this model we evaluate PDO's single-well pilots and demonstrate how these results are used to design a pattern-flood pilot.
Summary After two decades of relative calm, chemical enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) technologies are currently revitalized globally. Techniques such as alkaline/surfactant/polymer (ASP) flooding, originally developed by Shell, have the potential to recover significant fractions of remaining oil at a CO2 footprint that is low compared with, for example, thermal EOR, and they do not depend on a valuable miscible agent such as hydrocarbon gas. On the other hand, chemical EOR technologies typically require large quantities of chemical products such as surfactants and polymers, which must be transported to, and handled safely in, the field. Despite rising industry interest in chemical EOR, until today only polymer flooding has been applied on a significant scale, whereas applications of surfactant/polymer or alkaline ASP flooding were limited to multiwell pilots or to small field scale. Next to the oil-price fluctuations of the past two decades, technical reasons that discouraged the application of chemical EOR are excessive formation of carbonate or silica scale and formation of strong emulsions in the production facilities. Having identified significant target-oil volumes for ASP flooding, Petroleum Development Oman (PDO), supported by Shell Technology Oman, carried out a sequence of single-well pilots in three fields, sandstone and carbonate, to assess the flooding potential of tailor-made chemical formulations under real subsurface conditions, and to quantify the benefits of full-field ASP developments. This paper discusses the extensive design process that was followed. Starting from a description of the optimization of chemical phase behavior in test-tube and coreflood experiments, we elaborate how the key chemical and flow properties of an ASP flood are captured to calibrate a comprehensive reservoir-simulation model. Using this model, we evaluate PDO's single-well pilots and demonstrate how these results are used to design a pattern- flood pilot.
Petroleum Development Oman is advancing a pattern flood pilot in a major sandstone field in Southern Oman that uses a chemical EOR flooding process to recover additional reserves. An EOR screening study showed that Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer is a viable technology for this viscous oil reservoir (90 cP). A successful ASP pilot test will pave the way to potentially implement the process in other sandstone fields in the Southern Oman Basin. The ASP pilot test is a unique project in which two anionic surfactants have been specifically designed for the actual reservoir conditions. Laboratory tests indicated significant and comparable recovery from both outcrop and field cores. A high molecular weight polyacrylamide polymer designed to provide a favorable mobility ratio has also been tested at in-situ conditions. The primary objectives of the ASP pilot test are to validate laboratory results, demonstrate long term injectivity of the viscous ASP solution, reduce the range of technical and economic uncertainties associated with recovery efficiency and field operations and obtain data to calibrate dynamic models for accurate full-field predictions and economics. The field pilot consists of a 1.4 acres inverted 5-spot pattern that includes 4 corner vertical oil producers, 1 central injector and 2 observation wells. The 53m producer-to-injector distance enables early ASP flood response (4 to 5 months) and ensures completion of the field trial within one year of injection. Injection/production facilities will be skid-mounted and located in the vicinity of the pilot wells. Pilot commissioning and first ASP injection is anticipated to start in mid 2014. This paper presents both subsurface and facility aspects of the ASP pilot test design, including four successful single-well ASP/SWCT field tests, one ASP flood MicroPilot, and the experimental results of oil-water-ASP emulsion separation experiments.
Collaborative Work Environments (CWEs) were implemented in the majority of Shell's assets, now covering over 55% of the production. Collaborative working has evolved beyond production and surveillance processes, includes new mobility and visualization technologies and supports the cost reduction drive. The paper provides: Business Value and Lessons Learnt from global CWE deployment;Examples from three assets in different countries and environments;Evolution of the collaboration model;Use of new technologies in mobility, visualisation and exception based surveillance.
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