An Innovative Stimulation Approach for Horizontal Power Injectors in Sandstone Reservoir, Saudi Arabia: Field Experience

Al-Zain, Ahmed; Abitrabi, Abdel Nasser; Al-Jandal, Ahmed A.; Said, Rifat

doi:10.2118/119997-ms

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Carlberg and Matthews (1973), Atkinson et al (1991), Kumar et al (2007) showed that the solubility of calcium sulfate increases by increasing the concentration of NaCl in solution and decreases by increasing the concentration of CaCl 2 . Injecting low-salinity water or chemically tuned water with high sulfate content into a formation with high calcium content will increase the calcium sulfate precipitation (Vetter and Phillips 1970;Carlberg and Matthews 1973).…”

Section: Comparison Of Chelating Agent With Low-and High-salinitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Chelating-Agent Enhanced Oil Recovery for Sandstone and Carbonate Reservoirs

Mahmoud

Abdelgawad

2015

SPE Journal

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Recently low-salinity waterflooding was introduced as an effective enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) method in sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. The recovery mechanisms that use low-salinitywater injection are still debatable. The suggested possible mechanisms are: wettability alteration, interfacial-tension (IFT) reduction, multi-ion exchange, and rock dissolution. In this paper, we introduce a new chemical EOR method for sandstone and carbonate reservoirs that will give better recovery than the low-salinitywater injection without treating or diluting seawater.In this study, we introduce a new chemical EOR method that uses chelating agents such as ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA), hydroxyethylethylenediaminetriacetic acid (HEDTA), and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA) at high pH values. This is the first time for use of chelating agents as standalone EOR fluids. Coreflood experiments, interfacial and surface tensions, and zeta-potential measurements are performed with DTPA, EDTA, and HEDTA chelating agents. The chelating-agent concentrations used in the study were prepared by diluting the initial concentration of 40 wt% with seawater and injecting it into Berea-sandstone and Indiana-limestone cores of a 6-in. length and a 1.5-in. diameter saturated with crude oil. The coreflooding experiments were performed at 100 C and a 1,000-psi backpressure. Low-salinity-water and seawater injections caused damage to the reservoir because of the calcium sulfate scale deposition during the flooding process. The newly introduced EOR method did not cause calcium sulfate precipitation, and the core permeability was not affected. The core permeability was measured after the flooding process, and the final permeability was higher than the initial permeability in the case of chelating-agent injection. The coreflooding effluent was analyzed for cations with the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy to explain the dissolution-recovery mechanism. The effect of iron minerals on the rock-surface charge was investigated through the measurements of zeta potential for different rocks containing different iron minerals.HEDTA and EDTA chelating agents at 5 wt% concentration prepared in seawater were able to recover more than 20% oil from the initial oil in place from sandstone and carbonate cores. ICP measurements supported the rock-dissolution mechanism because the calcium, magnesium, and iron concentrations in the effluent samples were more than those in the injected fluids. The IFTreduction mechanism was confirmed by the low IFT values obtained in the case of chelating agents. The type and concentration of chelating agents affected the IFT value. Higher concentrations yielded lower IFT values because of the increase in carboxylic-group concentration. We found that the high-pH chelating agents increased the negative value of zeta potential, which will change the rock toward more water-wet.

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Section: Comparison Of Chelating Agent With Low-and High-salinitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Chelating-Agent Enhanced Oil Recovery for Sandstone and Carbonate Reservoirs

Mahmoud

Abdelgawad

2015

SPE Journal

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“…1,2 Well-A was drilled and completed as a tri-lateral open hole oil producer. 4,5 Integrated Job Program An integrated program was considered for the first time and executed successfully in the subject tri-lateral horizontal well. 1 shows trajectories of laterals.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Smart Combination of Technology Tools Resulted in Successful Rigless Stimulation on a Tri-Lateral Well, Case Study

2011

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TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractDrilling horizontal wells has become the more commonplace in many Saudi Aramco fields. Recent advances in drilling and completion practices enable the drilling of more complex wells with various types and shapes such as extended reach wells, bi-laterals and multi-laterals for providing maximum reservoir contact. These complex wells impose great challenges with respect to rigless well interventions. One of the initial well interventions, which follow drilling completion, is acid stimulation to remove formation damage. The challenges raised because of well complexity include accessing the laterals, reaching the end of each lateral and properly distributing treatment fluids over entire horizontal sections.Effective rigless interventions in these challenging wells have limitations and technologies are still evolving. Deployment of tools and fluids downhole is no more possible through conventional coiled tubing applications. New techniques have been developed to assist coiled tubing (CT) to access laterals and extend their reach. In addition, recent advancement of CT bottom-hole assembly (BHA) allows combining services of more than one function such as deploying tools and fluids and at the same time acquiring vital downhole data.

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“…shows the composition of three different reservoir rocks from sandstone reservoirs that contain different iron minerals(Al Zain et al 2009 and …”

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confidence: 99%

A New Chemical EOR for Sandstone and Carbonate Reservoirs

Mahmoud

Abdelgawad

2014

All Days

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Recently the low salinity water flooding has been introduced as an effective enhanced oil recovery method in sandstone and carbonate reservoirs. The recovery mechanism using low salinity water injection is still debatable. The suggested mechanisms are: wettability alteration, interfacial tension reduction, and rock dissolution. In this paper we will introduce a new chemical EOR method for sandstone and carbonate reservoirs that will give better recovery than the low salinity water injection without treating sea water. The new chemical EOR fluid can be used at low concentrations and can be added to the raw sea water without treatment or softening. Low salinity water was proved to cause damage to the reservoir because of the calcium sulfate scale formation during the flooding process. These chemicals are chelating agents at high pH value such as EDTA and HEDTA.Coreflood experiments and zeta potential measurements were performed using EDTA and HEDA chelating agents added to the sea water and injected into Berea sandstone and Indiana limestone cores of 6 in. length and 1.5 in. diameter. The coreflooding experiments were performed at 100 o C and high pressure. The newly introduced EOR method does not cause sulfate precipitation and the core permeability was not affected. The coreflooding effluent was analyzed for cations using the ICP to explain the recovery mechanism. The effect of iron minerals on the rock surface charge will be investigated through the measurements of zeta potential for different rocks containing different iron minerals.The oil recovery increase in both sandstone and carbonate cores was up to 23% of the initial oil in place using the new fluid system. The rock dissolution, interfacial tension (IFT) reduction, and wettability alteration were the recovery mechanism in order. The IFT reduction was due to the high pH of the newly introduced fluid. The existence of iron minerals in sandstone rocks increase the positive values of zeta potential and this will change the rock towards more oil wet. Adding EDTA and HEDTA chelating agents at high pH to the sandstone rocks containing iron changed zeta potential to be negative in which changing the rock towards more water wet.

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An Innovative Stimulation Approach for Horizontal Power Injectors in Sandstone Reservoir, Saudi Arabia: Field Experience

Cited by 7 publications

References 3 publications

Chelating-Agent Enhanced Oil Recovery for Sandstone and Carbonate Reservoirs

Chelating-Agent Enhanced Oil Recovery for Sandstone and Carbonate Reservoirs

Smart Combination of Technology Tools Resulted in Successful Rigless Stimulation on a Tri-Lateral Well, Case Study

A New Chemical EOR for Sandstone and Carbonate Reservoirs

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