Hydraulic Fracturing in Gas Condensate Reservoirs: Successes, Setbacks and Lessons Learnt

Khan, Muhammad Noman; Siddiqui, Fahd; Mansur, Sheharyar; Ali, Syed Dost

doi:10.2118/142848-ms

Cited by 13 publications

(11 citation statements)

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“…21,22 Also, the condensate treatments are used to improve the flow condition and allow the easy production of the condensate liquid. 23−25 The most common methods are gas recycling, hydraulic fracturing, and wettability alteration treatments. 16,17 The applicability of these treatments depends on the reservoir characteristics and the reasons that lead to the development of the condensate blockage.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Chemical Treatment for Permanent Removal of Condensate Banking from Different Gas Reservoirs

et al. 2019

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Condensate banking represents a challenging problem in producing the hydrocarbon from tight gas reservoirs. The accumulation of liquid condensates around the production well can significantly impair the gas flow rate. Gas injection and hydraulic fracturing are the common techniques used to avoid the condensate development by maintaining the reservoir pressure above the dew point curve. However, these treatments are associated with high operational costs and large initial investment. This study presents a new chemical treatment for removing the condensate banking using thermochemical solutions. The presented treatment can cause a permanent impact on the treated formations. Chemicals are injected to react downhole and generate in situ pressure and heat in certain conditions. The generated pressure can raise the gas pressure above the dew point, and the generated heat can change the phase of the liquid condensate to gas. Kinetic analysis indicates that thermochemical fluids can increase the temperature and heat by 85 °C and 369 kJ/mol, respectively. In addition, the impact of clay content on the efficiency of thermochemical treatment was studied using coreflooding experiments. A condensate removal of more than 60% was achieved using the huff and puff injection mode. A good correlation between the rock permeability and the condensate removal efficiency was observed. Higher condensate removal was obtained for the rock samples with high permeability values. Moreover, the presence of clay minerals in the treated rock showed a minor impact on the condensate removal, indicating that the injected chemicals are able to stabilize the clay minerals and avoid clay damage. This research shows that thermochemical treatment can remove more than 60% of the condensate damage for different types of tight sandstones. Huff and puff treatment was found to be a very practical approach to diminish the condensate banking from different sandstone rocks. Also, this work confirms that thermochemical treatment can be applied in the clayey formation for removing the condensate blockage without affecting the clay stability or inducing clay damage. Ultimately, this study introduces a new chemical treatment in the gas industry, and the used chemicals are effective, environmentally friendly, and not expensive.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Chemical Treatment for Permanent Removal of Condensate Banking from Different Gas Reservoirs

et al. 2019

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“…Besides the logistical challenges associated with gas transportation, there exists an additional challenge of on-site gas handling during the gas recycling treatment [3,4,17]. Alternatively, hydraulic fracturing is used to mitigate the condensate bank by inducing conductive channels between the wellbore and the reservoir matrix [18][19][20]. The created fractures improve the flow paths available and decrease the drawdown pressure [20][21][22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alternatively, hydraulic fracturing is used to mitigate the condensate bank by inducing conductive channels between the wellbore and the reservoir matrix [18][19][20]. The created fractures improve the flow paths available and decrease the drawdown pressure [20][21][22]. However, after several months of production, the condensate bank may develop around the wellbore due to the reduction in reservoir pressure [3,4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel Treatment for Mitigating Condensate Bank Using a Newly Synthesized Gemini Surfactant

et al. 2020

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Condensate accumulation in the vicinity of the gas well is known to curtail hydrocarbon production by up to 80%. Numerous approaches are being employed to mitigate condensate damage and improve gas productivity. Chemical treatment, gas recycling, and hydraulic fracturing are the most effective techniques for combatting the condensate bank. However, the gas injection technique showed temporary condensate recovery and limited improvement in gas productivity. Hydraulic fracturing is considered to be an expensive approach for treating condensate banking problems. In this study, a newly synthesized gemini surfactant (GS) was developed to prevent the formation of condensate blockage in the gas condensate reservoirs. Flushing the near-wellbore area with GS will change the rock wettability and thereby reduce the capillary forces holding the condensate due to the strong adsorption capacity of GS on the rock surface. In this study, several measurements were conducted to assess the performance of GS in mitigating the condensate bank including coreflood, relative permeability, phase behavior, and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements. The results show that GS can reduce the capillary pressure by as much as 40%, increase the condensate mobility by more than 80%, and thereby mitigate the condensate bank by up to 84%. Phase behavior measurements indicate that adding GS to the oil–brine system could not induce any emulsions at different salinity levels. Moreover, NMR and permeability measurements reveal that the gemini surfactant has no effect on the pore system and no changes were observed in the T2 relaxation profiles with and without the GS injection. Ultimately, this work introduces a novel and effective treatment for mitigating the condensate bank. The new treatment showed an attractive performance in reducing liquid saturation and increasing the condensate relative permeability.

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“…The generated fractures reduce the pressure drop significantly, which leads to delay of the condensate accumulation. In addition, these conductive paths contribute to the condensate production and reduces its saturation [12]. In some cases, the fracture treatment resulted in enhancing the total gas production from tight carbonate reservoirs by three folds [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mitigation of Condensate Banking Using Thermochemical Treatment: Experimental and Analytical Study

et al. 2019

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Condensate banking is a common problem in tight gas reservoirs because it diminishes the gas relative permeability and reduces the gas production rate significantly. CO2 injection is a common and very effective solution to mitigate the condensate damage around the borehole in tight gas reservoirs. The problem with CO2 injection is that it is a temporary solution and has to be repeated frequently in the field in addition to the supply limitations of CO2 in some areas. In addition, the infrastructure required at the surface to handle CO2 injection makes it expensive to apply CO2 injection for condensate removal. In this paper, a new permanent technique is introduced to remove the condensate by using a thermochemical technique. Two chemicals will be used to generate in situ CO2, nitrogen, steam, heat, and pressure. The reaction of the two chemicals downhole can be triggered either by the reservoir temperature or a chemical activator. Two chemicals will start reacting and produce all the mentioned reaction products after 24 h of mixing and injection. In addition, the reaction can be triggered by a chemical activator and this will shorten the time of reaction. Coreflooding experiments were carried out using actual condensate samples from one of the gas fields. Tight sandstone cores of 0.9 mD permeability were used. The results of this study showed that the thermochemical reaction products removed the condensate and reduced its viscosity due to the high temperature and the generated gases. The novelty in this paper is the creation of micro-fractures in the tight rock sample due to the in-situ generation of heat and pressure. These micro-fractures reduced the capillary forces that hold the condensate and enhanced the rock relative permeability. The creation of micro-fractures and in turn the reduction of the capillary forces can be considered as permanent condensate removal.

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Hydraulic Fracturing in Gas Condensate Reservoirs: Successes, Setbacks and Lessons Learnt

Cited by 13 publications

References 0 publications

New Chemical Treatment for Permanent Removal of Condensate Banking from Different Gas Reservoirs

New Chemical Treatment for Permanent Removal of Condensate Banking from Different Gas Reservoirs

Novel Treatment for Mitigating Condensate Bank Using a Newly Synthesized Gemini Surfactant

Mitigation of Condensate Banking Using Thermochemical Treatment: Experimental and Analytical Study

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