Modeling of Liquid Injectivity in Surfactant-Alternating-Gas Foam Enhanced Oil Recovery

Gong, Jiakun; Vincent-Bonnieu, S.; Bahrim, Ridhwan Zhafri Kamarul; Mamat, Che A Nasser Bakri Che; Tewari, Raj Deo; Groenenboom, Jeroen; Farajzadeh, R.; Rossen, W.R.

doi:10.2118/190435-pa

Cited by 11 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Water saturation inside the finger increases and finally reaches approximately 0.9, indicating that gas trapped within the liquid finger has dissolved into liquid or been displaced. In our previous study (Gong et al 2019b), we showed that the rise in liquid saturation within the finger and the progress of the finger through the core roughly correspond to the rate of gas dissolution expected for N 2 under our experimental conditions. This dissolution causes a huge rise in water relative permeability within the finger and subsequent diversion of virtually all water through the 4.…”

Section: Experiments and Resultssupporting

confidence: 77%

“…In our earlier study (Gong et al 2019b), we referred to a fingering process followed by gas dissolution into the finger. An analysis of the CT images in Figs.…”

Section: Experiments and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The total superficial velocity for foam injection is 1 ft/d. The quality 0.95 is chosen for comparison with our previous work with Berea cores (Gong et al 2019b). In the subsequent gas-and liquid-injection periods, gas and surfactant solution are injected at superficial velocities of 6 and 1 ft/D, respectively.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They found that injectivity of later slugs decreases after the first gas-and liquid-slug injection. However, as discussed in our previous work (Gong et al 2019a(Gong et al , 2019b, there are mechanisms that are not well represented in conventional foam simulators, such as water evaporation into gas, gas dissolution into the liquid fingers, and others. There is a lack of experimental work on the effects of multiple gas and liquid slugs on the injectivity, specifically the effects of the earlier slugs on the injectivity of later slugs.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, this poor liquid injectivity should be avoided in an SAG process. In our previous studies, we examined liquid injectivity directly following foam by conducting coreflood experiments in Berea cores (Gong et al 2019b). Liquid flows through foam in one or two fingers, leaving the remaining foam trapped in place.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Injectivity of Multiple Slugs in Surfactant Alternating Gas Foam EOR: A CT Scan Study

et al. 2020

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Summary A surfactant alternating gas (SAG) process is often the injection method for foam, on the basis of its improved injectivity over direct foam injection. In a previous study, we reported coreflood experiments on liquid injectivity after foam flooding and liquid injectivity after injection of a gas slug following steady-state foam. Results showed that a period of gas injection is important for the subsequent liquid injectivity. However, the effects of multiple gas and liquid slugs were not explored. In this paper, we present a coreflood study of injectivities of multiple gas and liquid slugs in an SAG process in a field core. Nitrogen and surfactant solution are either coinjected or injected separately into the sandstone core sample. The experiments are conducted at an elevated temperature of 90°C with a backpressure of 40 bar. Differential pressures are measured to quantify gas and liquid injectivities. Computed tomography (CT) scanning is applied to relate water saturation to mobility. During the injection of a large gas slug following foam, a bank in which foam completely collapses or greatly weakens forms near the inlet and propagates slowly downstream. During the subsequent period of liquid injection, liquid flows through the collapsed-foam bank much more easily than further downstream. Beyond the collapsed-foam region, liquid first imbibes into the whole cross section. In this region, liquid flows mainly through a finger of high liquid saturation. Our CT results suggest a revision of our earlier interpretation; the process of gas dissolution does not merely follow fingering but is evidently directly involved in the fingering process. Our results suggest that, in radial flow, the small region of foam collapse very near the well greatly improves injectivity. The subsequent gas and liquid slugs behave near the wellbore, affecting injectivity, in a way similar to the first slugs. Thus, the behavior and modeling of the first gas slug and first subsequent liquid slug is representative of near-well behavior in an SAG process. The trends observed in our previous work are reproduced in a low-permeability field core.

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Section: Experiments and Resultssupporting

confidence: 77%

“…In our earlier study (Gong et al 2019b), we referred to a fingering process followed by gas dissolution into the finger. An analysis of the CT images in Figs.…”

Section: Experiments and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Injectivity of Multiple Slugs in Surfactant Alternating Gas Foam EOR: A CT Scan Study

et al. 2020

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On the injectivity estimation in foam EOR

Quinelato

Paula

Igreja

et al. 2022

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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In this work, we study injectivity issues caused by the use of the Peaceman equation in the numerical simulation of chemical enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes aimed at reducing fluid mobility, such as foam injection, on coarse grids. Employing analytical solutions, we demonstrate that the Peaceman equation, commonly applied to mathematical modeling of the injectivity in commercial simulators, leads to errors of more than two orders of magnitude in the injection well pressure drop when the foam flow effects near the well are considered for assuming homogeneous mobility in a coarse-well block. To circumvent this issue, we investigate numerical treatments focused on the grid of well blocks through local grid partitioning strategies (radial and Cartesian) to improve the injection well bottom-hole pressure (BHP) estimation. This methodology does not change the input data nor the injectivity model characteristics of the commercial simulator. It does not significantly affect the computational cost of the simulation, since the grid treatment occurs only in the blocks containing the wells. Thus, the radial and Cartesian grid partitioning for the well block are compared using the STARS simulator. Our results show the clear capability of the methodology to reduce the well BHP overestimation, mitigating the errors caused by the Peaceman equation. Indeed, in some simulated scenarios, the BHP overestimation was reduced a hundredfold after applying the partitioning technique. Furthermore, we discuss the choice of simulation parameters leading to more accurate and numerically stable results.

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CT coreflood study of foam flow for enhanced oil recovery: The effect of oil type and saturation

Tang

Vincent-Bonnieu

Rossen

2019

Energy

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Modeling of Liquid Injectivity in Surfactant-Alternating-Gas Foam Enhanced Oil Recovery

Cited by 11 publications

References 35 publications

Injectivity of Multiple Slugs in Surfactant Alternating Gas Foam EOR: A CT Scan Study

Injectivity of Multiple Slugs in Surfactant Alternating Gas Foam EOR: A CT Scan Study

On the injectivity estimation in foam EOR

CT coreflood study of foam flow for enhanced oil recovery: The effect of oil type and saturation

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