Strategies and Techniques for a Giant Sandstone Oilfield Development: A Road Map to Maximize Recovery
Abstract: Daqing, the largest heterogeneous multi-layer none marine reservoir oilfield in China celebrated its 45thbirthday in Ocotober 2005. Boasting 27 continuous years of plateau oil production over one MMBOD, the largest industry polymer-flooding oilfield in the world, and excellent developing effect, its development strategies and techniques applied provide a road map to maximize oil recovery:Life cycle reservoir studies give insight into reservoir, and providea foundation for plan of development, implementation of… Show more
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Chemical enhance oil recovery(EOR) like polymer flooding and Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer(ASP) flooding have been applied throughout the world for more than 20 years. However, few large-scale successes with these processes have been reported, except in China. To date, polymer flooding has been successfully applied industrial scale in Daqing since 1996. Polymer flooding alone contributed more than 10 million tons of oil in 2006, which occupied 25% yearly rate of Daqing. Incremental oil recoveries of up to 14% of OOIP have been obtained in the field. Much experience and lessons have been learnt on large scale polymer flooding including: major factors that influence the recovery and methods to increase the recovery; measures to obtain a uniform polymer injection profile; and how to lower the costs of polymer flooding. Also Daqing performed researches on other chemical floods application, such as surfactant flood, micellar-polymer flooding(MP), alkaline flooding, alkaline-surfactant-polymer flooding(ASP), alkaline polymer flooding(AP), ASP-foam, especially ASP. Those chemical floods were field tested or are testing to increase oil recovery, to study the feasibility, to provide technical and practical experience for expanding, and to find suitable post-polymer flooding enhanced oil recovery EOR technology. Through tests, the injectivity and productivity of ASP systems, the best technique of artificial lift and stimulation measures for low efficiency wells, chromatographic separation analysis in condition of different well spacing, and economic analysis of chemical EOR were all studied. Pilot test results showed that over 20% OOIP recovery can be obtained over that of waterflooding, and is both technically and economically feasible. Overall, experiences and lessons learned in field applications of chemical floods in Daqing are extremely valuable not only for expanding chemical EOR to other areas of Daqing, also for other countries. Introduction In order to satisfy the rising demand for energy because of China's spectacular economic growth, attention is all along being paid to the enhanced oil recovery(EOR) techniques as a method of obtaining more oil from the existing oilfields, because they know increasing oil and gas recovery from existing mature fields is still one of the most promising ways to increase supply, and also because of difficulty to find new giant oilfield in China. In order to increase oil recovery and stabilize oil production, the study on enhanced oil recovery techniques in Daqing have been carried out for more than 20 years. Now, notable progress has been made in chemical flooding. Industrial scale polymer flooding in Daqing started in 1996, the annual oil production rate by polymer flooding in Daqing has exceeded 10 million tons, which occupied more than one fourth of total output of Daqing(Wang et al. 2006). Also a biopolymer(Xanthan gum), which can be used under the conditions of high temperature(80 °C) and high salt concentrations(170,000 ppm), was developed(Han et al. 1999). In order to further increase oil recovery and to find the better substitute EOR technique for post-polymer flooding, the study on other types of chemical flooding, such as surfactant flooding, micellar-polymer flooding(MP), alkaline flooding, alkaline/surfactant /polymer(ASP), alkaline polymer(AP), ASP-foam, especially ASP, was also performed and ten ASP pilot test have been conducted with different well spacings, pay zones and at different blocks. The pilot tests of ASP have been conducted successfully, and results showed that more than 20% OOIP oil recovery were obtained over that of waterflooding. This paper will give a review of recent development of pilot test and industrial scale application of chemical flooding in Daqing, especially during last decade.
Chemical enhance oil recovery(EOR) like polymer flooding and Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer(ASP) flooding have been applied throughout the world for more than 20 years. However, few large-scale successes with these processes have been reported, except in China. To date, polymer flooding has been successfully applied industrial scale in Daqing since 1996. Polymer flooding alone contributed more than 10 million tons of oil in 2006, which occupied 25% yearly rate of Daqing. Incremental oil recoveries of up to 14% of OOIP have been obtained in the field. Much experience and lessons have been learnt on large scale polymer flooding including: major factors that influence the recovery and methods to increase the recovery; measures to obtain a uniform polymer injection profile; and how to lower the costs of polymer flooding. Also Daqing performed researches on other chemical floods application, such as surfactant flood, micellar-polymer flooding(MP), alkaline flooding, alkaline-surfactant-polymer flooding(ASP), alkaline polymer flooding(AP), ASP-foam, especially ASP. Those chemical floods were field tested or are testing to increase oil recovery, to study the feasibility, to provide technical and practical experience for expanding, and to find suitable post-polymer flooding enhanced oil recovery EOR technology. Through tests, the injectivity and productivity of ASP systems, the best technique of artificial lift and stimulation measures for low efficiency wells, chromatographic separation analysis in condition of different well spacing, and economic analysis of chemical EOR were all studied. Pilot test results showed that over 20% OOIP recovery can be obtained over that of waterflooding, and is both technically and economically feasible. Overall, experiences and lessons learned in field applications of chemical floods in Daqing are extremely valuable not only for expanding chemical EOR to other areas of Daqing, also for other countries. Introduction In order to satisfy the rising demand for energy because of China's spectacular economic growth, attention is all along being paid to the enhanced oil recovery(EOR) techniques as a method of obtaining more oil from the existing oilfields, because they know increasing oil and gas recovery from existing mature fields is still one of the most promising ways to increase supply, and also because of difficulty to find new giant oilfield in China. In order to increase oil recovery and stabilize oil production, the study on enhanced oil recovery techniques in Daqing have been carried out for more than 20 years. Now, notable progress has been made in chemical flooding. Industrial scale polymer flooding in Daqing started in 1996, the annual oil production rate by polymer flooding in Daqing has exceeded 10 million tons, which occupied more than one fourth of total output of Daqing(Wang et al. 2006). Also a biopolymer(Xanthan gum), which can be used under the conditions of high temperature(80 °C) and high salt concentrations(170,000 ppm), was developed(Han et al. 1999). In order to further increase oil recovery and to find the better substitute EOR technique for post-polymer flooding, the study on other types of chemical flooding, such as surfactant flooding, micellar-polymer flooding(MP), alkaline flooding, alkaline/surfactant /polymer(ASP), alkaline polymer(AP), ASP-foam, especially ASP, was also performed and ten ASP pilot test have been conducted with different well spacings, pay zones and at different blocks. The pilot tests of ASP have been conducted successfully, and results showed that more than 20% OOIP oil recovery were obtained over that of waterflooding. This paper will give a review of recent development of pilot test and industrial scale application of chemical flooding in Daqing, especially during last decade.
This paper presents selected effective technologies and best practices to improve oil recovery from mature fields through waterflooding optimization. These technologies are proved practical, applicable and cost-effective. They can effectively facilitate further development of mature fields, which is more important than ever before in the current economical down-turn environment. First, this paper summarizes and discusses several pragmatic approaches to optimize waterflooding of sandstone reservoirs. These methods have proved to be beneficial for expanding sweep, thus increasing ultimate recovery. Next, the authors introduce two methods to evaluate the effectiveness of application of these technologies, which can support both qualitative evaluation of the successfulness of the applications; and quantitative estimate of incremental recovery. Finally, this paper illustrates the best practices of each waterflooding optimization technology and the associated reservoir dynamic performance. Waterflooding optimization aims at expanding volume sweep to recover bypassed oil in undrained areas or remaining oil in poorly swept areas. The main established approaches include (a) zonal water injection, (b) changing direction of fluid flow, (c) subdividing injection-production unit, (d) water shut-off to improve areal sweeping efficiency, and (e) cyclic water injection. These techniques are particularly applicable to multi-layer, vertically and laterally heterogeneous reservoirs at the high water-cut production stage. One best-practice example shows that converting comingled water injection into zonal injection has successfully arrested production decline, and resulted in an 11.8% incremental recovery. In another reservoir with 98% water cut and 54.5% recovery of changing injection direction by modifying well pattern has led to a 10% incremental recovery by. In still another example, subdivision of injection-production unit combined with infill wells has achieved incremental recovery ranging from 9% to 20%. A further case illustrates that, compared with continuous water injection, cyclic injection had led to reduced water production, lowered water-cut and increased recovery, and resulted in an incremental recovery of 1.84% EUR. To conclude, maximizing reservoir sweep efficiency is the core step of waterflooding optimization. The techniques and best practices discussed in this paper possess both technical and economic viability. Effective application of those methods is an essential part of profitable reservoir management of mature fields.
The XB Field in China contains more than 100 thin sand units deposited in a non-marine environment, which results in an extremely heterogeneous sandstone reservoir. Comparison with global field analogs of similar reservoir characteristics indicates that the >60% ultimate recovery in the XB Field is much higher than average. This paper reviews the over 50 years of production history and summarizes its development strategies, successful reservoir management practices, key IOR/EOR technologies and lessons learned, which can benefit efforts of maximizing recovery in other reservoirs. This paper begins by summarizing the basic reservoir and fluid characteristics as well as the production performance history. This is followed by a benchmarking analysis focused on reservoir heterogeneity, fluid properties and recovery factor against global analog reservoirs. Finally, the authors highlight the development strategy, key IOR/EOR methods, and integrated reservoir management practices based on fit-for-purpose reservoir and remaining oil characterization studies. The benchmarking study against global analogs shows the XB reservoir to possess much higher heterogeneities and poorer fluid properties than average. The field is expected to achieve an ultimate recovery of more than 60%, which is substantially higher than the average of 36.7% and P50 value of 36% based on global reservoir analog in C&C Reservoirs DAKS. The key IOR methods applied include pressure maintenance through water injection starting at early development stage, infill drilling, and chemical EOR methods. Water injection and infill drilling have helped improve recovery by 30% and 20%, respectively. Water injection optimization has been applied throughout the 50-year production history, focused on by-passed oil or poorly swept areas. Zonal water injection, subdivision of injecting-producing unit, modification injection pattern and cyclic water injection are methods of this category. Other IOR methods, such as horizontal well targeting by-passed oil, profile modification, and fracturing of low permeability reservoir sands also contribute to the high recovery factor. When the field entered the mature production stage, field-wide polymer and ASP flooding have been implemented based on numerous laboratory studies and pilot tests. The chemical EOR application in this field is one of the most successful cases in the world. Polymer flood and ASP flood are expected to achieve incremental recovery factor of 10% and 20%, respectively. The XB Field case suggests that many mature fields in the globe have the potential to further improve their recovery. Most of the technologies discussed in this paper are well established, conventional, inexpensive and readily available. The key point is that detailed reservoir characterization, remaining oil identification and application of lessons learned from global analogs are of prime importance.
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