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Hybrid Enhanced Oil Recovery CALL FOR PROPOSALS October 2015
Hybrid Enhanced Oil Recovery Aim The Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF) is seeking proposals from qualified organizations to develop comprehensive hybrid EOR solutions to increase recovery from fields which have considerable remaining oil saturation.
Justification ITF Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members have explicitly identified from the GCC roadmap an interest in exploring the potential of applying hybrid EOR processes to improve oil recovery beyond what individual EOR techniques can achieve.
Background to the Challenge Improved recovery through Hybrid EOR techniques was identified as a top challenge from ITF’s GCC Technology Roadmap. It is well established and recognized globally that significant volumes of oil are left bypassed after primary and secondary recovery methods. This is ultimately due to inefficient displacement and poor sweep efficiency in using these approaches. Reservoir properties (fluid and rock types) contribute to such deficiencies. These may include heterogeneity, tight formation, wettability, viscous oil, carbonate rock, high salinity, high temperature, and low reservoir energy. For example, carbonate reservoirs often have dual pore systems and show mixed to oil-wet characteristics. These characteristics contribute to complex fluid flow and may lead to leaving behind large volumes of bypassed oil which represents an enormous scope to increase the overall oil displacement efficiency. Enhanced oil production via the introduction of chemicals or artificial energy to reservoirs can be key to increasing both short term oil production and long term recovery. Currently there are several different methods that are most commonly used in increasing and/or enhancing oil, these include; gas injection, heat injection, chemical injection (including smart water), steam injection and water flood injection. However, most EOR applications to date have been in sandstone reservoirs and there remains scope for improvement especially in carbonate reservoirs. The small number of EOR projects in light oil carbonate reservoirs have historically been concentrated on CO2 injection. Carbonate reservoirs which are highly heterogeneous often have dual pore systems and show mixed to oil-wet characteristics. It is of prime importance to better understand the physics of the displacement processes and identify potential means to improve oil recovery from these kinds of reservoirs which are often high temperature and high salinity formation water with high divalent ion concentration.
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ITF GCC members have identified a drive towards gas injection, chemical injection and thermal injection technologies could prove to be the vital stepping stone to successfully address this challenge in improving recovery in fields which have considerable remaining saturation. These are: 1. Gas EOR 2. Chemical EOR 3. Thermal EOR Gas EOR Gas injection, especially CO2 injection, is a popular method, and is applicable to light oil reservoirs, in both carbonates and sandstones. Its popularity is expected to increase for two reasons: increased oil recovery through miscibility and disposal of a greenhouse gas. There are over 100 commercial CO2-EOR projects, the bulk of them concentrated in the west Texas carbonates of the Permian Basin in the US. Their success has partially been due to the availability of low-cost natural CO2 from nearby fields and reservoirs. Hydrocarbon gas miscible flooding was implemented where possible and is an excellent solvent for light oil reservoirs, if available. It can be injected into an oil reservoir for EOR and has been done to great effect in areas where there is insufficient value in the hydrocarbon molecule. Other gases, such as nitrogen and acid or sour gases have, or will be injected, although to a lesser extent than CO2 and hydrocarbon gases. The current challenges in gas injection as an EOR method are gravity segregation, and most importantly, availability of a low-cost gas source. The future of gas injection lies primarily with CO2. There is a concerted effort around the world to improve the economics of sequestering CO2 in geological media for enhanced hydrocarbon recovery. Once this becomes more widespread, the injection of CO2 may become commonplace in light oil reservoirs. Challenges: • Although gas injection has a very high displacement efficiency, it suffers from poor sweep efficiency due to geological heterogeneity and gravity override. • In many areas that require EOR, the availability of a low-cost gas source is somewhat limited especially the availability of CO2 and conditioning. • The minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) is often too high to be suitable for Middle East reservoirs. Possible solutions: • Gas-based EOR needs to be combined with mobility control options. For example, combining foam or polymer with gas injection could deliver improved mobility control. • EOR methods using gases other than CO2, such as hydrocarbon gas and nitrogen gas injection would be of interest. However, these would need to be weighted into heavy gases to improve mobility control. • Technologies to reduce MMP, perhaps through the use of additives. The ideal gas EOR-based solution would be an easily accessible gas injection regime with high sweep efficiency and low MMP.
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Chemical EOR Chemical EOR can involve the injection of various chemicals, usually as dilute solutions, have been used to aid mobility and the reduction in surface tension. The most effective methods used are polymers (use of long-chained molecules) to increase the effectiveness of waterfloods, or the use of detergent-like surfactants to help lower the surface tension that often prevents oil droplets from moving through a reservoir. Chemical techniques have large potential to either target remaining oil saturation or oil bypassed in low permeability layers or small pores and as of yet that potential remains to be tapped, as production from this technique only accounts for about one percent of U.S. production. Major advances in rest years have greatly extended the range of reservoir conditions and types, reduced the cost and increased the process robustness in using the Chemical EOR technique. However, each of these techniques has been hampered by its relatively high cost and, in some cases, by the unpredictability of its effectiveness. Challenges: • Harsh conditions of the carbonate reservoirs in the Middle East (high temperature and salinity) pose the main challenge to chemical EOR as reactions under these conditions are poorly understood. • Monitoring the fate of injected chemicals can be challenging and this is necessary to assess the efficiency of the injection. • Sweep and displacement efficiency is particularly poor in highly heterogeneous reservoirs. • There are limited software packages to model the full-field EOR and its complicated physics. • Polymer injection has been fraught with challenges in separating polymer from produced fluid for re-injection. • There is a need to improve understanding of the effect of polymers on downhole equipment and surface facilities for flow assurance. Possible solutions: • Improved understanding of matrix-fracture interactions under high temperature and salinity conditions could guide the development of novel chemicals and dilution suited to these conditions. • Use of tracers and nano-technology for chemical monitoring may facilitate monitoring of injected chemicals. • Synergic EOR methods such as low salinity water flooding, bright water with chemical EOR may be beneficial in improving sweep and displacement efficiency in highly heterogeneous reservoirs. • Improved understanding of the physics of fluid displacement during EOR could be embedded in software development. • Methods to separate polymer from produced water such that it can be re-injected into the producing reservoir may be beneficial. • Studies to demonstrate the effect of chemicals such as different polymers on downhole equipment and surface facilities would be advantageous. The ideal chemical EOR solution would be validated to be suitable for high temperature and salinity environments, deliver high sweep and displacement efficiency and be easily separated and re-injected into the reservoir. Desirable technologies include tracking and monitoring systems to reduce uncertainty in quantifying the benefit of the EOR scheme.
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Thermal EOR Thermal EOR involves various methods to heat the crude oil in the formation in order to reduce its viscosity and/or vaporize part of the oil and thus decrease the mobility ratio. The increased heat within the reservoir will reduce the surface tension and increases the permeability of the oil, allowing for more production. The heated oil may also vaporize and then condense forming improved oil. Common methods include cyclic steam injection, steam flooding and combustion. These methods lower the viscosity, or thin, the heavy viscous oil and therefore improve the sweep efficiency and the displacement efficiency. Challenges: • An economical oil steam ratio (OSR) is difficult to achieve in some ‘thermally difficult’ fields because the cost of steam generation is high. • Steam injection can cause caprock integrity issues that need to be identified at their onset. • Sand production as a result of thermal EOR methods can limit reservoir production. Possible solutions: • A comprehensive hybrid solution (e.g. chemical co-injection, use of non-steam technologies, smart surface facilities with low power consumption would be of high added value. • Geophysical and engineering monitoring systems could help identify cap rock integrity issues. • Novel sand control mitigation tools could limit the impact of sand production on reservoir productivity. • Solar thermal enhanced oil recovery. This technique uses solar array to produce the steam to inject into the reservoir. The ideal thermal EOR solution would require low power generation compared to current methods. It should be coupled with an ability to monitor complications such as caprock integrity and sand production issues.
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Technology Challenge Timeline This is a unique opportunity for abstracts from developers to be discussed during an ITF led GCC summit in Abu Dhabi on the 8th November. The aim of which is to stimulate collaboration amongst the Gulf members and ultimately launch JIPs addressing the Hybrid EOR challenge. Considering the tight deadline, a further deadline will be in place to allow for completion of Expression of Interest forms as well as accepting further proposals from developers that were not able to meet the abstract submission deadline.
Action
Date
Call for Proposals Issued
19 October 2015
Initial Deadline for abstract submission for GCC Meeting
4 November 2015
Deadline for Submission of Proposals
27 November 2015
Register interest with ITF Register your interest as early as possible by completing the Project Proposal Abstract Form which can be found on the itfenergy website www.itfenergy.com This will be automatically submitted to the Technology Team at ITF. Once received ITF will then contact you to discuss further. Note: In order to progress your submission, ITF will require a Confidentiality Agreement to be in place: early contact will expedite this process. The Expression of Interest form can be found via: http://www.itfenergy.com/calls-forproposals/expression-of-interest-form?stage=Stage
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ITF Contact Information If you would like to discuss any matters related to this call or any other issue related to ITF, please contact any of the following people: Technology Challenge Analyst and primary contact point for this Call: Giuseppe Astarita Technology Analyst e:
[email protected] t: +44(0)1224 222420 Craig O’Brien Technology Analyst e:
[email protected] t: +44(0)1224 222421 Ian McCabe Technology Manager e:
[email protected] t: +44(0)1224 257057
Contact Address for all of the above: ITF, The Enterprise Centre Exploration Drive Bridge of Don Aberdeen, AB23 8GX Tel:+44 (0)1224 222410 (Switchboard) For more information on ITF please visit the ITF Website - www.itfenergy.com
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Headquarters: ITF The Enterprise Centre Exploration Drive Bridge of Don Aberdeen UK AB23 8GX +44 (0)1224 222410 Middle East: Office No. WS 03,04, Level 1 Incubator Building, Masdar City Abu Dhabi UAE +971 55 7879027 Australia: Level 3 267, St Georges Terrace Perth WA 6000 Australia +61 (0) 8 9261 7711
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