In
the recent times there have been substantial technical and engineering advances
in the economical extraction of oil from unconventional resources. The improvements
in subsurface knowledge along with sophisticated technologies are the driving
factors in oil recovery from sources referred to as unconventional or heavy
oil.
Primera
Reservoir has been deeply engaged in Chemically Enhanced Oil Recovery (CEOR) development plans
for heavy oil field scenarios. In this regard, on the 23rd of
April 2015, we were invited to present at the Unconventional Resources seminar
in London hosted by the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). It has been
previously acknowledged that some of the world’s largest reserves are known to
be of heavy oil type. The presentation was focused on ways to approach CEOR
implementation on heavy oil resources. The key factor has always been how to
extract heavy oil in the most efficient manner. In order to obtain the best
recovery rate, a series of flooding ranging from Polymer, surfactant-polymer
(SP) and Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) were implemented to a heavy oil
model.
The scope
was to determine the best case development scenarios combining different chemicals
for the recovery mechanism. In this sense, a series of sensitivity analysis of
injection rate, surfactant and chemical concentration, injection pressure and
injection fluid temperature were implemented in the model.
Once the flooding was performed, economic analysis was carried out on every case to determine whether the development scenarios were economically rewarding. For the analysis a series of factors were taken into account, i.e: chemical price, chemical logistics as well as incremental CAPEX, which is required for surface facilities such as water treatment, chemical mixing and dispersion units, emulsion treatment facilities, etc.
Strong focus on decision making and uncertainty analysis combined with advanced, state of the art and complex workflows.
0 comments: