MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOI UNIVERSITY OF MINING AND GEOLOGY

NGUYEN HAI AN
APPLIED STUDY ON ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY
BY TERTIARY MISCIBLE CO
2
FLOODING
FOR THE SUTUDEN BASEMENT RESERVOIR
Specialization: Petroleum Engineering
Code No.: 62.53.50.05
ABSTRACT OF THESIS
OF DOCTORATE IN PETROLEUM ENGINEERING
HA NOI - 2012
Research finished at: Department of Drilling and Production, Faculty
of Petroleum, Hanoi University of Mining and Geology.
Supervisors: 1. Assoc. Prof. Le Xuan Lan
2. PhD. Nguyen Huu Trung
Reviewer 1: PhD. Do Van Khanh
PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation.
Reviewer 2: Assoc. Prof. Cao Ngoc Lam
Institute of Drilling.
Reviewer 3: PhD. Vu Van Vien
Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam).
This thesis is going to de defended at the council of doctorate thesis
examiners of Hanoi University of Mining and Geology.
On . Date ..
This thesis can be found at: - Vienamese National Library, or
- Library of Hanoi University of Mining and Geology.
1
Necessary requirement of research
Following the approved development plan, current oil production
of the granitic basement reservoir in Su Tu Den oil field is
decreasing daily rate and at the state of secondary recovery with
current recovery factor about 16.3%. By presented oil recovery
techniques, the ultimate recovery factor will be 21.3% OIP, so that
the remaining recoverable oil is about 5% with the producing period
of 10 years. Those recovery methods are also leaving behind a
massive target for enhanced oil recovery. Meanwhile, in CuuLong
basin the principal oil producing object is the granitic fractured
basement reservoir, which has a unconventional characteration of
porosity and permeability, high heterogeneous media, and
unpredictable flowing regim in specific production performances.
Based on the study result of ability to apply, miscible CO
2
flooding will become a significant technology to design EOR project
on the STD granitic basement reservoir. The vertically CO
2
miscible
flooding could be able to solve the challenges of basement reservoir
such as the high tempearture (above 120deg.C) and heterogenous
permeabilities. In additions, besides the EOR target, CO
2
injection
techniques could be closely link to global climate consevation by
CO
2
storage.
Objectives of thesis
Implementing the applied study on the EOR by tertiary miscible
CO
2
flooding method for the SuTuDen fractured basement reservoir.
The task of Research
To achieve the objectives, the following tasks were established:
- Clarifying the flowing model of reservoir fluids (including oil,
gas and water) while depleting. Based on the proposed model,
2
the EOR process could be designed for the fractured reservoirs
in STD oil field, as well as in the other fields in CuuLong basin.
- Examining and completing the miscible mechanism of CO
2
injecting into oil in the conditions of SuTuDen oil pool.
- Conditionally designing the flooding model on fractured
granitic cores, to cary out the evaluating efficiency factors of
sweep and displacing oil by CO
2
miscible injection.
- Based on the numerical simulation model, preliminary
estimating the oil incremental by using CO
2
injection in EOR
process for SuTuDen basement reservoir.
Review of literature
The first commercial CO2-EOR project, applied on fractured
reservoir, began operations in 1972 at the Sacroc field (USA). Since
the initial, the process of this method has been interesting to research
and develop. As can be seen, CO2-EOR has become one of the
preferred EOR process globally for medium and light oil production
during last decades, and considering CO
2
from natural and industrial
sources. However, CO2-EOR applications for the STD fractured
basement reservoir have not been documented in the literature.
Recently, production behavior of the STD basement oil pool
shows the secondary recovery with a strong aquifer existence and
also the water injection effects. However, the current recovery factor
could not be high as expected. For improving oil recovery, there
have been many applied studies such as infill driling, optimizing of
water injection rates and locations, etc. But the studies on tertiary
recovery deal with this field are still not reliable in this reservoir.
Research methods
- Intergration method: information gathering of basic theory and
3
technique of CO
2
miscible flooding process. Analyzing and
charactering the reservoir qualities of STD granitic basement
reservoir.
- Laboratory expriment method: Establishing the model of oil
displaced by CO
2
through combined granitic core in the
simulated conditions of reservoir pressure and temperature.
- Numerical simulation method: Establishing the simulation
model by professional softwares and estimating the potential
recovery from CO
2
miscible flooding.
New scientific significant of thesis
- Could be considered as an adequate applied study on estimating
the tertiary oil recovery in fractured basement reservoir. The
research showed the results of screening survey, experiment
studies and also the simulation predictions.
- Fully study on the physical mechanisms by which CO
2
contacts
and mobilizes oil. Generating the phase behavior of mixtures of
CO
2
with recombined STD oil.
- Based on the results of study on fluid flowing properties in
reservoir conditions, propose the mechanisms of oil recovery
from basement reservoir.
- Propose the optimized simulation model for predicting oil
production of basement reservoir: Integration of the dual
porosity model for fractured rock and compositional model for
CO
2
miscilbe flooding.
- Design the CO
2
flooding schematic with CO
2
injectors located
in the rest of the structure. Oil banks will be formed that moves
downwards to producers. After EOR process, CO
2
will be stored
in flooded pore spaces.
4
Arguments of thesis
Argument1: The STD granitic basement reservoir could be
classified as the system like dual porosity single permeability or
incompletely dualporosity. The oil reservoir has been produced
under: (i) primary and (ii) secondary recoveries, which include the
drive mechanisms: water displacing oil in macro fractures; and (iii)
cappilary force effecting oil recovery from micro fractured media.
Argument 2: At the conditions of miscible (272 bars and
127
o
C), because of the oil swelling, injected CO
2
could be able to
mobilize oil drains down in micro fracture system and flows into
macro fracture network.
Argument 3: The proposed CO
2
injection schematic,
applicable for EOR of the STD basement reservoir, shout be vertical
flooding, that could forms stable oil banks for producing and also
could overcome the challengs of high heterogeneity in permeability.
Furthermore, another performance for the field development is
establishing an underground CO
2
storage for envirement
conservation.
Background database and docments for thesis
The thesis was completed on the basis of factual data and
documents, and research results on managing the oil production of
the STD fractured basement reservoir, which author and experts
implemented. There is, in addition, the study results on optimizing
oil production from fractured basement reservoir, the core/fluids
analysis results, were processed and complied by author and
colleagues. Some data and study results have published in national
and international professional journals, papers and proceedings
forcused in granitic basement reservoir.
5
In the process of completing this thesis, PhD student was sent
to participate in an internetional joint study on estimating CO2-EOR
potential for the RangDong lower Miocene reservoir. It is a good
chance to learn and to experience from international experts about
CO2-EOR project development. Based on that, the research study on
optimation production of STD basement reservoir could archieve the
best results.
Content of thesis
The content of thesis, except Introduction and Conclusions-
Recommendation sections, consists of 5 chapters. In the thesis, there
are 120 text pages, including 14 tables and 77 graphs/pictures.
Besides, there are a list of published archivements and a list of
reference materials.
Chapter 1
ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY PROCESSES
1.1. Introduction to enhanced oil recovery
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is oil recovery by the injection of
material not normally present in the reservoir. This definition covers
all modes of oil recovery processes (drive, push-pull, and well
treatments) and most oil recovery agents.
In a fractured basement reservoir there are larger volumes of oil
remaining after the field is flooded by water. This residual oil is the
target for EOR, however it is a challenge of the EOR methods which
could imbibe into the matrix and displace the oil from the matrix to
the fracture zone before the fluid flow into the well's drainage area.
1.2. EOR Classification
The goal of any EOR process is to increase the recovery factor
6
(RF) which is defined as:
HSTHD =
oi
or oi
a v
S
S S
E E

) ( (1.1)
This is achieved by:
a) Increasing the areal sweep efficiency (E
a
) and/or the vertical
sweep efficiency (E
h
).
b) Increasing the displacement sweep efficiency or reducing the
capillary pressure (reducing the residual oil saturation Sor).
c) Increasing both the volume sweep efficiency and the
displacement sweep efficiency.
In general, EOR technologies fall into three main groups of the
following categories: thermal recovery, chemical flooding, and gas
miscible recovery. Thermal recovery is very effective in recovering
heavy oil, but the chemical flooding and gas miscible recovery are
widely applied in recovering lighter oil.
The EOR processes require the large up front capital investments
and need to be controlled closely, but additional recoveries found in
practice aren't so much high and the processes usually take a long
time. In Vietnam, with the ability to approach and apply new
technologies, the production of oil and EOR get great potential and
challenges, especially the tertiary miscible CO
2
flooding application
for Su Tu Den fractured basement reservoir.
1.2.1. Thermal recovery
1.2.1.1. Continuous steam injection
Recovery mechanisms in this method are based on viscosity
reduction and increasing oil mobility. In this process, steam is
injected continuously into one or more wells and oil is driven into
separated production well.
7
1.2.1.2. Cyclic steam injection
In cyclic steam injection, steam is injected into a production well
for a period of 2 to 4 weeks. The well is shut in and allowed to
"soak" before returning to production. The oil rate is higher
comparing with water injection or natural depletion.
1.2.1.3. In-situ combustion
In-situ combustion is a displacement process in which an oxygen-
containing gas is injected into a reservoir where it reacts with the
crude oil to create a high-temperature combustion front that is
propagated through the reservoir. The process is very complex
involving multiphase flow of flue gas, volatile hydrocarbons, steam,
hot water, and oil.
1.2.2. Chemical flooding
Chemical processes involve the injection of specific liquid
chemicals that effectively displace oil because of their phase-
behavior properties, which results (i) decreasing the mobility of
displacing liquid; or (ii) decreasing the IFT between the displacing
liquid and oil.
1.2.2.1. Polymer flooding
In this method, high molecular weight water-soluble polymers are
added to the injection water to improve its mobility ratio, reducing
oil "by passing" and raising yields.
1.2.2.2. Surfactant flooding
This method typically involves injecting a small slug of surfactant
solution into the reservoir, followed by polymer thickened water, and
then brine, despite its very high displacement efficiency.
The IFT must be reduced to about 10
-3
dynes/cm before a large
reduction in the water flood residual oil saturation is achieved.
8
1.2.3. Gas miscible recovery
Recovery mechanisms include viscosity reduction from extracting
the light to intermediate components from the oil, developing
miscibility to displace oil from reservoir, and oil swelling.
1.2.3.1. Gas miscible process
A volume of relative gas is injected to form the miscible zone and
the oil bank is driven to the production well. The miscible zone is
developed and forms the oil bank. The gas is continued to inject into
reservoir and mixed at all proportions with the residual oil and drive
to increase the volume of oil bank. Due to the continue process, the
residual oil is produced effectively.
1.2.3.2. Selecting the EOR methods
In general, the gas miscible process is suitable for volatile oils
that have low viscosity (<3cp). This method has been applied for
various types of reservoirs.
1.3. Screening criteria for process applicability
The average temperature of Su Tu Den basement reservoir is
about 128
o
C. In addition, due to the thickness approximate 1000m,
the reservoir is high heterogeneous. Based on the screening criteria
for EOR application table, it indicates that the chemical recovery is
limited because of high temperature (required <105
o
C). Experience
gained from CO
2
flooding worldwide indicates that this is a suitable
method for application of EOR in fractured basement reservoirs
although they have some limits on their thickness and heterogeneity.
9
Chapter 2
ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY BY MISCIBLE CO
2
FLOODING
2.1. Summary of CO
2
flooding project worldwide and Vietnam
In the early 1950s, the oil industry started to look more seriously
into miscible flooding.
Today there are about 78 CO
2
flooding projects in operation
worldwide, 67 in US, 2 in Canada, 2 in Turkey, 5 in Trinidad and 1
in Brazil. But all together there have been more than 100 EOR
projects with CO
2
flooding since the first flood took.
2.1.1. The Permian Basin
The SACROC Unit in the Permian Basin was the first large scale
CO
2
flood in the world. The SACROC operation covers an area of
205km
2
in the eastern part of the Permian Basin in West Texas.
The CO
2
immiscible flood was implemented in 1972, and 21
years later a tertiary CO
2
miscible flooding was conducted, and it is
still ongoing.
The cumulative gross total CO
2
injected was then about 30 Billion
Sm
3
and had contributed to 11 million Sm
3
of EOR oil.
2.1.2. The Weyburn Oil field in Canada
The Weyburn CO
2
flood is the largest horizontal injection
program in the world, involving a 30m thick fractured carbonate
reservoir at 1400m depth. Approximately 1000 wells, including 137
horizontal wells with 284 lateral legs, have been used to recover 24%
of the oil original in place.
Pan Canadian announced in 1997 that they would develop an
EOR project to extend the lifetime of the Weyburn field by more
10
than 25 years. The project will involve a CO
2
miscible flood, which
is anticipated to extract an addition 19.4 million Sm
3
or more from
the field. On September 14, 2000, CO
2
began flowing. The first
additional oil from the Weyburn CO
2
flood started to flow in 2001.
2.1.3. The joint study project on application for CO
2
flooding to
Lower Miocene Rang Dong field
The results of laboratory and simulation studies on the CO
2
flooding indicate that an addition 32 million barrels of EOR oil when
appling the water-alternating-gas process (8% of the oil initial in
place). The CO
2
source for project will come from the CO
2
processing facility of PM3-CAA reservoir complex.
During the period from the May to June 2011, a field pilot has
been done to evaluate and confirm the study results. Then the CO
2
Huff and Puff process by a production well has been tested.
2.2. Theory of gas miscible
The gas miscible flooding process has been demonstrated that
they are suitable for various type of oil: light oil, condensate and
heavy oil. Recently, the combination of EOR-CO
2
flooding and CO
2
storage has been introduced, while the natural gas reservoirs that will
be produced contain by 20 to 80% CO
2
.
2.2.1. The physic-chemical properties of CO
2
Pure CO
2
is a colouresss, odourless, inert, and non-combustible
gas. CO
2
is solid at low temperature and pressure, but most
dependent on temperature. The phase behavior of CO
2
is a function
of pressure and temperature. Below the critical temperature CO
2
can
be liquid or gas over a wide range of pressure.
Above the critical temperature CO
2
will exists as a gas regardless
11
of the pressure. However, at increasingly higher supercritical
pressures the vapor becomes and behaves more like a liquid. EOR
through the injection of CO
2
is considered more seriously because of
its physical properties and solubility in water.
2.2.2. Miscibility and drive mechanism
When we injected the CO
2
into oil, the mixture can form either
one hydrocarbon phase or two separate oil and gas phase. If the
mixture is one phase, the injection process or the displacement
process is miscible.
To explain the different processes in miscible flooding, ternary
diagrams are widely used. Multi-component fluids can be displaced
on the ternary diagram by grouping the N-components down to three
components.
The miscibility is achieved by mass transfer of components which
results from multiple and repeated contact between the oil and the
injected CO
2
through the reservoir. The main mechanisms for CO
2
miscibility is the vaporizing drive. The intermediate and high
molecular weight hydrocarbons in the reservoir fluid are extracted by
flooding CO
2
.
Vaporizing gas drive is a particular case of a multiple contact
miscibility process. It based on vaporization of the intermediate
components from the reservoir oil. A miscibility transition zone is
created, and C
2
to C
6
(CO
2
can extract up to C
30
) is extracted due to
the high injection pressure. The gas will get richer as it moves
through the reservoir. A vaporizing gas miscible process can displace
nearly all the oil in the area that has been contacted. However, the
fraction of the reservoir contacted may be low due to flow conditions
and reservoir heterogeneities.
12
2.3. Disadvantages by using CO
2
flooding
One of main problem in achieving profitable CO
2
flooding has
been the high mobility of the CO
2
, especially application for the
basement reservoir which characterized by high reservoir depth and
heterogeneous.
Another disadvantage of the CO
2
process is source of CO
2
, in
addition this process is required large up front capital investments.
Thus, the cost of EOR-CO
2
project will be expensive and meets the
economic limitations.
Chapter 3
ROCK CHARACTERISTICS AND FLUID PROPERTIES IN
THE SUTUDEN FRACTURED BASEMENT RESERVOIR
3.1. Geology Overview
3.1.1. Tectonics
The STD oil field is located in Northern part of CuuLong basin
with mainly NE-SW striking, that predominant occurring in tectonic
activity of Late Oligocene-Miocene phase. This NE-SW fault system
tends to dominate the oil production in granitic basement reservoir.
3.1.2. Petrography
The productivity of oil producers depends on fracture aperture,
that was decreased because of being superimposed the secondary
deposition by filling of zeolit in high content.
3.2. Reservoir characteristics
The results of laboratory analysis indicate a complicated pore
structure in fractured granitic rock that has secondary porosity
arranged from 0.35% to 1.5%. The total porosity consists of
microfracture space (with aperture of 0.05 0.2 mm) and
13
macrofracture space (with aperture of 0.25 1.5 mm and above). The
results of well logs interpretation show that the fracture permeability
varies in wide range (from non productive to some Darcies), and has
a fair relationship with its porosity. At the productive intervals, the
fracture width should be at least 1.0mm and have 5 fractures per
metre along the well path.
3.3. Hydrodynamic characteristics and Recovery process from
fracture zones
3.3.1. Capillary pressure curves
The result from core analysis showed that the fracture pore space
occupies 23.1% of total core's pore volume on average. Pore space
structure is also characterized by oil-wettability to macrofracture and
microfracture zones.
3.3.2. Oil displacement in fractured granitic basement core
The behavior of water displacing oil curve indicate that fractured
basement in SuTuDen field is significant different to other fractured
basements which consist of only macrofractures because oil
displacement is contributed mainly from macrofactures and a minor
amount from microfracture zones by capillary force.
3.3.3. Analysis of water and oil production behavior in well
The initial oil rates of producers in SuTuDen basement were quite
high, some wells produced with the oil rate of 2,000m
3
/day. The
drilling and production well survey indicated that the wells which
penetrated through several fracture zones have longer production
time than the wells that cut through only one or two fracture zones.
Even the wells have several productive zones, once main productive
zones were flooded by water, the oil rate of the wells decrease
immediately and stop producing.
14
3.3.4. Oil production mechanism in fractured basement reservoir
Fractured basement is characterized by the domination of
macrofracture permeability over microfracture permeability, where
mainly oil was trapped in fracture basement. Oil, in addition, is
pushed out of microfracture zones by the influence of capillary force,
gas-oil expansion and pore space structure compressibility.
In case of strong aquifer support, such as SuTuDen basement
field, natural expansion process and displacing oil out of
microfracture zones mechanism depend significantly on well pattern
and oil production regime. Due to very high permeability and small
pore space, the pore space of the macrofracture zones are filled
rapidly by water, and oil is pushed up to production wells,
simultaneously, oil trapped microfracture zones are flooded.
3.3.5. Discusions
In practical production as well as in experiments showed injecting
water into the bottom of oil column or oil displacement from bottom
up experiments achieve longer water free oil production time and
higher oil recovery than lateral water injection.
Oil displacement process is also significant influenced by gravity
due to the gravity differentiation of the fluid in hydrodynamic system.
3.4. Reservoir oil properties
3.4.1. Analysis oil sample results
The oil samples were analyzed in VPI's lab under the reservoir
conditions and achieved high quality analysis results. Bubble point
pressure was determined in the range of 88bar to 101bar, which
totally in accordance with the oil gravity of 35 to 36
o
API.
Reservoir oil component analysis data showed heavy components
C7+ are less than 50% while methane account for 20% to 25% mol.
15
The heavy contents are quite similar while the C7
+
in the SD-A3
sample is the lowest, but not much different than that of others.
3.4.2. Typical phase envelop of basement oil
The phase envelop of oil samples were established in order to
evaluate the phase changing level under reservoir condition and oil
producing process as temperature and pressure both decrease. Phase
envelopes indicated all oil samples keep the characteristics of
undersaturated oil.
Chapter 4
EXPERIMENT STUDIES ON CO
2
FLOODING INTO
THE STD FRACTURED BASEMENT RESERVOIR
4.1 Core flooding experimental conditions
4.1.1. Minimum miscible pressure determination (MMP)
Base on the evaluation result and fluid modeling using
professional softwares, MMP of CO
2
into SuTuDen reservoir oil has
been determined by French MISCIBILITY experimental machine.
The result indicated the MMP is around 270bar, which little less than
computer modeling MMP result value of 272bar. At miscible
condition, oil recovery accounts for over 90%, viscosity is about
0.02cP, and surface tension is 0.01mN/m.
4.1.2. CO
2
miscible mechanism
At average temperature of SuTuDen basement (128
o
C), phase
behavour of reservoir oil changes with pressure and content of CO
2
injected. Both the CO
2
and oil are in liquid phase and have
interaction together even if MMP conditions havent been reached
yet. The vaporizing mechanism of light group component happens
continuously due to the contact between CO
2
and reservoir oil, and
the mixture zone is formed.
16
4.1.3. Fractured granite core samples
The composit core using in experiments includes 4 single samples
with the total length of 28.99cm. The single plug samples have
porosity ranging from 2.8% to 7.2%, which representative for
different fracture intervals of the basement. Absolute permeability of
964mD was measured directly with two injection rates (6cm
3
/h and
3,5cm
3
/h).
4.1.4. Reservoir water sample for injection
Formation water was simulated in order to obtain the basic
properties: total salt content of 23,000ppm; gravity of 1.013G/cm
3
;
viscosity of 1.5cP.
4.1.5. Oil sample for injection
The basement oil using in injection was simulated with the
density of 0.873 g/cm
3
which is equivalent to 35,5
o
API; and a
viscosity of 1.05 cP in reservoir conditions.
4.1.6. Sample preparation
Core sample was processed and saturated in brine. Fluids (oil and
water) were filtered by filter with holes diameter of 30 m.
Establishing initial saturation: Oil was pumped into the cores by
top down direction with the initial rate of 3,5cm
3
/h; permeability was
determined preliminarily.
Wettability restoration: soaking cores in oil for 4 weeks at 128
o
C.
4.1.7. Core installation
A combination of 4 samples was installed into one heat and
pressure resistant rubber tube which putting in a vertical core holder.
The combined core was created under principles: (i) porosity and
permeability of the cores increase from the bottom up; (ii) fractures
tend to create continuous flow in a vertical direction.
17
4.1.8. RELATIVE PERMEABILITY experimental machine)
The machine includes: a core holder allows pumping into two
core ends; a hot stream thermal restore item contains the core holder
and fluid buffers. In addition, sensors measure pressure, temperature,
P,... are installed at many different positions to measure and store
data for calculations and analysis.
4.2. Test of CO
2
injection into core sample
4.2.1. Testing model of CO
2
injection ability into core sample
Test of CO
2
injection into core sample was carried out with two
injection rates of 3,5cm
3
/h and 6cm
3
/h. The combined core was
installed in vertical axis, water displaced oil from the bottom up and
CO
2
was designed to pump continuously from the top down.
During the survey process, core holder was set up condition for
measurement with back pressure of 283bar, overburden pressure of
410bar and temperature of the system was kept constant at 128
o
C.
Temperature increase and stability time were kept at least 6 hours.
4.2.2. Experiment result and evaluation
With the injection rate of 6cc/h, water appears when 10.6%PV
was injected into the sample, which quicker than 14.7%PV was
injected with the injection rate of 3.5cc/h. In both tests, outlet water
increased fast and oil rate decreased dramatically right after water
appearing. The vast different between permeability of macro and
microfracture was caused in an ineffective sweep of the injection
water, and it indicated that oil is displaced out of microfracture zones
by capillary pressure.
While CO
2
injection process, initially, only water was produced
until CO
2
appears at the core outlet, oil flowed out of the core. Thus,
18
water inside the microfracture zones played a role of limiting CO
2
mobility and reducing migration time of CO
2
in core. Simultaneously,
in order to contact and mix with trapped oil in microfracture s, CO
2
dissolved into injection water and displaced water out of the sample.
The amount of CO
2
in the back had a effect of concentrating oil into
oil zone moving gradually downward. Oil recovery increased due to
effective CO
2
injection with the range of 9.5% to 14.7% in fractured
granite basement.
4.3. CO2-EOR miscible mechanism in STD fractured basement
Due to oil body in fractured granite basement has a high
temperature, thickness and partial dual porosity environment,
miscible CO
2
injection method is considered the best advantage
method. On the oil displacement viewpoint, CO
2
is the idea fluid
with the following mechanisms:
- Easy to apply injection from the top oil column down scheme
under gravity driven mechanism. CO
2
in liquid state is lighter than
oil so that it replaces and pushes oil and water out of the fracture
zones.
- Contact miscible (in multiple-contact miscible mechanism)
between injected CO
2
and reservoir oil creates one oil phase in
reservoir (in all microfracture and macrofracture). It changes the
properties of reservoir oil, as follows: reducing surface tension,
reducing viscosity, oil expansion; changes oil and reservoir rock
interaction, such as: changing wettability, increasing oil saturation in
pore volume, increasing oil relative permeability.
19
Chapter 5
RESERVOIR SIMULATION MODEL
Eclipse-E300 software with its "dual-pore, single-perm" and
"compositional" modules have been used to simulate the CO
2
displacement process for Su Tu Den fractured basement reservoir.
5.1. Reservoir characterization
5.1.1. Reservoir geological modeling
The geologic model for the Su Tu Den fractured basement
reservoir is based on the "Fracture Halo" model.
5.1.2. Fluid properties
Based on the special core analysis results from the Su Tu Den
fractured basement reservoir and neighbor fields, the connate water
saturation Swi and residual oil saturation Sor get values of 15% and
35-40% respectively.
5.1.3. PVT properties
The PengRobinson Equation of State with temperature parameter
is chosen to capture the PVT properties of reservoir fluids.
) ( ) ( ) ( C b V b C b V V
a
C b V
RT
P

(5.1)
5.1.4. Model Initialization
There are total of 2 reservoir simulation models have been
conducted by using a grid size of 100mX100mX50m for Southwest
and Northeast Su Tu Den parts with the OIIP are 448 and 152
million barrels respectively. However, their Oil Water Contacts and
reservoir pressures get same value at 4000mTVD and 305 atm (at
2800mTVD) respectively.
20
5.2. History matching
These model runs with production data up to the end of March
2011. The results of history matching indicate that actual pressures
from downhole gauges in almost all producers are very well mached
by the reservoir simulation models.
Based on all the information available from the field, it is felt that
the most likely explanation for the additional pressure support being
experienced by the basement reservoir is aquifers. Approximately 3.5
and 2.4 Billion stbw have been assumed to provide energy support
for the Southwest and Northeast areas respectively. The "Dual
porosity-single permeability" type model reflects the reservoir
behavior more exactly than other type model.
5.3. CO
2
flooding simulation and evaluation
5.3.1. Su Tu Den full field development plan
Currently there are 11 producers and 1 injector in Southwest, 8
producers in Northeast. The analysis results (table 5.5) indicate that
the water injection would been applied forward plan because of high
water cut in production wells.
Table 5.5. Recovery factors for Su Tu Den basement reservoir
Well count Current wells Furture wells
Area SW NE SW NE SW NE
Production 8 11 - - 1 -
Ultimate recovery (MMstb) 22.68 103.10 24.37 103.1
Recovery factor (%) 15 23 16 23
5.3.2. Miscible CO
2
flooding for EOR
From the results of laboratory study on the displacing oil by
flooding and the reservoir performance analysis, the concept model
of vertically continuous CO
2
flooding from top of basement (figure
5.13) is chosen for reservoir simulation.
21
Figure 5. 13. The concept model for vertical CO
2
flooding
Based on the reservoir simulation model, the cumulative gross
total CO
2
injected was then about 20 Million Sm
3
and had
contributed to 202 MMSTB oil, recovery factor of 33.34%.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusions
1. The application of enhanced oil recovery technology for Su Tu
Den basement reservoir is a necessary requirement when the current
oil production is decreasing daily .
2. The Su Tu Den fractured basement reservoir tend to have
complex structure of pore space, which involves two main
proportions: micro fracture providing the storage capacity, and
macro fracture providing the fluid-flow pathway from reservoir into
producers. The system like "dual porosity-single permeability"
3. The miscible CO
2
process is proposed as a suitable method for
application EOR in Su Tu Den basement reservoir. Once we injected
CO
2
into reservoir in miscible conditions, oil recovery will increased
by mechanisms: selling oil, increasing oil saturation in fractured
media, increasing the effected permeability to oil, reduction of oil
viscosity and density.
22
4. The results of laboratory study indicated that the oil recovery
factor was low and depended on the rate of water injection. The
concept model of vertically CO
2
flooding from top of basement,
shows the high oil displacement. The oil displacing performance
indicates that oil is displaced from micro fracture by oil swelling and
interfacial tension reduction; oil bank is developed, and flow down
by gravity force effect.
5. The results of computer simulation and screening indicated the
high oil incremental recovery factor of 12.5% OIP, when applying
the continuous CO2-EOR method for full field of the STD basement
reservoir based on current well pattern.
Recommendations
- Continue to study and estimate the application for CO
2
flooding
with economic evaluation. Evaluate exactly the current
production performance of Su Tu Den basement reservoir.
- Conduct field measurement of residual oil saturation after the
primary and secondary production. Su Tu Den basement
reservoir has low recovery factor, thus we should conduct EOR
techniques have the potential of recovering significant
incremental oil volumes.
- Design small pilot test in SD-D areas of Su Tu Den basement
reservoir. Based on the results of pilot test, the concept model of
miscible CO2 flooding should be enhanced.
- Investigate the CO
2
sources, focus on: (i) flue gas from plants
such as power plant gas, natural gas processing...; and (ii) the
neighbor feilds have high CO
2
content. Conduct the economic
model to evaluate response scenarios for specific plan.
23
LIST OF PUBLISHED WORKS OF AUTHORS
1. Le Xuan Lan, Nguyen Hai An (2007), Enhance oil recovery
by cacbone dioxide flooding. Proceeding of the International
symposium Hanoi Geoengineering.
2. Nguyn Hi An et. al (2008), Nghin cu ng dng m hnh
thy nhit ng lc cho i tng mng nt n m Bch H,
Petrovietnam Journal, Vol 4, pp 33-36.
3. Nguyn Hi An et. al (2008), Nghin cu nh gi v xut
cng ngh khai thc du trong mng m S T en, ti
NCKH cp ngnh.
4. Kawahara. Y, Nguyen Hai An, et. al (2009), Comprehensive
CO
2
EOR study Study on Applicability of CO
2
EOR to block
15-2, Offshore Vietnam, Rang Dong Field part I Laboratory
Study, Petrovietnam Journal, Vol 6, pp 44-51.
5. Nguyn Hi An, L Xun Ln (2009), Kho st c ch trn ln
CO
2
vi du th tng mng nt n m S T en trong iu
kin va, ti NCKH cp trng.
6. Nguyn Hi An, L Xun Ln (2010), ng dng phng trnh
trng thi (EOS) trong m hnh ha c tnh du va mng S
T en v d bo p sut trn ln nh nht khi bm p CO
2
,
Tuyn tp bo co hi ngh khoa hc v cng ngh quc t,
Tp on Du kh Quc gia Vit Nam.
7. Nguyn Hu Trung, Nguyn Hi An v nnk (2010), Bm p
CO
2
gia tng thu hi du kh cho b Cu Long, Tuyn tp bo
co hi ngh khoa hc v cng ngh quc t, Tp on Du kh
Quc gia Vit Nam.
24
8. Nguyen Hai An and Le Xuan Lan (2010), Combination of
underground CO
2
storage and increased oil recovery in
SuTuDen-SW fractured basement reservoir. Proceeding of the
International symposium Hanoi Geoengineering.
9. Nguyn Hi An, L Xun Ln (2010), M phng khai thc du
bng phng php bm p CO
2
trn ln, p dng cho khi SD-
D i tng mng nt n m S T en, ti NCKH cp
trng.
10. Nguyn Hi An, L Xun Ln v nnk (2011), Kt hp chn vi
CO
2
cng vi vic nng cao h s thu hi du ti tng mng nt
n Ty Nam-S T en, Tp ch KHKT M-a cht, S 34,
Trang 3-8.
11. Nguyn Hi An, Nguyn Hong c v nnk (2011), ng
dng ca cng ngh Nano trong cng nghip Du kh, Tp ch
KHKT M-a cht, S 34, Trang 60-65.