Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

“Introduction to the Canadian Oil Sands”, “Canada’s Oil Sand Industry: An Overview”, “Heavy Oil Technologies”, and so many other topics about heavy oil have become the hotcakes in the oil industry. A number of new projects are in Execute phase for the development of heavy oil assets. This clearly shows the increasing demand for heavy oil. An oil industry is working hard to meet the world oil demand by developing deep water, HPHT, heavy oil, shale sands and all other non-conventional reservoirs but the main challenge is to develop and operate them in a risk free environment. Understanding the reservoir and fluid properties and developing new technologies help the industry to reduce the risk in developing non-conventional fields. A major problem in heavy oil field is to understand the behaviour of heavy oil. The viscous oil flows sluggishly in the formations and hence it is difficult to transport through unconsolidated formations and is very difficult to produce by conventional methods. Viscous oil recovery entails neatly designed enhanced oil recovery processes like Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage and the success of such technologies are critically dependent on accurate knowledge of reservoir, well and fluid properties of oil under variety of pressure and temperature conditions. This research project has provided some solutions to the challenges in heavy oil field development and can help the oil industry to optimise heavy oil production. Detailed experimental understanding of PVT properties has allowed this project to contribute to the knowledge. Reservoir, well and fluid properties were studied thoroughly and demonstrated the criticality of each parameter on the efficiency of Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage. An user friendly SAGD simulator is a big output of this research which allows the user to optimise the heavy oil recovery and enables to do risk assessments quickly during design phase of SAGD. A SAGD simulator is developed.

[pt] Evidências experimentais demonstram o potencial da injeção de emulsões no aumento do fator de recuperação de óleo. O mecanismo responsável por esta melhor varredura do reservatório é a redução da mobilidade da água em regiões do reservatório já varridas por água. Esta redução pode ser associada ao bloqueio parcial de gargantas do meio poroso por gotas da fase dispersa da emulsão. A eficiência deste bloqueio parcial depende fortemente da geometria do poro, das características morfológicas e propriedades físicas da emulsão injetada. A utilização eficiente deste método de recuperação é limitada pela falta de entendimento fundamental de como emulsões escoam através de um meio poroso. Este trabalho tem como objetivo estudar o escoamento de emulsões através de gargantas de poros, que são modeladas fisicamente por micro- capilares com garganta nos experimentos desenvolvidos nesta pesquisa. Os resultados mostram como a permeabilidade varia com as propriedades e características morfológicas da emulsão e parâmetros geométricos do micro-capilar. Estes dados definem as propriedades necessárias de emulsões em função das características do reservatório para a obtenção do efeito de bloqueio parcial desejado e servem de entrada de dados para modelo de rede de capilares de escoamento de emulsões em meios porosos. / [en] Experimental evidences show the potential of emulsion injection in the improvement of oil recovery factor. The responsible mechanism for this better reservoir sweep is the water mobility reduction in regions already swept by water. This reduction can be associated with partial blockage of porous media throats by droplets of emulsion dispersed phase. The efficiency of this partial blockade strongly depends on pore geometry, morphological characteristics and physical properties of the injected emulsion. The efficient use of this recovery method is limited by the lack of fundamental understanding of how emulsions flow through a porous medium. This work aims to study the flow of emulsions through pores throats, which are physically modeled by constricted micro- capillaries in the experiments presented here. The results show how permeability varies with geometrical parameters of micro-capillaries, emulsion properties and morphological characteristics. These data define the necessary properties of emulsions according to the reservoir characteristics to obtain the desired blocking effect and serve as input data to capillaries network model of flow of emulsions in porous media.

Orientador: Osvair Vidal Trevisan / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecanica, Instituto de Geociencias / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-14T09:21:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Laboissiere_Philipe_M.pdf: 2164531 bytes, checksum: 22b3c21ed4e8fe61df63d3f1a38fb70b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009 / Resumo: Métodos térmicos de recuperação, especialmente injeção de vapor, estão à frente da maioria dos projetos de recuperação de óleo pesado em terra. A injeção contínua e, mais recentemente, a injeção de vapor auxiliada por drenagem gravitacional permitem aumentar a recuperação. A razão do volume de vapor injetado por volume de óleo recuperado é um parâmetro decisivo na economicidade de projetos de inundação por vapor. No presente trabalho, um estudo experimental e um numérico na célula linear e um estudo numérico na célula SAGD foram desenvolvidos para entender melhor como a injeção de nitrogênio combinado com vapor contribui ao mecanismo de recuperação e para a possível redução em volume do vapor injetado. O estudo experimental foi conduzido num aparato de laboratório constituído de uma célula linear para a injeção contínua de vapor. Os estudos foram conduzidos em escala de laboratório com óleo pesado da bacia do Espírito Santo. As experiências na célula linear consistiram em injetar vapor ou vapor combinado com nitrogênio para recuperação de óleo. Nas experiências, vapor superaquecido a 170 ° C foi injetado a vazões entre 5 e 4,5 ml/min (equivalente em água fria) e nitrogênio injetado a vazões entre 50 e 180 ml/min. As principais conclusões da investigação (derivadas de cinco experimentos executados com consistentes condições operacionais) são: 1) a injeção de nitrogênio combinado com vapor acelera o início e o pico de produção de petróleo em comparação com a injeção de vapor puro; 2) a melhoria da razão vapor/óleo mostra o efeito benéfico da injeção de nitrogênio em substituição a uma fração substancial de vapor; 3) os volumes recuperados e as análises dos remanescentes apontam fatores de recuperação superiores a 45%. Pelos estudos numéricos, os resultados da modelagem da célula linear mostram frentes de vapor com comportamentos de acordo com os observados experimentalmente. No entanto, uma investigação mais aprofundada sobre o papel dos principais parâmetros utilizados para o ajuste de histórico é necessário. Os resultados simulados do SAGD - Wind Down mostram que 84% da produção do SAGD convencional podem ser recuperados com a metade de volume de vapor injetado, indicando uma redução da razão vapor/óleo de 42%. / Abstract: Thermal recovery methods, especially steam injection, are at the forefront of most onshore projects of heavy oil. The continuous injection and, recently, the steam assisted gravity drainage yield high recoveries. The ratio of the volume of steam injected per volume of produced oil is a decisive parameter in the success of steam flood projects. In the present work, an experimental and a numerical study were developed in the linear cell and a numerical study in the SAGD cell to better understand how the injection of nitrogen combined with steam contributes to the recovery mechanism, and to the possible reduction in volume of the injected steam. The experiment runs were conducted in a linear cell built for the continuous injection of steam. The studies were conducted at the lab scale using heavy oil originated from the Espírito Santo basin. The experiments in the linear cell consisted of continuously injecting steam or steam combined with nitrogen to recover oil. In the experiments, superheated steam at 170 ° C was injected at flow rates between 5 and 4,5 ml/min (cold-water equivalent) and nitrogen injected at rates between 50 and 180 ml/min. The main findings of the research (derived from five runs with consistent operating conditions) are as follows: 1) the injection of nitrogen combined with steam accelerates the start and peak of oil production compared to steam injection alone; 2) the improvement of steam oil ratio shows the beneficial effect of nitrogen injection in substitution to a substantial fraction of steam; 3) results indicates recovery factors exceeding 45%. On the numerical studies, the results from modelling of the linear cell show steam front behaviors in agreement to those observed experimentally. However, further investigation on the role of main parameters used for the history matching is necessary. The simulated results of SAGD - Wind Down shows that 84% of the production of conventional SAGD can be recovered with half of the volume of steam injected, indicating a reduction of steam oil ratio of 42%. / Mestrado / Reservatórios e Gestão / Mestre em Ciências e Engenharia de Petróleo

Orientador: Osvair Vidal Trevisan / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecanica, Instituto de Geociencias / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-15T22:11:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva_RuiRodrigoCabrale_M.pdf: 10020210 bytes, checksum: e28a74060290050705f7df76b3544caf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Este trabalho apresenta uma metodologia de trabalho aplicável ao desenvolvimento de projetos de CIS utilizando dados de ensaios laboratoriais, simulação numérica e análise dimensional. A CIS envolve uma variedade de fenômenos que ocorrem simultaneamente, como a transferência de massa, calor, reações químicas entre outros. A utilização dos resultados obtidos em ensaios laboratoriais está muito sujeita à erros de escala e com a metodologia desenvolvida neste trabalho espera-se contornar este problema. Primeiramente é apresentado nosso modelo físico utilizado neste trabalho, que é o tubo de combustão desenvolvido na Unicamp. Através da análise dimensional, desenvolvem-se três modelos de simulação sobre nosso modelo físico em escalas diferente, sendo que o modelo menor possui as dimensões do tubo de combustão, o modelo maior possui as dimensões de um campo de petróleo e o modelo intermediário possui suas dimensões dez vezes maiores que o modelo menor e cinco vezes menores que o modelo de campo. Foram utilizados dados sintéticos da composição de óleo e propriedades permoporosas. Os resultados obtidos foram coerentes e mostram que existem correlações entre as variações geométricas dos modelos e os fenômenos de transferência de massa, transferência de energia e reações químicas. Sendo assim, com uma boa análise dimensional é possível criar um comportamento equivalente em todos os modelos dos fenômenos citados / Abstract: This paper presents a methodology of work applicable to the development of ISC projects using data from laboratory tests, numerical simulation and dimensional analysis. The ISC includes a variety of phenomena that occur simultaneously, such as mass transfer, heat transfer, chemical reactions among others. The use of data from laboratory tests is very subject to scale errors, which are minored with the methodology developed in the present work. First is presented our physical model used in this work, which is the combustion tube developed at Unicamp. By dimensional analysis, were developed three simulation models based on our physical model on different scales, the smaller model has the characteristics of the combustion tube, the bigger model has the dimensions of an oilfield, and the intermediate model has dimensions ten times greater than the combustion tube and five times smaller than the field model. We used synthetic data for oil composition, permeability and porosity. The results were consistent and show that there are correlations between the variations of geometric models and the phenomena of mass transfer, energy transfer and chemical reactions. Thus with a good dimensional analysis it's possible create an equivalent behavior of these effects in all models / Mestrado / Reservatórios e Gestão / Mestre em Ciências e Engenharia de Petróleo

Este trabalho trata sobre o aproveitamento de reservas minerais através dos conceitos de completa extração e adequada utilização do minério, considerando estes conceitos como parte da gestão de recursos e reservas, e como elementos que poderão contribuir para o aumento da vida útil do empreendimento mineiro e para redução de custos unitários. A gestão de recursos e reservas, no universo da mineração, usualmente, tem foco na ativa descoberta, rigor na quantificação e caracterização do minério. A metodologia utilizada neste trabalho foca no aumento do aproveitamento das reservas minerais em função da identificação e redução de perdas na cadeia produtiva. Tais reduções deverão se aplicar para além da frente de extração do minério (frente de lavra), tratando em especial a questão da recuperação do bem de interesse presente no minério (bem mineral). Apontando no sentido da completa extração e adequada utilização do minério, as soluções propostas para redução das perdas se baseiam em ajustes de operações unitárias e na linearização e integração do aproveitamento do minério numa só cadeia de valor. Desta forma perdas de minério poderão ser transformadas em produto na mesma cadeia, ao invés de considerar aproveitamentos alternativos com diversificação de destinos e produtos. Como estudo de caso, se utilizou a industrialização do folhelho pirobetuminoso do Subgrupo Irati no estado do Paraná - Brasil, operado pela Petróleo Brasileiro S. A. - PETROBRAS. O folhelho pirobetuminoso, mas conhecido como xisto, é um minério cujo principal bem de interesse presente em sua composição é a matéria orgânica que quando decomposta termicamente produz óleo e gás. Para este aproveitamento do folhelho pirobetuminoso há uma cadeia produtiva com três grandes processos: mineração; tratamento de minérios e processamento. Sendo que, se tem associado a cada um destes processos, perdas de minério, que, se reduzidas, considerando o potencial energético e restrições para o processamento, implicam em maior aproveitamento das reservas minerais. / This work is about the use of mineral reserves through of the concepts of complete extraction and appropriate use of the ore, and considers these concepts as part of the management of resources and reserves, and also consider that these concepts help to increase the life of the venture mining and to reduce unit costs. The management of resources and reserves in the world of mining usually has focused on active discovery and accuracy in the quantification and characterization of the ore. The methodology used in this work focuses on increasing the use of mineral reserves according to the identification and reduction of losses in the productive chain of mining beyond the front of extraction of ore (front of mine), addressing in particular the question of the recovery of valuable mineral ore (mineral-ore). Pointing towards the complete extraction and appropriate use of the ore, the proposed solutions for reducing losses are based on adequacy of the unit operations and linearization and integration of the use of ore in a single value chain, so that losses of ore can be processed into product in the same chain instead of considering alternative uses with diversification of destinations and products. As a case study has the industrialization of the oil shale of the Subgroup Irati of the state Paraná - Brazil, operated by Petróleo Brasileiro S. A. - PETROBRAS. Oil shale is a ore whose mineral of interest in this composition is the organic matters that when thermally decomposed produces oil and gas. To achieve the production of oil and gas from the oil shale ore is subjected to three main processes within a supply chain: mining, ore processing and; processing. Since, it has been associated to each of these cases, loss of ore which reduced involve greater use of mineral reserves, considering the energy potential and limitations for the processing of oil shale.

Orientador: Osvair Vidal Trevisan / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Mecânica e Instituto de Geociências / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T06:58:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Monte-Mor_LucasSoares_M.pdf: 24137724 bytes, checksum: e77cff06c62fba11b775f82eba0fb083 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: A injeção de vapor produzido na superfície é o método de recuperação avançada de petróleo mais utilizado para produção de óleo pesado no mundo. No entanto, há grandes limitações no uso no método devido a perdas de calor quando os reservatórios são profundos e no caso de campos offshore. Os geradores de fundo de poço ("Downhole steam generators, DHSG") são uma nova tecnologia que abre caminho para a recuperação de óleo pesado de reservatórios profundos, campos offshore e locais extremamente frios. Os DHSGs eliminam a necessidade dos sistemas de distribuição e geração de vapor na superfície como as linhas de escoamento de vapor. A saída de um DHSG entrega uma mistura de vapor e gases efluentes de combustão. No presente trabalho, um estudo experimental na célula linear de injeção foi desenvolvido para compreender melhor como a injeção combinada de vapor e gases efluentes de combustão contribui no processo de recuperação e para a possível redução na quantidade de vapor injetado. O estudo experimental foi realizado num aparato construído e desenvolvido na Unicamp para a injeção contínua de vapor puro ou vapor combinado com outro fluido. Todo o estudo foi realizado em escala de laboratório utilizando óleo proveniente da bacia Potiguar e do Espírito Santo. Nos experimentos, vapor foi injetado em vazões de 5 ml/min quando puro e de 4,5 ml/min quando em co-injeção com gases efluentes de combustão. As vazões de gás variaram entre 150 e 800 ml/min. Os resultados encontrados mostram que: 1) Há uma aceleração na produção de óleo quando na presença do gás co-injetado com vapor, se comparado com a injeção de vapor puro; 2) O gás ajuda a manter a pressão atrás da frente de vapor mais estável; 3) A melhoria da razão vapor/óleo mostra que a co-injeção do gás efluente de combustão é benéfica para substituir certa quantidade de vapor; 4) Os fatores de recuperação quando se utiliza o gás são maiores do que quando se utiliza apenas vapor puro, havendo uma tendência de aumento do fator de recuperação com o aumento do volume de gás injetado e 5) Ocorre uma variação na qualidade do óleo produzido ao longo do histórico de recuperação com a co-injeção / Abstract: The surface steam injection is the most common enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process used in heavy oil production. Nevertheless, there are limitations due to the heat loss for deep reservoirs and for offshore fields. Downhole steam generators (DHSG) are a new technology that opens new pathways for recovery of heavy oil from deep reservoirs, offshore fields and extreme cold regions. DHSGs eliminate the need for surface steam distribution systems, for flowlines and wellbore steam strings. The outflow of DHSG generators are a mixture of steam and flue gas. In the present work, an experimental study was developed in a linear steam injection cell to better understand how the injection of steam combined with flue gas contributes to the recovery process and to the possible reduction in the required amount of steam injected. The experimental apparatus used in this study was designed and built at Unicamp for flooding of steam or steam combined with other fluid. The entire study was conducted at the lab scale with a heavy oil originated from the Potiguar Basin and from the Espírito Santo Basin. In the experiments, steam was injected at flow rates of 5 ml / min when pure and 4.5 ml / min when co-injected with flue gas. The gas flowrate varied between 150 and 800 ml / min. The results show that: 1) the coinjection of steam with flue gas accelerates the start of oil production when compared with steam injection alone; 2) The gas helps to keep the pressure behind the front and make it more stable; 3) The improvement on the steam/oil ratio shows that co-injection of steam with flue gas is beneficial to replace a significant amount of steam; 4) Recovery factors when co-injecting gas is greater than when using pure steam, with an increasing trend for the recovery factor when the volume of gas injected increases and 5) a favorable variation occurs in the quality of the oil produced during the recovery history with co-injection / Mestrado / Reservatórios e Gestão / Mestre em Ciências e Engenharia de Petróleo

The acquisition of representative subsea fluid sampling from offshore field development asset is crucial for the correct evaluation of oil reserves and for the design of subsea production facilities. Due to rising operational expenditures, operators and manufacturers have been working hard to provide systems to enable cost effective subsea fluid sampling solutions. To achieve this, any system has to collect sufficient sample volumes to ensure statistically valid characterisation of the sampled fluids. In executing the research project, various subsea sampling methods used in the offshore industry were examined and ranked using multi criteria decision making; a solution using a remote operated vehicle was selected as the preferred method, to compliment the subsea multiphase flowmeter capability, used to provide well diagnostics to measure individual phases – oil, gas, and water. A mechanistic (compositional fluid tracking) model is employed, using the fluid properties that are equivalent to the production flow stream being measured, to predict reliable reservoir fluid characteristics on the subsea production system. This is applicable even under conditions where significant variations in the reservoir fluid composition occur in transient production operations. The model also adds value in the decision to employ subsea processing in managing water breakthrough as the field matures. This can be achieved through efficient processing of the fluid with separation and boosting delivered to the topside facilities or for water re-injection to the reservoir. The combination of multiphase flowmeter, remote operated vehicle deployed fluid sampling and the mechanistic model provides a balanced approach to reservoir performance monitoring. Therefore, regular and systematic field tailored application of subsea fluid sampling should provide detailed understanding on formation fluid, a basis for accurate prediction of reservoir fluid characteristic, to maximize well production in offshore field development.

Up to 60% of the World’s oil is now within carbonates, with over 50% in the Middle East. Many existing carbonate fields have very low oil recoveries due to multiple scales of pore heterogeneity. To secure better recoveries the controls from deposition and diagenesis towards the origin of carbonate pore heterogeneity needs better understanding. To provide good sample support, three High frequency Cycle’s were sampled (2 from the Lekhwair Formation and the third being the Lower Kharaib Formation) from an offshore field (Abu Dhabi) along a southwest-northeast transect, encompassing the oil leg, transition zone, water leg, the field crest and two opposing flanks. With respect to deposition, the 4th order Sequence Boundaries’ (hardgrounds) and the Maximum Flooding Surface’s were correlated across the field, within the sequence stratigraphic framework, showing that each HFC, of the Lekhwair Formation, contains laterally continuous reservoirs (4th order HST’s) which are compartmentalised above and below by impermeable seals (4th order TST’s). The Lower Kharaib Formation shows significant shoaling producing the shallowest platform (prolonged 3rd order TST) and the best connected reservoir facies. With respect to diagenesis, δ 18O isotopes trends, from calcite cement zones within macrocements from the water and oil legs, in comparison with oil inclusion abundances suggest that oil charge reduced cementation in the crest macropores. Stylolitisation in the water leg at deep burial provided solutes for new cement nucleation causing near complete macropore occlusion. The most open micropore networks coincide with the highest porosity/permeability relationships at the mid-late HST’s of each HFC. Considering these areas could be lower grade reservoirs, and that pore characterisation by Lucia (1999) does not include identifying and quantifying micropores, a new ‘Micropore model’ (using elements from the Petrotype atlas method) is devised. This new method highlights micropore-dominated areas alongside macropore-dominated areas within specific reservoir horizons. This provides information of pore heterogeneity at several scales within a carbonate reservoir and may determine the method for oil extraction and increase oil recovery from both the Lekhwair and Lower Kharaib Formations.

Crude oil recovery is related to surface wettability, which is controlled by crude interactions with rock surfaces. Understanding these interactions is associated with studying the complex asphaltenes that (1) are irreversibly deposited from oil-brine interfaces onto reservoir mineral surfaces, (2) are bulky super-molecules and (3) incorporate several chemical groups by stacking aromatic rings together. This is a difficult task because of varying crude oil composition, asphaltene interfacial and chemical activity, and the potential of irreversibly contaminating analytical equipment by such substances. To overcome these challenges, we split the problem into parts by studying how different mono- and poly-functional groups mimic asphaltene interaction with mineral surfaces, such as silica and calcium carbonate. The amine, carboxylate, and sulfate groups were identified as the highest potential functional groups responsible for asphaltene adsorption. Experiments included quartz crystal micro-balance with dissipation, bulk adsorption, and core samples. Adsorption tests for the mono-functional surfactants studied were fully reversible and, therefore, not representative of asphaltenes. Poly-functional compounds demonstrated irreversible adsorption, mimicking asphaltenes, through ion exchange and ion-bridging, depending on the type of functional group, chain length, mineral surface, and brine ionic composition. Poly-amines adsorb irreversibly onto silica and calcium carbonate surfaces regardless of the brine ionic composition or surface charge. However, irreversible adsorption of poly-sulfates and poly-carboxylates onto surfaces requires (1) sufficiently long chains and (2) an abundant presence of calcium ions in solution to allow ion-bringing mechanism. These findings suggest that crudes containing amine groups and long chains of carboxylates or sulfates have a higher tendency to be adsorbed onto surfaces and change wettability. This is important for designing an efficient detachment of asphaltenic oil from rock surfaces, where no complete desorption or drastic wettability change is required. The weakening of asphaltene interactions may be sufficient to induce spontaneous imbibition and consequently increase the efficiency of two-phase displacement. This work emphasizes the importance of understating crude-brine-rock interactions for the purpose of oil recovery. In summary, evaluating potential candidates for deploying enhanced oil recovery, such as low salinity waterflooding, should consider rock and crude types, as successful implementation requires “specific” properties collaborating together to enable incremental oil production