This research covers simulation of Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) Thermal Enhanced Oil Recovery (TEOR) and potential benefits for use of produced water in agriculture and food security, using a case study of oil fields in South Sudan. Oil production in many oil fields in South Sudan is declining, has high water cut, and low recovery factor. It is costly to manage the produced water. At the same time, agriculture in South Sudan is almost entirely rainfed, and this affects food security. Produced water can be managed by using it for TEOR and agriculture to solve water management issues, enhance oil production, reduces competition over water resources, and improve food security.
Field A is a deep reservoir in South Sudan with oil gravity between 25 and 31 API. There are limited and mixed results from applications of TEOR methods in deep reservoirs. As such history matching and sensitivity analysis, and CSSS TEOR simulations were performed to examine most uncertain reservoir properties and the compatibility of Field A properties with CSS TEOR method. The results of simulation show that aquifer volume (AQV) and productivity index (PI) are the most uncertain property that affect reservoir pressure; cumulative oil, gas, and water production; water cut; and gas oil ratio. CSS TEOR simulation was not successfully due to the high API gravity suggesting that Field A is not a good candidate for CSS TEOR.
The produced water is sufficient to irrigate large areas of farms and watering thousands of livestock. However, analysis results from untreated water; water treated by demulsifer-defoamer and bioremediation shows high total dissolved solids (TDS) and sodium absorption ratio (SAR) values. Therefore, reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology was applied to treat the produced water. RO rejected more than 90% of elements in the produced water with exception of elements B, Cu, Pb, and Ca. Consequently, water from RO does not meet food and agriculture organization (FAO) standards for all uses in agriculture. ANOVA showed that there was no significant difference in TDS reductions between the different applied treatment technologies. Therefore, caution is needed when using statistical analysis to verify operationalization of RO technology which rejected more than 90% of the elements in the produced water. / Doctor of Philosophy / This research discusses how to increase oil production by injecting steam in the reservoir and leaving it to soak before the next injection and start of oil production, along with potential benefits for use of produced water in agriculture and food security, all using a case study of oil fields in South Sudan. In many oil fields in South Sudan the volume of oil produced is decreasing while that of water is increasing rapidly, so that now nearly 90% of the total fluids produced is water. Management of produced water can be very costly. Despite the large quantities of produced water, agriculture in South Sudan still depends on rain water, and this dependency on rain water can affect crop production and food security, and also cause conflict amongst nomads and farmers over water resources during the dry season. These problems can be mitigated by using produced water to increase oil production and then be applied for agricultural uses.
The first study simulated steam injection in the reservoir in Oil Field A. The results showed that process of injection did not work well due to the properties of the oil in that formation, and therefore other methods may be needed to increase oil production in Field A.
In the second study, water which is produced together with oil (produced water) was analyzed to check its quality. This analysis determined that the water has very high concentration of total dissolved solids. Treatment methods that have been applied in the oil fields for treating produced water do not currently make the water clean enough to be use for agriculture use. Therefore, reverse osmosis membrane technology was applied to reduce the concentration of the elements in the water. Reverse osmosis treatment technology is capable of removing 90 % concentration of most elements in the produced water, but some potentially harmful elements, such as boron, remained. As a result, the water treated by reverse osmosis can only be used for livestock watering unless additional treatment methods are adopted to reduce boron concentrations to acceptable level.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/111482 |
| Date | 11 February 2021 |
| Creators | Lado, Flora Eyoha Severino |
| Contributors | Mining Engineering, Ripepi, Nino S., Chen, Cheng, Sarver, Emily A., Stewart, Ryan D. |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Dissertation |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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