Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SOCIETY
PAPER 98-44
ES. Denbina, R.O. Baker, G.G. Gegunde, A.J. Klesken, S.F. Sodero
Epic Consulting Services Ltd.
This paper is to be presented at the 49th Annual Technical Meeting of The Petroleum Society in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 8 - 10,
1998. Discussion of this paper is invited and may be presented at the meeting if filed in writing with the technical program chairman prior
to the conclusion of the meeting. This paper and any discussion filed will be considered for publication in CIM journals. Publication rights
. are reserved. This is a pre-print and is subject to correction.
ABSTRACT
Eie term Told Production refers to the use of operating
techniques
and specialized
pumping
equipment
to
aggre&veIy
produce
heavy
oil reservoirs.
This
encourages the associatedproduction
of large quantities of
the unconsolidated reservoir sand creating a modijied
wellbore geomeby
that could include
Wormholes,
dilated zones, or posSbly cavities. As well, produced oil in
the form of an oil continuous foam resembling chocolate
mousse, suggests a foq
solution gas drive occurs in situ.
This Leaa!s to anomalous/y high oil producti@
and
recovery because free gas stays entrained in the foam,
thereby sustaining reservoir pressure. In a recent paper,
the mechanisms that lead to this increased productiviv
were outlined and the suitable reservoir types conducive to
cold proakction techniques were identified
In this paper3
these mechanistic concepts are extended to practical,
intuitive modeling techniques that can be applied to
existing black oil reservoir simuiators by appropriate
alterations to the input data Importantly, these techniques
have been found to match actual cold production
behaviour in applicable
heavy oil reservoirs.
Western Canadian
conventional
INTRODUCTION
Geomechauical Effects
Productivity of heavy oil wells experiencing cold
production is typically much higher than would be
expected - actual productivity exceeds radial Darcy flow
predictions
(using typical oil viscosities and air
permeabiities) by factors of four to ten
The general
observation made by numerous producers, tbat oil rates
seem to correlate with sand production, has led many to
infer that the production of sand improves inftow
performance by increasing the effective permeability of the
formation, via the creation of a system of wormholes. One
of the first to conclude this was Elkins et aL3 in 1972,
when reporting a heavy oil fireflood test, because of no
sigyificaut increase in wellbore diameters with large
amomts of saud produced and because of extreme
chauueling/qoick injectant breaktbmugh times.
Many others have noted extremely fast interwell effects.
Lost circulation material and cement has been seen at
offset wells 100 m away in Elk Point, suggesting a
disturbed sand zone length of at least 100 m4 Husky,
Amoco and others have observed tracer breakthmugh
speeds of up to 7 m/mm through channel systems of
400-200@+ m in length at Aberfeldy, Elk Point and
Lasbburn
The appearance of undiluted water tracer in
many instances means that almost all the water flow was
through only the wormholes.
Fiiy,
MUte previous authors who have either shown
generic results of their foamy oil models or who have not
shown specific results against actual field data, we history
match our model with u&al field data and disphy the
results of the evahration.
FIELD SELECTlON
90 %.
Current geological interpretation supports the
presence of aquifers to the north and the west of well
12-32-4819w3.
Production wells to the north
(13-32-4819W3) and to the west (8-3148-19W3), both
exhibit similar water production profiles as the 12-32 well.
RESERVOIR
MODEL DESCRIPTION
MODEL INITIALIZATION
PARAMETERS
AND TUNING
PRODUCTlON
HISTORY
MATCH
Gas Rate
The gas production that was measured in the field is likely
understated. It can take up to several days for the gas to
evolve from solution iu the stock tank and a percentage of
the total gas volume may be lost to the atmosphere. As a
result, the gas production that was reported may have large
uncertainties.
The historical gas production displayed a short-lived spike
of gas at the begimdng of the cold production period,
which was not modeled, because it was thought to be
anomalous. The gas production profile was achieved by
ahering the -tm.srelative permeabibty, mck compaction and
the TMF curve, while maintaining the oil rate match.
Water Rate
During the cold production period, a gradual increase in
water production was observed, associated with the
increasing oil rate. The fd water late match was attained
by modifications to water relative permeability, k&, ratio,
water-oil contact and aquifer strength.
Relative
permeability
permeability
and
absolute
vertical
adjustments dictated the water break-through time, and the
strength of the aquifer function affected the water
production trend.
MODEL SENSlTlVlTlES
CONCLUSIONS
l
DISCUSSION
REFERENCES
1.
2.
3.
tl
Grid Block
x-direction
dimensior 1(ml
30
25
20
15
15
15
y-direction
dimension (m)
zdirection
dimension (m)
30
25
20
15
15
3
3
3
3
3
15
Properties
Value
hitialPressure
4500 kpa
7.40 E-6 kFd
440 mSS
457 mSS
12OAPI
1.09
13 m/m
2000 cp
Rock Compressibility
Datum Depth
Water-Oil Contact
Oil Gmvity
Formation Volume Factor, B,
Solution Gas, R,
Oil Viscosity, b
Figure
zoo0
1 -Transmissibility
2500
Multiplier
Function
3500
3ooo
4ooo
Figure 2 -Water-Oil
Relative
Permeability
0.8
0.6
I
I
I
I
-vrx1,
I
I
0.4
0.2
0.2
0.6
0.4
water Sahlratlon
4-----I
(liacllon)
Figure 3 - Gas-Oil
Relative
Permeability
3
P
0
E
a
0.8
0.6
2
g! 0.4
=
d
P
02
0.8
1
I
I
Figure
4 - History
Match
30
25
20
G
2
E.
al
z
lx
=
15
10
0
1979
1981
1984
1987
1990
1992
1995
1998
Date
Figure
5 - History
Match
7.5 f
.=
6-
E
0
E
a
E
4.5 -~
.
.
,:
#
00
Historical
..
8
.
-Simulator
I
3--
.
.
.
%
0
1.5 -
.
.
0 ,
1979
1981
1984
1987
1990
Date
1992
1995
1998
Figure
Match
of Water
Historical
6 - History
-Simulator
1979
1981
1984
1987
1990
1992
1995
1998
Date
Figure
7 - History
Match
of Water
100 _I
l
Historical
.
-Simulator
80
1979
1981
1984
1987
1990
Date
1992
1995
J
I
1998
,$I
0.00
,,,,
I
,,bi,lbl
I,,,
I
3,Eb.lfsl,,l
: ,;::-.::i<:$
-;?y&$j
4.ob
History Match
25
20
15
10
5
0
,979
,981
1084
1987
,990
1302
1995
1s38
,981
1979
1084
1987
1090
1992
,995
1598
-1SE61wa
5 15
B
2
; 10
0
,979
,981
1984
,087
,990
1992
,995
1998
oak
0.5
0.4
0.3
02
0.7
0
1979
1981
,984
1087
1090
1092
,995
1000
Dabe
----1SE*
1979
,981
LE-.
HismyMach
1904
1987
,990
Da?
,092
1995
1098
1970
,981
We4
1987
II
1990
oak
,902
1995
,098
0.6 --
3 0.4 E
0
.,
2
1 o2
19-m
n.
x 0.3
0
0.7
.
*
.:.
.:
. TMF.HistoryMatch
i
0
.
-a.
xm
1981
,904
,987
1090
,092
1.
r I
,995
1995
Date
ea
. TMF.HistoryMatch
40
20
0
1970
1981
1984
1990
1987
oate
,992
,995
1590