You are on page 1of 7

SPE 113039-PP UTILIZING ACIDIZED NH2 FOR MITIGATING FORMATION DAMAGE AND IMPROVING OIL RECOVERY: CASE STUDY

OF PENARA FIELD, MALAYSIA


N.A.M Agil, SPE, PETRONAS Carigali Sdn. Bhd.; I.M. Saaid, SPE, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS; J. Ibrahim, SPE, PETRONAS Research Sdn. Bhd.; and M.F. Harun, SPE, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS

Copyright 2008, Society of Petroleum Engineers This paper was prepared for presentation at the 2008 SPE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, U.S.A., 1923 April 2008. This paper was selected for presentation by an SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract Deposition of solid hydrocarbons such as asphaltene and wax near the wellbore and in the tubing is known to cause decline in the well production performance. Various mitigation methods such as chemical wax inhibition, thermal insulation, and coiled tubing clearance are repetitive and exhaustive. These methods could temporarily remove deposits but not prevent them from reoccurance. On the other hand, the thermo-chemical method utilizing acid-base reactions seems to be offering the most effective and simple solution to the problem. Reaction products and heat from the acid-base reactions could be utilized to dissolve and disperse wax or asphaltene deposition in addition to changing the wettability profile. The present study is to evaluate the performance of acidized amines for mitigating formation damage and improve oil recovery in the Penara Field, offshore Peninsular Malaysia. Wells in the field have been recording massive production decline of more than 5000 stb/d despite continuous treatment of pour point depressant, wax dispersant, de-emulsifier and frequent tubing clearance activities. Physical observation and interfacial tension measurement were carried out to qualitatively and quantitatively measure the performance of the acidized amines. Improvement in the oil recovery was measured through coreflooding test. The study found that acidized amines by-products dispersed the suspended wax solid and prevented it from re-depositing after 48 hours. Thus, oil recovery increased to 51.3 % for non waxy-liquid crude and 13.0 % for waxy-gelled crude. These findings from the laboratory were further validated by production optimization using Wellflo. The thermochemical method utilizing acidized amines is simple and yet experimentally proved to be effective in solving the wax related problem. Considering the reserve potential in the Penara Field and supported by sufficient well data, the incremental production of 22 % could be predicted.

Introduction Formation damage and solid deposition in well tubing could cause decline in the production performance and down time. Wax buildup happens when wax crystallizes out of the crude oil, coating tubulars, equipment, pipelines and the walls and bottoms of storage tanks. During production, the oil temperature gradually decreases as it leaves the formation until it reaches the separator unless heat is added. When the temperature drops below the wax crystallization point, the wax will plate out from the oil and form crystals that will grow in size and precipitate onto tubular and equipment surfaces (Dobbs, 2007). Removal of the paraffinic deposit is very difficult especially when the wax buildup occurs in the formation, near the wellbore or inside well tubing. The thermo chemical reaction and wettability effects have been studied to mitigate production problem due to waxy crude (Buckley et al., 1998 and Ashton et al., 1989). The process utilizes water-based exothermic reaction that generates enough heat to raise the temperature of the base brine. The reaction can be controlled to generate large predictable quantities of heat at a pre-determined well depth. As the chemical reacts with the water present in the tubing, the generated heat would remove the wax deposited on the tubing wall. A field example is a reaction of sodium nitrate and ammonium nitrate in aqueous solution as per the patented Shell system (Ashton et al., 1989).

SPE 113039-PP

NaNO2 + NH4NO3 N2 + 2H20 + NaNO3 + Heat The 3 Molar solution will generate heat of about 132,500 BTUs. The heat produced raises the temperature of the base by around 192 oC. Wax precipitates with sixty or more carbon atoms per molecule that have melting temperatures from 88 to 93 oC (Ashton et al., 1989). One of the advantages of the thermo-chemical treatment is that the generated heat can be produced at a desired location such as near the wellbore to melt and diffuse organic deposits. It could act as an excellent wax and asphaltene dispersant, corrosion inhibitor and de-emulsifier. The thermochemical reaction is inferred to change the wettability from oil-wet to water-wet by changing the wax morphology from crystalline towards amorphous. The treatment method was reported to be effective in the Temana Pilot Project, Balingian Delta, Sarawak in 2004 (Ibrahim and Ali, 2004). The thermo-chemical treatment could be considered as the most simple and effective compared to other wax treatment methods such as chemical wax inhibition, thermal insulation, and coiled tubing clearance. These methods could temporarily remove deposits but not prevent them from reoccuring. The thermo-chemical treatment is even better than the recent ultrasonic wave method, which requires skill to identify optimal ultrasonic frequencies to prevent precipitation. The present study evaluates the effectiveness of acidized amines for mitigating formation damage due to wax precipitation in the Penara Field. The marginal field, located in the 61-meter water depth is in the Penara-North Lukut cluster, offshore Terengganu, Malaysia. The Penara A well produces from the Northern block sands, which is at 1500 psia and has a significant amount of remaining reserve. Earlier costing viability study indicated that the remaining reserve could overcome the high treatment cost (Agil, 2007). The initial reservoir pressure before production was 3057 psia and the bubble point pressure is 751.7 psia. Its average porosity is 21.3% and average permeability is between 500-1000 mD. Other crude oil properties are in APPENDIX A. The Penara field has been producing waxy crude, mostly from Northern block sands. Penara peak oil production was at 13,378 BOPD and the production had dropped significantly in the 4th quarter 2005 to the 1st quarter 2006 as tabulated in APPENDIX B. The massive production decline of more than 5000 STB/D from the Penara peak oil was attributed to the wax deposition as evidenced from the on-site production environment. The seabed temperature is around 25oC whereas the surface temperature is at 34oC, which is below Penara As Wax Appearance Temperature (WAT) of 67.5 oC. Tubing head temperature also fluctuated between 85 oC and 68 oC, which is slightly above the WAT. The Penara A well has been continuously treated with pour point depressant, wax dispersant and de-emulsifier as detailed in APPENDIX B. In fact, pipeline pigging had also been carried out due to the severity of the wax deposition (Agil, 2007). In a previous study, acidized amines was found to have the capability of reducing the interfacial tension and altering wettability from oil-wet state to more water-wet or mixed-wet states of the Temana non waxy-liquid oil (Lee, 2005). However, the performance of the acidized amines have not been carried out for waxy-gelled oil. Therefore the present study had been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the acidized amines on waxy-gelled oil.

Experiment and Simulation Laboratory experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of the acidized amines were carried out in four stages: heat generation test, wax dissolution and dispersion test, interfacial tension measurement test and coreflooding test. Two types of crude samples were used: waxy-gelled crude taken from Penara A well and and non waxy-liquid crude taken from Temana B well. Finally, Wellflo simulation was done to estimate increment of oil production based on experimental results. The heat generation test was used to detect and measure the temperature rise attributed to heat generation by the chemical reaction between organic acid and base solutions. The wax dissolution and dispersion test were used to determine the extent of Penara A wax dissolution caused by the generated heat. The interfacial tension measurement was used to determine whether there is reduction in the interfacial tension of the waxygelled crude sample. Volume concentration of acidised amine in the crude sample varied from 5 % to 25 %. In principle, when the crude sample droplet is rotated using the spinning drop tensiometer, the droplet will elongate due to centrifugal forces. However, this is counter-balanced by the interfacial tension between the brine and crude sample. At an appropriate drop volume and rotational speed, the drop diameter depends solely on the interfacial tension. The droplet stabilizes in the axis of rotation, while the surrounding fluid is forced outward due to its higher density (Shah et al., 2004). The coreflooding test was used to measure the volume of oil recovered before and after injection of the acidized amines. Increment in the oil recovery relative to the brine solution would indicate that the acidized amines did improve the oil recovery. The ratio of acid to amine, the main parameter in the present study, was varied from 95:5 to 70:30 until the most

SPE 113039-PP

optimum oil recovery is achieved. Simulation using Wellflo software was used to predict the well productivity index, skin factor and oil production rate before and after treatment with the acidized amines to estimate the increment of oil production.. Results and Discussion Heat Generation Test. It was observed that all crude samples added with acidised amines at different volume concentrations experienced a temperature rise. This was expected since the reaction is exothermic. Crude sample treated with 80:20 acid: amine ratio had the highest temperature rise of 102 oC. The temperature rise in the waxy-gelled crude sample treated at different ratios are presented in Table 1.
Table 1 Measured temperature rise and acid : amine ratio

Acid : amine ratio 95 : 5 90 : 10 85 : 15 80 : 20 75 : 25 70 : 30

Temperature generated (oC) 94 92 102 105 89 91

It clearly shows that there is an optimum acid: amine ratio that could give the highest temperature rise. Wax Dissolution and Dispersion Test. The acidized amines was observed to melt the Penara A wax at 62 oC, which is a slightly lower temperature than its WAT of 67.5 oC. The melting temperature of 62 oC also suggests that the heat generated by the exothermic reaction using 80:20 acid: amine ratio is more than adequate to dissolve the waxy-gelled Penara A crude. The acidized amines was observed to disperse the suspended wax solid and prevented it from re-depositing after 48 hours. The non waxy-liquid crude from Temana B also showed the same effect. The acidized amines also acted as an emulsion breaker. Wax dissolving from solid to liquid indicates that the generated heat acted as a wax dissolver. No wax re-deposition although at room temperature indicates that the acidized amines not only acts as a wax dissolver, it also acts as a wax dispersant to prevent re-deposition of wax. Interfacial Tension Test In this test, the original oval shape of oil droplet started to elongate and thinned into a strip when the acidized amines was injected into the crude sample. The interfacial tension between oil and brine (in mN/m) was reduced with addition of acidized amines, measured by the Spinning Drop Tensiometer. The interfacial tension for the non waxy-liquid oil (Temana B crude) was reduced from 1.159 to 0.016 mN/m at 25% concentration of the acid: amine ratio of 80:20. As for the waxy-gelled oil (Penara A crude), the interfacial tension reduced from 4.88 to 0.352 mN/m. Penara A waxy-gelled crude was further treated with different ratios of acidized amines to further reduce the interfacial tension as shown in Table 2. The 85:15 ratio had significantly reduced IFT to 0.183 mN/m (i.e 46.65% reduction), wheras the 80:20 ratio reduced IFT from 0.437 mN/m to 0.352 mN/m. The IFT reduction at different ratios of acid: amine for both waxy-gelled crude and non waxy-liquid crude is plotted in Figure 1.
Table 2 IFT test result at different acid : amine ratio

Acid : Amine ratio 95:5 90:10 85:15 75:25 70:30

IFT (mN/m) 0.204 0.236 0.183 0.332 0.283

SPE 113039-PP

6.00

waxy-gelled oil 80:20 acid:amine ratio


5.00 4.88

non-waxy liquid 80:20 acid:amine ratio waxy gelled oil 85:15 acid:amine ratio

Interfacial Tension (Nm/m)

4.00

3.00

2.00

1.00

1.159 0.615 0.352 0.183

0.00 0 5 10 15 20 25

0.016

30

Concentration (%) of acidized amine solution

Figure 1: IFT reduction comparison for waxy-gelled and non waxy-liquid oil with acid : amine ratio of 80:20 and 85:15.

Coreflooding Test. In this experiment, when core sample was soaked with the acidized amines, an interaction between the chemical and the core grain surface might have occured, which contributes to the higher oil recovery obtained from the coreflooding experiment. It is inferred that the wettability of the core has changed to more water-wet. A wettability experiment needs to be conducted to quantify the changes in wettability index. The coreflooding results of waxy-gelled Penara A and non waxy-liquid Temana B in improved oil recovery using the acid:amine ratio of 80:20 and 85:15 are compared in Figure 2 and 3. The percentage of oil recovered is taken at the end of the stabilization period. The oil recovered for the non waxy-liquid crude is higher at 51.3 % as compared to the waxy-gelled crude at only 13 %. Therefore, acid:amine mixture at 80:20 ratio gives better oil recovery for the non waxy-liquid oil. At a ratio of 85:15, the oil recovery was only 5%. Although 85:15 ratio gives the highest IFT reduction, it does not necessarily give the most optmimum result for coreflooding test.

100
Penara A Oil % Before Injection

90 80 70 Volume of Oil/Brine (%) 60

Penara A Oil % After Injection Temana B Oil % Before Injection Temana B Oil % After Injection

Temana B (non waxy-liquid crude)


50

51.3%

14.5%
40 30 20 10 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 Time (minutes)

Penara A (waxy-gelled crude)


13%

8.6 %

Figure 2 Comparison of oil recovery for Penara A and Temana B before and after injection of 80:20- ratio acidized amine solution.

SPE 113039-PP

Figure 3 Comparison of waxy-gelled Penara A before and after injection of acid : amine ratio of 80:20 and 85:15

Simulation Result Due to the inavailability of core data for the Northern block sands, three different values of effective permeability were assumed to represent cases of low (500 md), medium (1000 md) and high (3000 md) permeabilities respectively. This would allow well simulation for the prediction of skin factor prior to treatment. Table 3 shows results from well performance simulation using the three assumed cases of effective permeabilities. The nearest keff resembling the actual well condition before treatment is 1000mD that gave skin factor of 48. Therefore, subsequent simulation used this relatively medium value of effective permeability for comparing the well performance before and after treatment with the acidized amines.
Table 3: Well simulation result before treatment

Assumed effective permeability, keff value 500mD (less likely case) 1000 mD (highly likely) 3000 mD (Very unlikely)

Skin 21 48 160

For the after injection scenario, the skin was simulated to be reduced to 25% and 50% of its original skin before treatment. This is based from field implementation on Temana C well where the skin factor was reduced from 93 to 28 (i.e. 66% reduction). Skin reduction of 50% is considered a more likely case, while 25% reduction is a pessimistic case. Simulated oil production prediction of waxy-gelled Penara A after treatment is plotted in Figure 4. Oil production rate before treatment is 1200 STB/day. The plot shows that at 25% skin reduction, oil production is predicted to increase to 1325 STB/day or 125 STB/day increment. While at 50% skin reduction, oil production is predicted to be at 1465 STB/day or 265 STB/day increment. Further well simulation was also simulated using 13% oil recovery improvement factor as obtained from the coreflooding experiment. In this case, the skin factor became 33 or 31.2% skin reduction.

SPE 113039-PP

3 inch Tubing TPR


S = 33 q = 1355 STB/day S = 24 q = 1645 STB/day S = 36 q = 1325 STB/day S = 48 q = 1200 STB/day

Figure 4: Production prediction with skin reduction sensitivities

CONCLUSIONS The heat generated from the thermo-chemical reaction using acidized amines could have dissolved both types of non waxyliquid and waxy-gelled crudes at a temperature lower than the maximum temperature generated from the heat genearation test. Since there is no wax re-deposition after 48 hours test, the exorthermic reaction could have also acted as a cleaning agent to disperse the suspended wax solid. These characteristics are indeed desirable for improving the oil recovery. This present study indicated that the effectiveness of the acidized amines depends on the type of crude and the acid: amine ratio. The acid : amine ratio of 80:20 is more suitable for the non waxy-liquid crude (Temana B) whereas the ratio of 85:15 is more suitable for the waxy-gelled crude (Penara A). The thermo-chemical method using acidized amine showed a good prospect for production increment of between 13 % or 156 STB/day as indicated by the coreflooding test to 22% or 265 STB/day as predicted by well performance simulation. Acknowledgement Authors wish to thank N.H. Alim, S. Ali, K.A. Rosli, H. Ismail and H. Daud of Group Research PETRONAS ; and M Izat Ali and C.H Sia of Petronas Carigali Sdn Bhd, who have assisted the project in many ways. References
Agil N.A.M., Study of Thermo-Chemical Technique to Mitigate Formation Damage and Improve Oil Recovery of Well Penara A6S, MSc dissertation, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 2007 Ashton, J.P, Nguyen, H. T., Krispel, L. J. and Credeur, D.J, In Situ Heat System Stimulates Paraffinic-Crude Producers in Gulf of Mexico, SPE Paper No. 15660, May 1989 Buckley J.S., Y Liu, S Monsterleet: Mechanisms of Wetting Alteration by Crude Oils, SPE Paper No. 37230, March 1998 Dobbs, J.B, A Unique Method of Paraffin Control in Production Operations SPE Paper No. 55647, 1999 Ibrahim, J. and Ali, K., Solids Deposition Project focusing on Temana Pilot Implementation, Project Report Petronas Research Sdn. Bhd., July 2004 Lee, L. H., Experimental Study of a Thermo-Chemical Technique to Improve Oil Recovery, MSc dissertation, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 2005 Shah, S.S.A., Isa M.T., and Zaki, A.A., Application of Surfactants in Enhanced Oil Recovery, 18th Symposium of Malaysia Chemical Engineers, 2004

SPE 113039-PP

APPENDIX A: Crude Oil Properties


Table 1A: Penara A and Temana B crude properties

Crude oil Wax content Asphaltene content WAT Pour Point Density @ 15 C API Gravity

Penara A Waxy-gelled oil 10.57 % Less than 0.01% 67.5 C 48C 0.8669 kg/L 32

Temana B Non waxy-liquid oil 3.1% 1.26% 10.0 C -24C 0.8524 kg/L 35

APPENDIX B: Penara Quarterly Production data and history

Figure 1B: Penara field history and production profile from first oil to April 2007

APPENDIX C: Penara A well test history

Figure 1C: Penara A well test history and production profile from Sept 2004 to May 2007

You might also like