Engineering Commons^™

Comprehensive Evaluation Of Novel Medium-Temperature And High-Temperature Resistant Re-Crosslinkable Preformed Particle Gels For Conformance Control, Zhanmiao Zhai

Masters Theses

"Gel treatment has been widely used to control excessive water production and improve oil recovery in mature oilfields. In comparison to traditional preformed particle gel (PPG), re-cross linkable preformed particle gel (RPPG) has a significant advantage in treating abnormal features such as open fractures, fracture-like channels, and void space conduits (VSC). This research provides a comprehensive evaluation of two novel RPPG products developed in our lab: medium-temperature resistant RPPG (MT-RPPG) for a Middle East reservoir and a high-temperature resistant RPPG (HT-RPPG) for North Sea reservoirs (130 ^oC).

We assessed the effect of the monomer types and concentration, pH, salinity, …

Power Generation From Waste Heat During Oil Production, Subrahmanya Chandra Bhamidipati

Masters Theses

"The increase in the world population is causing a significant increase in the global demand for energy. This rise in demand is generally met with the use of fossil fuels. But there is considerable pressure to lessen the release of carbon through the combustion of fossil fuels. One way that the oil and gas industry can provide increased energy without carbon combustion is by extracting the latent heat energy contained in produced oil, gas and water from producing reservoirs, and from water which is cycled through depleted, end-of-life or abandoned reservoirs. Extracting this energy and using it to provide direct …

Analysis Of Refracturing Activities In The Major Shale Plays In The United States, Faisal Shammam

Masters Theses

"Refracturing of existing horizontal multistage wells has increased over the past decade in the oil industry. This work aims to investigate all the refracturing operations in the most active shale plays in the united states (Bakken, Niobrara, Marcellus, Permian, Eagle Ford, Barnett, and Haynesville) in terms of completion technique, candidate selection, treatment types, and refracturing production efficiency. To collect the data of the refractured wells, an advanced data analytics approach was applied to separate the refractured wells from 170,000 wells reported in FracFocus, a public chemical registry for hydraulic fracturing in the United States, and combine it with DrillingInfo database, …

Investigation Of Post-Acid Stimulation Impacts On Well Performance Using Fracture Modeling And Reservoir Simulation In A Jurassic Carbonate Reservoir, Muaath Alansari

Masters Theses

"Well stimulation (well fracturing) became an essential tool in the Oil and Gas industry to unlock the potential of unconventional reservoirs all over the world and especially in the Middle East. In Kuwait, well stimulation is obligatory when dealing with deep Jurassic carbonate reservoirs. Thus, the well fracture designing process plays a very critical role in determining the success of the stimulation job and the improvement of the recovery.

Several wells stimulated with 20% HCL have shown wide variations in both short and long term well production performance. The research aims to investigate and identify the possible reasons causing these …

Relationships Among Mineralogy, Geochemistry, And Oil And Gas Production In The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, Hayley Roxana Beitel

Masters Theses

"The Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) is an unconventional shale reservoir located in southeast Louisiana and southwest Mississippi. Limited mineralogical and geochemical data for the TMS have been published. The data that do exist indicate that the formation is heterogeneous. Consequently, previous investigators and oil and gas companies have not managed to effectively link mineralogical and chemical changes to oil and gas production in the TMS. These linkages are critical to establish for future exploration efforts. In this study, we attempt to establish these relationships by gathering all existing mineralogical and chemical data in the TMS, including newly acquired data from …

Evaluation Of Eor Potential Of Low Salinity Polymer In Enhancing Heavy Oil Recovery On The Alaska North Slope, Shize Yin

Masters Theses

"Alaska's North Slope (ANS) contains vast amount of viscous oil resources that have not been extracted. This study focuses on the investigation over the potential shown by low-salinity polymer flooding in improving the recovery of ANS heavy oil through laboratory experiments.

At the beginning, coreflooding experiments were performed with silica sandpacks. The synergy between low-salinity water flooding and polymer flooding was proved, and the low-salinity polymer showed a better performance than the normal-salinity polymer. Further, the sandpacks prepared with formation sand from an oilfield on the ANS was then employed so as to simulate the reservoir condition. A series of …

Microgel Placement And Plugging Performance In Sand Filled Fracture For Conformance Control, Baihua Lin

Masters Theses

“Preformed particle gels (PPG) has been widely applied for conformance control in heterogeneous reservoirs with fractures and super-K channels. As a plugging agent, PPG could plug the fractures or high permeability streaks and divert the displacing fluid into low permeability matrix. Many studies have been conducted to investigate the potential of PPGs as a water cut reduction and improved oil recovery agent using homogeneous sandpacks or heterogeneous core samples with man-made open fractures. However, no research has been carried out to understand how PPG injection and plugging performance will be changed if the fractures are filled with sands. Herein, the …

Data Analytics Of Natural Gas Injection Enhanced Oil Recovery For Unconventional Reservoirs, Ali Waqar

Masters Theses

"Unconventional Enhanced Oil recovery, via the injection of natural gas has attracted great attention, as studies and projects have shown to be promising. An overview of pertinent studies has been carried out. Core Scale Laboratory Experiments, Core Scale Simulation, Field Scale simulation and pilot projects are analyzed. Data is collected for Core, Reservoir, Operational, and recovery information. Thereafter, Data analysis techniques are applied to identify data ranges, distributions, trends, relationships, and to eventually reach conclusions.

Huff and Puff injection is the preferred mode of injection, delivering most promising results for unconventional reservoirs. Across all the studies, with increase in amount …

Asphaltene Stability In Crude Oil During Carbon Dioxide Injection And Its Impact On Oil Recovery: A Review, Data Analysis, And Experimental Study, Sherif M. Fakher

Masters Theses

"Crude oils are usually associated with many compounds, some of which are favorable and others, which are not. One of the most unfavorable components of crude oil that pose severe operational problems and decreases oil production significantly are asphaltenes. These compounds are solids that are homogenized in the crude oil at room temperature but tend to separate from solution when agitated. They can deposit in the reservoir pores, wellbore, and transportation pipelines thus causing severe operational problems and oil recovery reduction.

Even though researchers have been studying asphaltenes for more than 100 years, there is still an ambiguity concerning asphaltene …

Investigating The Use Of Class C Flyash-Based Geopolymer Cement As A Potential Alternative To Portland Cement To Seal Co₂ Storage Wells, Priyesh Parimal Jani

Masters Theses

"Capturing emitted carbon dioxide from the source of emission and storing it underground is one effective way to reduce the amount of CO₂ in the atmosphere and is called carbon capture and storage (CCS). For the successful CCS project, it is necessary to ensure long term storage of injected CO₂ inside these selected reservoirs. Portland cement used to cast wells in these reservoirs degrade in CO₂ environment and can create migration path for leakage of CO₂. The aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive review about the problem, to propose a new geopolymer …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling Of Proppant Static Settling Velocity In High Viscosity Friction Reducers, Chen Yuan

Masters Theses

"In the current petroleum fracturing industry, it is necessary to understand the downhole migration and settling velocity of the proppant. If we can master this information well, it will be a great help to obtain effective propped fracture conductivity. In order to study the transport of proppants in the well, we used laboratory experiments and computer numerical simulations to compare the results to get a meaningful conclusion. We spent a lot of time building models on a powerful computer and comparing the experimental conclusions. We finally decided to use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) as the simulation platform, discrete phase method …

Breaker Evaluation And Formation Damage Remediation Of Re-Crosslinkable Preformed Particle Gel (Rppg), Enze Zhou

Masters Theses

"Re-crosslinkable preformed particle gel (RPPG) is a newly developed preformed particle gel for improving sweep efficiency and oil recovery by blocking or reducing the conductivity of fractures and fracture-like channels or conduits. However, RPPG has the potential to plug the facilities or damage the formation if a treatment is not properly conducted.

This work presents the performance of selected oxidizing breakers on the degradation of RPPG. The influence of a few factors on the degradation process was investigated, including breaker type, breaker concentration, temperature, gel concentration, gel aging time, and gel size. Results indicate that breaker type, concentration, and temperature …

Review And Data Analysis Of Low Salinity Water Effect Through Induced Fine Migration, Dawei Xu

Masters Theses

"Low salinity water flooding (LSWF) is well proved to be an effective EOR technology both in laboratory and field tests, however, the conditions for LSWF to work and EOR mechanism is still debatable. Up till now, many mechanisms have been proposed to explain the incremental oil recovery in sandstone by LSWF, for instance, fine migration, ionic exchange, wettability alteration and pH increase.

In this study, we only focus on low salinity water flooding effect through induced fine migration mechanism. The objective of this study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis using statistical analysis methods and explaining the mechanism of fine …

Modeling Overpressure Development During Shale Rock Compaction Coupling Poroelasticity And Permeability Evolution Above 3km Depth, Wenyu Zhao

Masters Theses

"The evolution of pore pressure including overpressure during sedimentation is an important process to consider when analyzing whether high pore pressure causes rock failure. High pore pressure is caused by under-compaction due to the rapid burial of low-permeability sediments, and as a result, porosity decreases less rapidly with depth than in normally compacted sediments where porosity decreases exponentially with depth. While under-compaction related pore pressure magnitudes have been determined empirically, in most numerical modeling approaches, the pore pressure is either applied as a static magnitude or coupled to a fluid flow simulator. This study simulates the pore pressure evolution during …

Gel Composition And Brine Concentration Effect On Hydrogel Dehydration Subjected To Uniaxial Compression, Xinrui Zhao

Masters Theses

"Gel treatment is a process that injects the gel into a reservoir to control the conformance and improve the sweep efficiency of injection fluids. At a certain pressure gradient, the gel dehydrates in a reservoir due to mechanical forces. This work evaluates the effects of the gel composition and brine concentration on gel dehydration under uniaxial compression. A sodium acrylate-co-acrylamide based gel cross-linked with N, N'-Methylenebisacrylamide (MBAA) was used for the study. The compression test is performed with a rheometer with a plate-plate geometry. The gel dehydration under pressure was measured to see how gel dehydration would be impacted by …

Hydraulic Fracture Design Optimization For Nubian Sandstone Formation In Libya, Housameddin Mohamed Sherif

Masters Theses

There is growing interest in developing unconventional oil and gas reserves in Libya, such as the tight portions of the Nubian sandstone.

Well-X7 is a development well drilled to a TD of 13,005' penetrating the Upper Nubain Sandstone (UNSS) at 12,122'-12,207' and the Lower Nubain Sandstone (LNSS) at 12,524'-12,880' KB. Based on open hole logs, the UNSS has 71 ft of net pay and the LNSS was found to have 295 ft of net pay. Openhole logs also showed low permeabilities of 2.5 and 3 md for the UNSS and LNSS, respectively. The well was initially perforated in both zones …

Proppant Transport With Varying Injection Points And Its Impact On Proppant Development Inside A Fracture, Shail Janakbhai Soni

Masters Theses

"This study presents experimental work which examines the effect of perforation placement and density on proppant placement within a hydraulic fracture. The study also investigates the effect of proppant angularity.

Experiments were conducted with ceramic proppant injected in a fracture slot model consisting of three injection points at the bottom, middle and top of the fracture slot, and two outlets, at the bottom and top of the fracture model. The effect of single point injection height was investigated by injecting solely at the bottom, middle or top of the apparatus, for both bottom and top outlet conditions. Multiple injection points …

Monobore Completion Design: Classification, Applications, Benefits And Limitations, Anwar Khaled Al-Fadhli

Masters Theses

"A monobore completion is a simple completion design that uses the same internal diameter from the bottom of the well to surface. This may be accomplished by cementing a string of casing in a well, or by having tubing stabbed into a polished bore receptacle on a casing liner the same size as the tubing. Monobore completions have been applied extensively in oil and gas fields around the world, both onshore and offshore, from very low reservoir flow to extremely high production rates, since the late 1980s. They have proven beneficial due to their simplicity and cost savings. This study …

Characterization Of Free-Radical Solution Polymerizations Of Acrylamide Initiated By Persulfate Initiator Systems, Yashu Chen

Masters Theses

”In order to reduce the water production and improve the oil recovery of mature reservoir, various conformance control technologies have been extensively developed. Preformed particle gel (PPG), a cost-effective plugging agent, has been successfully applied to block the high permeability zone and thus to displace the water to up-swept zone.

A common PPG based on polyacrylamide hydrogel have been wildly used. Identifying the parameters that affect gelation performance and understand how these parameters affect the performance is very useful to predict and manipulate the gelation time and to control the performance of gels.

The objective of this research is to …

Numerical Simulation Study Of Factors Affecting Production Well Gel Treatment Using Linear Models With Crossflow, Kewei Shi

Masters Theses

"Conformance control is an inevitable topic related to water-flooding. Polymer gel has been proved to enhance oil recovery by blocking the existing water-breakthrough channels. Water that is injected subsequently will be directed to the unswept portion of the reservoir, replacing part of the remaining oil and increasing the oil-recovery factor. Prior to pilot tests of polymer gel treatment, laboratory experiments and numerical simulations are used to design the tests. Understanding physical meanings of key parameters that affect polymer gel treatment and relating the parameters from lab data and the simulator benefit field operation design.

This thesis study tries to evaluate …

The Development Of A New Formulation Of Fly Ash Class C Based Geopolymer And Assessing Its Performance In Presence Of Drilling Fluid Contamination, Mohamed Saad Ahdaya

Masters Theses

"Cementing is one of the most critical steps in the drilling and completion of oil wells. Traditionally, Portland cement is used for oil cementing operations; however, geopolymer materials have recently attracted much attention because they are more cost-effective and have less environmental impacts.

An intensive laboratory work was conducted to obtain a new formulation of fly ash class C based geopolymer cement to be used as a potential alternative cementing material to Portland cement in oil and gas cementing. Twenty-four variations of fly ash class C based geopolymers were prepared, and by comparing several of their properties using API standard …

Data Analysis Of Low-Salinity Waterflooding To Enhance The Oil Recovery In Sandstone Reservoirs, Nadia Ariani

Masters Theses

"The lack of a single reasonable general mechanism to describe how low-salinity waterflooding can improve oil recovery in both laboratory and field pilot projects has increased the interests of many researchers and stakeholders. There has not been observed the relationship of formation brine salinity and injected brine salinity to see how much salinity is reduced to produce the maximum enhanced oil recovery by LSWF. There is no guidance in what EOR stage the LSWF is best implemented. This work collects data from various published literature to develop a comprehensive data set regarding low-salinity waterflooding in sandstone reservoirs. The LSWF mechanisms …

New Wellbore-Integrity Classification For Gas Migration Problems And New Cement Formulations Using Graphene Nano Platelets To Prevent Gas Migration Through Cement, Mohammed Mousa M. Alkhamis

Masters Theses

"Gas migration, one of the primary problems related to the integrity of oil wells, is caused by cement failures. Gas migration can result in costly well repairs and may endanger personal, equipment, and result in severe operational difficulties and environmental issues. The ultimate objectives of this research were to provide a comprehensive review of the problem and to provide a solution to the problem using Graphene Nano Platelets (GNPs).

An intensive review was performed to understand the cement failures. The reasons behind these failures were analyzed and classified with respect to their locations in the wellbore. Recommendations and potential solutions …

An Integrated Method For Understanding The Fluid Flow Behavior And Forecasting Well Deliverability In Gas Condensate Reservoirs With Water Aquifer Drive, Abdulaziz Mustafa Em. Ellafi

Masters Theses

"Gas condensate reservoirs constitute a significant portion of global hydrocarbon reserves. In these reservoirs, as bottomhole pressure falls below the dew point, liquid develops in the pore space. This results in the formation of a liquid bank near the wellbore region that decreases gas mobility, which then reduces gas inflow. Some gas condensate reservoirs have bottom aquifer drive, which also negatively impacts gas production. This research used a field case study to demonstrate an integrated workflow for forecasting well deliverability in a gas condensate field in Libya. The workflow began with the interpretation of open-hole log data to identify the …

Conical Folds -- An Artifact Of Using Simple Geometric Shapes To Describe A Complex Geologic Structure, Avery Joseph Welker

Masters Theses

"Accurate representation of the 3D shapes of natural folds is essential to characterization of the dynamic models for fold formation. Geometrical analysis of folds commonly relies upon analyzing patterns defined by the variation in the orientation of poles to planar surfaces deformed by a shortening event when plotted using graphical calculators (e.g., stereogram, polar tangent diagrams) to interpret the shape of folds. Stereograms for which orientation data define small circles are classified as non-cylindrical regular folds and are interpreted as "conical folds," where the shape of the fold is represented by a cone that terminates at a point. Utilizing similar …

New Nanoparticle Water-Based Drilling Fluid Formulation With Enhanced Thermal Stability And Inhibition Capabilities In The Woodford Shale, Jose Aramendiz Pacheco

Masters Theses

"Drilling fluid design for unconventional reservoirs aims at preventing formation instability problems associated with fluid invasion, shale swelling, and cuttings dispersion. Although oil-based mud (OBM) can be used to achieve these goals, environmental and economic concerns limit its application. This experimental study evaluated the potential use of nanoparticles (NP) to improve water-based mud (WBM) inhibition capabilities and its ability to enhance the overall drilling fluid thermal stability while providing a cleaner technology to the industry.

Characterization of Woodford shale was completed with X-ray diffraction, cation exchange capacity, and scanning electron microscopy, silica, and graphene NP were characterized with aqueous stability …

The Role Of Flexural Slip In The Development Of Chevron Folds, Yuxing Wu

Masters Theses

"Chevron folds are characterized by straight limbs and narrow hinge zones. One of the conceptual models to initiate and develop chevron folds involves flexural slip during folding. While some kinematical models show the necessity for slip to initiate during chevron folding, recent numerical modeling studies of visco-elastic effective single layer buckle folding have shown that flexural slip does not result in chevron folds. In this study, several 2D finite element analysis models are run, distinguished by 1) geometry of the initial perturbation (sinusoidal and white noise), 2) varying thewavelength of the initial perturbation (10%, 50%, and 100% of the dominant …

Investigation Of Proppant Static Settling Velocity In Hydraulic Fractures Using Viscoelastic Linear Gel, Vismay Manishbhai Shah

Masters Theses

"Few studies have quantified proppant transport in static conditions using actual proppant and validated previously established correlation. The objective of this study is to investigate the rheological properties of the linear gel, and determine the effect of size, shape and specific gravity of the proppant, fracture walls and rheological properties of the fluid on the proppant settling velocity in static condition and validate the previously established correlation.

Shear viscosity and dynamic frequency sweep tests were performed to investigate the viscous and viscoelastic behaviour of the HPG linear gel with five different concentrations. Proppant settling experiments were conducted with different proppant …

Evaluation Of Preformed Particle Gels Penetration And Propagation Behavior For A Conformance Control Treatment In Partially Open Conduits, Ahmed Mohamed Aldalfag

Masters Theses

"Preformed particle gels (PPGs) serve as a conformance control agent and have been used widely to control excess water production through conduits, fractures or fracture-like features. This research ranks the parameters that impact PPG resistance to water flow in partially opened conduits. Experiments were conducted to examine the effect of brine concentration, PPG injection pressure, back pressure, reducing water salinity and matrix permeability on PPG resistance to water flow through conduits, PPG penetration to the matrix. PPGs were swelled in different concentration brines and were injected into the conduits at a few designed injection pressures. PPG swollen in high brine …

Survey And Data Analysis Of Weak Gel Treatments In Injection Wells, Zhuxing Chen

Masters Theses

"Excessive water production is a major concern in mature reservoirs. Weak gels have been applied in injection wells for in-depth profile modification. However, the data range and distribution of each parameter that affects performance of weak gels have not been studied thoroughly.

China has the largest amount of chemical-based conformance control treatments. This paper presents a summary of comprehensive data ranges and distributions for weak gel treatments based on the laboratory experiments and field applications in China from 2001 to 2010. The data set includes 76 cases compiled from China Academic Journals papers. In this study, reservoir properties, gel properties …