Engineering Commons^™

A Characterization Of Different Alkali Chemical Agents For Alkaline Flooding Enhanced Oil Recovery Operations: An Experimental Investigation, Sherif Fakher, Hesham Abdelaal, Youssef Elgahawy, Abdulmohsin Imqam

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Alkaline injection is a chemical enhanced oil recovery method that is used to increase oil recovery by reacting with the crude oil and creating an in situ surfactant. Many chemical agents can be used as an alkali during injection all of which have several advantages and disadvantages. This research focuses on the innate properties of three alkali agents and their ability to alter pH and temperature downhole. Alkali solutions were prepared with five different concentrations including 0.2, 1, 2, 3, and 4 wt%. The impact of varying the alkali concentration, monovalent cations manifested in sodium chloride, and divalent cations manifested …

Application Of Artificial Neural Networks In The Drilling Processes: Can Equivalent Circulation Density Be Estimated Prior To Drilling?, Husam Hasan Alkinani, Abo Taleb Al-Hameedi, Shari Dunn-Norman, David Lian

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

As the drilling environment became more challenging nowadays, managing equivalent circulating density (ECD) is a key factor to minimize non-productive time (NPT) due to many drilling obstacles such as stuck pipe, formation fracturing, and lost circulation. The goal of this work was to predict ECD prior to drilling by using artificial neural network (ANN). Once ECD is recognized, the crucial drilling variables impact ECD can be modified to control ECD within the acceptable ranges. Data from over 2000 wells collected worldwide were used in this study to create an ANN to predict ECD prior to drilling. Into training, validation, and …

Extraction And Visualization Of Orientation Data From Virtual Geologic Surfaces With Matlab®, Avery J. Welker, John Patrick Hogan, Andreas Eckert

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

High-resolution visualization of surfaces of geologic interest, at a multitude of scales, using 3D point cloud technologies provides an opportunity to analyze spatial relationships of surfaces using orientation data. We present a MATLAB® script that produces planar geologic attitude data (e.g., strike, dip, and dip-direction data) from 3D datasets (e.g., point clouds, 3D scanning). The method utilizes Cartesian coordinates of triangular planar surfaces and converts them into matrices of conventional geologic attitude data. Spatial relationships among data points can be investigated, using polar tangent diagrams, stereographic analysis, or geologic curvature analysis. We utilize this script to create "synthetic" graphical plots …

The Potential Of Using Micro-Sized Crosslinked Polymer Gel To Remediate Water Leakage In Cement Sheaths, Murad Abdulfarraj, Abdulmohsin Imqam

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Cementing is a major step in the construction and sealing of hydrocarbon wells. During the life cycle of the well, cement is prone to cracking due to a change in downhole conditions. This research investigates the use of micro-sized crosslinked polymer gel as a sealant material to mitigate cracked cement sheaths. Two experimental setups were designed to investigate water leakage through cement. The impact of polymer gel strength on the gel's ability to seal cement cracks was investigated using four gel strengths, including 500 pa, 1200 pa, 1450 pa, and 2440 pa. The impact of the width of the cement …

Novel Coupling Smart Water-Co₂ Flooding For Sandstone Reservoirs, Hasan N. Al-Saedi, Ralph E. Flori

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

CO₂ flooding is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective EOR technique that can be used to unlock residual oil from oil reservoirs. Smart water is any water that is engineered by manipulating the ionic composition, regardless of the resulting salinity of the water. One CO2 flooding mechanism is wettability alteration, which meets with the main smart water flooding function. Injecting CO₂ alone increases the likelihood of an early breakthrough and gravity override problems, which have already been solved using water-alternating-gas (WAG) using regular water. WAG is an emerging enhanced oil recovery process designed to enhance sweep efficiency during gas …

Novel Coupling Smart Water-Co₂ Flooding For Sandstone Reservoirs; Smart Seawater-Alternating-Co₂ Flooding (Smsw-Agf), Hasan N. Al-Saedi, Ralph E. Flori

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

CO₂ flooding is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective EOR technique that can be used to unlock residual oil from oil reservoirs. Smart water is any water that is engineered by manipulating the ionic composition, regardless of the resulting salinity of the water. One CO₂ flooding mechanism is wettability alteration, which meets with the main smart water flooding function. Injecting CO₂ alone raise an early breakthrough and gravity override problems, which have already been solved using water alternating gas (WAG) using regular water. WAG is an emerging enhanced oil recovery process designed to enhance sweep efficiency during gas …

Mud Loss Estimation Using Machine Learning Approach, Abo Taleb T. Al-Hameedi, Husam H. Alkinani, Shari Dunn-Norman, Ralph E. Flori, Steven Austin Hilgedick, Ahmed S. Amer, Mortadha Alsaba

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Lost circulation costs are a significant expense in drilling oil and gas wells. Drilling anywhere in the Rumaila field, one the world's largest oilfields, requires penetrating the Dammam formation, which is notorious for lost circulation issues and thus a great source of information on lost circulation events. This paper presents a new, more precise model to predict lost circulation volumes, equivalent circulation density (ECD), and rate of penetration (ROP) in the Dammam formation. A larger data set, more systematic statistical approach, and a machine-learning algorithm have produced statistical models that give a better prediction of the lost circulation volumes, ECD, …

Influence Of Frictional Or Rotational Kinetic Energy On Wellbore-Fluid/Temperature Profiles During Drilling Operations, Ahmed Q. Al Saedi, Ralph E. Flori, C. Shah Kabir

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Temperature-profile distributions in a wellbore during drilling operations might take different forms when applying the energy balance in the overall system. For steady-state conditions, wherein the wellbore is considered a closed system, adding any source of additional energy to this system can influence the predicted temperature profiles. This study presents a new analytical model to investigate the influence of rotational energy arising from the drillstring operation on the wellbore-temperature behavior.

A significant part of the drilling operation is rotation of the drillstring. Depending on the drilling rig, various equipment provides this kind of energy, such as the rotary table or …

A Review Of Field Oil-Production Response Of Injection-Well Gel Treatments, Munqith Aldhaheri, Mingzhen Wei, Na Zhang, Baojun Bai

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

As life-span extenders, bulk gels have been widely applied to rejuvenate oil production from uneconomic producers in mature oil fields by improving the sweep efficiency of improved-oil-recovery (IOR)/enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) floods. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the responses of injection-well gel treatments implemented between 1985 and 2014. The survey includes 61 field projects compiled from SPE papers and US Department of Energy reports. Seven parameters related to the oil-production response were evaluated according to the reservoir lithology, formation type, and recovery process, using univariate analysis and stacked histograms. The interquartile-range (IQR) method was used to detect the underperforming and …

Preformed Partial Gel Injection Chased By Low-Salinity Waterflooding In Fractured Carbonate Cores, Ali K. Alhuraishawy, Baojun Bai, Mingzhen Wei, Abdullah Almansour

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Fractures and oil-wet conditions significantly limit oil recovery in carbonate reservoirs. Gel treatment has been applied in injector wells to modify the prevailing reservoir streamlines and significantly reduce fracture permeability, whereas low-salinity waterflooding has been applied experimentally to modify rock wettability toward water-wet for improved oil recovery. However, both processes have limitations that cannot be resolved using a single method. The objective of this study was to test whether low-salinity water could enable gel particles to move deeply into fractures to efficiently increase oil recovery and control water production. A semitransparent fracture model of carbonate cores and acrylic plates was …