Petroleum Engineering Commons^™

Experimental And Modeling Study Of Foam Flow In Pipes With Two Foam-Flow Regimes, Ali Reza Edrisi

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The use of foams can be found abundantly in many applications in a wide range of industries, including oil and gas industry. Although understanding foam flow behavior is crucial for the optimization of such applications, the complex flow behavior of foams has been a major challenge. Recent experimental studies with surfactant foams presented a new way to characterize foam flow characteristics by using two flow regimes: the low-quality regime showing either plug-flow or segregated-flow pattern, and the high-quality regime showing slug-flow pattern. This study consists of three main components: (1) experimental investigation of foam rheology in pipes; (2) building up …

Preparation Of Cobalt/Nickel Molybdenum Sulfide Catalysts Supported By Aqueous Media Soluble Multi-Wall Carbon Nanotubes., Hassan Ahmad Bleibel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) have been subjected to chemical treatment in order to introduce hydrophilic functional groups on their surfaces. These covalently bonded groups did enhance the solubility of MWCNTs in aqueous media as expected. Functionalized MWCNTs were characterized using FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, TGA, X-ray diffraction, dispersion test and TEM. Then, functionalized MWCNTs were incorporated in the hydrothermal synthesis method of transition metal sulfide catalysts (CoMo, NiMo, and Ethylenediamine-CoMo Sulfides). Catalysts were characterized using X-ray diffraction, TEM, SEM, N2 Gas adsorption-desorption, elemental analysis, and Hydrodesulfurization (HDS) reaction of dibenzothiophene (DBT). The objective was to study the functionalized MWCNTs' effect; being …

Aggregation Of Uncontrolled Fluids During Catastrophic System Failures In Offshore Environments, James Thomas Stiernberg

LSU Master's Theses

Safety culture relating to offshore operations has shifted since the Deepwater Horizon blowout and resulting oil spill. This incident has prompted the research of high volume spills during all stages of hydrocarbon exploration and production. This study particularly covers the interactions of wells and offshore networks as they pertain to situations where a release of reservoir fluids to the environment is occurring. Primary concerns of this investigation are stream confluences, leak modeling, and fluid behavior; the first two will be handled with various numerical software packages (OLGA®, CFD, and nodal analyses) while the later will require more rigorous treatment and …

Dynamic Modeling Of Channel Formation During Fluid Injection Into Unconsolidated Sands, Sayamik Ameen

LSU Master's Theses

Water injection is widely used for sweeping hydrocarbons in waterflooding operations, and also for maintaining reservoir pressure or disposing waste water. Injection at a high rate is required to maintain the economy of waterflooding projects; however, loss of injectivity is a quite common problem in unconsolidated sand formations like deep water Gulf of Mexico. Well intervention operations, hurricanes, and other issues require frequent shut-downs during the life of offshore wells; in order to minimize deteriorating effect of these shutdowns on wellbore injectivity more accurate modeling of the injection process is needed. Injection of water into a saturated, granular, porous medium …

Discrete Phase Simulations Of Drilled Cuttings Transport Process In Highly Deviated Wells, Doguhan Yilmaz

LSU Master's Theses

Transporting drilled cuttings from the bottomhole to the surface becomes more difficult and problematic in highly deviated wells than in vertical wells. Cuttings tend to settle down on the low side of the annulus typically in the form of a bed which can cause further problems. The height of this bed depends on many parameters such as annular domain geometry, drilling fluid density and rheology, annular flow rate, drill pipe rotation speed, cuttings size, shape, and their density. Prediction of the stationary cuttings bed height with respect to these aforementioned parameters is thus necessary to optimize the range of the …

The Diagnosis Of Well Control Complications During Managed Pressure Drilling, Brian Piccolo

LSU Master's Theses

The constant bottom-hole pressure method of managed pressure drilling is generally expected to reduce well control risks and apply well understood concepts when a kick is taken. Nevertheless, complications, such as operator error, leaks, plugging, equipment failures, and exceeding kick tolerance, can occur during kick circulation. By not properly interpreting the symptoms of a complication, a driller risks the consequences of additional influx, lost circulation or the simultaneous occurrence of both. To address the challenge of diagnosing complications, the implied pit gain (IPG) method is being evaluated as an enhancement to established industry practices. Traditional diagnostic methods attempt to match …

Thermal, Compositional, And Salinity Effects On Wettability And Oil Recovery In A Dolomite Reservoir, Azadeh Kafili Kasmaei

LSU Master's Theses

Low salinity and composition effects in improving oil recovery in sandstone reservoirs are known. However, these effects have not been thoroughly studied for the carbonate reservoirs. Because of the lack of the clay minerals in the carbonate rocks, the mechanisms for the improved oil recovery with low salinity, brine composition, and temperature may not be the same as those for sandstones. This experimental study attempts to investigate the effects of low salinity, brine composition, and temperature on wettability and oil recovery in a dolomite reservoir. Also, it is attempted to confirm that wettability alteration is the main mechanism for improvement …

Establishing Well Operability Limits For Frac Pack Sandface Well Completions Using A Screen Erosion Model And Well Completion Score Card, Rickey Hendrix

Doctoral Dissertations

"Completion quality has a direct impact upon the maximum production rate at which a frac pack well should be operated. Best practices for frac pack well completions ensure the highest possible quality for the well completion. A novel frac pack well completion score card was developed based on best practices for frac pack well completions identified through consultation with industry experts. The score card systematically combines and assesses completions data readily available standard completion reports. The outcome of the score card process is a numerical completion quality rating, which combines all well design and frac pack operations information.

The completion …

Coupled Geomechanical Reservoir Simulation, Amin Amirlatifi

Doctoral Dissertations

"Founded by Department Of Energy, the Plains CO₂ Reduction (PCOR) Partnership is investigating the Williston Basin as a candidate for sequestering CO₂ emissions from power plants. The State of Missouri, a member of PCOR, lies at the outermost point on the proposed transportation route and consequently faces the highest CO₂ compression and transportation costs. In order to minimize the cost of CO₂ sequestration, it is desirable to find a storage site within the state. The Lamotte sandstone is identified as a suitable sequestration aquifer formation in Missouri with acceptable permeability, porosity, extension, rock strength and water salinity. Using the finite …

Minimizing Formation Damage For Preformed Particle Gels Treatment In Mature Reservoirs, Mahmoud Omran Elsharafi

Doctoral Dissertations

"This research studied the effect of preformed particle gels (PPGs) on unswept, low-permeable zones/areas. The objective was to find methods that minimized the damage caused by PPGs on unswept, low-permeable zones/areas, thus improving PPG treatment efficiency. These results can help to identify of the best PPG types, particle sizes, and brine concentrations for specific reservoirs and treatments. This study used sandstone core samples with various degrees of permeability. Two types of particle gels, a strong Daqing gel (DQ) and a weak Liquiblock™ 40k gel (40K), were used, each with a different strength.

This research included two stages. Firstly, both a …

Evaluation Of Gas-Assisted Gravity Drainage Eor Process Applicability In A Louisiana Oil Field Through Experiments And Reservoir Simulation, Wagirin Ruiz Paidin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Gas-Assisted Gravity Drainage (GAGD) process was developed as an alternative to conventional gas injection enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes, which suffer from their inherent weakness of combating gravity segregation. The GAGD process, however, is aimed at taking advantage of this phenomenon and consists of using horizontal producers near the bottom of the payzone while injecting gas using vertical injection wells. It is hypothesized that the injected gas will rise to the top, thereby forming a gas cap while displacing reservoir brine/oil downward towards the producers. In this study, a single-well alternative to the multi-well GAGD process was investigated to …

Modeling Foam Delivery Mechanisms In Deep Vadose-Zone Remediation Using Method Of Characteristics (Moc), Alireza Roostapour

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates foam delivery mechanisms in vadose-zone remediation by using Method of Characteristics (MoC). In such applications, dry foams are introduced into a porous medium which is initially at low saturation of water (Sw) containing pollutants such as metals and radionuclides. For vadose-zone remediation processes to be successful, the injected aqueous phase should carry chemicals to react with pollutants and precipitate them for immobilization and stabilization purposes. Typical remediation techniques such as water and surfactant injections are not applicable, because of the concerns about downward migration. As a result, understanding foam flow mechanism in-situ is key to the optimal …

An Experimental And Computational Investigation Of Rotating Flexible Shaft System Dynamics In Rotary Drilling Assemblies For Down Hole Drilling Vibration Mitigation, Richard Duff

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Rotary drilling system vibration has long been associated with damaging the bit, the bottom hole assembly (BHA) and drill string. Vibration has been traditionally measured in the bottom hole assembly, and been closely associated with the resonant behaviors.

This research study proposes an improved physical laboratory model to explore the dynamic behaviors associated with vibration. This model includes contact with the borehole wall allowing a range of stabilization geometries while removing bit-formation interaction effects. The results of exercising the model help develop new insights into both vibration measurement diagnostics and mitigation strategy execution.

Presented here is a review of other …

Pvt Study Of Selected Uae Reservoir Fluids, Rashid Sher Mohammad

Theses

Phase behavior modeling in crude oil includes prediction of thermodynamic properties (such as saturation pressure, density, viscosity, thermal conductivity, etc.) for the vapor and liquid phases. The aim of phase behavior modeling is to establish the accuracy and reliability of the developed equation of state model to predict various other fluid phase behavior properties at high pressure and temperature conditions.

In the first part of this work, a new and reliable phase behavior apparatus designed in Brazil was used for the two-stage recombination process and phase behavior measurements. The recombination of the surface sample fluids (first-stage separator gas and stock-tank …

Optimization Of Co2 Wag Processes In A Selected Carbonate Reservoir: Laboratory Study, Mohamed Elwy Abdalla Amin

Theses

Miscible gas flooding using carbon dioxide is currently investigated as a possible EOR process for a number of United Arab Emirates (UAE) reservoirs. The major factors affecting the implementation of CO₂ floods are the availability of CO₂ at economic prices and the net utilization ratio of CO₂ per barrel of additional oil recovered.Minimizing net utilization requires controlling the high mobility ratio which causes lower sweep. To control the mobility ratio, the Water-Alternating CO₂-gas (WAG) technique is proposed.

The objective of this work is to experimentally assess the recovery of oil with CO₂ injection in …

Supercritical Co2 Extraction Of Oil From Henna Flower: Experimental, Mathematical Modeling, And Antioxidant Activity, Bushra Saeed Mohammed Dohai

Theses

Henna is a plant that has been used traditionally for coloring nail, skin, and hair, and as medicinal plant. The supercritical fluid technology offers a considerable promise as extraction media due to its advantages over other conventional extraction techniques. The extraction of volatile components from flowers of henna was studied using supercritical carbon dioxide at temperatures and pressures ranging from 35 to 55°C and 80 to 120 bar, respectively. A maximum extraction yield of 31 % from 2g of henna flowers was obtained at 45 °C and 120 bar. The composition of the extracts was investigated by gas chromatography technique. …

Carbon Nanotubes Grown On Glass Fiber As A Strain Sensor For Real Time Structural Health Monitoring, Matthew Boehle, Qiong Jiang, Lingchuan Li, Alexandre Lagounov, Khalid Lafdi

Chemical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications

In order to more effectively monitor the health of composite structures, a fuzzy fiber sensor has been developed. The fuzzy fiber is a bundle of glass fibers with carbon nanotubes or nanofibers (CNTs or CNFs) grown on the surface. The nanotube coating makes the fiber bundle conductive while the small conductive path increases sensitivity. The fuzzy fiber sensor can replace conventional metal foil strain gauges in composite applications. The electrical response of the sensor is monitored in real time to measure strain, vibration, cracking and delamination. Continuous monitoring provides instant notification of any problems. Implementation of this sensor network in …

Investigation Of Drillstring Vibration Reduction Tools, Mohammed Fayez Al Dushaishi

Masters Theses

"Drilling related problems such as drillstring vibration is an important cause of premature failure of drillstring components and drilling inefficiency. The vibration of drillstring interferes with measurement collected while drilling. In severe cases, drillstring vibration will lead to wellbore instability that will result in an increase in the operation cost. In the late 1980's, a lot of studies and techniques were developed to mitigate drillstring vibration and downhole vibration measurements were introduced to the industry in two forms; real time measurements and memory devices measurements

A study of drillstring vibration of three different wells located in the Norwegian North Sea …

Measurement Of Interfacial Tension In Hydrocarbon/Water/Dispersant Systems At Deepwater Conditions, Mohamed Abdelrahim

LSU Master's Theses

The events of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico were associated with great water depths that made it difficult to understand the behavior of the spilled oil as it came in contact with the seawater. The remedial subsea application of chemical dispersants draws interest to evaluate the interfacial interactions between the oil and water at such great water depths. Most importantly, a quantification of the interfacial tension (IFT) between the spilled oil and seawater at deepwater conditions can provide insight into the effectiveness of the chemical dispersion of spilled oil. In this study, Macondo crude oil …

A Review Of Offshore Blowouts And Spills To Determine Desirable Capabilities Of A Subsea Capping Stack, Louise Matilde Smith

LSU Master's Theses

The events surrounding the Deepwater Horizon disaster have changed the face of deepwater operations. In order to continue drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, the regulatory body, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), has required that applications to conduct work in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) include a plan to stop, capture, or contain any uncontrolled release of fluids. The capping and containment systems built and implemented by BP during the event are an excellent starting point for minimizing pollution from deepwater subsea blowouts, but the system has limitations. The industry recognizes these limits but is currently focused …