Petroleum Engineering Commons^™

Pore-Scale Lattice Boltzmann Simulations Of Inertial Flows In Realistic Porous Media: A First Principle Analysis Of The Forchheimer Relationship, Chukwudi Paul Chukwudozie

LSU Master's Theses

With recent advances in the capabilities of high performance computing (HPC) platforms and the relatively simple representation of complex geometries of porous media, lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) has gained popularity as a means of solving fluid flow and transport problems. In this work, LBM was used to obtain flow parameters of porous media, study the behavior of these parameters at varying flow conditions and quantify the effect of roughness on the parameters by relating the volume averaged flow simulation results to Darcy and Forchheimer equations respectively. To validate the method, flow was simulated on regular and random sphere arrays in …

Simulation Study Of Sweep Improvement In Heavy Oil Co2 Floods, Venu Gopal Rao Nagineni

LSU Master's Theses

Enhanced oil recovery by CO2 injection is a common application used for light oil reservoirs since CO2 is relatively easily miscible with light oils. CO2 flooding in heavy oil reservoirs is often uneconomic due to unfavorable mobility ratios. Reservoir heterogeneity further complicates the process as CO2 channels through high permeability layers leading to premature breakthrough. However, this can be controlled by choosing a suitable modification to the CO2 injection process enabling better sweep efficiencies, and making the process economic. The current work focuses on two such methods; water-alternating-gas injection (WAG) and profile modification by blocking gas flow in the high …

Modeling Effects Of Coupled Convection And Co2 Injection In Stimulating Geopressured Geothermal Reservoirs, Tatyana Plaksina

LSU Master's Theses

Geopressured geothermal brines are a vast geothermal resource in the US Gulf of Mexico region. In particular, geopressured sandstones near salt domes are potential sources of geothermal energy because salt diapirs with high thermal conductivities may pierce younger, cooler strata. These characteristics enhance transfer heat from older, hotter strata at the base of the diapir into shallower strata. Moreover, widespread geopressure in the Gulf region tends to preserve permeability, enhancing productivity. As an example, the Camerina A sand of South Louisiana was chosen as a geomodel for a numerical simulation study of effects of CO2 injection and coupled convection as …

Analytical Design Method For Cold Production Of Heavy Oil With Bottom Water Using Bilateral Sink Wells, Wenting Qin

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Few heavy oil reservoirs with strong bottom water drives have been developed successfully because of severe water coning. Water coning tends to cause low ultimate recovery, low well productivity, and high water production. Although thermal and gravity-assisted methods might improve recovery in oil reservoirs, such methods are widely perceived as either economically unfavorable or technologically infeasible. This study proposes a new, cold production technique, called Bilateral Water Sink (BWS), to meet those challenges. The BWS method suppresses water cresting by producing oil and water simultaneously from separate, horizontal wells completed in the oil and water zones; the oil and water …

Characterization Of Foam Flow In Pipes Using Two Flow Regime Concept, Rahul Narayanrao Gajbhiye

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The objective of this study is to investigate the characteristics of foam flow behavior in pipes in a wide range of experimental conditions, including two pipe materials (stainless steel and nylon pipes with about 0.36 - 0.38 inch in inner diameter and 12 ft in length), three surfactant formulations (Cedepal FA-406, Stepanform-1050, and Aquet-944), and three surfactant concentrations (0.1, 0.5, and 5 wt%). The concept of “two foam-flow regimes”, consisting of high-quality regime and low-quality regime, is at the heart of interpreting the experimental data. The experimental results in horizontal pipes showed the presence of two distinct high-quality and low-quality …

Mesh Optimization Of Finite Element Models Of Wellbore Stress Analysis, Ming-Yen Lee

Masters Theses

"Numerical modeling methods such as the widely used finite element method provide an excellent opportunity to analyze the wellbore state of stress for a variety of applications such as wellbore integrity, wellbore design or hydraulic fracturing. However, numerical modeling methods introduce errors by nature and may not precisely match the analytical solution if the meshing of the numerical model is not carefully taken care of. This study presents a parametric study of the meshing parameters mesh density, element type, and model size for 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional vertical wellbore models under three different types of boundary conditions, and a guideline for …

Numerical Simulation Of Relative Permeability Modifier Effect On Oil And Water Production, Murad Mohammedahmed Abdulfarraj

Masters Theses

"Excess water production is one of the most prevalent operational problems that oil companies are facing. Polymers and polymer gels have been used widely to control excess water production for mature oilfields. It is well known that polymers/gels can reduce the permeability to water (Krw) much more than that to oil (Kro). This phenomenon is called disproportionate permeability reduction (DPR) and the polymers or gels that exhibit this behavior are called relative permeability modifier (RPM). When RPMs are placed in reservoir, reduced permeability to water can lead to decreased water production, and sometimes increased hydrocarbon production, therefore prolonging the useful …

Shale Gas Rock Characterization And 3d Submicron Pore Network Reconstruction, Malek Elgmati

Masters Theses

"Determining shale gas petrophysical properties is the cornerstone to any reservoir-management practice. Hitherto, conventional core analyses are inadequate to attain the petrophysical properties of shale gas at submicron-scale. This study combines interdisciplinary techniques from material science, petrophysics, and geochemistry to characterize different shale gas samples from North America including Utica, Haynesville and Fayetteville shale gas plays. Submicron pore structure, clay mineralogy, wettability and organic matter maturation were investigated to evaluate the petrophysical properties of shale gas rocks and to determine the impact of organic and inorganic matters on wettability alteration for different fracturing fluids on shale gas rocks.

High pressure …

Experimental Study Of The Interaction Between Surfactants And Preformed Particle Gels, Farag Awadh Muhammed

Masters Theses

"Gel and surfactant treatment are two principle methods to reduce water production and enhance oil recovery (EOR). However, either method by itself has limitations that can be avoided by combining the two. Gel treatment can improve sweep efficiency but has little effect on micro-displacement efficiency. Surfactants are mainly used to improve displacement efficiency but have little effect on sweep efficiency. This research sought to investigate whether the combination of gel and surfactant treatments can be used to significantly enhance oil recovery while reducing water production for extremely heterogeneous mature reservoirs. A newer trend in gel treatments is preformed particle gels …

Development Of A Waterjet System For Direct Delivery Of Granular Iron And Activated Carbon To Remediate Contaminated Aqueous Sediments, Gavin H.R. Risley, Andrew Curtis Elmore, Joel Gerard Burken, Grzegorz (Greg) Galecki

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

While the Techniques and Technologies Associated with Contaminated Sediment Remediation Are Relatively Mature, There Are Several Issues Associated with These Practices that Make Them Unattractive. the Inability of Currently Used Mechanical Mixing Implements to Place Amendments in Aqueous Environments and their Intrusive Behavior toward Benthic Communities Are Just Two Examples of a Necessity for an Improved Delivery Method. Waterjets May Be a Viable Option for Placement of Particulate Remediation Amendments, Such as Activated Carbon and Granular Iron, at Depth. a Custom Waterjet Nozzle and Injection System Has Been Fabricated by the Authors to Examine This Delivery Concept. the Developed Injection …

“Hydraulic Fracturing Efficiency In The Olmos Sand Formation”, Lauren N. Fogarty

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Petroleum Industry Linkages And Nigeria's Economic Development, Chinyere U. Nwolisa, Chinyelu N. Ugoji

Bullion

Nigeria, Africa's most populous country and potentially its largest economy, has witnessed decades of dictatorship and misrule. Accompanying this misrule are severe economic problems of an unprecedented magnitude. This paper intends to add further clues to the solution for this national developmental puzzle. The remaining part of the paper is arranged thus: Part 2 presents an overview of the Nigerian Petroleum industry while the part 3 looks at the literature of economic development the country appears to be executing. Parl4 discusses the various linkages the Petroleum industry offers visa-vis Nigeria's exploration of their potentials. The penultimate part will offer some …

Design Of A Conditioner For Smoothing Wind Turbine Output Power, Murali Bottu, Mariesa Crow, A. Curt Elmore

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

As a result of wind speed intermittency, highly variable wind power output can adversely impact local loads. We propose a conditioner to smooth the variable wind power by utilizing the energy of an ultracapacitor. The conditioner is based on a single phase voltage source inverter (VSI) connected between the grid interconnection point and the ultracapacitor. The shunt VSI injects or absorbs active power from the line to smooth the wind power by utilizing the short term storage capabilities of the ultracapacitor. The ultracapacitor is connected to the DC link through a DC-DC converter, which maintains the voltage of the DC …

Recovery Of Carbon Dioxide From Flue Gases, Fahad Husain Al-Masabi

Theses

In this thesis, the modeling and simulation of the absorption of dilute CO₂ into falling film of aqueous solutions of a sterically hindered amine, 2-anino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP), was carried out using COMSOL Multiphysics Version 3.3. The operating cases were divided in two groups: (1) gas turbine operating cases (CO₂ 3 mol %) and (II) boiler operating cases (CO₂ 8.5 mol %). The key operating parameters for the studied cases are CO₂ partial pressure, operating temperature and amine concentration in the aqueous solution. The simulation focused on the following: (1) CO₂ Loading in aqueous AMP solution; (2) …

History Of Petroleum Engineering At Montana Tech, Leo Heath, Debbie Todd

Petroleum Engineering

In January, 2010, the Petroleum Engineering department at Montana Tech moved into a new building, the Natural Resources Building, to start a new chapter in the history of the program on campus. Occupying a new building is a positive event, and it coincides with a surge of student enrollment which is prompted by industry needs and world energy demand. This time of new facilities and growing student numbers leads to the question of what the future has in store for the department. It also leads to reflection about where the department has been in the past. This history is a …

Characteristics Of Co₂ Sequestration In Saline Aquifers, Fang Yang, Baojun Bai, Dazhen Tang, Shari Dunn-Norman, David J. Wronkiewicz

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Storage of CO₂ in saline aquifers is a viable option for reducing the amount of CO₂ released to the atmosphere. This paper provides an overall review of CO₂ sequestration in saline aquifers. First, the principles of CO₂ sequestration are presented, including CO₂ phase behavior, CO₂-water-rock interaction, and CO₂ trapping mechanisms. Then storage capacity and CO₂ injectivity are discussed as the main determinants of the storage potential of saline aquifers. Next, a site section process is addressed considering basin characteristics, reservoir characteristics, and economic and social concerns. Three main procedures are then …

An Experimental Study Of Surfactant Enhanced Waterflooding, Paulina Metili Mwangi

LSU Master's Theses

Surfactants have a variety of applications in the petroleum industry due to their remarkable ability to lower the oil-water interfacial tension and alter wettability. However, surfactant adsorption on rock surfaces has severely crippled this means of improving oil recovery due to the high cost associated with the large quantities of surfactant needed. A previous experimental study by Ayirala (2002) reported the development of mixed wettability using a nonionic surfactant. At this mixed-wet state he was able to recover about 94% of the original oil in place. The underlying motivation of this study was to achieve such high recoveries without using …

A Simulation Study Of Factors That Affect Pressure Control During Kick Circulation In Managed Pressure Drilling Operations, Jose Eduardo Eduardo Chirinos

LSU Master's Theses

An university-industry consortium has been studying alternative well control procedures to be used for kicks taken during managed pressure drilling (MPD) operations using the constant bottom hole pressure (CBHP) method. The CBHP method of MPD allows more precise control of wellbore pressure than conventional drilling. MPD surface equipment allows more alternatives for controlling a kick and may support faster detection of kicks and losses which can reduce the severity of a well control event. Nevertheless, the elimination of well control incidents cannot be guaranteed, and the uncertainty in downhole drilling margins are not reduced by adopting MPD methods. The primary …

Surfactant-Induced Flow Behavior Effects In Gas Condensate Reservoirs, Bikash Deep. Saikia

LSU Master's Theses

Natural gas, which accounts for a quarter of world’s energy, has been a major energy source because of its abundance and less impact on environment. With explorations at higher depth, pressure and temperature, the share of gas condensate reservoirs to global gas production is increasing. A unique production challenge associated with these reservoirs is the condensate blockage problem, which is the buildup of condensate liquid saturation around wellbore as a result of drawdown below dew point pressure. Mitigation of this problem requires in depth understanding of the multiphase flow of liquid and gas. Surfactants are well known in the literature …

Experimental Study On Single Cement Fracture Exposed To Co2 Saturated Brine Under Dynamic Conditions, Tevfik Yalcinkaya

LSU Master's Theses

Carbon capture and storage is one of the technologies that could help reduce CO2 concentration in the atmosphere while contributing to cutback of Greenhouse Gas emissions. Depleted oil and gas fields are favorable targets for CO2 storage because existing wells can be readily used as injection wells. However, a number of abandoned wells also serve as gateway to the reservoir which should be considered in the context of effective Carbon capture and storage. Wellbore cement is a very essential element in wellbore systems that serve as a barrier between different zones in the subsurface. The fractures inside wellbore cement sheath, …