Lesley James, PhD, P.Eng.

Hibernia EOR Research Lab Introduction

2019-03-11

Contents

IntroductionHistory of the LabCapabilitiesCreativityCollaboration

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St. John’sNewfoundland & Labrador

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Offshore Newfoundland Oil & Gas

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Hibernia

Titanic

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Introduction

7https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzBDsjSFCoI

History

• Started over a conversation• Local R&D to support the

Hibernia WAG pilot• Contract signed in Sept 2011• Contract extended to Sept 2022• Construct and equip the

Hibernia EOR Lab• Lab was designed and

commissioned with URC support

• Research objectives include• Laboratory scale experiments• Minimum miscibility pressure• Visualization experiments• Field scale pilot support 8

Capabilities

PeopleEquipmentSafetyResearch Areas

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People

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121; 58 %40; 19 %

24; 12 %

9; 4 %6; 3 % 8; 4 %

Total Project HQP (2011 to Present) = 208Graduate Student - Masters, PhD, etc.

Co-op

Staff

Undergrad Thesis- Exchange Students

Volunteer

Safety

• Training• Equipment testing

and maintenance• Daily, weekly,

monthly safety checks

• Toolbox Talks• Incident reporting

11Testing the Eyewash Station – A Summer Camp Highlight

Equipment

• Pressures up to 10,000 psi (68.9 MPa, 689 bar)• Temperatures up to 392 oF (200 oC)• Corrosion resistant (Hastelloy) wetted parts 12

EquipmentCentrifugeContact AngleCorefloodingDensitometersFluid RecombinationGC with SimDisInterfacial TensionMercury PorosimeterPore Network MicromodelsPumpsPVT SystemVisualization Pressure CellSEM with MLASoxlehtViscometers 13

Research Areas & Capabilities

Reservoir CharacterizationEOR/IOR Screening Flow Assurance Digital Oilfield

Routine & Specialized Core Analysis• Porosity (Hg Porosimetry)• Permeability (brine, air)• Relative permeability

(USBM/Amott, steady-state, unsteady-state)

• Core wettability restoration• SEM-MLAFluid PVT Behaviour & Compositional Analysis• PVT• Minimum miscibility pressure• Fluid recombination• IFT/Contact angle• Viscosity, density• Composition (GC-SimDis)

Top-down EOR/IOR screeningFocus on:• WAG with Enrichment• Chemical EOR• CO2 IntegrationFundamental investigationsCoreflooding at reservoir conditionsVisualization studiesUncertainty analysisEconomic analysisModelling

• SARA, PNA Analysis

• Pour and cloud points

• Wax appearance temperature

• Stability & rheology

• Dynamic stability studies*

• Educational courses

• Data driven optimization of EOR processes

• AI methods to predict reservoir and fluid properties

• Digital Twin*

EOR / IOR Screening

Top-down EOR/IOR screeningFocus on:

• WAG with Enrichment• Chemical EOR• CO2 Integration

Fundamental investigationsCoreflooding at reservoir conditionsVisualization studiesUncertainty in WAG Optimization Economic analysisModelling

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IOR Screening

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IOR Screening – CO2 Integration

• Integrated Constrained CO2 CCUS• Enhanced Oil Recovery

• Carbonated Water Injection• CO2 GAGD – Gas Assisted Gravity Drainage• CO2 Enriched WAG

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CO2 Capture – Membrane Optimization

18Lucas Barrett, Brandon Farewell, Patrick Dillon, Waleed Mohamed, Abu Lais

Target:• Current design is set to gain

90% CO2 purity• A purity of 90% is not

necessarily required for EOR

Design Details:• Membrane Sizing• Membrane Material Selection• Membrane Modelling• Compressor Sizing• Heat Exchanger Sizing• Stream Composition Changes

CO2 Visualization Studies

19Miscible GAGD; water-wet condition; Irreducible water saturation.

Carbonated Water Injection

High Pressure Visualization Pressure Cell (VPC)

IOR Screening – WAG Optimization

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Analyze hysteresis effects on oil recovery on a small scale reservoir.

Perform WAG optimization on the small scale model using various hysteresis models.

Develop and test an AI based optimization algorithm to perform optimization under uncertainty.

Perform WAG optimization under uncertainty on a field scale reservoir model using AI

based optimization algorithm

Uncertainty inWAG Optimization

Reservoir Characterization

Routine & Specialized Core Analysis

• Core wettability restoration• SEM-MLA

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Water-Wet Neutral Oil-Wet

Cont

act

Angl

e Minimum 0° 60 - 75° 105 - 120°

Maximum 60 - 75° 105 - 120° 180°

Wet

tabi

lity

Inde

x

USBM W near 1 W near 0 W near - 1Amott-Harvey 0.3 ≤ 1.0 - 0.3 < 0.3 -1.0 ≤ -0.3Ratio of Water Displacement Positive Zero Positive

Ratio of Oil Displacement Zero Zero Zero(Anderson 1986)

Wettability Determination

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Jaspreet S. Sachdeva, Edison Sripal, Anders NermoenReidar I. Korsnes, Merete V. Madland, Lesley A. James

A laboratory Scale Approach to Wettability Restoration in Chalk Core Samples

Presented at the International Symposium of the Society of Core Analysts, 27 – 31 August, 2018

Objective & Take Away Points

Examine the time and temperature required to achieve Wettability Changes in Chalk holding Rock, Oil, and Brine Constant

Take Away Points:• An appreciation for working with chalk• What is restored wettability and why do we want it?• Continued knowledge in long standing laboratory techniques• Creative new methods

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Core2. Saturate & Age 3. Determine

Wettability1. Clean

Restoring Wettability

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Wettability (Graue et al., 1999)

• Rørdal chalk cores ranged from 1–4 mD and 45–48%, respectively

• Brine: 5 wt.% NaCl + 15 wt.% CaCl2, ρ = 1.05 g/cm3

and µ = 1.09 cP at 20 °C,• Bi-axial coreholder: vacuumed, degassed brine, 5-

10 days aging with brine, 2 PV crude oil, (19% < Swi < 25%), 0 – 28 days aging with crude oil (various crude oil flushing after aging)

• Amott-Harvey water imbibition tests• Increase in oil wettability as aging time increases• Flushing with fresh crude or decane resulted in

more water-wet conditions compared to no flushing

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Neutral wettability

Water wet

Wettability (Zangiabadi et al., 2009)

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• Swi ~ 20% via porous plate with formation brine• Oil drainage via 1 PV oil + 1.5 PV oil each end• Aged for 4 weeks at 90 oC (SV) and 130 oC (Kansas)• Water flood (SSW) in Hassler cell

(2 PV at 0.2 ml/min + 2 PV at 0.4 ml/min)• Increase in oil wettability as Acid No increases

Wat

er w

et

Saturation Method (Springer et al., 2003)Evaporation Technique instead of porous plate

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Saturation Method (Springer et al., 2003)Evaporation Technique instead of porous plate

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FEI Quanta650 FEG SEM

Vinci Rotosilenta 630RS

Equipment Used

Vinci IFT 700 Instrument

1. Saturate with Brine3. Age

2. Centrifuge Drainage0. Core and sections

Section1

Core

Section 2

Experimental Methodology

b. Contact Angle c. SEM-MLAa. USBM

Experimental Methodology

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4. Determine Wettability

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1

2

4

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Capillary Pressure Curves

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-0,4

-0,2

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

I wby

USB

M

Aging time (days)

USBM Wettability Index

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Chalk 1Aged: 6 daysTemp: 90 oC

Chalk 2Aged: 9 daysTemp: 90 oC

Chalk 3 Aged: 12 daysTemp: 60 oC

65o 66o

Chalk 4Aged: 15 daysTemp: 90 oC

Chalk 5Aged: 18 daysTemp: 90 oC

Chalk 7Aged: 30 daysTemp: 90 oC

102o 108o85o

78o

Contact Angle

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Contact Angle

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SEM-MLA

393.8 cm

Aged: 30 daysSalinity: 64,000 ppmTemp: 90oC

Oil = 46% (30 days) Oil = 10% (6 Days)

5 mm

3.8

cm

SEM-MLA

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Colour Mineral 6 Days(Area %)

9 Days(Area %)

12 Days(Area %)

15 Days(Area %)

18 Days(Area %)

21 Days(Area %)

30 Days(Area %)

Carbonate 8 21 61 3 57 50 31

Halite 82 60 12 60 6 11 23

Oil 10 19 27 37 37 39 46

Others 0 3 3 4 3 1 2

MLA: Chalk sample 1 (aged 6 days) MLA: Chalk sample 7 (aged 30 days)

SEM-MLA

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# f(%)

Brine K(mD)

Time (days) Swi (%) Sor (%) θ (o)

(Std Dev)

USBM Index

Oil(%)

1 38.57 2.10 6 64.71 19.23 65 (29) 0.368 102 38.49 1.90 9 54.32 13.82 66 (26) 0.510 193 37.76 2.01 12 58.10 6.10 78 (9) 0.005 274 36.93 1.92 15 62.61 8.81 85 (7.5) 0.053 375 38.04 1.96 18 54.15 4.13 102 (6.2) 0.864 376 38.06 2.00 21 54.33 4.28 110 (4.2) -0.018 397 38.12 1.95 30 58.64 2.15 108 (4.5) -0.165 46

Results

Conclusions & Take Away Points

Examine the time and temperature required to achieve Wettability Changes in Chalk holding Rock, Oil, and Brine Constant

Take Away Points:• Saturation methods matter• Consistent results from USBM-Amott, Contact Angle, and SEM-MLA• The time to screen wettability restoration can possibly be reduced

using thin sections

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CREATIVITY

• We’re working on similar and complimentary research at Memorial• Welcome collaboration• Creativity comes from many sources of inspiration

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Academic Collaborations

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Funding Partners

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