Sharif Digital Repository

Steam injection process has been considered for a long time as an effective method to exploit heavy oil resources. Over the last decades, Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) has been proved as one of the best steam injection methods for recovery of unconventional oil resources. Recently, Fast-SAGD, a modification of the SAGD process, makes use of additional single horizontal wells alongside the SAGD well pair to expand the steam chamber laterally. This method uses fewer wells and reduces the operational cost compared to a SAGD operation requiring paired parallel wells one above the other. The efficiency of this new method in naturally fractured reservoir is not well understood.... 

Naturally fractured reservoirs (NFRs) contribute in large extent to oil and gas production to the ever increasing market demand of fossil energy. It is believed that the vertical displacement of oil during gas injection assisted by gravity drainage (GAGD) is one of the most efficient methods for oil recovery in these reservoirs. Hence, in this work, unconsolidated packed models of cylindrical geometry surrounded by fracture were utilized in order to perform a series of flow visualization experiments during which the contribution of different parameters such as the extent of matrix permeability, physical properties of oil (viscosity, density, and surface tension) and the withdrawal rate was... 

The performance of a solution gas-drive reservoir can be predicted using Vogel inflow performance relation (or IPR), which simply relates the deliverability of a well to bottom-hole pressure and average reservoir pressure. While many studies have shown the success of Vogel-type IPR for single porosity reservoirs, the applicability of this method for naturally fractured reservoirs (NFRs), is under question mainly because of the complex flow behavior in matrix and fracture systems. The present study is undertaken to determine if the relation between NFR flowing wellbore pressure and oil production rate could be described by Vogel's IPR. For this purpose, a synthetic dual porosity fractured... 

Spontaneous imbibition, the capillary-driven process of displacing the nonwetting phase by the wetting phase in porous media, is of great importance in oil/gas recovery from matrix blocks of fractured reservoirs. The question of how properly scaling up the recovery by counter-current spontaneous imbibition has been the subject of extensive research over decades, and numerous scaling equations have been proposed. As a convention, the scaling equations are usually defined analytically by relating the early time squared recovery to squared pore volume. We show this convention does not apply to common scaling practices and, if used, causes nontrivial scatter in the scaling plots. We explain that... 

In recent years, some numerical models have been proposed to investigate the effects of the elastic wave such as ultrasonic on fluid flow behavior in porous media. Nevertheless, none of these models are applicable to the fractured reservoirs, especially when the fluid is a Bingham plastic. In this work, the model proposed by P. P. Iassonov and I. A. Beresnev (2003) for flow under exposure of elastic wave in nonfractured porous media is considered and used for development of a new model of steady state flow of a Bingham plastic fluid in fractured reservoirs. The Kazemi's "block and fracture" model assuming negligible vertical permeability in blocks is considered for modeling. In addition,... 

Most of the reservoirs in Iran are heterogeneous fractured carbonate reservoirs. Heterogeneity causes an earlier breakthrough and an unstable front, which leads to a lower recovery. In this study, a series of experiments was conducted whereby the n-Heptane displaced n-Decane in glass micromodels having different fracture geometries. Experimental data from image analysis of miscible displacement processes are used to modify the fractional flow equations by a heterogeneity factor. It is shown that the heterogeneity factor in the modified equations can be expressed as a function of fracture length and orientation  

Gravity drainage is the main production mechanism in the gas invaded zone in naturally fractured reservoirs. However, there are large ambiguities and complexities, resulting from the dynamic of oil depletion from matrix blocks toward the fracture network. Visualization of drained oil at pore scale using glass micromodels provides the opportunity to better understand the effects of different parameters which might affect oil recovery from fractured reservoirs. In this work a micromodel apparatus generated by laser etching is used to perform some gravity drainage tests on the network patterns. The experiments were performed on double block systems using crude oil. The block to block... 

The In-Situ Combustion (ISC) as a thermal EOR process has been studied deeply in heavy oil reservoirs and is a promising method for certain non-fractured sandstones. However, its feasibility in fractured carbonates remained questionable. The aim of the present work was to understand the recovery mechanisms of ISC in fractured models and to evaluate the effect of fractures geometrical properties such as orientation, density, location and networking on the ISC recovery performance. Combustion parameters of a fractured low permeable carbonate heavy oil reservoir in Middle East called KEM; applied to simulation study. Simulator has been validated with KEM combustion tube experimental data and... 

The coning phenomenon usually occurs in water and gas cap drive reservoirs. Water coning in Iranian hydrocarbon reservoirs is one of the most important problems that affects the cumulative production, operation costs and causes environmental problems. Before producing from a reservoir, its fluids are in equilibrium and their contact surfaces remain unchanged, but after starting production from the reservoir, when the viscous force overcome gravitational force in vertical direction, contact surfaces will displace and coning will occur. So, the production rates will be controlled in a range that prevents entering water and gas to the production well. For this reason, investigation and modeling... 

In this study, the main recovery mechanisms behind oil/water/gas interactions during the water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection process, in a network of matrix/fracture, were fundamentally investigated. A visual micromodel was utilized to provide insights into the potential applications of WAG process in fractured oil-wet media as well as the possibility of observing microscopic displacement behavior of fluids in the model. The model was made of an oil-wet facture/matrix network system, comprised of four matrix blocks surrounded with fractures. Different WAG injection scenarios, such as slug arrangements and the effects of fluid injection rates on oil recovery were studied. A new equation... 

Various fracture geometrical properties such as orientation, extension, discontinuity, dispersion, location, and networking were investigated. Results indicate improved oil recovery and sweep efficiency in the presence of vertical fractures. Longer vertical fractures seemed to have even more beneficial effects. Horizontal fractures revealed detrimental effects on oil recovery and the performance became worse for longer horizontal fractures. Discontinuous horizontal fractures caused a better performance especially when combined with continuous vertical fractures (networking). Vertical fractures helped the growth of the steam chamber in the vertical direction, which resulted in higher oil... 

Spontaneous imbibition of water into the matrix blocks because of capillary forces is an important recovery mechanism for oil recovery from naturally fractured reservoirs. In modeling this process, it has been assumed classically that local equilibrium is reached and, therefore, capillary pressure and relative permeability functions are only a function of water saturation, resulting in the appearance of the self-similarity condition. In some works published in the last 2 decades, it has, however, been claimed that local equilibrium is not reached in porous media, and therefore, opposite the classical local-equilibrium/self-similar approach, non-equilibrium effects should be taken into... 

Despite numerous experimental and numerical studies, fundamental understanding of how the matrix block height, the density difference between petroleum and gas, and matrix capillary pressure could affect the oil recovery from a single matrix block in naturally fractured reservoirs remains a topic of debate in the literature. In this work a one-dimensional gravity drainage model developed by Firoozabadi and Ishimoto (1994) is considered and numerically solved. The Fourier series method is applied for a numerical Laplace inversion of the dimensionless mathematical model; this type of inversion method has rarely been used in petroleum applications. The obtained results revealed that by... 

It is widely accepted that, in fluid flow and transport in fractured porous media, there exists some degree of block-to-block interaction that may lead to capillary continuity. The formation of liquid bridges causing interaction between blocks will affect oil recovery from naturally fractured reservoirs. However, the accurate modeling of the growth and detachment of liquid bridges that may cause capillary continuity between matrix blocks remains a controversial topic. In an attempt to improve our understanding of the problem, a mechanistic model is developed in this work for the formation of liquid bridges between porous blocks. The proposed model considers growth and detachment of pendant... 

The aim of this contribution is to evaluate the performance of an expanding solvent steam assisted gravity drainage (ES-SAGD) process in naturally fractured systems. Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) and ES-SAGD processes have been investigated in both conventional and fractured reservoir models and the effect of networked fractures on the recovery mechanism and performance of ES-SAGD has been investigated. Operational parameters such as steam quality, vertical distances between wells, and steam injection temperature have been also evaluated. Finally, to study the effect of a well's horizontal offset, a staggered ES-SAGD well configuration has been compared to a stacked ES-SAGD  

The amount of residual oil trapped in the matrix of a fractured reservoir after water drive, either natural water drive or water injection, depends on the wettability of the matrix rocks. Gas oil gravity drainage (GOGD) has been proposed as the tertiary oil recovery process for this type of oil reservoir. The current work focuses on experimental investigation of tertiary GOGD in fractured porous media under different types of matrix wettability. Results of a set of experiments performed in artificial porous media composed of sand packs and glass beads of different wettability have been used to check the GOGD rate and the ultimate oil recovery for previously waterflooded models. A novel... 

Vapour extraction (VAPEX), a newly developed heavy oil recoveiy (HOR) method, has been extensively studied, both theoretically and experimentally, in conventional sandstone models. However, the applicability of this process to naturally fractured reservoirs has not yet been addressed. The objective of this work is to evaluate the effects of fractures' geometrical properties, such as orientation, length of extension, discontinuity in both the upper well region (UWR) and the far well region (FWR) and vertical fracture location on VAPEX performance. Additionally, the effects of horizontal and vertical fracture dispersion in various density, dispersion scheme and networking on the performance of... 

A lot of laboratory experiments have been carried out to investigate each aspect of ultrasonic wave s role on fluid flow behavior through porous media. Despite all experimental works, little attention has been paid for modeling the ultrasonic wave influence on capillary imbibition, which is the main mechanism of production in fractured reservoirs. At this work the process of imbibition with and without applying ultrasonic waves is mathematically modeled by modification of piston-like model. In contrast to this model s assumption, in which mobility ratio is assumed to be constant, here permeability variation due to increase in water saturation is considered in numerical solution. To evaluate... 

The knowledge of the connectivity across the reservoir not only helps to find out the potential oil recovery within a particular well configuration but also affects on the other reservoir engineering decisions such as infill drilling. Connectivity also controls the swept fraction of the hydrocarbon in place in secondary displacement other than the recoverable rates of the hydrocarbon. Most of the time we need a fast estimation of connectivity for decision making during field development. Percolation theory is a very useful tool to get this goal. According to this fact that the results of this method are universal, they could be used widely. During this study a percolation model is developed... 

Fractures identification is essential during exploration, drilling and well completion of naturally fractured reservoirs since they have a significant impact on flow contribution. There are different methods to characterize these systems based on formation properties and fluid flow behaviour such as logging and testing. Pressure-transient testing has long been recognized as a reservoir characterization tool. Although welltest analysis is a recommended technique for fracture evaluation, but its use is still not well understood. Analysis of pressure transient data provides dynamic reservoir properties such as average permeability, fracture storativity and fracture conductivity.An infusion of...