Application of In-situ Upgrading in Naturally Fractured Reservoirs
Date
2021-01-22
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Abstract
The persisting low oil price and the need for more environmentally-friendly energy sources have driven the latest development of new technologies for the sector and, in particular, for heavy oil exploitation. Among those technologies, In-Situ Upgrading Technology (ISUT) offers downhole processing, leaving undesired products underground, enhanced oil recovery and reducing the upgrading cost. ISUT is a thermal recovery process that uses hot fluid to transport catalytic nanoparticles, creating a reactor around the wellbore. Supporting the pilot test of ISUT, planned for the Aguacate field at the central Gulf Coast region of Mexico, this thesis focus on reinforcing many technical aspects for that pilot test. A kinetic model was developed for the Aguacate heavy oil and its vacuum residue at reservoir conditions. Ten sets of temperature and residence time, similar to those used for mild hydrocracking processes but in the presence of a carbonate rock core. Moreover, five pseudo components were assigned to model the reaction inside the porous carbonate medium. These results were all utilized to create the kinetic model specific for this pilot test. The products' characterization showed moderate temperatures and longer residence times improve product quality, translating into preferred temperatures below 350 oC with longer residence times. The used set-up for the kinetic analysis replicated the reservoir environment, using a matrix and a fracture where the fluid could flow. This work confirmed the catalytic hydrogenation process in ISUT by measuring molecular markers' conversion into other organic products, indicating limits of catalyst concentration to avoid adverse effects that may result in excess paraffinic compounds, eventually risking their precipitation subsequent operating instabilities in the media. Lastly, the hydrogen consumption in the ISUT process was studied using ten experimental conditions to create a statistical model to predict the hydrogen consumed in the process. The model showed that hydrogen consumption is linear vs. temperature and reaction time.
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Keywords
Enhanced oil recovery, Nanocatalyst, Chemical tracers, Chemical kinetics, Hydrogen consumption
Citation
Duran Armas, J. L. (2021). Application of In-situ Upgrading in Naturally Fractured Reservoirs (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.