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Types of oil reservoirs

- Anticline
- Normal fault
- Stratigraphic
- Thrust fault

Oil recovery stages

- Primary
- Secondary
- Tertiary or Enhanced Oil Recover (EOR)
- Infill

Primary recovery

- Uses the reservoirs natural energy as the drive

- 4 types of primary recovery
- Gas cap
- Water drive
- Combination drive
- Gas dissolution or solution drive

Gas cap reservoir

- Gas cap pressurises oil reservoir and drives oil towards well
- Gas Oil Ratio (GOR) remains constant then later rises

Water drive reservoir

- Water from aquifer pressurises oil reservoir

- Water drives oil towards well perforations

Combination drive

- Gas cap pressurises oil reservoir

- Gas and water drive oil towards well perforations

Gas dissolution or solution drive reservoir

- Gas dissolved in oil pressurises reservoir

- Pressure falls quickly before reaching the bubble point and then slows

Secondary recovery

- Aided by surface injection of water or gas

- 2 types of secondary recovery
- Water flooding
- Gas flooding

Water flooding

- Helps maintain reservoir pressure

 - Water injected around the periphery of field or the production well
- Sweeps oil towards production well
- 1.2bbl of water injected per 1bbl of oil produced

Gas flooding

- Similar to water flooding

- Gas compressors may be large power consumers
- Gas may strip out light ends which may impact equity allocation

Tertiary recovery or Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)

- Uses thermal, chemical or miscible gas process

Thermal EOR

Steam injection

- Steam injected to heat oil and drive it to production well

In situ combustion

- Air injected and ignited to drive hot oil to production well

Microwave heating

- Microwave source lowered into well to heat surrounding well

Hot water injection

- Similar to water flooding but oil viscosity is also lowered

Chemical EOR

- Polymer flood uses long chain polymers to increase water viscosity.

- This improves the sweep efficiency.
- Other chemicals added such as surfactants or caustic soda
- In deep wells were the CO2 remains a supercritical liquid. CO2is miscible with oil, and
lowers viscosity and surface tension.

Well fluids

- Oil coming directly from the well cannot be marketed without processing.
- The pressure and temperature is normally too high.
- The well fluids consists of:
- Oil
- Associated gas
- Produced water
- Drilling fluids and solids.

Crude oil composition

- Crude oil consists of a mixture of hundreds of different hydrocarbons.

- Most compounds are from the paraffin or alkyl series, naphthenes and aromatics.
- Crude also contains:
- Dissolved gases – N2, CO2, H2S;
 - Sulphur compounds – mercaptans;
- Organic nitrogen compounds;
- Organic oxygen compounds.

Why use pseudo components

- Reduce number of components in simulation.

- Many components have very similar properties.
- Properties of some components may not be available.

Selecting pseudo components

- Divided into boiling point ranges.

- Normally divided into 5 or 7 ranges.
- Average specific gravity also specified.
- Other properties calculated from correlations:
- Molecular weight
- Critical temperature
- Critical pressure
- Acentric factor

Crude oil yield and product specification

- Yields depend on the composition of the crude and the amount of refining.
- Specifications vary widely dependent on destination.
- Oil specifications can be quite broad.
- Gas specifications to domestic users are very tight.
- Specifications are agreed between supplier and purchaser.
- No universal product specification

Typical crude oil specification

- Water content below 0.1%

- BS&W, Basic Sediment and Water less than 0.2%.
- Salt content less than 10 ptb (pounds per thousand barrels.)
- Reid vapour pressure less than 10 psia at 100 °F

Typical LPG specification

- Vapour pressure 208 psig at 100°F (14.3 barg at 37.8 °C).

- 95% evaporation at 36 °F (2.2 °C).
- Pentane and heavier 2.0% maximum.
- Total sulphur 140 ppm.

Natural gas liquids (NGL)

- A broad term for liquids condensed during separation and compression of the gas phase.
- Typical components are propane, butane, pentane and some hexane

Condensate

- is a broad term for liquids produced from a gas field.

- Condensate is a clear or slightly coloured light, volatile liquid.
- Composition ranges from butane to about octane.
Offshore structures

Artificial Island (depth 0-10m)

- Can either be built up from dredged material or be purpose built.

- Only suitable for shallow water.

Steel jacket (max depth 500m)

- The most common form of offshore structure.

- Platform is piled to the seabed for stability

Compliant tower (depth 365 – 660m)

- Similar to a fixed platform, but can sustain significant lateral deflection.

Semi-submersible (depth 640 – 2400m)

- Large floating structures used for drilling or production.

- Can accommodate large loads.
- Located using dynamic positioning or anchors.

Tension leg platform (860 – 1400m)

- Vertically moored floating structure.

- Virtually all vertical movement is eliminated

Spars (1000 – 2400m)

- Vertical cylinder moored to sea bed

Floating Production Storage and Offloading (13 – 1800m)

- ship shape vessel anchored over field.

- Subsea wells tied back to FPSO through flexible risers.
- Facilities include processing, accommodation, storage and tanker loading.

Jack-up (max depth 120m)

- Normally used for temporary drilling rig to drill over subsea template or unmanned
platform.
- Also used for extended well tests.