A Novel Gas Dispersible Foam Technology Can Improve the Efficiency of Gas Injection Processes for IOR-EOR Operations in Unconventional Reservoirs

Abstract

Gas injection has become one of the most investigated methods for enhanced oil recovery in unconventional reservoirs. Nonetheless, the presence of natural and induced fractures negatively impacts the gas injection efficiency due to its channeling towards nearby wells or poor coverage in the treated area due to lack of conformance. To overcome these difficulties and boost the oil recovery process by gas injection, this work presents a novel gas dispersible foam technology to improve the sweep efficiency of gas injection in unconventional IOR/EOR projects. The development and evaluation of this technology has passed through a series of laboratory assurance stages that include fluids characterization, compatibility, and extensive coreflooding tests. A modelling approach is also presented, which was validated using lab and field data taken from the implementation of the technique in an extremely low porosity, tight and naturally fractured quartz-arenite gas condensate reservoir in Colombia. The workflow herein presented encompasses interdisciplinary components such as laboratory evaluation, reservoir modeling, treatment design, and wellsite setup and execution. Laboratory testing and inter-well field applications results, along with the development and testing of a phenomenological modelling approach, demonstrate that the gas dispersible foam injection can be a high potential technique for oil and/or condensate recovery in unconventional reservoirs given its proven ability to improve the deep reservoir gas conformance and avoid the lack of gas containment during gas injection IOR/EOR in unconventional plays. Lab results in a tight naturally fractured sample, suggest that the estimated incremental oil recovery was ~36% and the effective gas mobility reduction was ~45%. This technique also exhibited less chemical adsorption losses, which contributes to better chemical emplacement and longer durability. The main results of the field application, including a progressive decrease in gas injectivity at the gas injector, a consistent reduction in GOR with an associated oil increase at the influenced producer well, and a reported treatment durability of ~ 6 months, were all properly represented by the model. Each step of the workflow herein proposed not only assures the gas-based projects success, but also allows for smaller logistics footprint at the well location, along with less water consumption, which translates into cheaper and more efficient gas injection conformance operations.