| Fracture
Network Issues Related to TAGS Fluid-contact
management, applied in advance of the TAGS
process has proven its value through a 20%
increase in field oil production during the
previous 30 month’s use at the Yates Field.
During adjustments prior to TAGS, both
reservoir recovery and operating efficiency
improved dramatically. Reservoir management and
well completion/operation techniques have been
adjusted to benefit from the currently understood
fracture network behavior.
Efforts under this project will explore and
extend three areas of performance enhancement:
- The double-displacement process for
co-production of water and oil to improve
recovery is aggressively being employed
to demonstrate the incremental benefits
of applying TAGS in fractured reservoirs.
Additional fracture network
characterization will enhance continued
application and economic viability of
this process.
- Completions have been deepened to
demonstrate the optimum oil withdrawal
efficiency by completing wells at the
base of the unconfined oil columns.
Fracture network characterization will
improve recognition of near- well fluid
“cone” management options in
fractured reservoirs for efficient
withdrawal.
- Fracture network characterization will
enhance the application of novel thermal
recovery processes designed to
economically mobilize the high oil
saturation typically remaining in the
matrix surrounded by highly connected
fractures. The fracture network may be
envisioned as a natural heat exchanger
for areal and vertical reservoir
segregation of heat carrying injected
steam and mobilized reservoir fluids
which will then be produced from separate
(poorly connected) branches of the
fracture network.
The work involves four components:
- Fundamental research into the change in
fracture permeability as a function of
stress;
- Development of methods to generate 3D
discrete feature fractured reservoir
models in which the fractures are
constrained by tectonic and geological
processes;
- Field evaluation of the code’s
ability to predict TAGS processes at the
Yates Field, TX, a major fractured
reservoir.
- Development of a State-of-the-Art method
for transferring technology and
disseminating research results worldwide.
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