Foreign practice of oil production in high-water-cut conditions suggests using the technology of injection of preformed particle gel (PPG) suspension into injection wells. After swelling, the polymer particles become elastic and are able to penetrate through highly permeable watered intervals into the remote reservoir zone, forming a polymer “plug”. Thus far, the domestic experience of application of this technology boiled down to testing foreign compounds. We have looked into the possibilities of PPG technology application in geological and technological conditions of high-water-cut fields of Perm Krai. The paper proposes PPG reagents effective in low-temperature reservoirs (20-35 °С) and at relatively high salinity of formation water (more than 200 g/l). The world experience of PPG technology application was analyzed to identify the principal scheme of reagent injection, to establish variants of sequence of injection of PPG particles of different sizes, as well as the possibility of regulating the morphological characteristics of polymer gel particles during synthesis depending on the porosity and permeability of the reservoir. A prerequisite for the technology is the ability to remove PPG particles after treatment from the bottom-hole zone of the formation; for this purpose, tests were carried out on a breaker compound based on sodium persulfate with synergizing additives. PPG technology is effective in reservoirs with high permeability heterogeneity. Two types of high-water-cut production facilities potentially promising for PPG realization have been identified for oil fields of Perm Krai. The first type includes carbonate Tournaisian-Famennian reservoirs with pronounced macrofracturing, in which the PPGs are used for colmatation of flushed large fractures. The second type is terrigenous Visean deposits with increased oil viscosity from 5 to 100 mPa∙s and high permeability of reservoirs (> 0.5 μm2). For both types of reservoirs, areas have been selected that are promising for the implementation of PPG technology.
Permo-Carboniferous oil deposit of the Usinskoye field is characterized by an extremely complex type of the void space with intense cross-sectional distribution of cavernous and fractured rock. In this study, for this production site, the process of 3D geological modeling has been implemented. At the first stage, it provided for automated identification of reservoir volumes by comparing the data of core and well logging surveys; at the second stage, identification of rock lithotypes according to Dunham classification is performed on the basis of comparison of thin sections examination and well logging data. A large array of factual information enables the use of machine learning technology on the basis of Levenberg – Marquardt neural network apparatus toward achievement of our research goals. The prediction algorithms of reservoir and rock lithotype identification using well logging methods obtained on the basis of the training samples are applied to the wells without core sampling. The implemented approach enabled complementing the 3D geological model with information about rock permeability and porosity, taking into account the structural features of the identified lithotypes. For the Permo-Carboniferous oil deposit of the Usinskoye field, the volumetric zoning of the distribution of different rock lithotypes has been established. Taking into account the lithotypes identified based on machine learning algorithms, density and openness of fractures were determined, and fracture permeability in the deposit volume was calculated. In general, during the implementation, the machine learning errors remained within 3-5 %, which suggests reliability of the obtained predictive solutions. The results of the research are incorporated in the existing 3D digital geological and process model of the deposit under study.
One of the effective methods of oil production intensification for heterogeneous Kashiro-Vereyskian clay-carbonate sediments of the Volga-Ural oil and gas bearing province is proppant hydraulic fracturing. Prospects of realization for this technology are considered in the article on the example of the Vereyskian development object of Moskud’inskoye field. Based on the analysis of rocks samples investigations of Vereyiskian sediments, lithological types of carbonate rocks differing in their structural features are distinguished. Tomographic investigations of rock samples were carried out, as a result of which the rock fracturing for some lithotypes was determined and studieds. Under natural geological conditions, depending on the degree of fracturing progression and technological conditions of development, these intervals may or may not be involved in well operation. When hydraulic fracturing is performed, potentially fractured areas that are not in operation can be successfully added to oil production. Based on analysis of hydrodynamic well investigations, the fracturing of the Vereyskian object of the Moskud’inskoye field was studied on the basis of the Warren-Ruth model. With the help of geological and technological indicators of development, prediction fracturing was obtained, which was used for the construction of the natural fracturing scheme. Areas of both pore and fractured reservoirs development were identified on the deposit area. As a result of statistical analysis, the influence of fracturing on efficiency of proppant hydraulic fracturing was determined. Based on the linear discriminant analysis, a statistical model for predicting the efficiency of proppant fracturing was developed. It was shown that in addition to natural fracturing, the results are most strongly influenced by specific proppant yield, formation pressure, permeability of the remote bottomhole zone and skin effect. Based on the developed model, prospective production wells of the Moskud’inskoye field are identified for proppant hydraulic fracturing.
Amid the ever-increasing urgency to develop oil fields with complex mining and geological conditions and low-efficiency reservoirs, in the process of structurally complex reservoir exploitation a number of problems arise, which are associated with the impact of layer fractures on filtration processes, significant heterogeneity of the structure, variability of stress-strain states of the rock mass, etc. Hence an important task in production engineering of such fields is a comprehensive accounting of their complex geology. In order to solve such problems, the authors suggest a methodological approach, which provides for a more reliable forecast of changes in reservoir pressure when constructing a geological and hydrodynamic model of a multi-layer field. Another relevant issue in the forecasting of performance parameters is accounting of rock compressibility and its impact on absolute permeability, which is the main factor defining the law of fluid filtration in the productive layer. The paper contains analysis of complex geology of a multi-layer formation at the Alpha field, results of compression test for 178 standard core samples, obtained dependencies between compressibility factor and porosity of each layer. By means of multiple regression, dependencies between permeability and a range of parameters (porosity, density, calcite and dolomite content, compressibility) were obtained, which allowed to take into account the impact of secondary processes on the formation of absolute permeability. At the final stage, efficiency of the proposed methodological approach for construction of a geological and hydrodynamic model of an oil field was assessed. An enhancement in the quality of well-by-well adaptation of main performance parameters, as well as an improvement in predictive ability of the adjusted model, was identified.
In order to reduce watering of wells and equalize their injectivity profiles, the prospects of introducing PPG technology in Russian fields are considered, in which preformed particles polymer gel are pumped into the injection well. These particles, being a supersorbent based on polyacrylamide, absorb water, become elastic, which allows them to shrink and tear in narrow filtration channels. When the polymer is filtered along permeable layers saturated with water, polymer particles accumulate in waterlogged intervals and thus they form a polymer plug, which redistributes the filtration flows and increases the coverage of the formation by the process of oil displacement. More than 4000 downhole operations have been carried out in the fields of China and the USA using PPG technology by now. In domestic fields in Western Siberia, there is limited experience in applying a similar technology in high-temperature formations with low mineralization of formation water. Due to the absence of hydrolytic processes in polyacrylamide, well-known domestic compositions are not applicable due to the low absorption capacity in the conditions of low-temperature deposits with increased mineralization of formation water. The authors synthesized a polymer based on polyacrylamide by block polymerization, which allows to obtain a high absorption capacity, including for low-temperature formations with high mineralization of formation water, which is typical for Perm Territory fields. Filtration experiments were carried out on core models with the composition developed by the authors, this composition focused on low formation temperatures and high mineralization of formation water. As a result of the experiments, it was found that the swollen particles of the gel are able to pass into fractures with a diameter less than their own size at least 20 times. With a significant increase in the viscosity of the dispersion medium, the stability of the suspension increases. Particles of polymer gel have the necessary strength for injection in the field conditions. The fracture permeability during polymer injection decreases by several times and becomes comparable with the permeability of pore collectors.
The radial drilling technology efficiency for carbonate bashkir deposits of Perm Krai is considered. The geological structure of a productive part of bashkir layer is characterized by high degree of heterogeneity that promotes while drilling radial channels involvement in development additional interlayers that earlier was not drained. During the analysis the main geological process parameters affecting drilling technology efficiency were revealed. According to the dynamics of average daily oil production growth, palettes were built to forecast additional oil production as a result of radial drilling activities. Using the pallets, it is possible to predict the total additional oil production, well operating time with the effect of radial drilling and average daily oil production growth for each year. It was found that hydrochloric acid treatments performed on wells prior to radial drilling significantly reduce the effectiveness of radial drilling technology. For such wells, the value of the correction is statistically substantiated, which reduces the predictive estimate of the increase in oil production. A model was built to assess the increase in oil production in the first year after the event and an algorithm for calculating the total additional oil production was developed using linear discriminant analysis. For the resulting model, errors are calculated that are compared with the forecast efficiency of standard methods for oil-producing enterprises. This model shows a much more accurate correspondence of forecast results to actual technology application results. The probability of the event high efficiency increases significantly with a more detailed approach to the selection of wells for radial drilling. According to the forecast methodology, the technology’s efficiency was calculated and recommendations for its implementation for the wells of the Bashkir production objects were made in the interests of an oil-producing enterprise.
The authors review a method of combined porosity and volume density correction in the process of modeling the distribution of reservoir permeability. Basing on petrophysical investigations of core samples from Bashkir fold deposits, an association between rock porosity, density and permeability has been analyzed. Significant correlation has been observed for the above mentioned parameters in porous collectors in contrast to reduced correlation for dense rocks and intervals of anomalously high poroperm characteristics. For terrigene porous collectors the authors propose a model of permeability assessment based on combined porosity and density correction. A modified model was developed for Visean pool of Gondyrev oil field, where collector permeability had been calculated as a function of rock porosity and density. The modified model has been compared to the conventional one; significant differences have been detected. In the modified version maximum permeability is associated with the southern part of the pool, whereas the conventional method points out the central part and predicts lowering permeability closer to the periphery. Geological model in the modified version is more homogenous than the conventional one and has no sharp peaks and valleys. The calculations have been made that reproduce the history of field development for both permeability volumes. Authors demonstrate that total oil production obtained using the modified model has a much better correlation with the actual data. The best results from using suggested method apply to the initial stage of development due to better convergence of high-rate wells. On the whole, comparison of two methods shows that for the purposes of production history adaptation the modified model is significantly better than the conventional one. Hence, the method of density correction allows for better justification of differences in the lithology of Visean collectors, which ultimately results in higher accuracy of data on residual oil reserves in the deposit.
