Petroleum Engineering: Principles and Practice

373 Pages·1986·18.53 MB·English

by  J. S. Archer

PETROLEUM ENGINEERING
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE
Dedication
To our families and friends, through whose
encouragement and understanding we have
been able to undertake this work.
PETROLEUM ENGINEERING
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE
J S ARCHER AND C G WALL
Imperial College of Science and Technology, London
Graham &> Trotman
A member of Wolters Kluwer Academic Publishers
LONDON/DORDRECHTlBOS1ON
First published in 1986 by
Graham and Trotman Ltd. Kluwer Academic Publishers Group
Sterling House, 101 Philip Drive
66 Wilton Road, Assinippi Park
London SWIV IDE Norwell, MA02061
UK USA
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Archer, J. S.
Petroleum engineering: principles and practice.
\. Petroleum engineering
I. Title II. Wall, CG.
622'.3382 TN870
ISBN-13: 978-0-86010-715-6 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-010-9601-0
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-010-9601-0
© J S Archer and C G Wall, 1986
Reprinted 1988. 1992 and 1994
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1994
This publication is protected by international copyright
law. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced. stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in
any form or by any means. electronic. mechanical.
photocopying. recording or otherwise. without the
permission of the publishers.
Typeset in Great Britain by
Bookworm Studio Services, Salford
Athenaeum Press Ltd. Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Contents
Preface x
Foreword ix
CHAPTER 1 Introduction
1.1 Petroleum Engineering: A creative technology 1
CHAPTER 2 Reservoirs
2.1 Conditions for occurrence 7
2.2 Reservoir pressures 10
2.3 Fluid pressures in a hydrocarbon zone 12
2.4 Reservoir temperatures 13
2.5 Nature of reservoir fluids 14
2.6 Reservoir data - sources 14
CHAPTER 3 Oilwell Drilling
3.1 Operations 20
3.2 Costs 23
3.3 Well completions and oilwell casing 23
3.4 Completion 28
3.5 Drilling fluid control 28
3.6 Rheology of well fluids (drilling muds and cements) 29
3.7 Formation breakdown pressures and leak off tests 30
3.8 Data acquisition during drilling 30
3.9 Mud fluids for core recovery 31
3.10 Drilling optimization 32
v
vi PETROLEUM ENGINEERING: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE
3.11 Turbine versus conventional rotary 33
3.12 Special problems in drilling 33
3.13 Completion for production 36
CHAPTER 4 Properties of Reservoir Fluids
4.1 Volumetric and phase behaviour of hydrocarbon 40
systems
4.2 Applications to field systems 41
4.3 Compressibility 42
4.4 Measurement and prediction of reservoir fluid 43
properties
4.5 Formation volume factors, B 49
4.6 Gas-oil ratios 51
4.7 Direct measurements - PVT analysis 52
4.8 Generalized correlations for liquid systems 54
CHAPTER 5 Characteristics of Reservoir Rocks
5.1 Data sources and application 62
5.2 Coring decisions 64
5.3 Conventional and oriented coring 66
5.4 Coring mud systems 66
5.5 Core preservation 67
5.6 Well site controls 68
5.7 Core for special core analysis 68
5.8 Core-derived data 68
5.9 Geological studies 68
5.10 Routine core analysis 69
5.11 Porosity 72
5.12 Permeability 78
5.13 Relationships between porosity and permeability 84
CHAPTER 6 Fluid Saturation: influence of wettability and capillary
pressure
6.1 Equilibrium conditions 92
6.2 Laboratory measurements and relationship with
reservoir systems 93
6.3 Pore size distribution 96
6.4 Capillary pressure hysteresis' 97
6.5 Saturation distributions in reservoir intervals 98
6.6 Correlation of capillary pressure data from a
given rock type 99
CHAPTER 7 Relative permeability and multip hase flow in porous media
7.1 Definitions 102
7.2 Fractional flow 104
7.3 Effects of permeability variation 106
CONTENTS vii
7.4 Wettabilityeffects 108
7.5 Laboratory determination of relative permeability data 109
7.6 Residual saturations 111
7.7 In situ wettability control 112
7.8 Relative permeability from correlations 112
7.9 Validation of relative permeability data for use in
displacement calculations 113
7.10 Pseudo-relative permeability in dynamic systems 115
7.11 Static pseudo-relative permeability functions 115
CHAPTER 8 Representation of volumetric estimates and recoverable
reserves
8.1 In-place volume 122
8.2 Areal extent of reservoirs 122
8.3 Thickness maps 124
8.4 Lithofacies representation 125
8.5 Isoporosity maps 125
8.6 Isocapacity maps 126
8.7 Hydrocarbon pore volume maps 126
8.8 Probabilistic estimation 127
8.9 Recovery factors and reserves 128
8.10 Distribution of equity in petroleum reservoirs 130
CHAPTER 9 Radial Flow Analysis of Well Performance
9.1 Radial flow in a simple system 134
9.2 Development of the line source solution 135
9.3 Radial equations in practical units 136
9.4 Application of analytical solutions in well test
methods 136
9.5 Pressure build-up analysis 139
9.6 Skin effect 140
9.7 Pressure drawdown and reservoir limit testing 142
9.8 Gas well testing 143
9.9 Well test procedures 145
9.10 Well testing and pressure analysis 150
CHAPTER 10 Reservoir Performance Analysis
10.1 Recovery from gas reservoirs 157
10.2 Primary recovery in oil reservoirs 159
10.3 Gravity segregation and recovery efficiencies 164
10.4 Material balance for reservoirs with water
encroachment or water injection 165
10.5 Accuracy of the gross material balance equation 168
CHAPTER 11 Secondary Recovery and Pressure Maintenance
11.1 Displacement principles 173
viii PETROLEUM ENGINEERING: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE
11.2 Factors influencing secondary recovery and pressure
maintenance schemes 175
11.3 Quality of injection fluids and disposal of brines 183
CHAPTER 12 Improved Hydrocarbon Recovery
12.1 Targets 191
12.2 The influence of recovery mechanism on residual oil 191
12.3 Permeability improvement 193
12.4 Miscible displacement mechanisms 194
12.5 Miscible flood applications 195
12.6 Chemical flood processes 196
12.7 Heavy oil recovery 200
12.8 Thermal energy 204
12.9 Gas condensate reservoirs 207
12.10 Volatile oilreservoirs 211
CHAPTER 13 Factors Influencing Production Operations
13.1 The production system 218
13.2 Reservoir behaviour in production engineering 220
13.3 Wellbore flow 221
13.4 Field process facilities 224
13.5 Natural gas processing 224
13.6 Crude oil processing 226
13.7 Heavy oil processing 228
13.8 Produced water treatment 228
13.9 Injection water treatment 229
13.10 Crude oil metering 229
CHAPTER 14 Concepts in Reservoir Modelling and Application to
Development Planning
14.1 Models 233
14.2 Equations of multiphase flow 234
14.3 Simulator classifications 235
14.4 Simulator application 235
14.5 Reservoir description in modelling 237
14.6 Application of reservoir models in field
development 248
APPENDIX 1 SPE Nomenclature and Units 257
Units 257
SPE Symbols Standard 259
Symbols alphabetized by physical quantity 267
Subscripts alphabetized by physical quantity 300
APPENDIX 2 Solutions to Examples in Text 310
INDEX 357
PREFACE
The need for this book has arisen from demand for a current text from our students in Petroleum
Engineering at Imperial College and from post-experience Short Course students. It is, however,
hoped that the material will also be of more general use to practising petroleum engineers and
those wishing for aa introduction into the specialist literature.
The book is arranged to provide both background and overview into many facets of petroleum
engineering, particularly as practised in the offshore environments of North West Europe. The
material is largely based on the authors' experience as teachers and consultants and is
supplemented by worked problems where they are believed to enhance understanding.
The authors would like to express their sincere thanks and appreciation to all the people who
have helped in the preparation of this book by technical comment and discussion and by giving
permission to reproduce material. In particular we would like to thank our present colleagues and
students at Imperial College and at ERC Energy Resource Consultants Ltd. for their stimulating
company, Jill and Janel for typing seemingly endless manuscripts; Dan Smith at Graham and
Trotman Ltd. for his perseverence and optimism; and Lesley and Joan for believing that one day
things would return to normality.
John S. Archer and Colin G. Wall
1986
ix