Improved Liquids Recovery from Shale Reservoirs by Gas Injection

Date: Tuesday, September 19
Time: 11:30 - 1:00 pm
Speaker: Dr. Roberto Aguilera, Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary
Location: Fairmont Palliser (133 9 Ave SW)
This event is now sold out.

Abstract:

Up to this point recovery of liquid volumes from shale petroleum reservoirs has been outstanding. However, recoveries as a percent of original hydrocarbons-in-place have been very low (generally less than 10%). To improve on this situation the GFREE research team at the University of Calgary undertook highly specialized studies in 2009 with a view to economically increase production rates and ultimate recoveries from shale petroleum reservoirs.

This presentation highlights some of these achievements. The research was started by investigating the pore sizes of shales, flow units, and then demonstrating the separate ‘upside-down’ containment of natural gas, condensate and oil. The term “container” is not used generally in petroleum engineering but proved of significant value in our research. A container is "a reservoir system subdivision, consisting of a pore system, made up of one or more flow units, which respond as a unit when fluid is withdrawn" (Hartmann and Beaumont, 1999).

Once containment was demonstrated with data from the Eagle Ford shale in Texas (the same principles could apply for example in the Duvernay, Montney and Doig) the research moved to investigating gas injection. The main part of this presentation will show results demonstrating that liquid rates and recoveries can be increased significantly from condensate and oil containers by gas injection and recycling. Economic benefits, and results of a gas injection pilot are included in the presentation.

Conclusion: “I am looking at hundreds of injection wells and hundreds of production wells, that would be suitable EOR candidates in the Eagle Ford” (Aguilera’s statement, JPT, June 2016). The presenter’s vision is the same for shale reservoirs in Canada.    

References: SPE 165360-PA, 171626-PA, 177278-MS, 178619-PA, 185079-MS, JPT, June 2016

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Roberto Aguilera is professor and CNOOC Nexen Chair in Tight Oil and Unconventional Gas (TOUG) at the University of Calgary (Canada). He is author of the book “Naturally Fractured Reservoirs”, co-author of 4 other petroleum engineering books, and has authored and/or coauthored more than 200 papers. He holds a Petroleum Engineering degree from the Universidad de America in Bogota, Colombia and MEng and PhD in petroleum engineering from the Colorado School of Mines. He is the 2011 SPE Canada Regional Distinguished Achievement Award recipient for Petroleum Engineering Faculty, and past Executive Editor of the SPE Journal of Canadian Petroleum technology (JCPT). He is the creator and Principal Investigator of the GFREE* research program at the University of Calgary. He has lectured, presented his course entitled Naturally Fractured Reservoirs and/or has rendered consulting services in more than 50 countries throughout the world.

*GFREE stands for an integrated multidisciplinary team researching Geoscience (G), Formation evaluation (F), Reservoir drilling, completion and stimulation (R), Reservoir Engineering (RE), and Economics and Externalities (EE).

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