DOWNHOLE ARTIFICIAL SEISMIC OIL RECOVERY TECHNOLOGY
A CLEAN AND ECONOMIC DOWNHOLE ARTIFICIAL SEISMIC
OIL RECOVERY TECHNOLOGY
Huang Xutao, Natural Gas Research Center, Research Institute of Petroleum
Exploration & Development, China
Poster Summary
INTRODUCTION
The downhole artificial seismic (harmonic
vibration) oil recovery system is invented and
designed by Hung Xutao, a senior engineer of
Natural Gas Institute, Langfang Branch,
Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration
and Development, CNPC. This system has
been successfully tested for three times in
Liaohe and Huabei oil fields since 1996, and
all the tests show that it decreased water cut
and increased the oil production.
The invention patent has been published
(CN1190151A) in China and won the Eureka
golden medal in 47th World Exhibition of
Innovation, Research and New Technology in
Brussels, Belgium in November 1998 and the
Knight medal award by the Kingdom of
Belgium. The latest reports provided by China
Science Technical Information Institute in
November 1997 shows that the designed
structure of the downhole harmonic vibration
oil recovery system is the first creation in the
world.
The first test of the downhole harmonic
vibration oil recovery system was done in
Gaosheng viscous crude oil reservoir, Liaohe
Oil Field in China. The pay zone in the pilot
area is lotus zone of Es1 with the depth of
1510-1690m. The average net thickness is
about 67.7m, with the porosity of 24%, the
permeability of 2.42u m2. The viscosity of oil
is 500mPa.s at reservoir condition, and 3000-
4000mPa.s at 50°C. The oil density is
0.946g/cm3 in which colloid and asphaltene
take about 37.52%. The reservoir is in the
latter stage of huff and puff steam injection.
An improved top drive harmonic vibration oil
recovery system is heavy mechanical
equipment, which is distinctively designed and
can work continuously for a long time under
resonance situation.
Connected with the tube or steel cable, a
downhole simple oscillator hung in wellbore,
and all hung upon a surface vibration platform
(simple oscillator) located on the well head.
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Thus a dual mass spring vibration system is
constructed. The resonance of the system can
be generated when the vibration frequency of
the vibration platform match the natural
frequency of the system by adjusting an
electronic frequency adjuster. The resonance
can make the downhole weight hammer
(several tons) strike the borehole wall in
frequency of 80-90 times per minute and
produce Impact force of 30-50KN, and that
forms an artificial downhole seismic source in
the deep well. This system is an
unprecedented deep well seismic source,
which could work continually. It can generate
the largest strike energy among the known
artificial downhole seismic sources worldwide.
And it also provides us with a solution to
decrease water cut and increase oil production
in large area in high water cut oil fields.
At the first test, technical of Gaosheng Oil
Production Factory in Liaohe Oil Field
operated the oil recovery system. The
downhole weight hammer source was installed
at 584m deep in the downhole and the system
worked for 76 hours with the vibration
frequency of 88 t mimes/min with the impact
force of 50KN.
Benefit was gained from the artificial
seismic wave and the oil production increased
1438t from 26 wells near the source well
within 800m. The oil production of an
effective well G34062, 200m far from the
source well G3572 increased from 0.6t/d to
2.6t/d after the stimulation. The oil production
of well G35062, 70m far from the source well,
increased from zero to 0.9t/d. the total oil
production of the 26 wells increased 47.6%,
and the total water cut decreased 8%. Among
the 17 different kind of stimulation method in
Liaohe Oil Field, the downhole artificial
seismic oil recovery method gains the highest
ration of vest product.
The oil production increased 120t with the
vest of Y 10.000, which equals to $1.46 per
barrel. Not any other enhanced oil recovery
technology can match with it.
 DOWNHOLE ARTIFICIAL SEISMIC OIL RECOVERY TECHNOLOGY
The secondary improved two-motor drive
downhole harmonic vibration oil recovery
system has been tested in Huabei Oil Field,
which is the largest sandstone reservoir locate
din central area of Hebei Province. The target
formation is Ed1, Ed2 and Ed3, which barred
in 2250m depth, with the average net thickness
of 14.3m, the average porosity of 25%, and the
effective permeability of 77 X 10-3 u m2. The
viscosity of oil is 3.4 mPa.s at reservoir
condition.
Around the source well 39-123, there are
58 wells in the range of 1000m with the
original single well production of 10.97 m3/d,
and water cut of 67.9%. After 66 hours
vibration in 1400 meters deep, the water cut of
58 wells decreased to 63%, and the oil
production of 43 wells increased, and the total
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oil production increased from 204t/d to 260t/d.
It means that the oil production increased
27.5% in the whole area.
This technology has been used five times
in oil fields since 1996. The results show that
the downhole artificial seismic technology not
only can increase the oil production and
decrease the water cut, but also harmless to the
ground environment and clean to reservoir.
The efficiency of this system and the
utilization ratio of the v9bration energy are
more than that of ground seismic systems and
conventional mechanical equipment. It can be
predicted that the wide application of this new
technology of low vest and high gain van lead
to a new revolution of enhancing the oil
recovery.