Heavy Oil Reservoir Management

Abstract

Introduction Good prices and continued cost reduction are helping production from heavy oil reservoirs worldwide. Some estimates expect Alberta, Canada's heavy oil sands production to exceed 1.2 million bid in the near future. Recoverable bitumen reserves in Alberta are estimated at 300 billion bbl. In Venezuela. the government companies are forming partnerships to enhance recovery in the Orinoco tar sands. It could be producing 600,000 bid by 2000, and it contains about 300 billion bbl of recoverable heavy oil and EOR reserves. In China, CNPC (China National Petroleum Corp.) produces about 150,000 b/d of heavy crude from some 7000 wells, and it has about 8 billion bbl of heavy oil reserves. Heavy oil resource base in the world may exceed 4 trillion barrels. Thus, it is of great importance to pay attention to heavy oil reservoir management. Chevron's thermal and heavy oil production information are shown in Figure 1, and worldwide thermal productions are documented in Figure 2. Sound reservoir management relies on the use of financial, technological. and human resources, while minimizing capital investments and operating expenses to maximize economic recovery of oil and gas from a reservoir. The purpose of reservoir management is to control operations to obtain the maximum possible economic recovery from a reservoir on the basis of facts, information, and knowledge. When used for heavy oil, the term Heavy Oil Reservoir Management applies. Heavy oil reservoir management has now matured to the point where great emphasis is placed on working as a crossfunctional team, involving all technical areas, management, economics, legal. and environmental groups. This type of reservoir management model has proved to be quite successful. The following questions address heavy oil reservoir management philosophies:When should reservoir management start?What, how, and when to collect data?What kinds of questions should be asked if we want to ensure the right answer in the process of reservoir management?Should we design a heavy oil reservoir management from the cradle to grave?Should we prefer total optimized design, or small pieces of the project be optimized'?What should be the management style to most effectively utilize heavy oil reservoir management concepts? A comprehensive plan for reservoir management, including a team approach, is highly desirable. However, every reservoir may not warrant such a detailed plan because of cost-benefit considerations. The above concepts are summarized in Tables 1–3 as the need for reservoir management, elements of successful reservoir management, and attributes of successful reservoir management organization and program, respectively. The need for integrated technology development process is more urgent now than ever before because of continuous push to move ideas or concepts from the inception to the final phase of field implementation. This is shown, as an example for heavy oil technology development. in Figure 3. Also, because of reduction in R&D budget and trying to leverage capabilities, the push is to develop technology jointly working with other companies and industry consortiums, e.g., the partnership activities for the fiber optic sensor development program (see Figure 4).