MICROWAVE HEATING STIMULATION MODELING ON HEAVY OIL RESERVOIR WITH OPEN HOLE AND CASED HOLE COMPLETION TYPES, ALONG WITH LABORATORIUM EQUIPMENT MODELING USING COMSOL MULTIPHYSICS

• Main Author: Hery Tuah Ramadhan Hrp, Jhon
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/52009
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Well stimulation is an activity that aimed to increase the characteristic value of the rock or reservoir fluid so that petroleum can flow faster and increase the ultimate economic recovery (Economides, 2000). The methods of stimulation consist of hydraulic fracturing, acidizing, and thermal stimulation. Heavy oil is a type of oil that has an API gravity value of 10 - 21 oAPI, with a viscosity range of 100 – 10.000 cp. Heavy oil is generally produced by reducing value of oil viscosity using thermal methods such as hot water injection, steam injection, in-situ combustion, steamassisted gravity drainage, cyclic steam stimulation (huff & puff), and gas combustion stimulation. The type of thermal method mentioned earlier is ineffective if the intended reservoir is so deep, the formation is thin, the permeability is low, and the reservoir is heterogeneous. The thermal method that is effective in overcoming the limitations and shortcomings of the thermal method as in general is the method that uses electricity. Reservoir heating using electricity does not require fluid to transmit heat. Thus, it is highly recommended for deep reservoirs, can be used in thin zones, and optimization of the energy delivered according to the energy produced by minimizing heat loss. Electric heating applications can be divided into two categories based on the frequency of the electric current generated, namely: low current frequency, commonly used in Electrical Resistive Heating (ERH) with a frequency of less than 300 kHz, and high current frequency, commonly used at radio frequencies with a frequency of 10 - 100 MHz and microwave heating with a frequency of 300 MHz - 300 GHz. In the literature study, the effectiveness of the frequency for microwave heating activities in heavy oil reservoirs is using a frequency of 915 MHz (Carrizales, 2010). Previous research on microwave heating did not include an analysis of the type of well completion and the completion fluid used, simulation of laboratory equipment models, the sensitivity of electric mode selection, and time sensitivity when stimulated continuously.Microwave heating in this study is simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics software with open-hole and cased-hole well completion types, as well as laboratory equipment modeling. In this study, a sensitivity selection of electrical modes consisting of electric transverse and magnetic transverse was also carried out, as well as time sensitivity when continuous stimulation was performed. The purpose of this study is to analyze the temperature and depth of heat penetration generated and to analyze the effect of microwave stimulation on changes in the viscosity of heavy oil. The decrease in viscosity value is based on a semi-log plot of oil viscosity (cp) as a function of temperature (oF) of reservoirs with different API gravity (Carrizales, 2010). The results of the analysis show that the microwave heating method is effective for open-hole completion types with water and aero-based completion fluids, and for cased-hole completion types it is only effective if the completion fluid is used is aerobased. The effectiveness of decreasing the viscosity value ranges from 90% to 99%. The simulation results of microwave heating on laboratory equipment using a frequency of 2,45 GHz with an electric power of 900-watts, and heating for 5 minutes on the sand component results in an increase in temperature of 154 oC, and the results of the depth of heat penetration into the component of 28 cm. In continuous stimulation activities for open-hole and cased-hole types of completion, it can be analyzed that the type of well completion, the type of completion fluid, the value of electrical frequency, and the heating time used greatly affect the temperature increase in the reservoir. Then, the results of the analysis on laboratory equipment in time sensitivity show that the longer time it is used, the higher the resulting temperature will be and will continue to increase until at a certain time there is no temperature increase at all.