DE-FE0006015

Goal
The goal of this project is to develop a full-featured, user friendly, carbon dioxide (CO₂) enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and sequestration planning software system that will allow small- to mid-sized field operators to design and optimize CO₂ EOR and sequestration operations in a short time frame. The objective is to develop a tool that includes all the significant physical and chemical factors that impact the flow and recovery of reservoir fluids, yet make the process fast enough so that an integrated feasibility study can be completed in less than one month at a small cost.

Performer
NITEC LLC, Denver, Colorado 80202

Background
Among the 582 lower forty-eight onshore fields in the United States that can be identified as economical CO₂ EOR prospects, 151 of them are estimated to hold 70% of the total economic resource potential. The remaining 431 fields (~75%) comprise 30% of total economic resource potential and are on average smaller than the 295 million barrels original-oil-in-place threshold, though this classification varies by region. To date, these smaller fields have been exploited through primary and secondary recovery techniques, and due to their marginal value most of them are presently owned by small and mid-sized operators. Given their operational budgets, these operators typically cannot afford to commission technically sophisticated integrated studies to assess the feasibility of CO₂ injection, nor can they hire the staff needed to properly study the topic in-house.

A software tool that will accelerate CO₂ injection technical studies (for EOR and sequestration purposes) for small- to mid-sized oil field operators in the U.S. is needed because the existing public domain and commercial solutions are either too simplistic to be used for development planning and economic analysis purposes, or too complex (compositional), time consuming (in excess of six months), and unaffordable (in excess of $0.5 million) to be used by all but the major oil companies and largest independents.

Impact
This project will advance the development of simulation and visualization tools and processes in order to assist the industry in enhancing the production of domestic resources by CO₂¬ EOR. It will result in field-ready applications; all source code developed will be made available with user-friendly operating documentation and provided without restrictions as a service to the public. The integrated solution will enable the design and operation of advanced CO₂ EOR technologies.

This integrated and simple-to-use solution may enable the completion of a CO₂ EOR study within one month compared to the current minimum of six months required for more complex approaches; thus it is reasonable to expect savings of $250,000 per study. For the 431 fields owned by small and mid-sized operators, the cumulative savings could be in excess of $100 million. Finally, it should be noted that significant volumes of anthropogenic CO₂ are generated in the Northeast, where the number of major oil fields with CO₂ EOR potential is limited. The use of locally available smaller fields for CO₂ EOR —which this project facilitates—may accelerate the implementation EOR in these fields.

Accomplishments

• The dynamic module development design was enhanced to accommodate historical completion, production, injection, and pressure data for wells. The subroutines related to the dynamic module data handling have been developed and tested with a synthetic data set.
• Exhaustive testing of the well data was completed to ensure that the customary information/data can be imported, exported, and displayed in various formats.
• The overall structure of the time step calculations have been designed and several of the routines associated with wellbore pressure drop calculations have been developed.
• Several graphical user interface (GUI) layouts that best fit this application have been identified. AvalonDock was selected as provider of the GUI layout software.
• All intermediate testing of individual software modules have been completed
• The integration of these modules was initiated in early December 2011 and should be concluded on schedule early in 2012 and NITEC will be prepared to demonstrate the integrated software at that time.

Current Status (January 2012)
Demonstration of the individual modules to date has been limited to display of interactive input screens and graphical data plots. Demonstration and validation of numerical modules has been limited to the internal testing process. Further activities in both of these areas are underway and progressing to plan.

NITEC will develop hyperlinked, searchable user manuals for the Dynamic, Simulator, 3D Visualization, and Optimization modules. Menus will be developed to include geologic model definition, identification of flow barriers; data required to characterize the formation and injected fluids, properties for the simulation layers, general model initialization criteria, and report generation options. NITEC will develop three interactive tutorials that cover the integrated workflow and document "screen captures" of a specific module workflow along with screen displayed guidance comments for each step. The tutorial will be designed so that user is able to "step" through the tutorial at their pace based on interaction with the individual screens.

NITEC will transfer the developed technology through conference presentation(s) and user forums. NITEC will offer a one day user forum to interested parties demonstrating use of the software. The lessons learned from the participant’s use of the software will be used by NITEC to modify any necessary areas of the software.

Project Start: January 24, 2011
Project End: January 31, 2013

DOE Contribution: $1,239,952
Performer Contribution: $313,341

Contact Information:
NETL – William Fincham (william.fincham@netl.doe.gov or 304-285-4268)
NITEC – Chet Ozgen (cozgen@nitecllc.com or 303-292-9595)
If you are unable to reach the above personnel, please contact the content manager.