Adhyayan, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University.

Improved Heavy Oil Recovery in Kharsang via CHOPS

Tushar Raina
VIII Sem, School of Petroleum Technology, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University. E-mail: tushar.zenith@gmail.com; Abstract: Heavy oil is a type of unconventional petroleum deposit with density less than 20 API. It is called so because its density and viscosity (100 - 10,000 cP) are much higher than the values of conventional crude oil, rendering it to not flow as easily. Approximately 6 trillion barrels (bbls) of oil reserves in the world today are heavy oil deposits more than twice the amount of combined world reserves of conventional oil and gas. Heavy oil production is now gaining tremendous impetus due to the radical depletion of conventional oil reserves throughout the world. GeoEnpro Petroleum Ltd owns a 10 sq.kms oil-field in Kharsang, Arunachal Pradesh, which has nearly 32.4 million barrels of unproduced heavy oil nearly onethird of the total oil in place of the entire field. This paper recommends the most suitable heavy oil production technique for one of the existing wells of Kharsang field, which faces a major problem of rampant sand production. Based on the given reservoir rock properties, crude oil characteristics, well parameters and production history, I prepared a general set of selection criteria which evidently suggested that the Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand (CHOPS) technique is most recommendable for the given well. CHOPS works on the principle of encouraging sand production to boost oil production, and hence the problem of high sand cut will actually be used as a means to enhance the oil production. Using a published theoretical model, I developed a MATLAB code to predict the performance of CHOPS if applied in the given well for a period of two years. The results show that the production rate should theoretically increase from 1.89 bbl/day to almost 100 bbl/day, at an average of 60 bbl/day. The total volume of heavy oil produced in this duration should be 43,826 bbls. Moreover, it can be feasibly employed in all the heavy oil wells of Kharsang, since they have very similar characteristics to the given well. Contact No: +91 9737658817.

Page 1 of 1