IBP2201_12 THE USE OF 4D ATTRIBUTE TO GUIDE THE LOCATION OF A SAMPLING WELL FOR EOR PROCESS: THE DALIACAMELIA POLYMER

INJECTION FIELD CASE C. Hubans1, E. Brechet1, S. Toinet2, D. Morel1, Ph. Cordelier1

Copyright 2012, Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute - IBP

This Technical Paper was prepared for presentation at the Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012, held between September, 1720, 2012, in Rio de Janeiro. This Technical Paper was selected for presentation by the Technical Committee of the event according to the information contained in the final paper submitted by the author(s). The organizers are not supposed to translate or correct the submitted papers. The material as it is presented, does not necessarily represent Brazilian Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels Institute opinion, or that of its Members or Representatives. Authors consent to the publication of this Technical Paper in the Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012 Proceedings.

Abstract
Discovered in 1997, Dalia field, located deep offshore Angola in Block 17, consists of unconsolidated Miocene turbidites sands. Thanks to very good quality of seismic data, 4D seismic surveys were acquired in order to monitor development wells, understand reservoir communications, and prepare the next development and infill wells. Due to the unconsolidated nature of sands, and to a low burial, 4D effects are very strong with large time shifts when fluid changes. Post-stack processing and interpretation techniques were optimized in order to fully interpret 4D and integrate it into the reservoir model. EOR studies were launched very early in the development of the field, typically 3 years before first oil, that concluded to a phased polymer injection, starting with one well injectivity test, then one reservoir upon four before deciding any extension. The Dalia specificities (large spacing, and low BSW at polymer injection start up) imply a late response if usual EOR monitoring techniques are applied. Various monitoring options were considered in order to verify the injected polymer solution properties in-situ. The end result recommendation was to drill a well and sample the injected viscosified water behind the water front to a distance of approximately 100 m from an injector. The 4D seismic interpretation, including the use of an in-house seismic attribute (dVp/Vp), provided a detailed water flood performance inside the reservoir that has been used to locate, and design the sampler well, then react to drilling issues in real time, with two main objectives: 1) sample the viscosified water in top layer swept by water, 2) produce the bottom layers still unproduced.

1. Introduction
Deep offshore exploration has been very successful in Bloc 17 Angola. After a first discovery with Girassol in the Oligocene levels, Total operator discovered the Dalia field in 1997 in the Miocene levels . The field is composed of confined and unconfined unconsolidated turbidites sands and contains moderately viscous oils (up to 10 cP). Production started in December 2006 with a development through water injection. On Block 17, seismic data are of very good quality with a vertical resolution of 7 meters. After 30 development wells, a first 4D seismic survey was acquired in order to monitor these development wells, understand reservoir communications, but also prepare the next development and infill wells. Due to the fact that sands are very unconsolidated and with a low burial, 4D effects are very strong: time shifts larger than 10 ms are observed due to fluid changes. Post-stack processing and interpretation techniques were optimized in order to fully interpret 4D and integrate it into the reservoir model. For the polymer EOR project monitoring it has been requested by TOTAL Angola to drill a sampling well around a viscosified water injector. Two main objectives have been fixed for this well: - Sample the viscosified water in top layer swept by water

______________________________ 1 TOTAL 2 TOTAL E&P ANGOLA

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012 - Produce the bottom layers still unproduced. Placement and trajectory of this well were based on the 4D seismic results which give a good understanding and a detailed view of the reservoirs.

2. Basic Field Data

The Dalia field is located 130 km offshore Angola in Block 17 with estimated 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil stretching over 230 km2. Water depth varies between 1200 to 1400 meters, with reservoirs 800 to 1000 m below the sea bed. The field comprises four main turbiditic reservoirs: Lower Main Channel, Lower Flanks, Upper Main Channel and Camelia. The very high quality of the 3D seismic data allowed direct mapping of the main architectural reservoir elements, like sands and clay areas only 6 to 10 meters thick. The channel complexes can be as thick as 100 meters, but are divided and subdivided in different heterogeneous sections with alternating layers of oil sands and clays, piled in complex geometries. The field permeability ranges from a few hundreds of milliDarcies to several Darcies, with an average permeability above 1 Darcy. The reservoir temperature is between 45 and 56C, and the pressure in the range of 215-235 bar. The 21-23 API oil is slightly undersaturated with medium viscosity ranging from 1 to 10 cP under reservoir conditions. The shallowness of the reservoirs partly explains the viscous nature of Dalias oil. Water viscosity is in the range of 0.5 cP under reservoir conditions. The field is developed by water injection, using an FPSO with 31 deviated or horizontal subsea injector wells and 4 injection flow lines. A single flow line generally injects in several reservoirs as well as several systems. Maximum water injection capacity is 405 kbwpd. Production is achieved through 4 production lines and 37 producers. First oil was on 13th December 2006. The 240 kbpd oil production plateau was reached after a few months and has been maintained since then. More details on the field development can be found in Thebault (2007) and Cae (2007). A schematic of the layout is given in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Injection and production lay out of the four reservoirs of Dalia Sea water is desulfated to prevent any risk of sulfate barium deposit, and is injected from the start. Produced water is reinjected.

3. EOR Polymer Project

2

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012 As early as 2002, during the development studies, the oil viscosity range of the Dalia field (1 to 10 cP) was identified as a key factor for limited recovery. EOR screening indicated that many favourable parameters were met on Dalia for polymer flooding: high permeability, low clay content, low temperature, moderate oil viscosities. But still the salinity of the water (formation and injected), the deep-offshore localisation and the fact that the field was not yet producing were major challenges to address before moving to a large scale EOR project. In 2003 an integrated geosciences and architecture feasibility study was launched with four main tasks to demonstrate the feasibility and potential benefits of injecting polymer in the Dalia field: 1) Viscosification: a dedicated internal laboratory program was launched to select a polymer and acquire the basic data required to make a sound evaluation of incremental oil. 2) Resources estimation: simulation with and without polymer using specialized software and laboratory input parameters, including the design and optimization of the injection strategy (start date/slug concentration/post slug concentration/ partial or fullfield injection) 3) Pilot: objectives, design, 4) Architecture: additional facilities required logistics An extensive description of the feasibility study can be found in Morel (2008). The key findings were the selection of a high molecular weight (18-20 MDa) commercial partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide. Incremental oil is estimated to be in the range of 3 to 7 % of original oil in place, depending on the reservoir (4 different reservoirs with different oil viscosity and permeability heterogeneity) and on the start date of polymer injection. During the studies, it appeared that the most unfavourable scenarios of polymer injection were those where the injectivity of the viscous water solution was not sufficient to ensure adequate pressure maintenance. Respect of the voidage replacement was considered as mandatory in the conceptual studies. A phased approach was therefore set up comprising 3 key steps: A single well injectivity test to demonstrate injectivity and operability of polymer injection in the Dalia conditions A phase 1 involving injection the injection of polymer in the full injection flow line of Camelia to demonstrate long term injectivity and operability, and to ensure that the polymer is efficient (i.e. remains viscous in the reservoir, which is the condition to produce additional oil) The extension to fullfield injection if positive results were observed in previous steps Architecture studies selected the concept of a polymer solution prepared from powder, under a continuous process. The well DAL710 of the Camelia reservoir was selected to implement the single well injectivity test. The test was very successful as both the targets of flow rate and cumulative volumes of viscosified water were largely outpassed. The quality of the injected polymer solutions that were prepared on the FPSO was also fully satisfactory. The start of the phase 1 where polymer solution is injected on -all the injectors of Camelia was therefore sanctioned, and has started in February 2010. Detailed description of the injectivity test and phase 1 are to be found in Morel (2010 and 2011).

4. Polymer Response
All the simulation studies emphasize that the benefits of polymer injection are increased when the polymer is injected early, particularly if a fixed production period is considered. This represents a strong incentive to move to larger implementation as soon as possible. On the other hand full field injection cannot be sanctioned until phase 1 injection in Camelia has proved successful, and the best estimates indicate that three additional years are required to build the full field polymer facilities once the project is sanctioned. Because of the long distance between injector and producer (1000 to 1500 m), the production response to polymer injection is slow: the watercut decrease (or slow down of the watercut increase) or even the polymer breakthrough is expected to take between 3 to 5 years (Figure 2) based on simulation work. In addition to that the magnitude of the decrease of the water cut is difficult to detect on the short term as several producers flow through a commingle production line. 3

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0.9

Water cut

DAL 708

90

0.9

Water cut

90

0.9

Water cut

90

DAL 721
Polymer Prod (kg/d) Polymer Prod (kg/d)

DAL 738
0.6 Polymer inj.

Polymer Prod (kg/d)

0.6

Polymer inj. Polymer impact + 6 years

0.6 Polymer impact + 3 years 0.3 Polymer inj.

0.3

0.3 Polymer impact + 3 years

Based on simulation
Impact on BSW after 2 to 3 years Polymer arrival at producer after ~ 5 years

Water cut (water flood) Water cut (polymer flood) Polymer Prod

Figure 2. Camelia Producer response to polymer injection Different options have been considered to try and demonstrate polymer efficiency in a shorter time than 3 to 4 years after phase 1 Camelia start, and move ahead the sanction of the extension by 1 to 2 years.

5. Sampler well
The drilling of an infill well, either a producer, an injector or an observation/sampler well, was considered. Evaluation of pros and cons of each option was carried out including feasibility, value of information and economics. Among the various options, saturation monitoring in an infill observation well, trying to visualize the displacement of an oil bank mobilised by the viscous solution has been thoroughly evaluated. The option was discarded because the uncertainty on the measurement was within the range of expected changes. The final choice made was to drill an infill sampler well close to an injector, with an additional production target in a deeper horizon. The objective is to sample viscosified water in this well, and to check whether the in-situ properties of the polymer solution are consistent with retained hypotheses, under the salinity and concentration conditions of the sample. Polymer flooding being a proven EOR technique in high permeable sandstones onshore, it is assumed that provided the in-situ viscosity of the polymer is in line with the retained design, after passing through the whole set of injection facilities specific to deep offshore implementation, incremental recovery should be as expected. Besides the primary objective of polymer monitoring, and after closing the completions in the layers submitted to polymer injection, deeper reservoirs that are not yet developed and were identified thanks to seismic data will be put under production with that well for an expectation of near 10 Mbbls. The location of the sampler well has been selected closed to the DAL713 injector to minimize the risk of drilling in an area with no polymer. The high quality of the 4D seismic data acquired mid 2008 and end 2010, was of a great help to identify the water flow paths, layer wise, between the existing DAL713 injector and DAL708 producer as already anticipated based on reservoir monitoring analysis. Dynamic reservoir simulations succeed in matching 4D anomalies.

6. 4D post processing aspects: warping of the monitor data

Two production mechanisms are present: depletion and water injection. As the initial oil pressure is very close to bubble point, gas exsolution is very quickly associated with depletion. Due to unconsolidated sands and low burial, 4D effects are very large in amplitude and time shifts: amplitude variations can reach 130% and time shifts over 10-15 ms are observed in highly depleted areas In the water swept area the amplitude variation is close to 60 % and the velocity change is close to 7 %. 4

Rio Oil & Gas Expo and Conference 2012 These amplitude variations and the 4D time shift are both largely above the repeatability noise of the 4D seismic, which for this acquisition was measured to be at 12 %. In order to optimise the position of the sampler well (i.e. maximise chances of sampling viscosified water), the interpretation was focused on the dVp/Vp attribute. This attribute is computed using an in-house warping tool that realigns the monitor seismic data in time with the base data. Because this timeshift is directly related to local velocity changes it is possible to compute a dVp/Vp volume. The in-house warping algorithm is a direct inversion for relative velocity changes that explain the timeshift and the amplitude variations between base and monitor surveys. As the warping is a data driven inversion approach (without initial model), the dVp/Vp attribute is computed in a very short time. Figure 3 shows typical responses of a depleted area around a producer and of a swept area around a water injector. In areas adjacent to producers we observe a depletion of around -10 bars to -40 bars associated with gas coming out of solution and a decrease of P velocity: dVp/Vp negative (red). Around water injectors, water is replacing oil, which creates an increase of P velocity: dVp/Vp positive.
Producer well (DV/V negative) Water injector well (DV/V positive)

Figure 3. Warping results: dV/V attribute extraction along well path where negative dV/V anomalies can be seen around producers and positive dV/V anomalies around injectors. Coloured sections around well paths correspond to completions.

7. 4D interpretation to localise sampling well

From the dVp/Vp cube it is possible to extract maps for each layer involved in the project of this new well. It was mandatory to target the top layer in the swept area to sample the viscosified water and to target the bottom layer in the unproduced area expected to be not depleted. Figure 4 shows the map of a positive dVp/Vp anomaly showing clearly the extension of water injection and the position of the water front. This dVp/Vp map overlays an Architectural Element map describing the sand positions.

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Figure 4. The blue area represents the positive dVp/Vp anomaly corresponding to the water swept area. The AE map shows the sedimentological extensions of channel and levees. The well trajectory has been designed to intercept the blue area in this top layer and a non anomalic area for the bottom layer, for which we expect that the reservoir has not yet been produced.

8. Sampler Well Operations

8.1. Drilling Based on these simulations and the concentration evolution forecast, the timing of the well drilling was fine tuned in order to secure the in-situ sampling. A cumulative injected volume of polymer solution was defined. The concentration map (Figure 5) is linked to the volume of polymer injected in DAL713. Two side tracks have been drilled because completion could not be run due to clay instabilities. The clear map of the swept area shown in Figure 4 was very instrumental in designing the side track trajectories.

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Figure 5. Polymer Concentration map (Simulation) 8.2. MDT sampling An extremely detailed study was undertaken in our laboratories to check that representative samples of the in situ polymer solutions can be taken with existing sampling tools, and that all analytical issues might be solved to measure the key properties of the solution. Different modular dynamic tester (MDT sample) tools were tested on shore to check that the solution of polymer did not undergo significant mechanical degradation during sampling. The low shock sampling configuration MDT tool was qualified during these tests. Another issue with the sampling in a new drilled well is mud contamination. Therefore, MDT was equipped with a Live Fluid Analyzer (LFA) to prevent the sample from contamination as far as possible, and with a vibrating wire to measure the viscosity of the fluid in the flow line. Still Bottom Hole Sampling (BHS) is clearly identified as the most representative sampling procedure for these particularly delicate operations, and is necessary on top of the MDT sampling. The MDT samples were collected at 188 m from DAL713. The samples were taken on the RIG floor with PVT bottles and a control protocol, then transferred to the FPSO lab for evaluation of the in situ properties (concentration, viscosity and degradation). Should samples were found contaminated (presence of oil, mud, solids), analytical procedures should have been set up in order to remedy the situation. The MDT operations confirmed that the samples were made behind the polymer front meaning that the target was properly selected. The results in terms of viscosity were inconclusive and BHS is to be done.

9. Conclusions
Deep offshore developments are characterized by large well spacing, meaning that it will take time (years) to be able to observe at the producers the response to any change in the production mechanism. Observation/sampler well may be a smart means to get an accelerated response, but optimization of well placement is a huge concern. For the Dalia/Camelia polymer phased project, the drilling of a sampler well has been decided in order to check the in-situ viscosity of the polymer solution which is injected, and possibly accelerate the sanction of the extension of the polymer injection. This well will be converted to a producer in deeper horizon, once the sampling completed. During this study, the efficiency of the process leading to high quality 4D results (in-house dVp/Vp attribute, cube and maps) allowed to optimize the location of the sampler and provided an opportunity to react to drilling issues, and to propose new trajectories. Eventually, the well has been successfully drilled crossing the swept area for the top layer and intersecting very good oil sand at the base. 7

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7. Acknowledgements
Total SA and TOTAL E&P Angola would like to thank Sociedade Nacional de Combustveis de Angola (SONANGOL), BP Exploration (Angola) Ltd., Statoil Angola Block 17 A.S., and Esso Exploration Angola (Block 17) Ltd. for their strong support by using 4D as a main monitoring tool in Block17 and for their authorization to publish this work.

8. References
D. CAE et al 2007Dalia Development Subsurface, Drilling and Well Completion Engineering Paper OTC18539 presented at the Offshore Technology Conference Houston 30 April -3 May J.THEBAULT et al 2007 -The Dalia Development Challenges and Achievements Paper OTC18538 presented at the Offshore Technology Conference Houston 30 April -3 May WILLIAMSON, P.R., CHERRETT, A.J., SEXTON, P.A., 2007, A New Approach to Warping for Quantitative Time Lapse Characterisation, EAGE, Expanded Abstracts D. MOREL, M.VERT, S.JOUENNE, E.NAHAS, 2008, Polymer Injection in Deep Offshore Field: The Dalia Angola Case- SPE116672 presented at the SPE ATCE Denver 21-24 September D. MOREL, M.VERT, S.JOUENNE, R.GAUCHET, Y.BOUGER, 2010 First Polymer Injection in Deep Offshore Field Angola: Recent Advances on Dalia/Camelia Field Case -SPE135735 presented at the SPE ATCE Florence - 1922 September. D.MOREL, S.JOUENNE, E.ZAUGG, Y.BOUGER, 2011- EOR Polymer in Deep Offshore Field: Development Strategy and Polymer Performance Surveillance Paper 2890 World Petroleum Congress Doha 4-8 December