Opportunities for using Chemical Injection in Surub

Field
Gladys Gutirrez

Abstract
Water injection is a secondary recovery process widely known and implemented worldwide in oil
fields and aims to maintain or increase energy and/or recovery of hydrocarbons from the reservoir.
However, application of this technique is not totally efficient in sweep because it leaves high
saturation of remaining oil due to injectivity problems, channeling and displacement problems
generated by capillary forces. Thus, the application of a tertiary method to optimize the sweeping
process and increase the recovery factor of the field is necessary. Injection of chemicals such as
polymers, surfactants and alkaline solutions is a tertiary recovery method consisting in modifying
the properties of the rock and fluids to improve oil displacement and reduce the residual oil
saturation.
The Surub field is located in Block Mamore in Bolivia. Its main reservoir is Lower Petaca, a
sandstone of variable continuity deposited in a fluvial-continental environment. In this field a
secondary recovery project of water injection was initiated in 2003 until 2013 through six injector
wells and an injection plant with a maximum capacity of 18,000 bpd. However, total injection rates
didnt covered the expectations achieving a maximum value of only 6000 bpd. The project has not
been efficient enough even after several years of continuous injection, mainly due to injectivity
problems and distances between producers and injectors (flank pattern).
The present study aims to visualize the opportunities in Surub field to increase the recovery factor
reestablishing water injection and implementing a tertiary method such as chemical injection to
optimize the sweeping process. The analysis process consists of:

Define the best arrangement that suits reservoir conditions to restore water injection project.
To do this, the decrease in the distance between producers and injectors has to be
considered in order to maximize areal sweep which includes the drilling of new wells or
conversion of producers to injectors.

Conduct a screening of chemical EOR methods to find similarities and identify analogous
fields that help to establish the feasibility of Surubi as a good candidate.

Perform technical evaluation of a pilot project that considers EOR methods using an
updated simulation model.

Evaluate the technical impact and improvement of restoring only conventional water
injection method in the field versus implementing chemical injection.

It is seen a technical improvement using tertiary methods but the impact at last will depend on
injection volumes, distances between producers-injectors, chemical formulations, timing of
implementation and economics.