Professional Documents
Culture Documents
By
F. M.
BREWSTER,
WASHINGTON,
D. C.
FROM the standpoint of getting oil from the reservoir sands our present
methods of extraction are very inefficient. From all data compiled it is
evident that about three times as much oil remains in the sand after
economic production has ceased as was originally produced.
Spacing is not so much a problem of determining how many acres a
well will drain as it is a problem of obtaining the greatest possible yield
at the minimum expense. In this paper will be discussed some of the
factors affecting yield to show how little we know about recovery and to
indicate the possibilities for further research along the suggested lines.
Property lines and surface restrictions should be disregarded and the
economic spacing of wells should be governed by subsurface conditions.
However, it is obvious that all existing conditions, both surface and
subsurface must enter into this problem.
Some of the important factors affecting production are: Structural
position; thickness, porosity and grain size of the sand; gas pressure and
hydrostatic pressure; viscosity, capillarity, adhesion and surface tension
of the oil; dissolved and occluded gases; isothermal expansion and the gasoil ratio in lifting the oil.
STRUCTURAL POSITION
An oil or gas structure is any arrangement of sand of .such a nature
as to form a trap suitable for the accumulation of commercial quantities
of oil or gas. Structural position has an important effect on a well in
that the life of the well, the amount of oil produced and the efficiency of
the operation depend on this factor. The potential amount of recoverable oil is less at the limits of the field and theoretically could be handled
by a fewer number of wells. But to prevent water coning and the
bypassing of water with the resultant entrapping of oil, the wells should
be spaced so that control can be maintained over water encroachment.
There is some justification for spacing wells near together in the direction of strike when it is assumed that the movement of oil is up the dip
of the structure. Theoretically a screen of closely-spaced wells along
the crest of the anticline and across the direction of flow would completely drain it under the influence of hydrostatic pressure. However,
if drainage is due to gas pressure which acts equally in all directions, the
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F. M. BREWSTER
39
The size of the sand grains or particles and their arrangement appear
to have a far greater effect on production than porosity. It has been
shown experimentally that water will flow about 2500 times as fast
through a stratum of fine gravel as it will through one of very fine sand
although the percentage porosity may be the same in both materials. 6
It has also been shown experimentally that 15 times the flow of gas
was obtained through a sand having a porosity of 38.4 and a grain diameter of 0.5 mm. as against a sand having 42.45 per cent. porosity and
a grain .diameter of 0.085 mm. Hence it is evident that the grain size
was the predominating factor. The flow varies inversely as the logarithm
of the distance through the sand. The finer-grained the sand, the less
is the distance from the well where the frictional resistance becomes equal
to the differential flowing pressure and flow toward the well practically
ceases. Therefore the size of the grain has an important bearing on
the production. The frictional-resistance factor in well spacing should
A. E. Melcher: National Petroleum News (Apr. 22, 1925).
Lester C. Uren. Op. cit.
5 C. S. Slichter: Water Supply Papel' No. 140 U. S. Geol. Surv. (1905).
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Gas is the most active agent in the expulsion of oil, but capillarity
and adhesion are probably the most active agents in the retention of oil
in the sand. Gas pressure has to be excessive to overcome this capillary
force. The radius of influence of wells in oil drainage is an important
consideration in planning and development. This undrained volume
of sand increases with the distance between wells. Due to friction a
greater force is necessary to cause movement of the oil 100 ft. from a well
than is necessary to move oil 1 ft. from the well. With a uniform
pressure throughout the sand it follows that the areas near the well are
more completely drained than those at a distance. But uniform pressures
do not prevail throughout the life of a well. Hence the oil in the sand
immediately surrounding the well will get the benefit of maximum pressure and needs, it least whereas oil located at some distance from the well
will have to move under a much reduced pressure prevailing during the
latter part of the period of extraction. Furthermore, there is the probability of gas associated with the distant oil escaping through the unsaturated sands in the vicinity of the well, without doing useful work. ca
This substantiates the practi~e of pumping air or gas into a sand and
holding a pressure on the sand, not as a high differential in pressure
between inlet and outlet wells, but as a nearly uniform pressure over the
entire field. Under this pressure part of the gas will dissolve in the oil
and will decrease the viscosity of the oil. 7 Movement of the thinner oil
can be effected with less energy and greater quantities of oil can be
recovered, but the dissolved gas is no longer capable of exerting any
propulsive force and must be replaced with other gas to propel the oil to
the hole.
The presence of gas in or occluded with the oil is an important factor
in causing natural flow. Oil tends to form a film around a gas bubble
and to be carried along with the gas. If gas is present in sufficient
quantity and has enough pressure to overcome the column of fluid
in the hole the well will flow. But eventually in the history of a flowing
well there is a period when the gas pressure and volume a~e insufficient
to cause a natural flow. The forces moving oil are not constant and the
drainage area constantly decreases. When a well is drilled the pressure
is relieved at that point allowing both oil and gas to escape. This
reduction in pressure allows the volume of the gases to increase and
I. B. Williams, gas engineer, U. S. Bur. Mines. (Personal communication.)
Lester C. Uren. Op. cit.
7 D. B. Dow and L. P. Calkin: Reports of Investigations, U. S. Bur. Mines, Serial
2732. "Solubility and Effects of Natural Gas and Air in Crude Oils" (Feb., 1926).
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F. M. BRJ:;W::;TER
thus the bubbles grow larger and bring oil with them as they approach
the hole. As the resistance is greater for oil than for gas, the gas is usually
exhausted first and this frequently means the economic limit of the production of oil. For in dissipating the gas, the oil has been robbed of its
motive force and also of its lighter constituents and is left as a relatively
heavy, viscous, dead oil which has a high adhesive attraction and increased
surface tension and which the force of gravity is barely able to move.
HYDROSTATIC PRESSURE
(Personal communication.)
42 A
restricted flow, the water tends to finger out causing the oil to move at
right angles to the direction of the predominating water movement.
Advantage is taken of this factor where water flooding is practiced and
wells are staggered. Naturally the most economic spacing is the triangular system having equal distances between wells.
Water flooding has its hazards. Certain chemicals in the water may
unite with chemicals in the sand or oil, or the water may dissolve certain
salts in the sand. Later these may be deposited due to lower saturation
point of the solvent or by further chemical action. These deposits are
frequently impervious and will dam the pore space.
VISCOSITY
F. M. BREWSTER
43
such as shale or other impervious material. increases the effset of capillarity as each stratum will act as a base for the operation of this force.
Of the oil retained in the sand after a well has reached economic
exhaustion under usual methods of production, probably the greater part
that may be obtained by new methods of recovery is held by capillarity.
Oil will not drain out naturally. Capillarity depends on the size of the
pores, the finer the spaces the greater the capillary action. This force is
ever present.
It has been demonstrated for oil-saturated sands with water as the
invader that the water does not displace the oil in finer-grained sands
as readily as in the coarser sands. lO This is explained by the fact that
the pores were wet with oil and that the smaller pores have no attraction
for water. The larger pores of the coarser sand permit the water to pass
through displacing only the oil in the center of the pores. It follows then
that the relative surface tension and adhesion are the important factofF!
in such cases.
The resistance offered by any uniform series of openings is proportional to the viscosity and adhesion of the liquid passing through them.
In order that capillary movement may take place one of the liquids must
be drawn over the surface of the pores. That is, the molecules of the
solid which are not covered by the liquid attract molecules of the liquid
from their previous position and the result is that the liquid moves over
the surface of the pores. Once the walls of the pores are wet with the
liquid, capillarity will act. This force tending to draw the liquid over the
surfaces of the walls of the pores is adhesion. If adhesion draws a liquid
over the surfaces of the pores that had previously been wet with a liquid
of higher surface tension, capillarity will cause the liquid of lower surface
tension to drive the liquid of higher surface tension out of the pores. lO
ADHESION
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F. M.
BH]<;W~T]<;It
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ISOTHERMAL EXPANSION
In our present method of flowing wells the gas is not made to do very
much useful work in lifting oil to the surface. It is not uncommon to find
flowing wells producing 4000 cu. ft. of gas per barrel of oil. Under
isothermal expansion this could be reduced to less than 300 cu. ft. of gas
per barrel of oil,14
In old fields where the gas has been exhausted it will be necessary
to replace this gas with air, gas or other substances to revive the dead oil
and propel it to the hole to secure additional recovery.
CONCLUSION
I. B. Williams.
0[1. cit.
DISCUSSION