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MARATHON OIL CO
G. A. CLARK
FINDLAY, OHIO
R, G, JONES TULSA, OKLA.
W, 1. KINNEY TERRE HAUTE, U4D.
R, E, SCHIISON LITTLE70N, COLO.
MEMBERS AIME
H. SURKALO 7EftRE HAUTE, /ND.
JUNIOR MEMBER AIME
R. S. WILSON TERREHAUTE, INO.
TEST SITE
The F~ combustion test was carried out in a 3.3:acre
inverted five-spot portion of a Ienticular . body of Robinson
Orishmi manuscript received in Society cf Petroleum Enfrineem ofb
July 20, 1964. Revisal manuscript received Feb. ~, 1966, Paper tmeaental 196t I*62 J 1962
ttt sPE SW Annuat Fsll ?kethw held in H-m% ~ct. 11-% 1964.
preferences given at end of paper. Fit. 1AI?INJECTION ?kiwoammxs,
. .. ... . . . . . . .
TASLE ICUMULATIVE 011, WATER, AND GAS PRODUCTION
bustion pru, showing the daily air injection rate, in-
jection pressure, injectivity (pseudo-itsjectivit y), and cumu- Gas 011 Water
Production Production Produ#lon
lative air injected, Wel I Loc.atlon (M __[bb~l - . [bbl]
A feature of the air injection performance was the de- L. B. Wampler
1. B, Wampler
No. 14*
No, 15
161,063,000
64,303,000
11,3s5
4,269
I ,755
4,316
crease in injectivity immediately upon ignition, In two Emma Fry .a[c 1 No, 15 240,902,00+1 20,115 2,500
Emma Fry a[c I No. 16 1 l3,s16,000- .. . 6,B40 ..-: 5 B20 .
weeks, injectivity dropped to about one-half the pre-igni- lat.alobev$ 4 W*lk** 580,084,0W
. . .
42,609 14,391
tion injectivity and remained at the lower level during the
Emma Fry ale 1 No. 7 I3s,0s0,000 13,SLII 17,73s
entire test. it should be emphasized, though, that the in- S. Welrlch No. 2 ,2:~;:J30; 3g#;; f,;;;
jectivity shown in Fig. 1 is the air injection rate divided 1. 8. Wampler No. 16***
1, S. Wampler No. 17f S:328:OO0 _._9a7 ..
42
_. _.. . ..
by wellhead pressure squared, and does not reflect changes Total above s wellsf$ . 977,77 s,000 94,349 3S,639
in the reservoir pressure. Because the reservoir was con- Culllsen & Wosoner No. 2 No gas prod, 4,293 13,141
fined, reservoir pressurization took place, increasing from Emma Fry a/c 1 No. 1 Ne gas prod. 2,146 62,2S4
Emma. Fry a/c 1 No. 4 1S,432,000 ;,;:? 17,237
the pre-combustion pressure of 20 psia to over 200 psia. Emma Fry QIC 1 No, 11 2,165,000 19,710
Considering this, the true injectivity increased. Emma Fry dc 1 No. 13
Luclnda 3mlth s/c 2 No. 3T?f
17, I 01,000
246,000
2:852 4,755
MMscf was injected after ignition on Oct. 13, 1961, Shut In on April 30, 19631 cenwwted to absetvatlen well.
*. WeII$ ef the 3,3.acro Iesl wttern, Irwerted fiVO. $P@.
The Fry combustion test demonstrated that the permea- **went on production Now. 7, 1962.
bility of air in the burned-out region of a reservoir is con- 7WmIt on praductlon June !9, 1963.
siderwbly higher than that ahead of the combustion front. ttWe4 IS producing lnto Fry c.ambustl.ampralect tank bat .
The pressure drop between the air injection well and the fttoll nd water prad.ctlcm not afiecled by cembwt!.n I.
$Wellz pradkclng into Fry unit tank battetr.
observation well, L. B. Wampler No. O-1, decreased as the
combustion front approached the latter and eventually
reached a stabilized value of 10 to 20 psi, With most of wells connected to the Fry project tank buttery w,as 94,349
the reservoir pressure change occurring near the air in- bbl, or 93,8 per cent of all production credited to the test.
jection well, the pressure at the combustion front was These wells also produced 88.6 per cent of total gas pro-
probably 10 to 20 psi less than the air injection pressure. duction. Fig. 3 shows the oil production history of the
Fry project tank battery and of the four pattern wells. The
GVER-ALL PERFORMANCE decline in production of the pattern weIls exhibits the de-
creasing capture efficiency of these wells as the combustion
In any oil recovery process, performance can be evalu- front moved out,
ated in two waysfirst, by the energy expended to recovet
a barrel of oil, and second, by the oil recovery efficiency. GAS PRODUCTION
Performance evaluation of the Fry combustion test in-
cludes not only the performance of the 3.3iacre test pat- As mentioned inthe discussion on air injection; gas pro-
tern, but the effect of the combustion test on the perform- duction was high in comparison to the air injected. From
ance of the 160-acre area within the peripheral water flood
of the Fry unit.
Table 1 presents the cumulative oil, water and ga.. pro-
duction to Oct. 1, 1963 of all wells stimulated by the com-
bustion test, Eighteen wells produced gas, and 16 wells
exhibited increased oil and water production.
Oil and water production from we[ls stimuhtted by the
combustion test were collected by the Fry combustion proj-
ect tank battery and the Fry unit tank battery. The, Fry
project tank battery collected production from eight wells
in the vicinity of the test pattern, as noted in Table 1. The
wells stimulated by combustion produced a total of 123,-
090 bbl of oil. Using the production history prior to initia- ~IG. 2~lR-oII. RATIO.
.. .. -,.- ,..
,.,
.LEG~ND- -
OIL WELL
OIL AND GAS WELL
CORE HOLE
AIR INJECTION WELL
OBSERVATION WELL
CORE HOLE, OBSERVATION WELL
*2 *3 *
CULLISON - WAGONER I S WEIRICti
I
.
*
0.3,?,~~~, 0., *7 * *
I 4$,* I 14< A lA,.l\-#6
I 0.2
* .1
*4 ~ \y
*6
. . E WAJfPLER
*8
- *; I *4
A --October (before ignition)
I, 1961
B March 1,1962
c September 1,1962
D Maroh 1,1963
E Cjctaber 1,1983
RG, 4-CHANGE IN GAS PRODUCTIONDISTRIBUTIONWITIi TIME. Ftc. 3-LOCATION OF WELLS STIMULATED BY CohrrNrsTlom.
. ... . ... .. .
.
the tempertiture exceeded 150F, When this happened at reguiariy, and the gas amiiyses for the pattern welis are
the north and east pattern wells, the wells were not aban- presented in Figs, 6 through 9. The cumulative oxygen
doned as was the case for the west pattern well, The pump- utilization efficiency for the project was 87 per cent and
ing equipment was raised 240 ft, and production main. varied from a low of 85 per cent to the east to a high
tained for six more months. As a result of raising the of 93 per cent to the south. .-.
pumping equipment, apparent combustion efficiency in- Utilizing only data from the four pattern welis, the
creased, gas production decreased, temperature declined, hydrogen-carbon ratio of the consumed fuei was estimated
and oii and water production decreased. The effect of lift- to be between 0,6 and 1,
ing the pumping equipment can be seen in Figs. 8 and 9. The hydrocarbon content of the prod ucetl gases stabi-
lized during the test at between 1 and 2 per cent of com-
EFFECT OF COMBUSTION ON PRODUCED ponents ethane and higher. Methane was present oni y in
RESERVOIR FLUIDS trace amounts,
Water and oii sarnpies were obtained from the obseti EFFECT OF COMBUSTION ON RESERVOIR ROCK
vation weli, L. B, Wampler No, O-1, and the four pattern
weiis to determine the effect of the advancing combustion Four cores ftom tbe bUrned-Out reservoir were siabbed,
fropt on the produced fluids. photographed and studied in detaii to determine the ef-
Several weeks before temperature increase was noted at fects of combustion on the reservoir rock.
a weii, changes in the water properties occurred. The pH Generaliy, the presence and location of the coked and
and the chioride ion concentration decreased, the pH burned zones couid be determined by cursory examina-
dropping from 6.6 to a low of 4.2. The chloride ion con- tion of the siabbed core. The burned zone was characteriz-
tent decreased from 18,000 to 7,000 ppm. Simultaneously, ed by absence of oii staining and the presence of colors
an increase in sulfate ion content and iron content were that ranged from white through shades of yeilow or yel-
noted, and the water coior changed from a iight yeliow iow-brown to red-brown, in a generaiiy accentuated ap-
to a rusty brown. pearance of any stratification piane, Any layers, ianlina-
The appearance and odor of the oii changed as the ticms, or pebbies of siderite (FeCO,) or sideritic shale
combustion front approached a weii. Whereas the original present before combustion were transformed to hematite
crude oii was biack in appearance and possessed a sweet (aFe,O,), a deep reddish-brown mincrai, Hematite was
crude odor, the combustion-affected oil at first had the the probabie source of iron in the produced waler.
odor of varnish or paint thhsner, Later, as front break- Although the coked zone wt+susuaiiy iess apparent than
through became imminent, the odor changed to that char- the burned zone, the iower coked zone was more obvious
acteristic of over-used crankcase oil subjected to high than the upper one, The dark grey-brown to black coior
temperature, Although the smell suggested the presence that was characteristic of the coked zone was- generaii y
of oxygenated hydrocarbons, fractional distillation and concentrated in a zone of oniy 0.1 to 0.2 ft, as shown in
infrared spectrographic ana!ysis of combustion-affected oii Fig. 11. The upper coked zone was diffused over a 2-ft
indicated no detectable quantity of oxygenated hydrocar- interval in two of the weiis,
bons. There was, though, enrichment by unsaturated and Microscopic examination of thin sections revealed dis-
aromatic compounds. tinctive characteristics of the coked and burned zones.
Combustion-affected crude oil had oniy a siightly lower Comparing the coked rock and the burned reservoir rock,
specific gravity than the originai crude oii, but the viscosity it was determined that the coke was either deposited as
was reduced from 17 to 6 cp at 100F. thin films around the grains or formed bridges between
ASTM distillation of the produced crude and gas-liquid grains, partiaily filiing pores. Although the coked rock ap-,
chromatographic analysis indicated that oil affected by peared megascopicaliy to have Iittie or no porosity and -.
combustion was stripped of light ends and enriched with permeability, pore space was apparent microscopicuiiy, The --
intermediate boiling compounds, burned portion of the feservoir did not appear in thin sec-
tions to be markediy different from the unburned portions,
with the exception that the burned rock had the appear-
GAS ANALYSIS AND EFFICIENCY ance of a more open or connected pore system.
OF COMBUSTION
To determine the combustion effect on permeability turd
The composition of produced gases was determined porositjj, studies were made on the B zone of the reservoir.
1961 , 1963
1?62
FIC, 6-PERFoa)rANcE OF L. B. WAXIPLSR No, 14. Ftc. 8--PF.IIFORVASCF OF EMMA FRY~ic 1 No. 15.
.-
Frc. 7PERFORMANCE
OF L. B. WAIKI-ILER
No. 15. Ftc. 9PERFORJIANCE OF l%JMA FRYA/c 1 No. 16. ,
24-ft interval of the burned B zone were averaged nnd DMQc&lDy 1o11 Roswvolr hflti Utholot)k
Thkkoss ln~n~l Zono;tiwnsd
compared with averages of six of the unburned wells. The wall (ft)
unburned B zone from six wells had an average porosity of 1. B. WamM No, A 50 west 56.5 - 56.5 7.5of A
19.9 per cent with a range of 19.4 to 20.5 per cent. The 27,0of B
22.0of c
average porosity in the burned B zone was 22.3 per cent, If 1. S. Wemc.ler No. B 145 wed 53.0 25.0 23.6ofB
the small range in porosity across the Fry pattern is con- 1.5afc
Net 0.1 !75 Nwthmt 54,0 lt.o ll.o ofa
sidered, it is reasonable to conclude that combustion in- Emma FW dc I
53.0 2.0 2.0 nf B
1, B, Wamrdor No. 0-3 175 Northwe$?
creased reservoir porosity by 10 per cent.
Changes In permeabilhy caused by combustion are not
as apparent as porosity changes, However, using the same Combustion proceeded preferentially in the B sand of
averaging technique, it appears that the average perme- the reservoir. Table 3 lists the thickness of the burned
ability might have been increased from about 328 to 379 zone in each of the four wells cored into the burned-out
md, or hy 1S per cent. reservoir and the location of the burned interval, The
appearance of the core, oil saturation measurements, and
PROFILE OF BURNED RESERVOIR calculations from neutron logs were all considered in de-
fining the burned interval. Fluid saturation measurements
The layered nature of the Robinson reservoir at the indicated that oil was depleted from the unburned but
Fry site contributed to the control of the prolile of the heat-affected reservoir ahead of the combustion ,front.
combustion zone, The geologic studies suggested thrrt the Fig, 10 is a representation of the combustion protlle in
B zone was consistently more homogeneous, both hori- three directions, based on the above da: It should be
zontally and vertically, and it appeared to be the best zone noted, though, that the entire reservoir was burned out
in the reservoir. This contention was supported first by at L: B, Wtimpler No, A, The front moved preferentially
air injection tests and later by ignition performance, and through the B zone, particularly along the bottom of this
finally by the profile of the burned-out zone. The profile zone. The A and C zones burned, hut at is slower rate,
of reservoir burn-out was determined from data from
observation wells and four cores drilled into the burned- ,.
.. - .. ,
out reservoir.
The locations of the four cores drilled into the burncd-
uut reservoir are shown on Fig. 5. L, B, Wampler .4 tind
L. B. Wampler B were intended to help sfefine the com-
bustion profile to the west in conjunction with temperature
and neutron log data from the two observation wells.
L. B. Wampler Nos, O-1 and O-2. L. B. Wrunpler No.
0-3 and Emma Fry a/c l,,No. O-I were located such that
[heir direction from the air injection well is perpendicular
[o and parallel with the trend of the reservoir, respectively.
[t was expected thnt if rock fabric or anisotropy were tu
exert control on the front configuration it would he shown :
from the cores of these two WSIIS.
COKED
UNBU-RNE D
.... ... .. ...
SCALE IN FEET w
t
L,w
JO IJRNAL OF PETROLEUMTECEENSILOGY
1
... .
The textural features in the primary sedimentary struc- 7, The crude oil produced differed little from that
tures that together contribute to the anisotropic nature normally produced. Changes in characteristics occurred
of this reservoir have apparently been effective in promot- only with the temperature increase at a well. Specific
ing the movement of the front along the trend of the raser- gravity decreased only slightly, but viscosity decreased
voir rock and in retarding movement across the trend. markedly. The appearance and the odor of the oil chang.
The movement of the combustion front was not uni- es were typical of oil exposed to high temperature.
form in all directions, air flux and frontal velocity vary- 8, Severe emulsion and corrosion problems did not oc-
,,Ing. AS of Oct. 1, 1963, the estimated average air flux cur until the temperature in the wellbore was 150F or
was 0,80 to 2,9 scf/hour/$q ft, the low flux being toward more,
the south and the high flux being toward the ,northeast,
Corresponding frontal velocities were estimated to be 0.08 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
and 0.30 ft/day, respectively. These estimates for air flux
and frontal velocity are based on an assumed average The authors wish to express appreciation to the manage-
cylindrical front configuration; and, since the actual frontal ment of the Marathon Oil Co, for permission to publish
cross-section is roughly parabolic, true front velocities this paper. Thanks are due to the people in the Produc-
and air fluxes are impossible to know at any one point. tion and Research Depts. for their contributions to the
success of this test,
CONCLUSIONS
1, In situ combustion was proved technically feasible REFERENCES
in the Fry type reservoir.
1. Gates, C, F. and Ramey, H. J,, Jr.: Field Rwaltx of SOuth
2, The air injectivity decreased immediately following Belridgc Thermal Recovery Experlmrnt, ?rum., AIME ( 195tt )
ignition. The injection rate and pressure were nearly con- 213, 236.
stant throughout the test. 2. Moq, J, T., White, P, D. and McNiel, J. S., Jr.: In Situ (bin.
3. Due to the confined nature of the reservoir, a high bu~tlon ProcxssRemdts of a Fivti.Well Fiekl Experiment in
Southern Oklahoma, hns., AIhlE ( 1959) 216, 55.
rate of gas return was realized, being 95.3 per cent of the
cumulative air injected. 3. Parrish, D. R., Rnusrh, R. W., 13ewer, K. W. and Wood, H. W.:
Underground Combustion m the Shunnon ImJl, Wyom [rig,
4, The overall oxygen utilization efficiency was 87 per jour. Pet, Tech. (1962) 197.
cent. 4. Emery, L. W.: Resohs from u !Uult i.Well TImtnu I.liwowry
5. The cumulative air-oil ratio, based on the oil credit- Test, Southcnskxn Kansas, jour. Pet, Twh. ( 1962) 671.
ed to the Fry combustion project, was 11,500 scf/bbL. 5. Hewitt, C. H. twd Nforgtm, J. T,: The Fry In Situ (hnhustion
6. The burned reservoir was roughly parabolic in profile. TestReservoir Chmwcteristics, Juur. Pet. Tee/I. [ March.
1965) 337.
Combustion moved preferentially in the B sand, and was
influenced by the geologic characteristics of the reservoir, 6, Clark, G. A., Jones, R. G., Kinney. W. L., %hilson, R. E., Sw
kale, H. wd Wikon, R, S.: The Fry in Situ Comhwtiml Tr~t
Oil saturation was reduced considerably in the heated res- Field Operations, Jour. Pet. Tech. ( \lurrh; ..196,5) 343.
ewoir ahead of the front. ***
..-
MARCH, 196s