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FEASIBILITY OF PLASMA PULSE TECHNOLOGY IN ENHANCING
PRODUCTIVITY OF THE OIL FIELDS OF BARMER, RAJASTHAN BASIN, INDIA
ABSTRACT
Continuous exploitation of oil and gas has led to a rapid decline of hydrocarbon reserves
worldwide and posed a major challenge to the producers in regard to recovering the remaining
oil & gas. As such, the development of new technology has become imperative to satisfy the ever
growing and insatiable need for energy. Showing the way forward, Novas Energy has developed
a revolutionary Plasma Pulse Technology (PPT) which works on the principles of plasma
physics and helps in enhancing hydrocarbon recovery by clearing the formation damage and
increasing oil mobility. PPT has undergone successful field implementations and results have
shown a sustained increase in production as high as 85%. This paper aims to study the
intricacies of this technology in details and explore its possible aptness for the Barmer oil fields
by comparing the crude properties with those recovered using plasma pulse technology (PPT)
and available in published literature.
INTRODUCTION
All major oilfields worldwide are in their declining stage of production and with each passing
year more fields are transitioning towards decline. Rapid industrial development over the years
has seen energy demands growing by leaps and bounds and to fulfill the growing demands for
energy, there has been a huge upswing in exploration and production activities (Hook et al.2009)
According to The U.S. Energy Information Administration's recently released International
Energy Outlook 2016 , the total energy demand will escalate by 48 % between 2012-2040. The
report forecasts that even though renewable energy sources will expand faster than fossil fuels,
but oil and gas will still account for 75 % of the energy consumption over the projection period
(International Energy Outlook. 2016).Even though the E&P reacted to increased energy demands
by making rapid strides in the field of secondary/ tertiary recovery processes and developing
unconventional sources of energy like shale gas and coal bed methane , a lot many issues are still
concerning-
The amount of oil production using primary and secondary oil recovery techniques
remains around 25-50% of original oil in place (OOIP) and significant amount of oil is
still left in place.
Although tertiary and EOR processes have been able to increase the recovery to around
65%, EOR techniques have still not been developed for unconventional reservoirs like
shale and very little information is available in this regard. Also no effective EOR
techniques have been devised for horizontal wells.
The global economics of crude oil prices is also complicating the whole scenario. There
has been a rapid drop in crude oil prices since 2014 and according to the U.S Energy
Information Administration, this slump will persist till 2020. This has led to a slowdown
in the exploration activities and specially the secondary recovery and EOR processes
have been hit hard since these processes are very costly and the current oilfield
economies don’t permit their implementation.
All these factors combined along with the prevailing geopolitical tensions have led to
increasing concerns about the future of energy security in the world. The need of the hour
is to develop technologies that only aid in the recovery of more hydrocarbons from the
reservoir but also which are economically feasible.
Apart from these advantages, the PPT technology is also faster in comparison to the time
required for the implementation of other EOR projects. This treatment is done within a matter of
hours and the well goes back to production almost immediately. It is a clean and an environment
friendly process since it does not use any chemicals or water. In comparison other EOR or
stimulation methods like hydro fracturing involve the use of chemicals which may adversely
affect the environment. It is comparatively more cost effective since it can increase production
upto a distance of 1 mile away from the well, can increase the amount of recoverable reserves
and has no issues like temperature sensitivity,PH sensitivity and loss of chemical effectiveness.
(Propell Technologies Group INC; http://www.propell.com)
Table 1: Effect of PPT on some injector wells in Russia ( Propell Technologies Group INC;
http://www.propell.com)
The comparison shows that the crude oil properties of both the fields are quite similar in
properties and by correlation it can be assumed that the Plasma Pulse Technology will work in
increasing the recovery from the Mangala Oil Field.
The application of PPT to Mangala oil field will result in:
A cheaper alternative over the expensive thermal EOR and ASP flooding currently
employed.
Easier logistics as the use of PPT eliminates the huge requirement for water in ASP
flooding.
The actual increment in production can only be known by field tests but it is expected
that PPT will result in success since the crude properties of Mangala are similar to those
fields where PPT was successfully employed.
Increased production from Mangala will boaster India’s energy security and GDP.
CONCLUSION
Low crude oil prices have put forward a great challenge for the E&P industry. Development of
new technology which is both economically feasible and technologically advanced is the only
way forward. In the future, this revolutionary PPT technology can go a long way in achieving the
balance between economics, environment and technology and prove to be a game changer in the
field of oil recovery processes.
AKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors would like to thank Mr. P.K Bhattacharya, Director, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of
Petroleum Technology, Amethi for his support and encouragement during the preparation of this
manuscript. We also would like to thank the organizers of PEDJP 2017 for providing us with a
platform for expressing our views and ideas.
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