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PROCEEDINGS, INDONESIAN PETROLEUM ASSOCIATION

Thirty-Third Annual Convention & Exhibition, May 2009

EXTENDING MINAS FIELD LIFE

THROUGH SURFACTANT-POLYMER FLOODING

Amin Setyawan*
Agus Masduki*
Dhani Daradjat*
Kris Pedersen*
Bruce Smith*

ABSTRACT Information (VOI) project to gather

Surfactant-Polymer (SP) flooding is a third
generation of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)
technology that is being applied in the Minas Field
to further enhance oil recovery and extend the
economic life of the field. This new applied
technology is targeting residual oil in the reservoirs
due to the inability of water flooding, currently used
in the Minas Field as a secondary recovery process,
to effectively recover remaining oil in place.
The injected Surfactant formulation will mobilize
oil by reducing the interfacial tension holding the
oil to the reservoir rock. Polymer will improve the
sweep efficiency of injected fluids by increasing the
injectant’s viscosity. Core flood laboratory tests of
the SP flooding recovered an estimated 98% of
remaining oil after water flooding in Minas rock.
The field scale potential for SP flooding technology
in the Minas Field is estimated to have a potential
incremental recovery as high as one (1) billion
barrels of oil.
A staged development concept is being pursued in
order to mitigate the risk of the high investment
required for SP flooding technology. The continued
evaluation of SP flooding in Minas will be
conducted in a single 4.5 acre pattern size as
Surfactant Field Trial - 2 (SFT-2) and will
investigate the economic feasibility and chemical
effectiveness of SP flooding in the Minas Field.
The SFT-2 project has been approved and is being
executed and evaluated between the years 2008 and
2013. Following the SFT-2 project, a second SP
project evaluation (Area A) is conceptually
envisioned to be conducted on a larger scale
(confined 18 acre patterns). The goal of the larger
Area A project after SFT-2 will be a Value of
* Chevron Pacific Indonesia
sufficient,reliable and accurate information for the
effectiveness of SP flooding performance on field
scale pattern sizes versus the SFT-2 single small 4.5
acre pattern size.
INTRODUCTION
With an area 28 km long and 10 km wide (50,500
acres), the Minas Field is one of the largest oil
fields in Southeast Asia with an original oil in place
(OOIP) of approximately 8.7 billion barrels. Since
initial production began during 1952, the current
recovery is estimated to be approximately 52%. As
such, this giant field has produced 4.5 BSTBO
(billion stock tank barrels of oil) through primary
and secondary recovery operations. Minas
production currently exceeds 98.5% water cut
indicating the field is in a late and mature phase of
secondary recovery water flood operations.
However, since almost half of the OOIP remains, a
large quantity of oil will be left unproduced in the
reservoirs due to the inability of water flood
operations to recover significant amounts of this oil.
The remaining OOIP after water flooding offers a
huge EOR prospect. Therefore, a third generation
of recovery technology becomes a viable alternative
to be applied in the Minas field to further enhance
recovery and extend its economic life.
As part of the tertiary recovery development plan,
efforts to identify possible EOR options applicable
for Minas Field began during the early 1990’s.
Figure 1 shows Minas Field production history and
applied recovery processes in the field. Several
laboratory and field trials have been conducted to
find the best tertiary recovery technology, including
Surfactant-Polymer (SP) flooding. As part of this
study, a small SP field trial was conducted in the
southern part of the Minas field during the year
2000. This SP field trial was a value of information
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project called the Surfactant Field Trial (now
referred to as SFT-1). SFT-1 was completed during
February 2002 indicating promising results and the
need to carry forward with further evaluation.
Further strategic decision analysis also indicated the
SP flooding as the optimum tertiary recovery
alternative for the Minas Field.
Understanding SP flooding is an emerging
technology but requires a high capital investment.
As such, a staged development is planned for Minas
including intensive research and studies addressing
reservoir complexity, geological, and chemical
aspects needed to mitigate the risk of a high
investment (see Figure 2). The project team that
was chartered for the implementation of SP flood at
a field development scale of 18 acre pattern sizes
proposed a modified surfactant chemical system
based on SFT-1 lessons learned. The project was
proposed as a VOI field trial prior to commercial
field expansion of chemical flooding in Minas.
However, after discussions with BPMIGAS as the
primary stakeholder of this project, decisions were
made to first run another small field trial in a single
4.5 acre pattern size (similar size of SFT-1) prior to
committing to the larger Area A field scale project.
The objective of the SFT-2 field trial is to test the
modified chemical in the field and further reduce
risks and uncertainties. The SFT-2 field trial has
been approved and will serve as a VOI project prior
to implementing the larger Area A field scale
project. Therefore, the Minas Surfactant Project is
being developed in a three stage process
incorporating; 1) a first stage (chemical field
testing) SFT-2 which is a 4.5 acre SP flood,
followed by; 2) a second stage Area A (field scale
testing) for a larger SP flood field scale test
followed by; 3) a third stage (commercialization)
for Minas full field expansion.
RESERVOIR DESCRIPTION AND
CHARACTERIZATION
Minas Reservoir Overview
The Minas Field is located in the Central Sumatra
Basin on the island of Sumatra in western
Indonesia. The Central Sumatra Basin is a large
Tertiary basin bounded on the west by the Late
Miocene-Recent Barisan Mountain uplift and
volcanic arc, on the south by the Kampar-Tigapuluh
high, to the north by the Asahan arch, and to the
east by the Sunda craton.
The field is informally divided into the Main
Segment containing 7.2 BSTBO and the Northwest
Segment containing 1.5 BSTBO (see Figure 3).
Hydrocarbon accumulations within the Minas Field
are found in the Petani Sand, the Telisa Sand, the
“X” Sand and the Bekasap Sands. The largest oil
accumulation within the Minas Field, and the main
source of oil production, is from the Bekasap A-1
through D Sands, with approximately 99.5% of the
total OOIP (see Figure 4). Production from the
Bekasap Sands is supported by a combination of
natural water drive and peripheral/pattern
waterflood operations. It is envisaged that the
Minas Surfactant project will be applied to all
commercial opportunities within the entire field
targeting remaining oil after waterflood.
Geologic zonal isolation between reservoirs in
Minas is a concern for the SP project in order to
properly design chemical injection and to accurately
monitor and measure its results. Geologic zonal
isolation is achieved when reservoirs are vertically
separated by shale or impermeable rock and when
there is no apparent sand on sand connectivity
between reservoirs due to faulting. In reviewing the
shale interval thickness between the A1 and A2
sands in the SFT-2 field trial area as well as the
absence of faulting, the test area for the A1 sand
demonstrates good geologic zonal isolation.
Project Location
A strategy was selected to conduct the field trial
VOI project in the “best” part of the field that has
prime reservoir properties rather than a more
“average” part of the field. Next, a rather rigorous
approach was taken to identify which areas of the
field would respond best to surfactant flooding.
This approach involved conducting chemical flood
simulation forecasts for 30 sectors across the field
and then developing a statistical process to extend
these 30 forecasts to a fine-grid description of the
Minas. High-graded areas of the field were then
compared on the basis of geologic complexity,
faulting, surface conditions, land indemnification
issues, safety perspectives, impact on local
community and environment in order to select the
final location for the proposed SP flooding field
trial area. The selected SFT-2 field trial area is
located on the crest of the anticline structure in the
southern part of the field, near Gathering Station
(GS) 1 and is in the proximity of the previous SFT-
1 location (see Figures 3 and 5).
The location of SFT-2 was chosen to be in the
proximity of a potential 18 acre Area A testing
location in order to have a better interpretation of
the results and to potentially utilize same SP
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facilities. This area also has relatively good
Bekasap A-1 and A-2 sand development with little
or no other surface problems.
PROJECT DESIGN CONCEPT
Pattern Size and Configuration
The SFT-2 project is a single 4.5 acre pattern
selected to resemble the pattern size of the previous
SFT-1 field trial and represents half the distance
between injector and producer of required 18 acre
pattern field scale pattern spacing. The Minas field
today is largely developed using 72 acre water flood
patterns with an inverted 7 spot configuration.
During recent years, an infill water flood
optimization (WFO) program has been progressing
with inverted 13 spot pattern configurations.
Beyond the 72 acre inverted 13 spot WFO program,
the next geometric progression for a smaller pattern
size would be 18 acre patterns which is proposed
for SP flooding in the future (see Figure 6).
The recommendation for SP flooding to select a
regular 7 spot configuration is largely based on
injectivity capabilities and simulation results. A
regular pattern configuration accommodates
balanced injection rates of viscous chemical. For
field scale development the existing 72 acre pattern
sizes, optimum for water flooding, are too large for
chemical flooding. The SP injected in to very hot
(200 F) Minas reservoirs will simply not survive
these reservoir conditions using this large of a
pattern. For a field scale Minas SP development, a
smaller pattern size (18 to 24 acres) is required for
two reasons; 1) to mitigate polymer thermal
degradation and 2) reduce surfactant adsorption as
the chemical moves from injector to producer in the
reservoir.
Reservoir Target
In order to meet the primary objective to measure
the chemical response in the field from the newly
modified chemical system, a single 4.5 acre pattern
size is selected with one layer injection into A1
sand. The A1 sand is considered the best reservoir
in the field by having the best chance for success
and holds a significant portion of the field’s targeted
remaining oil. This small pattern will use a regular
7 spot configuration surrounded by six water
injector wells for chemical flooding confinement
(see Figure 5).
Wells Construction
Four well types will be completed for SFT-2
project. They are Producer, Chemical Injector,
Water Injector and Sampling wells. Sampling wells
will be utilized to determine the effectiveness of the
injected SP system. In order to cover different areas
of the reservoir and to penetrate the reservoir in an
optimum direction, the well trajectory will have
vertical and directional S type profiles to
accommodate surface facility and mitigate land
indemnification issues.
The SFT-2 project will utilize 21 wells in three (3)
well development stages. A total of 16 wells
consisting of one cored producer, six water
injectors, six future chemical injectors, and three
observation wells will be drilled ahead of the first
water flooding stage of the SFT-2 project (2008-
2010). Also during this stage, one (1) existing
producer inside the SFT-2 pattern will be
recompleted to be a sampling well. Ahead of the
SFT-2 chemical flooding second stage (2012-2013),
two (2) additional sampling wells will be drilled to
assess any saturation changes after the water
flooding period and will provide additional
sampling points. One of these stage two wells will
also be cored. During stage three of the SFT-2
project (2013), another expendable well will be
drilled and cored after SP chemical injection to
again measure reservoir saturation and determine
the effectiveness of the injected SP system.
Chemical System Development
SP flooding improves oil recovery by lowering
interfacial tension between oil and water, increasing
water wetability and enhancing solubility. The
residual oil released by SP flooding will yield
movable oil, which is then targeted for displacement
by polymer. Polymer is used to displace the
movable oil because of its viscous forces and
enhanced excellent mobility. After a thorough
evaluation using reservoir simulation and laboratory
study, the project team was able to modify and
optimize the surfactant system that meets design
criteria and represents the best surfactant
formulation for the Minas Field application.
Core flood tests were conducted in high
permeability homogeneous reservoir rock using
refined SP formulations prior to using Minas core.
This surfactant system has demonstrated
satisfactory results in the lab with oil recoveries as
high as 98% from both Berea and Minas core
floods. Ahead of field trial SP chemical injection,
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the reservoir will be water flooded to ensure
secondary recovery oil is quantified prior to
chemical injection. A primary goal of the SP field
trial is to assess incremental oil production due to
chemical injection. Therefore, it is important to
distinguish between secondary movable and tertiary
residual oil.
The project area to be swept by SP chemical
injection and resulting reservoir volumes are
important to understand as the target recovery is
measured in incremental oil as a percentage of
OOIP. The SFT-2 incremental oil will be measured
using a dedicated tank. Therefore, incremental
production volumes will have a relatively high
degree of accuracy. However, the volume of
reservoir swept by chemical will still have a degree
of uncertainty due to reservoir heterogeneity and
not knowing exactly where reservoir injection
chemical stream lines are located. These swept
reservoir pore volumes will be history matched in
reservoir simulation in addition to running interwell
tracers. However, the resulting incremental
recovery percentage relative to OOIP will still have
a corresponding amount of uncertainty after the
SFT-2 field trial since swept reservoir volume is
still a calculated estimate. This uncertainty will be
further reduced to an acceptable commercial level
upon conducting the larger field scale Area A
project after SFT-2 and prior to Minas full field SP
expansion.
Facility Concept and Flooding Scheme
The basis of SFT-2 production and injection facility
design is to deliver sufficient and accurate
information which will be used to make a quality
decision for the next larger Area A project and
subsequent Minas full field development. The SFT-
2 surface facility consists of providing equipment to
blend the surfactant, polymer and soda ash with
produced water, inject in the reservoir then gather,
separate, treat and meter the resulting produced
fluids.
The surfactant-polymer flooding scheme consists of
4 stages (see figures 7 and 8). Stage 1) Inject a slug
of surfactant formulation mixed with polymer as the
main recovery agent for releasing oil. Stage 2)
Follow with a viscous polymer slug as a mobility
agent to sweep the oil released by surfactant. Stage
3) Inject a tapered polymer slug for transition to
drive water and adjust reservoir conditions. Stage
4) The last stage is to inject water behind the
polymer as a final driving fluid to the producing
well. Oil production from SFT-2 will be treated and
accurately metered to quantify incremental oil in
making assessments if this tertiary recovery method
is a viable alternative for subsequent projects
leading to Minas full field development. The vision
of success for the SFT-2 project is to be able to
quantify an incremental oil recovery range due to
the modified SP chemical injection and assess all
other logistic and operational challenges.
RESERVOIR PERFORMANCE AND
PREDICTION
SFT-2 is located at the crest of the southern
anticline structure of the field with better reservoir
properties than other areas. The OOIP of the entire
Minas Field based is 8.7 BSTBO. The Minas main
Segment (MMS) contains approximately 7.2 billion
STBO. At this time, the average OOIP RF from
water flooding over the MMS is approximately 52%
OOIP
Production Forecast
Extensive reservoir simulation experimental design
(ED) studies for SP flooding for entire Minas Field
were conducted. The resulting incremental
recovery factor for SP flooding in Minas ranges
from 6 to 24% of Minas OOIP. Figure 9 shows the
projected incremental production forecast for the
small 4.5 acre pattern SFT-2 project.
Reservoir Surveillance and Data Gathering
Reservoir surveillance and data gathering, including
reservoir, chemical, and production, are critical
tasks that will heavily impact the success of
reservoir management efforts and quality of
decisions made during the Minas Surfactant Project.
Aligned with the primary objectives of the SFT-2
project the reservoir surveillance, chemical system
sampling and monitoring, and production data
gathering effort will be aimed at providing the
following data:
a) Saturation Change/Incremental Production
This information will answer how effective the
chemical systems are to recover incremental oil.
This will include pre and post flood evaluation
on cores, logs, fluid rates and water cut
measurements taken from individual wells and
gathering points.
b) Chemical Behavior and Integrity
This information will evaluate the efficiency of
the chemical system and will be accomplished
by sampling fluids from several testing points
including monitoring wells. Sampling
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evaluation will include measurement of
viscosity, concentration, salinity, gravity and
water/oil analysis.
c) Sweep Efficiency and Dynamic Fluid Behavior
in the Reservoir:
This information will be obtained by
performing pressure monitoring tests, pressure
transient test/well tests, injection allocation
(spinner), production allocation, and reservoir
connectivity (interwell tracer testing and
microgravity survey). Saturation log
measurements and special core analysis will
also fall under this group to improve the
characterization of the reservoir.
All surveillance data obtained from the SFT-2 field
trial will be integrated in to the reservoir simulation
model and history matched to provide best
predictive capabilities for Minas full field SP
recovery analysis.
CONCLUSIONS

The Minas Surfactant Project is planned as a
staged development process.

The 4.5 acre pattern SFT-2 project and larger
field scale Area A projects are to be conducted
as VOI projects prior to evaluating Minas full
field commercial SP expansion.

The SFT-2 project has been approved and is
currently being executed. This field trial will be
conducted to evaluate the performance of a
modified chemical and compared to laboratory
results.

A confined seven spot regular pattern will be
used for SFT-2 targeting the Bekasap A1 sand
reservoir.

Results of the SFT-2 and Area A projects will
provide valuable information to history match
and optimally tune the reservoir simulation
model that will be utilized to evaluate the
implementation of this EOR technology for
commercial expansion to the entire Minas Field.
REFFERENCES
Siregar, Arsyad., 2005, Area-A Surfactant Project
Development Summary, an internal CPI
unpublished report.
Minas Surfactant Project Team, 2007, Decision
Support Package-Phase 2, an internal CPI technical
evaluation report.
Minas Surfactant Project Team, 2009, Project
Execution Plan-Early Phase 4, an internal CPI
technical evaluation report.
Daradjat, Dhani., 2007, Minas Surfactant Project
Overview, Chevron CPDEP Forum, Houston.
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10,000
Water Production Rate

Waterflood operation at ~ 98%WC

(mature phase of secondary
process)
MBOPD, MBWPD, MBWIPD

1,000

EOR
Oil Production Rate
Pattern Prospect
100 Waterflood
Waterflood
optimization natura
l decline

Primary Peripheral Injection Secondary Tertiary (?)

10
65

70

75

80

85

90

95

00

05

10

15

20
n-

n-

n-

n-

n-

n-

n-

n-

n-

n-

n-

n-
Ja
Ja

Ja

Ja

Ja

Ja

Ja

Ja

Ja

Ja

Ja

Ja
CDOIL, MBOPD CDWATER, MBWPD

Figure 1 - Production history and applied recovery process in Minas Field. Natural decline in oil
production rate offers an EOR prospect to recover the remaining oil in the Minas Field.

Figure 2 - Staged development concept of the Minas Surfactant Project.

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SFT-1 Project
Location

Figure 3 - SFT-2 is located on the crest of the anticline structure in the southern part of the field. The map
shows top A1 sand structure map with wells location. The field is informally divided into the
Main Segment, which contains 7.2 BSTBO, and the Northwest Segment, which contains 1.5
BSTBO.
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Figure 4 - Reservoir evaluation focus is given on the Minas Main Segment and the Bekasap Sands,
particularly A1, A2, B1, and B2 sands. The largest oil accumulation within the Minas Field,
and the main source of oil production, is from the Bekasap A-1 through D Sands, with
approximately 99.5% of the total OOIP.
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Figure 5 - SFT-2 is a single 4.5 acre pattern size, selected to resemble the pattern size of the previous SFT-
1 and to represent half of the distance between injector and producer of the potential 18 acre
pattern spacing in larger field scale project.
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18 Acre Pattern
Today In Progress Regular 7-Spot
72 Acres Inverted 7 72 Acres Inverted 13 Spot
Spot PWF PWF (WFO Program)
(24 Acres Well Spacing) (12 Acres Well Spacing)
Injector= 1 Injector= 1
Producer=2 Producer=5
I/P = 1:2 I/P = 1:5

(6 Acres Well Spacing)

Natural I/P = 2:1
Geometric
Progression

18 Acre Pattern
Inverted 7 Spot

For natural Geometric

Progression,
24 acre pattern size
alternative only possible
from 72 ac. Inverted 7
(6 Acres Well Spacing)
I/P = 1:2

Figure 6 - Well pattern progression in Minas Field. The field today is largely developed using 72 acre
pattern water flood with an inverted 7 spot configuration. An infill water flood optimization
(WFO) program has been progressing with an inverted 13 spot pattern. The next geometric
progression for a smaller pattern size would be 18 acre patterns which will be used for
surfactant-polymer flooding in the future
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Injection
Fluids

Injection Production Well

Pump

Oil
Injection
Well

4 3 2 1

Figure 7 - The surfactant-polymer flooding scheme is consist of 4 scheme stages. 1) Inject a slug of
surfactant as main recovery agent for releasing oil. 2) Follow with a viscous polymer slug
injection as a mobility agent to sweep the oil released by surfactant. 3) Inject tapered polymer
slug for transition to drive water and adjust reservoir condition. 4) The last step is to inject water
behind the polymer as a final driving fluid to the producing well.

Surfactant and Polymer Injection Schedule

Water Surfactant Polymer Chase Water

0.50-1.0 PV 0.25 PV 0.50 PV ~1.0 PV

Production – injector distance ~167 meters

Injector Producer
Injector -water Pre and - oil
-surfactant Sampling Sampling - water
- water- Post-flood
-polymer well Well - chemical
core wells

• Injection Profile
• Injection Profile • Saturation log • Saturation log • Post-flood • Production rates
• Pressure
• Pressure • Fluid sampling • Fluid sampling core • Fluid sampling
• Rate
• Rate • Pressure
• Chemical QC

Figure 8 - Injection sequence and typical well placement in Minas Surfactant Project. Reservoir
surveillance and gathering of the data, including reservoir, chemical, and production data, are
the critical tasks that will heavily impact on the success of overall reservoir management efforts
and the quality of the decisions taken during the life of this project.
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1,200

SFT2 High
SFT2 Base
1,000 SFT2 Low

800
O il R a te, B o p d

600

400

200

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Month

Figure 9 - Oil production rate profile forecast for SFT-2 project. The production profile is indicated P10,
P50 and P90 cases resulting from injecting surfactant and polymer.