Gas Recycling in Gas

Condensate Reservoirs

Under supervision of:

Prof. Dr. Mahmoud Abu Elela
• Submitted by

1) Mohamed Abo El-Hamd El-Morsy

2) Ahmed Ibrahim Ahmed Fouda
3) Ahmed Sabry Mohamed Mazroua
4) Ahmed Adel Ahmed ElSayed
 3

Agenda
• Five Reservoir Fluids.
• Retrograde Gas.
• ReservoirRegions.
• Condensate Problem.
• Method of Implementation.
• Process Efficiency.
• Advantages and Disadvantages.
• Economics.
• Case Study.
 4

• Five Reservoir Fluids

Reservoir
Fluids

black oil Volatile oil Gas Wet Gas Dry Gas

Condensate

BlackOil Volatile Oil Retrograde Gas WetGas DryGas

Initial <1,750 1,750- >3,200 >15,000 100,000

Producin g 3,200
GLR
(scf/STB)
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• Five Reservoir Fluids

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• Retrograde Phenomena
• The formation of liquid hydrocarbons in a gas
reservoir as the pressure in the reservoir
decreases below dewpoint pressure during
production.

• It is called retrograde because some of the

gas condenses into a liquid under isothermal
conditions instead of expanding or vaporizing
when pressure isdecreased
 7

• Retrograde gas‐condensate
 8

• Retrograde gas‐condensate

Gas Condensate reservoir

Near Critical Lean gas Rich gas

condensate condensate
 9

• Near‐critical Gas‐condensate
Reservoir
 10

• Lean Gas Condensate & Rich

Gas Condensate
 11

• Liquid Dropout%
 12

• Reservoir Regions
 13

• ReservoirRegions

Region I- Near Wellbore

 Close to the wellbore with high condensate saturation.

 Both gas and condensate are flowing simultaneously.

 Region I exists only when bottomhole flowing

pressure is less than P*(pressure at which condensate
saturation is equal to the critical saturation).
 14

• ReservoirRegions

Region 2‐condensate build up

• Where condensate is dropping out of the gas phase.

• Exists when the reservoir pressure declines below

the dew point pressure.

• The liquid drop out begins as the dew point is

approached. However, it is not mobile since the
condensate saturation is less thanSc.

• Therefore, in this region only gas phase is mobile

• whereas condensate is immobile.
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• ReservoirRegions

Region III–Single Gas Phase

• Region in the reservoir which contains only

the original reservoir gas.

• This is the farthest region in thereservoir .

• reservoir pressure is greater than dew point

pressure.
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• Gas Condensate Reservoir

Problems

1. Condensate Blockage.

2. Gas permeability reduction.

3. Loss of Condensate.

4. Liquid loading problems

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• Possible Solutions

1. Reduce pressuredrawdown.

2. Maintain pressure above dewpoint by gas cyclic or

injection.

3. Hydraulic fracture.

4. Horizontal wells.
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• Why Gas Re-injection

Solution Disadvantage
Reducing D.D. Deal with the well notthe
reservoir.

Gas cyclic Short term benefit

Hyd. Frac. Increase permeability

till condensate
accumulation happen.

Horizontal wells High cost

 19

• Why Gas Re-injection?

1. Maintain reservoirpressure.

2. The injected gas will be produced

later.

3. Condensate will not be lost inside

the reservoir.
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• Gas Recycling
Target:
• Maximum recovery of the valuable condensate

Definition:
• The process of keeping the reservoir pressure above
the dew point pressure to minimize or eliminate the
formation of condensate at the reservoir conditions .

Statistics:
• The condensate recovery factor by depletion
ranges between 20‐40%.
• This recovery factor can be increased with cycling
to between 60‐75%.
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• Gas Recycling
Data required:
1) Geologic data.
2) Rock and fluidproperties.
3) Reservoir pressure history.

4) Condensate, gas, and water production data,

from the date of discovery.
5) Proposed future production rates.
6) Gas- and/or water-injection data, past and
future.
7) Productivity, injectivity & Backpressure test data
on wells.
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• Injection Pattern
Developed field:
In which gas recycling starts after long period of natural
depletion

Undeveloped field:
By model study well arrangements are
then selected.

• Injection fluid with the maximum possible contact

with the crude oil system.

• Well pattern selection depend mainly on the

comparison of which is economically practical and
which is theoretically efficient.
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• InjectionPattern
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• Injected Gas

 Type:

1. HC.
2. N2.
3. CO2.

 Source:

1. Closed system.
2. Open system.
3. Semi-closed system.
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• Handling of Production

Main Equipment

Separator , Compressor & fractionation equipment.

Desulphurization:

Reagents used: Sodium carbonate solution (regeneration

by air current).Sodium phenolate (regeneration by
heating),Amines (regeneration by heating).
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• Implementation Method
 27

• Handling of Production

Dehydration:

Various desiccants are used, both solids (silica gel,

activated aluminum, calcium sulphate, anhydrite, fluorite,
etc.) and liquids (glycols). There is practically no economic
method for the removal of oxygen from gas.
Filtration:

Injection gas must be free from solid or liquid particles.

Scrubbers and filters are thus installed in the system so as
to remove all particles larger than a few microns.
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• Reservoir cycling efficiency

𝐸𝑅 =𝐸𝐴𝐸𝑉𝐸𝐷
• EA Area enclosed by injected gas divided
by total reservoirarea.
• EV Pore space invaded by injected gas
divided by totalthickness.

• ED Volume of wet HC swept out of

individual pores divided by same pores at
the beginning of cycling.
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• Factors AffectingEfficiency

Mobility ratio:
The viscosity of lighter dry gas is less than that
of wet gas.
𝑘𝑑𝑔 ∗𝜇𝑟𝑔
𝑀 =
𝑘𝑟𝑔 ∗𝜇𝑑𝑔
M should be ≤ 1
Gravity difference:
Gravity difference may accelerate the early
breakthrough of dry gas
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• Factors AffectingEfficiency

Formation volume
factor:
The FVF of the dry gas is
greater than for the wet.
There is a volume
difference.
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• Factors AffectingEfficiency

Vertical Permeability:
Case 1
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• Factors AffectingEfficiency
Vertical Permeability:
Case 2
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• Factors AffectingEfficiency
Type of injected gas:
Effect of different injection gases on condensate saturation
reduction during the production period.
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• Advantages

1. Available techniques that used for that method.

2. Availability of different types of gases.

3. Maintain pressure of reservoir.

4. Increase amount of condensate recovery.

5. Increase gas permeability

6. Easy maintenance for surface equipment.

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• Disadvantages

1. large amount of gasis required.

2. Huge compressor is required to inject gas.

3. Complex process to isolate gas and its impurities.

4. Condensate liquid builds up near wellbore causinga

reduction in gas permeability and gas productivity.

5. Impurities with gas ( H2S & Co2 ) can cause

corrosion.
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• Economics

• Profit =revenue –cost

• Present day value (PDV)

• Expectations of condensate and gas

• prices.

• Condensate demand.
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• Economics

cost

capital operating
Additional
compressors separation units

Power
gas consumption

Additional New
pipelines wells
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• Economics

Revenue

Normal Additional Additional

recovery gas condensate
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• Economics

• Additional recovery determination

must be so accurate.

• Well pattern selection depend mainly on

the comparison of which is
economically practical and which is
theoretically efficient.
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• Economics
Suggested procedure in developing a cycling
project:

1. Determine the reserve and the expected

recovery.

2. Determine the expected additional recovery.

3. Draw up a development plan.

4. Determine the required surface facilities.

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• Case Study
• Dry gas is mainly mix. of methane and some intermediates
• The main target is to maintain the Pres > Pdew
• Based on M.ElAily et all, at their paper with experimental
work on the effect of dry gas injection on gas/condensate
reservoirs with different volumes from the original GOR.
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• Case Study
• The same goes for liquid drop out, (V3) injection gives the
max condensate recovery
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• Case Study
• The following results based on the previous exp. work by M.
El Aily, et al (2016)

• Dry gas recycling leads to :

- Reduction in Pdew between 18.4 % – 23.66 %
- Increase in condensate recovery between 29.2 % – 34.6 %

• The conclusion from that experimental work is that dry gas

recycling in gas condensate reservoirs is very effective.
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• Case Study
The North Sea Gas-Condensate System
• The gas has dew point pressure of 6,750 psi at 280 F
and contains 73.19 mol% methane and 8.21 mol%
C7+.
• The maximum liquid dropout of 21 .6% occurs at
3100 psi.
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• Case Study

Conclusions
• The study shows that the gas injection process is a viable
option for reducing the liquid blockage in the near
wellbore region.

• Results of the study indicate that all the injection gases

used in this investigation can actually increase the liquid
blockage when they are injected with insufficient volume.

• The gas injection process is particularly effective when

initiated before the maximum liquid dropout is reached.
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Reference
• Understanding gas condensate reservoirs.
• Petsoc-77-01-06,recovery of retrograde
condensed liquids by revaporization
during dry gas injection.
• Spe-1813-pa,equilibrium revaporization of
retrograde gas condensate by dry gas
injection.
• Spe-68170-ms,investigation of
revaporization of retrograde condensate.
• Api-41-221,practical economics of cycling.
 52 11/25/2014

Thanks