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Use of Electrical Resistance Heating and Electrical Heater Heating to Remove Condensate Blockage in the Near-wellbore Region
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- Author / Creator
- Wang, Siyuan
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During the production of gas condensate from a reservoir, a gas condensate bank may be formed in the near-wellbore region, leading to reduced long-term productivity. The major existing remedial methods for removing the condensate bank include cyclic gas injection, solvent injection, wettability alternation using surfactants, etc. The drawbacks of the existing methods are that their nature of requiring injecting fluid into formation limits their application in low-permeability formations, and their field execution may disturb the normal production of gas condensate. The presented approach uses an electrical heater, or an electrode installed at the bottomhole to remove the condensate bank, avoiding injecting fluid into the reservoir and eliminating the need for workover operations when executing the remedial job. We carry out numerical simulation studies to examine the feasibility of the new approach.
A conceptual reservoir model was built with an appropriate simulator CMG STARS. Simulation results show that the approach provides good production restoration in low permeability reservoirs with condensate blockage issues. By heating the near-wellbore region, the operation increases both temperature and pressure around the wellbore. Such increases, on one hand, lead to shifting of the phase envelope, which results in re-vaporization of the condensate bank; on the other hand, the increases in temperature and pressure reduce the capillary force, decreasing the residual oil saturation and mobilizing condensate that cannot be recovered at the original pressure and temperature conditions. In conclusion, the study provides an alternative solution to the remediation of condensate blockage that is easy to set up and convenient to control. Compared with other methods, the new approach requires only one operation to install the heating element and offers a long-term remedy for production loss caused by the condensate bank. -
- Subjects / Keywords
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- Graduation date
- Spring 2022
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- Type of Item
- Thesis
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- Degree
- Master of Science
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- License
- This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.