What's new in production

	Vol. 228 No. 2
VICTOR SCHMIDT, DRILLING ENGINEERING EDITOR

Solar-enhanced production. In last February’s column, this editor mentioned the unexplored possibility of using solar energy as an alternative heat source to produce steam for heavy oil operations.

Well, the industry is full of surprises. A few months after that column appeared, Sovani Meksvanh of Meksvanh, Whelan and Swift, LLC (MWS), contacted me to explain how his company has been working on that very idea since early 2004. They call their technology Solar Augmented Geothermal Energy (SAGE). MWS was formed in July 2004 to develop the idea.

The company has generalized the technology to the subsurface storage of solar energy, thereby opening additional ways to use the energy collected. According to the patent, the technology will overcome “problems with solar energy production, geothermal energy production, and low-cost supercritical steam for efficient secondary and tertiary hydrocarbon recovery programs.” In addition to oil extraction, the authors claim that it can be used to convert depleted oil/gas fields to store solar energy. The stored heat can then be used to generate electricity through routine processes. It provides a use for oilfield brine and can be used to produce water for drier regions. This editor has no expertise in these areas and can’t speak to its effectiveness, but this seems a reasonable approach to the oil industry’s need for inexpensive steam to develop heavy oil properties.

SAGE uses parabolic troughs to gather radiant solar energy, concentrate it and use it to heat oilfield brine to a supercritical level (734°F, above the 705°F critical point for brine). The hot brine is then injected downhole, where it produces steam in the reservoir, mobilizing heavy oil and possibly fractionating it to lighter hydrocarbons. MWS has US and international patents on their process. For the details, see US Patent 20060048770.

As you might expect, this process works best in regions with plenty of clear sky and sunlight, i.e., deserts. MWS is actively working with a major oil company in the Middle East to evaluate SAGE’s potential for recovering heavy crude in fields producing from fractured carbonates, where they hope to deploy a prototype this year. The company is also actively discussing using SAGE in the US to produce electricity. Two electric utilities—one in New Mexico, and one in California—are interested in the process.

Higher-temp heaters. Our unconventional resources article, in World Oil August 2005, p. 72, spotlighted Shell’s Mahogany shale-oil project in Colorado, US. The shale was being heated in-situ to 850°F (454°C), recovering light oil from the process and leaving char in the ground. As part of a DOE project, Composite Technology Development Inc. (CTD) of Lafayette, Colorado, is developing cable heater technologies that will more than double that temperature. The company has the goal of heating oil shale in-place to about 1,550°F (850°C). If it proves viable, the process will fractionate oil shale’s kerogen in-situ and bring its derivatives to the surface with normal oilfield equipment.

The SAGE process will use parabolic troughs to concentrate solar energy, heating oilfield brine to 734�F before injection. (Photo courtesy of MWS.)

The project’s goal is to develop downhole cable heaters 2,000-5,000 ft in length that can be installed in horizontal wells within oil shale deposits. There are two challenges with this technology:

• Stable electrical insulation for high-temperature subsurface use

• Cost-effective heater manufacturing.

In the first phase of the project, CTD developed and evaluated high-temperature, ceramic-based composite insulation materials for the process. Researchers tested the new materials in full-power, cable heater prototypes and found the insulating qualities better than commercially available products.

In the second phase, CTD will develop and scale-up a manufacturing process to build the cable heaters in long lengths for horizontal well use. In-situ kerogen heating could slash extraction costs by half or more compared to mining, reduce refining costs and minimize surface environmental effects.

New production. Petrobras began producing from its new FPSO, Cidade do Rio de Janeiro, in the Espadarte field, Campos basin, offshore Brazil. The new vessel will process up to 100,000 bpd of oil and 88.2 MMcfd (2.5 MMcmd) of gas and can store 1.6 million bbl of oil. The FPSO uses the S-BCSS underwater centrifuge pumping system, a new oil-pumping system developed by Cenpes, Petrobras’ research center, to lift the oil. The vessel will reach its full capacity in 2007, when five subsea wells will be producing, while water is injected into four other wells.

In South Australia’s Eromanga basin, Beach Petroleum began producing 2,100 bopd from the Callawonga No. 1 well. The well is in the PEL 92 license and is producing from the Namur sandstone. The well is about 90 km northwest of Moomba.

Anzon Australia Limited (operator) and Beach Petroleum began producing oil from Basker-Manta field, Gippsland basin, offshore Australia. Four wells are onstream producing 13,500 bopd with 35 MMcfd of associated gas reinjected into a fifth well. The company plans to increase the rate to 25,000 bopd.

Offshore Tunisia, Lundin Petroleum and Sinochem began producing 8,000 bopd into the Ikdam FPSO from Oudna field in the Mediterranean Sea. Future production will expand to over 20,000 bopd, once artificial lift begins. Oudna field holds 11.5 MMbbl of proved and probable oil reserves. Also offshore Tunisia, PA Resources AB began producing 8,500 bopd from the Didon-5 well into the Didon FPSO. The Didon-3 and Didon-4 wells will be added, once an expanded export system is installed, raising production to 20,000 bopd.

Sulige field in northern China’s Ordos basin began producing gas, according to PetroChina Co. The company expects the field to produce 159 MMcfd (4.5 MMcmd) from 1.9 Tcf (533.6 Bcm) of proved reserves.