Enhanced oil recovery in basement rock of the White Tiger field in offshore Southern Vietnam | |
| Author | Pham Duc Thang |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.GE-04-22 |
| Subject(s) | Polymers--Testing Offshore oil industry--Vietnam Oil field flooding--Vietnam |
| Note | A thesis submitted in paitial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. GE-04-22 |
| Abstract | The White Tiger is the biggest oil field in Vietnam. It was discovered in 1974 and put on production in 1986. Since then, a total of approximately 100 million tons of oil, equivalent to three fourths of the total oil production of the country, has been produced from the field, 90% of which came from its fractured basement. As the field life has started the declining phase since 1999, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is vital to maintain it and maximize its value. Although water injection has been applied to maintain reservoir pressure with some successes, it still has experienced many difficulties and water breakthrough has actually occurred abnormally as the fractured granite basement (the main reservoir) is very complex to be dealt with. In this study, a solution to enhance the ultimate oil recovery of the White Tiger basement was proposed, based on improving the sweep and displacement efficiency of the water flooding process. Testing on some polymers was done in the laboratory of the Vietnam Petroleum Institute (VPI) and the Technical University of Clausthal (TUC), Institute of Petroleum Engineering (Germany) to investigate the potential to improve oil displacement by reducing water mobility and by reducing water flow through high-permeability channels. The results from these experiments were used in reservoir simulation by ECLIPSE software to evaluate the effect of polymer flooding into the fractured basement of the White Tiger field for enhanced oil recovery. An economic appraisal on polymer injection into the White Tiger basement was made for different polymer concentrations in line with the changes in oil price in the world market. It was preliminarily found that, to be effective the polymer injection should be applied as soon as possible and it would give benefit for an oil price from 30 USD per barrel onward. |
| Year | 2005 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. GE-04-22 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Engineering and Technology (SET) |
| Department | Other Field of Studies (No Department) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Geotechnical Engineering (GE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Noppadol Phien-wej; Pham Huy Giao |
| Examination Committee(s) | Ogunlana, Stephen 0 . ; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Asian Institute of Technology Fellowship;Petrovietnam; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2005 |