Quoc P. Nguyen (quoc_p_nguyen@mail.utexas.edu) is the Program Manager of the Production Engineering research program.
Production engineering research at CPGE covers a wide range of interests while presenting front-end technologies and meeting current industrial demands. Subjects include matrix acidizing, acid fracturing, fluid diversion, intelligent completion, and unstable displacement in porous media.
Research Projects
Optimum Control of Unwanted Fluid Production in Heterogeneous Reservoirs - Quoc P. Nguyen, Sanjay Srinivasan
The overall objective of this ongoing project is to minimize production of unwanted fluids such as conning water and channeling gas. Advances in intelligent well technology and simulation of reservoir-production system enable optimum inflow allocation of produced fluids through controlling flow trajectories in reservoirs. However, real-time optimum control of flow is still challenging. To this end, we have developed an advanced method for optimization of production based on a feed-back optimum control concept. A model-based method allows optimization of inflow-control-device operation in conjunction with strategic updating of reservoir-smart well model under uncertainty. In this method, the response of production system to control variables is described by a high-order model. The validity of this method is tested on the dynamic optimum control of gas and water coning using a physical two-dimensional layered bead-pack and automatic inflow control valves. Distributed flow or pressure sensors are used to actuate the valves. Both dynamic (time-dependent valve settings) and static (fixed valve setting) control under uncertainty are investigated.
Fluid Blockage and Diversion - Quoc P. Nguyen
Fluid blocking and/or diversion techniques have been found essential in most of the near-well bore treatments, such as acid diversion, water conning (high WOR), gas cusping (high GOR), and hydraulic fracturing. A dispersed system such as foam and polyaprheons has been used worldwide as blocking/diverting agents. The main objective of this project is to improve the conformance of such a fluid system by controlling its complex rheology in porous media. One of important findings from this project shows that viscous fingering appears to be a prevailing flow regime during the displacement of a viscous blocking/diverting agent. This flow behavior has a strong implication on the development of wormholing during matrix acidizing. Improved Matrix Stimulation - Quoc P. Nguyen
Matrix acidizing is the most prevalent technique used in modern formation stimulations. Several issues exist that might reduce the incentive to optimize matrix treatment technology. Of note:
- Although the principles of matrix acidizing have been well established, the interactions between reaction kinetics and the ensuing evolution of the fluid and rock properties are not completely understood.
- Currently existing acid reaction retardation techniques (e.g. oil-acid emulsion, retarded acid system with fluoboric acid) have proved effective, but not desirably controllable.
- Complex plugging and transport of precipitates have been oversimplified in current models.
- Misuse of mechanical and chemical diverters sometimes aggravate formation damage.
- Little effort has been made on upscaling descriptions of the pore-scale processes utilizing available laboratory observations and on validating lab results using field data.
- More attention needs to be paid to acidizing in different geological and flow models (e.g. layering, linear and radial flow).
It is appropriate to approach these issues from different scales and perspectives to obtain a new unified mechanistic model for matrix acidizing that meets practical performance needs.
DOE Projects
Novel Fouling-Reducing Coatings for Ultrafiltration, Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis Membranes - Mukul M. Sharma, Benny D. Freeman (Chemical Engineering)
Funding amount: $576,000 for the period of Sept. 2004 - Aug. 2007
This research will provide new and better ways to purify produced water from oil and gas wells by using novel polymer membranes and thus will result in both environmental and economic benefits.
A Comprehensive Statistically-Based Method to Interpret Real-Time Flowing Well Measurements - A. Daniel Hill (with Texas A&M), Larry W. Lake, Ding Zhu (with Texas A&M)
Funding amount: $870,000 for the period of Sept. 2003 - Aug. 2006
To produce more oil from more complex and harder-to-reach reservoirs, the nation's producers have begun to employ a variety of sophisticated new drilling approaches - such as wells that extend horizontally through an oil-bearing reservoir, or that radiate out from a central borehole, or that branch in multiple directions. This project will develop new methods for measuring the entry of oil, gas and water into these more complex wells. These methods are needed to take full advantage of "smart" well instrumentation, a technology that is rapidly evolving. "Smart" wells employ a variety of downhole sensors to send information from the bottom of the hole rapidly to operators on the surface, enabling them to adjust drilling and production to optimize a well's performance. See the proposal abstract for more information.
Related Research
Tight Gas Sands - Mukul M. Sharma
Production Research Laboratory - Augusto L. Podio (more info)
Also see:
- Fluid Dynamics in Sucker Rod Pumps (Sponsored by Sandia National Laboratories)
- Visualization of Two-Phase Fluid Flow In Pipes
Research Initiatives
Wormhole Characterization and Modeling - Steven L. Bryant, A. Daniel Hill (more info)
Well Completion and Stimulation in Unconsolidated Sands - Mukul M. Sharma (more info)
Produced Water Management in Offshore Gulf of Mexico - Mukul M. Sharma (more info)
pH Triggered Gels for Water Shutoff and Conformance Control - Mukul M. Sharma (more info)