Field A is located offshore Malaysia, identified as the candidate for a pilot project to evaluate the effectiveness of alkali-surfactant (AS) slug to improve recovery factor through the reduction of residual oil saturation. The pilot project utilized single well chemical tracer test technique (SWCTT) to measure residual oil saturation (Sor) change near well bore. The pilot results could be used to evaluate the potential of this technology in a larger scope application later.

The pilot project faced challenging technical and operational obstacles: offshore location, high reservoir temperature, sea water as injection water, water softening facilities requirement, unmanned satellite platform with limited space, no on-site laboratory - just to list a few. In addition, stringent health, safety and environment (HSE) requirements needed to be complied to ensure the pilot operation was carried out in a safe and orderly manner. This paper will focus on the overall pilot design, planning and some results.

Keywords:
enhanced recovery, swctt, investigation zone, chemical flooding methods, water salinity, in-situ residual oil saturation change, slug injection, flowback, residual oil saturation, slug size
Subjects:
Improved and Enhanced Recovery, Formation Evaluation & Management, Reduction of residual oil saturation, Chemical flooding methods
Copyright 2020, Society of Petroleum Engineers
You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.