Asphaltene accumulation in porous media is considered a formation damage issue, which may happen during miscible flooding processes, EOR or even primary production, and this may have deep effects on oil production. Although asphaltene precipitation is widely known in literature, the works related to asphaltene accumulation in porous media are rather limited. This work consists in an experimental quantification of asphaltene accumulation in porous media, and a numerical simulation of this process. An experimental methodology was developed in order to recreate asphaltene accumulation on laboratory, using synthetic cores and stock tank oil samples from two different Colombian fields. This methodology consists in determinate basic properties (API, BSW, % asphaltenes), precipitation onset (using n-heptane as a precipitating agent) and perform core floodings at constant rates, these displacement tests showed damage due to asphaltenes between 18% and 27%. The numerical model was developed using Simulink tool, from MATLAB. This model was validated with the experimental results, obtaining a satisfactory agreement, with relative errors between this data less than 5%. Different regimes of accumulation were observed, varying flooding rate. Besides modeling permeability reduction, the model was able to evaluate other variables in the accumulation process.

Keywords:
paraffin remediation, Hydrate Remediation, scale remediation, wax remediation, wax inhibition, Production Chemistry, scale inhibition, flow in porous media, remediation of hydrates, flow rate
Subjects:
Production Chemistry, Metallurgy and Biology, Flow Assurance, Reservoir Fluid Dynamics, Inhibition and remediation of hydrates, scale, paraffin / wax and asphaltene, Precipitates (paraffin, asphaltenes, etc.), Flow in porous media
Copyright 2014, Society of Petroleum Engineers
You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.