INTELLIGENT FIELDS TECHNOLOGY

Smart-Well Technology at the SACROC CO2 EOR Project

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Primary

Oil Production, BOPD

Application of smart-field technologies

to the SACROC Unit carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR)
project in Scurry County, Texas, was
studied. A five-well pilot project in
early 2005 demonstrated the ability of
intelligent-well downhole flow-control
valves to restrict or isolate the production of CO2 from breakthrough zones
in production wells and to control the
distribution of CO2 injection in injection
wells. The objective is to reduce unnecessary cycling of CO2 between injectors and producers, improve sweep
efficiency, increase oil production, and
improve ultimate oil-reserves recovery.
This is done with cost-effective, fit-forpurpose intelligent-well systems.

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Date

Waterflood

CO2 Flood II
CO2 Flood I
SACROC Field
The SACROC Unit in Scurry County,
Texas, is the seventh largest oil field
onshore in North America, with 2.8 billion bbl of original oil in place. Its main
producing formation is the Canyon Fig. 1SACROC Unit oil-production history.
Reef, a Pennsylvanian-aged limestone
carbonate and part of a reef complex
called the Horseshoe Atoll. It is a highly
Thickness = 259 ft.
to the reservoir from sources outside
heterogeneous formation. Permeability
Porosity = 7.6%.
the unit. As shown in Fig. 1, shortly
within a single well can range from less
Permeability = 19.4 md.
after CO2 injection was initiated, the
than 1 md to hundreds of millidarcies.
units oil production peaked with rates
Likewise, porosity can vary drastically. SACROC CO2 EOR Project
exceeding 200,000BOPD. During the
Net and gross thickness can change The SACROC Unit was discovered following decline, several projects
significantly over short distances. in 1948 as the Kelly-Snyder field. were attempted to halt the decline,
However, average reservoir properties The field produced under primary but they had little effect. In 1995, a
are as follows.
depletion with solution-gas expan- CO2-flood pilot consisting of five-spot
Depth = 6,700 ft.
sion as the main drive mechanism. patterns was started. This pilot used
Reservoir pressure declined rapidly, large CO2-injection volumes at misThis article, written by Technology Editor and in 1952, the Kelly-Snyder and cible conditions, and the decline of
Dennis Denney, contains highlights of Diamond M fields were unitized. In the units oil production was halted.
paper SPE 100117, Application of Smart- 1954, the operator implemented a In 2001, project acreage under CO2
Well Technology to the SACROC CO2 EOR crestal waterflood in which water was flooding began to expand rapidly. In
Project: A Case Study, by J.Brnak, SPE, injected along the center (the spine) of response, oil production increased to
Kinder Morgan Production Company, and the field. In 1972, CO2 injection was more than 31,000 BOPD.
B.Petrich and M.R.Konopczynski, initiated. With limited CO2 supply,
SPE, WellDynamics, prepared for the the oil-production response to CO2 Intelligent Wells
2006 SPE/DOE Symposium on Improved injection was limited. During water An intelligent-well completion is a
and CO2 flooding, H2S was introduced system capable of collecting, transOil Recovery, Tulsa, 2226 April.

For a limited time, the full-length paper is available free to SPE members at www.spe.org/jpt. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
JPT AUGUST 2007

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mitting, and analyzing completion,

production, and reservoir data, then
taking action to control well and production processes. These technologies
can actively modify a wells zonal completions and performance by use of
downhole flow control and can monitor the response and performance of
the zones through real-time downhole
data acquisition. The following elements generally arerequired.
Flow-Control Devices. Most current
downhole flow-control devices use
sliding-sleeve or ball-valve technologies. Flow control may be binary (on/
off), discrete positioning (several preset
fixed positions), or infinitely variable.
The motive force for these systems may
be hydraulic or electrical systems.
Feedthrough Isolation Packers.
Zone control requires that each zone
be isolated with packers incorporating
feedthrough systems for control, communication, and power cables.
Control, Communication, and Power
Cables. Current intelligent-well technology requires one or more conduits
to transmit power to and data to/from
downhole monitoring and control
devices. These may be hydraulic control lines, electrical power and data
conductors, or fiber-optic lines.
Downhole Sensors. A variety of downhole sensors is used to monitor flowperformance parameters from each
zone of interest. Several single-point
electronic quartz-crystal pressure and
temperature sensors may be multiplexed on a single electrical conductor,
thus allowing very accurate measurements at several zones. Optical fibers
are used for distributed-temperature
surveys throughout the length of a
wellbore and provide temperature
measurements for each meter of the
welldepth.
Surface Data Acquisition and Control.
Systems are required to acquire, validate, filter, and store the large volume
of data. Processing tools are required to
examine and analyze the data to gain
insight into the performance of the
well and the reservoir. In combination
with the knowledge gained from the
analysis, predictive models can assist
in the generation of process-control

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decisions to optimize production from

a well and asset.
Intelligent Wells in CO2 EOR
The most significant challenge for
CO2-EOR projects is profile control.
Highly heterogeneous geology is typical of carbonate reservoirs well-suited
to CO2 miscible flooding, but this
characteristic results in nonuniform
CO2 displacement fronts. The CO2
sweeps high-permeability zones, causing early CO2 breakthrough and resulting in cycling of CO2 between injectors
and some producers.
Applying intelligent completions to
production wells in multilayered or
heterogeneous reservoirs allows control of drawdown and fluid production
from individual zones. Applying intelligent completions to injection wells in
multilayered or heterogeneous reservoirs allows control of the distribution
of the injectant between zones. After
installation, individual zones can be
stimulated and cleaned up by closing
the valves on other zones.
Intelligent-Well Pilot
The intelligent-well pilot consisted
of the recompletion of three flowing producers and two CO2-injection
wells. Four of the wells (three producers and one injector) isolated four
zones with choking control of three
zones. One well, an injector, isolated
three zones with choking control of
two zones.
The five wells were recompleted in
MarchApril 2005. To save cost and
maintain simplicity, the pilot project
did not incorporate downhole gauges.
Testing of the zones to determine
appropriate choke settings was conducted on a trial-and-error basis by
selectively closing or choking back
zones, which is done easily with an
intelligent completion. The intelligent
completions were not integrated with
artificial lift, relying instead on reservoir energy and higher gas/oil ratios
(GORs) to flow the wells naturally and
provide a measure of gas lift.
Production-Operations Experience
Intelligent wells showed the ability to
shut off CO2 breakthrough, stimulate
different formation intervals selectively,
provide valuable reservoir information,
and manipulate injection profiles and
rates. More work is needed in effec-

tive use of the choking valves as gas

lift valves. Also, more investigation is
needed into incorporating artificial lift
with intelligent wells.
Producers. Intelligent-well completions were installed in three producers with high CO2 GORs: Wells SU
X-12, SU X-13, and SU X-8. In Well
SU X-12, the interval with CO2 breakthrough was identified by flow testing
each isolated interval independently
and comparing the flow tests to historical profile surveys. It was discovered that only two of the four intervals
would flow naturally. The offsetting
water-alternating-gas (WAG) injector
was the source of the CO2 injection
into the breakthrough interval. The
breakthrough interval was shut off
in producer Well SU X-12 by closing the intelligent-well interval control valve associated with that zone.
The other intervals were stimulated
with an acid treatment bullheaded
through the intelligent completion to
ensure that skin damage was removed.
Total production before shutting in
the breakthrough zone was 33 BOPD
and 1.9 MMcf/D of gas at 93% CO2.
Minimal oil production was lost for
a significant reduction in CO2 production. Also, oil production in the
other three producers (Wells SU X-6,
SU Z-7, and SU A-5) surrounding
the pattern WAG injector began to
increase after being on a decline. This
increase in oil production resulted
from increased pressure support and
improved areal-sweep efficiency to the
other pattern producers by eliminating
CO2 breakthrough in Well SU X-12.
Wells SU X-8 and SU X-13 are being
evaluated. Potential breakthrough
zones in these two producers were
first choked back to reduce gas production while maintaining suitable
rates for gas lift. At the same time, the
gas-measurement device began giving
false gas-production rates. Gas-production rates being measured were
much less than actual rates. After
gas-measurement errors were corrected, it was discovered that only
a small amount of the CO2 production had been reduced through the
choked intervals. Production from one
interval in Well SU X-8, which was
suspected of CO2 breakthrough, was
shut off. Initial flow tests indicated
little reduction in CO2 production,
JPT AUGUST 2007

which indicated that the wrong interval was diagnosed as having CO2
breakthrough or that communication
behind pipe was occurring. All intervals will be flow tested independently
as with Well SU X-12. Gas production
from Well SU X-13 has decreased, and
the well is producing at a favorable
GOR. This change resulted from an
increase in water injection in one or
more of the offsetting WAG injectors.
Use of intelligent-well technology to
shut off water breakthrough in Well
SU X-13 is being investigated.
Injectors. Intelligent-well completions were installed in two WAG
injectors, SU X-9 and SU Y-2. The
offsetting producers were producing
at high GORs. Injection tests into
different intervals were conducted in
both injectors. These tests provided
measurements of pore-volume processing rates for individual intervals
vs. total net pay. These data will aid
in determining which intervals have
remaining reserves to recover and

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which intervals have been effectively

processed. Each interval was stimulated before injectivity tests to ensure
that skin damage was removed. The
intelligent systems in these two WAG
injectors also allow pressure-transient
testing on individual intervals. It was
discovered that the reservoir pressure
in an interval declined rapidly when
injection into that interval was shut off
completely. It was concluded that all
valves must be open to some degree to
maintain pressure support. All valves
in the injectors currently are fully
open except for one valve in Well SU
Y-2. This valve is choked to 5%. The
interval that is choked has a history of
being the dominant injection interval
in the well. Recently obtained injection profiles show different injection
distributions across the intervals for
water vs. CO2. These profiles suggest
the choked valve needs to be opened
more on CO2 and choked more on
water. This result has lead to more
investigation into bottomhole-injection pressures on CO2 vs. water and

the potential effects on injection profiles in the SACROC Unit.

Conclusions
Intelligent wells provided much more
data and information than would have
been obtained with conventional well
work and slickline/electric-line operations. Intelligent wells can be used to
shut off CO2 breakthrough in a producing well, which in turn can alter
pattern performance and increase pattern recovery. Some type of artificial
lift needs to be incorporated with the
intelligent-well technology to ensure
lifting of liquids when the gas/CO2
production is restricted.
In this area of the SACROC Unit,
shutting off higher-permeability intervals completely in injection wells leads
to rapid depletion of reservoir pressure
within that interval. This can hinder
pattern performance. In the injection
wells, the choke position of a valve may
depend not only on reservoir properties
of the interval isolated, but also on the
JPT
type of fluid being injected.

JPT AUGUST 2007