02. Master's Thesis
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Item Open Access Investigation of Thin Liquid Films during Low Salinity Waterflooding in Carbonates by using Molecular Dynamics Simulation(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2020) Abdrakhmanov, AskhatItem Embargo Characterization of asphaltene from Kazakhstan crude oils(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2020) Bakhytzhanova, MadinaItem Open Access Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Clay Swelling during Low Salinity Waterflooding in Clay Rich Sandstone Reservoirs(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2020) Yerkin, MedetItem Embargo Numerical Simulation of Low Salinity Water Alternating CO2 Injection in Sandstone Reservoirs: A Hybrid EOR Approach(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2020) Sarbas, ZhambylItem Open Access Thermodynamic Modelling of Asphaltene Phase Equilibria using PC-SAFT Equation of State(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2020) Seitmaganbetov, NurzhanItem Open Access SIMULATION STUDY OF IMPROVING OIL RECOVERY BY POLYMER FLOODING IN A KAZAKHSTANI FIELD(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2020) Sarsenova, AdelNowadays, different technologies, such as waterflooding, gas flooding, in-situ combustion and other technologies are implemented for improving oil recovery. Despite the fact that waterflooding is the most common method for pressure maintenance purposes and increasing oil production, utilizing this method, most of the oil remains unrecovered. This research is a simulation study aimed at improving oil recovery in a Kazakhstani field by implementing waterflooding and polymer flooding methods based on the data acquired from available literature. The field selected for this study is the mature oil field with a high of water cut and low recovery. At this stage of the production, in order to improve oil recovery, different IOR or EOR methods are needed. Since polymer flooding has the capability of increasing the water viscosity, controlling mobility of the water phase, and at the same time increasing volumetric sweep efficiency, it has been selected for the reservoir simulation.....Item Open Access OPTIMIZATION OF SMART WATER COMPOSITION FOR THE POTENTIAL SYNERGY WITH POLYMER FLOODING(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2020) Karimov, DamirNowadays, different studies were conducted to design new methods to improve oil recovery efficiency. The study focuses on experimental work to evaluate synergy between low salinity water and polymer flooding in carbonate formations. The main objective of this thesis was to develop a hybrid method to enhance oil recovery by a possible combination of low salinity water and polymer flooding.....Item Open Access Polymer screening for high temperature and high salinity at Carbonate Reservoirs(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2020) Askar, ZhandosItem Open Access Experimental Design of “Hybrid Low Salinity Water Flooding and Low Salinity Surfactant Flooding” Enhanced Oil Recovery Method(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2020-04-15) Sekerbayeva, AigerimThe objective of the current study is to design a novel hybrid enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method by combining low salinity water (LSW) and low salinity surfactant (LSS) flooding techniques. Alteration in salinity and ions composition of injected brine, type of surfactant, and concentration of surfactant affect the performance of the LSW/LSS approach. In this study, different experiments have been done to screen the smart water with altered ionic composition and surfactant for the optimized performance in conditions of Kazakhstani carbonate oil fields. Different experimental studies have been conducted to analyze the effect of engineered brines, prepared from the Caspian Seawater (SW) on wettability alteration, and the effect of surfactants on development of oil/water microemulsion phase. Contact angle measurements, stability tests, and phase behavior analysis were done to identify the most effective hybrid brine/surfactant formulation to affect capillary forces. Changing to more water-wet state and creation of the middle phase were the main criteria to select the best-engineered brine and anionic surfactant. The efficiency of the developed hybrid method as an EOR approach to displace oil was studied by coreflooding tests....Item Open Access RATE OF WETTABILITY ALTERATION BY CASPIAN SEA ENGINEERED WATER IN CARBONATE FORMATIONS(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2020-04-15) Bazhanova, MeruyetMost carbonate reservoirs in the Caspian Sea region are heterogeneous and oil wet. The utilization of conventional water flooding does not usually result in significant incremental oil recoveries. Tuning the salinity and composition of the injecting fluid could alter the wettability towards the more water-wet state. The rate of alteration in crude oil-brine - carbonate rock (CBR) interactions such as wettability is a critical parameter to design the duration of the engineered water flooding for the field application....Item Open Access SURFACTANT/LSW FLOODING IN CARBONATES: AN INVESTIGATION OF HYBRID EOR METHOD DESIGN TO IMPROVE OIL DISPLACEMENT(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2021-04) Samanova, AidaCarbonate reservoirs account for over 50% of the world’s conventional hydrocarbon reserves. Waterflooding is considered as principle IOR method in carbonates, worldwide. However, the performance of conventional waterflooding needs to be improved, concerning reservoir features. Experimental studies indicate that the efficiency of the waterflooding depends on several properties of injected water, such as ionic composition and salinity. Low-salinity waterflooding (LSWF) is a relatively recent proposed EOR technique that reduces residual oil saturation by changing the wettability to water-wet features and destabilizing oil layers. The underlying mechanisms behind surfactant injection are the abatement of interfacial tension (IFT) between crude oil and brine, wettability alteration, and an increase in the capillary number. Previous studies proved that LSWF with the combination of chemical EOR provides higher incremental oil recovery than either individual technique. Loss of surfactant due to adsorption is considered as an unfavorable phenomenon during flooding which is also affected by the application of the hybrid method....Item Open Access A NOVEL APPROACH FOR GEOSTATISTICAL MODELING AND PRODUCTION SCHEDULING OF IRON DEPOSITS WITH INEQUALITY CONSTRAINTS(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2021-05-01) Abulkhair, SultanThe modern mining industry employs plenty of exploration data digitization and utilizes computational resources for future forecasting and production scheduling. In that regard, geostatistics and mine planning as disciplines are critical parts of the mining business. However, traditional mine planning does not allow the risk management associated with geological uncertainty due to using a single mineral resource model as an input. Integration of stochastic geostatistical realizations into mine planning can help to minimize the risk of not meeting the production targets. Nevertheless, there are still many limitations in commercially used stochastic geostatistical algorithms, particularly multivariate methods. For example, it is common to deal with challenging datasets containing bivariate complexities among variables, such as inequality constraints.....Item Open Access THE APPLICATION OF CAPACITANCE-RESISTANCE MODEL TO ANALYZE LOW SALINITY WATER FLOODING(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2021-05-03) Ishanov, AkzholOne of the most applied Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (CEOR) techniques is polymer flooding, which uses polymer solutions to increase the viscosity of the displacing water and enhance mobility control and sweep efficiency. Polymer flooding can be applied in mature oilfields, which already undergo secondary recovery with a gradual decrease in production. One such reservoir is the Uzen field, which is located in the western part of Kazakhstan. The Uzen field is one of the largest and oldest oilfields in the whole country and an increase in its oil production might be crucial to satisfy growing energy demand. ...Item Open Access STATIC ADSORPTION AND DYNAMIC RETENTION OF POLYACRYLAMIDES IN SANDSTONE RESERVOIR RESERVOIR OF UZEN FIELD(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2021-05-03) Kushekov, RuslanIn the context of the ending lifetime of the fields and unstable oil prices, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods are particularly relevant. After primary recovery, waterflooding is the most common and economical practice to improve the oil recovery factor. At the current time, around 35% of the global average oil recovery factor is associated with waterflooding. However, the heterogeneity of formations and a great distinction between water and oil viscosities lead to fingering of the injected water leaving a large amount of oil untouched in the reservoir. According to estimation studies, around 7000 billion barrels of crude oil are remaining as residual oil after the secondary recovery phase....Item Open Access LABORATORY INVESTIGATION OF NANO-ASSISTED POLYMER SOLUTION FOR EOR APPLICATIONS IN CARBONATE RESERVOIRS(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2021-05-07) Zhangaliyev, MedetCurrently, there have been a surge in evaluating effectiveness of various hybrid enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods as it combines benefits of standalone processes. This study focuses on laboratory investigation to evaluate synergy between polymer and nanoparticles (NP), as their combination can alter capillary and viscous forces simultaneously....Item Open Access EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF OIL DISPLACEMENT BY HYBRID ENGINEERED WATER / CHEMICAL EOR APPROACH IN CARBONATES(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2021-07) Shakeel, MariamFast depletion in oil reserves has steered the petroleum industry towards developing novel enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques to get the most out of reservoirs. The standalone EOR methods such as engineered water flooding (EWF) and chemical EOR (CEOR) have associated merits and demerits. In this study, hybrid approaches utilizing engineered water (EW) and CEOR methods are investigated and the underlying mechanisms e.g., wettability alteration, interfacial tension (IFT) reduction, and mobility control are evaluated. Finally, the critical parameters influencing the performance of hybrid methods and criteria for selection of a hybrid method are presented. The hydrolyzed polyacrylamide polymer viscous and viscoelastic properties were analyzed as a function of pH. The effect of crude oil aging and temperature on wettability modification by EW was assessed by measuring contact angles. Various combinations of EW and CEOR were designed, and oil displacement tests were carried out to select the best formulation. Three coreflood tests were conducted to evaluate the effect of initial wettability on EW performance. Next, the hybrid EW/surfactant/polymer flooding (EWSPF) was performed and finally EW / alkali / surfactant/polymer flooding (EWSPF) was evaluated in slug-wise and continuous injection modes. All the coreflood experiments were conducted at 80 oC. The optimum pH range for the best polymer performance in terms of viscous and viscoelastic behavior was found to be 7-10. The contact angle measurements confirmed that EW was not suitable for water-wet reservoirs. A larger wettability shift towards water-wet condition by EW was observed at high temperature. The overall incremental oil recovery by hybrid EWPF in oil-wet medium was 16-20% higher compared to water-wet medium. Hybrid EWSPF provided additional oil recovery of 29% of original-oil-in-place (OOIP), comparable to hybrid EWPF. The best combination in terms of oil recovery and chemical consumption, was the hybrid EWASP flooding in slug-wise injection mode. This scheme resulted in 36% OOIP incremental recovery, 7% higher than EWPF and EWSPF scenarios and 3% higher than EWASP flooding in continuous injection mode. The overall performance of all hybrid combinations was better compared to their individual counterparts, as investigated by capillary desaturation tendency. These results are helpful in selection of a hybrid EOR method for a particular carbonate reservoir. The criteria for the implementation of EW based hybrid methods must include the assessment initial wettability of the rock, acid number of the crude oil, reservoir temperature, and compatibility between designed EW and chemicals.Item Open Access APPLICATION OF POLYMER FLOODING IN SANDSTONE RESERVOIRS OF UZEN FIELD(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2021-07) Bekpayev, IlyasOne of the most applied Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery (CEOR) techniques is polymer flooding, which uses polymer solutions to increase the viscosity of the displacing water and enhance mobility control and sweep efficiency. Polymer flooding can be applied in mature oilfields, which already undergo secondary recovery with a gradual decrease in production. One such reservoir is the Uzen field, which is located in the western part of Kazakhstan. The Uzen field is one of the largest and oldest oilfields in the whole country and an increase in its oil production might be crucial to satisfy growing energy demand. A successful application of polymer flooding in a certain field requires a proper polymer selection followed by a well-planned and sophisticated assessment of its performance under reservoir conditions. This work is focused on the lab scale evaluation of three synthetic polymers performance in conditions of the Uzen field. The investigated polymers are co-polymers with functional groups of acrylamides (AM), Acrylamido-Tert-Butyl-Sulfonate (ATBS). Sav 10, Sav 19, and Sav 10 XV polymers. The work sequence: • Investigation of polymer concentration and temperate effects on rheological behavior of polymers • Mechanical stability under high shear rate • Evaluation of long-term thermal stability of polymers • Injectivity tests for the evaluation of permeability and mobility reduction due to polymers flooding at the core scale and required differential pressure for the injection. • Investigation of displacement efficiency of one the most suitable candidate at the core scale. Sav 10 polymer showed the best mechanical stability with the viscosity retention of 50 % after 10 minutes exposure to high shear rate. All candidates were able retain at least 50% of their initial viscosities after 2 months at 60 °C. The injection of Sav 10 polymer provided the best injectivity with the lowest differential pressures and permeability reduction. The application of Sav 10 flooding was effective and increased the cumulative oil recovery by 12 % after the brine flooding. To conclude, the polymer flooding with Sav 10 polymer in the conditions of the Uzen field was effective EOR technique and can be recommended for the implementation.Item Open Access DATA-DRIVEN ANALYSES OF LOW SALINITY WATERFLOODING IN CARBONATES(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2021-07) Salimova, RashidaMaximizing crude oil recovery is a main objective of the oil and gas industry. Oil recovery by natural production in carbonates is usually lower than 30%. Thus, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods are used to increase the oil production in carbonate reservoirs. Low salinity water (LSW) injection is a promising EOR technique, which have been studied by many researchers for potential improvement of oil recovery. LSW flooding in carbonates has been widely evaluated by coreflooding tests in prior studies. A closer look in the literature on LSW in carbonates indicates a number of gaps and shortcomings. It is difficult to understand the exact relationship between different controlling parameters and the LSW effect in carbonates. The active mechanisms involved in oil recovery improvement are still uncertain, and more analyses are required. To predict the LSW performance and study the mechanisms of oil displacement, data collected from available experimental studies on LSW injection in carbonates were analyzed using data analysis approaches. In this thesis, I collected data from 26 secondary and 117 tertiary coreflooding tests. Machine learning (ML) and statistical approaches were utilized to analyze the extracted main parameters. We used a linear regression model to study the linear relationship between single parameters and incremental recovery factor (RF). Correlations between rock, oil, brine properties and tertiary RF were negligible and weak. Subsequently, we analyzed the effect of brine and oil/brine parameters (oil acidity, alteration in salinity and active ions concentration) on LSW performance using multivariable linear regression. Relatively stronger linear correlation was found for a combination of oil/brine parameters and RF. We also studied the nonlinear relationship between parameters by applying ML nonlinear models, such as Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Decision Tree (DT). These models showed better data fitting results compared to linear regression. Strong and very strong relationships between properties and RF were achieved by ML models. Among the used ML models, DT provided the best correlation for oil/brine parameters, as ANN and SVM overfitted the testing data. Finally, different mechanisms involved in the LSW effect were analyzed based on the changes in the effluent PDIs concentration, interfacial tension, pH, zeta potential, pressure drop. Wettability alteration by LSW was commonly observed in coreflooding tests.Item Open Access ADOPTION OF SPACE LASER BEAM ROCK ANALYSIS TECHNOLOGY FOR TERRESTRIAL MINING APPLICATIONS WITH A FOCUS ON BLOCK CAVING MINING SYSTEMS: CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2022) Sadyrbayev, BakytzhanThe block caving mining system is the most economical underground mining system known today, and its popularity in the mining industry continues to increase. The block caving mining system can be described as the preferred mining system of the future, as it lends itself to automation. One of the most laborious tasks in block caving operation management is monitoring dilution at drawpoints. This task is currently manually handled by a geologist. Monitoring dilution manually at drawpoints is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and depends on the experience of geologists. In 2011 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) introduced a laser beam rock analysis system via ChemCam on its Curiosity rover deployed on Mars. This device based on Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) heats the rock to about 10 000°C by the infrared laser beam and then analyzes laser plasma created from the molten rock. The technology is currently enhanced and is deployed on Mars via SuperCam on the Perseverance rover which is landed on Mars on 18th February 2021. It is hypothesized that the LIBS can be adopted for terrestrial underground mining applications for dilution monitoring at drawpoints in block caving operations. This application will increase the precision of the measurements, remove the labor-intensive and time-consuming use of geologists at drawpoints, reduce the block caving mining system's costs and increase the safety of the operation. In this thesis, a conceptual model for the application of LIBS space technology for dilution monitoring via a mobile robot is developed.Item Restricted EVALUATION OF FLAXSEED GUM POTENTIAL IN IMPROVING OIL RECOVERY(Nazarbayev University School of Mining and Geosciences, 2022-03) Mazhit, BirzhanMoving toward greener and more eco-friendly oil and gas industry is one of the major challenges that face today practice. One of the methods to enhance oil production is to use chemicals as part of improved oil recovery or enhanced oil recovery. Therefore, there is a necessity of utilizing environmentally friendly, cheap materials with acceptable performance. This study aims to evaluate the performance of Flaxseed gum in improving the oil recovery. An experimental method was used to analyze to formulate the gel, assess the rheology and oil recovery. The study outcomes proved that flaxseed has potential application in oil recovery. The gel was able to increase the water viscosity to 13 cp. Additionally the salinity and temperature analysis proved an acceptable viscosity for the tested concentration range. Moreover, 12% of oil was recovered by the flaxseed gel in core flooding experiment. The investigation brings the light to the possibility of deploying the flaxseed gum in improving the oil recovery. Keywords: flaxseed gum, EOR, rheology analysis, core flooding