Reservoir Souring Prediction in Deepwater Reservoirs for Field Development Planning

Abstract

Abstract A deep-water Field X with two major Reservoirs U and L discovered recently offshore Malaysia is on development for early production. The subsurface plan for the Field X includes water injection. But the presence of sulphate rich seawater can provide a favorable environment for souring activity to take place. This study evaluates the reservoir souring potential for the green Field X as a result of seawater flooding. Reservoir souring is the increase of the hydrogen sulfide (H2S) concentration in produced reservoir fluids. As hydrogen sulfide is a highly toxic and corrosive gas, the production of H2S has a huge impact on the safety, infrastructure and facilities of the field. Whether a reservoir is susceptible to souring is dependent on a variety of factors. Some of these include water injection flow rate, temperature of the reservoir, presence of bacterial nutrients and rock minerology. Effective prediction of biogenic reservoir souring using computer models is essential when undertaking major technical and economic decisions regarding field development. For H2S concentration calculation PETRONAS utilized in-house stand-alone modeling tool that considers physicochemical hydrodynamics of multiphase flow, heat transfer, substrate propagation and bacterial activity. The simulator looks at bacterial growth both in planktonic and sessile forms. Monod kinetics is applied for the growth of bacteria, leading to the consumption of sulphate and volatile fatty acids which in-turn is linked to H2S generation. Along with H2S propagation, H2S scavenging by rock and H2S partitioning between the various phases is also accounted for. The model can also deal with the effects of lift gas, reinjection of sour produced water, injection of biocide and nitrite. Since the Field X is a green field and historical production data is unavailable, the model is calibrated against the provided field development plan (FDP) data with sensitivity analysis. The simulation runs show that the H2S breakthrough occurs before the end of production. The amount of H2S produced indicates that the risk of reservoir souring associated with seawater injection in U and L Reservoirs of the Field X is high. It is recommended to evaluate different reservoir souring preventive measures in combination with mitigative options in terms of chance of success, risks, and cost (CAPEX/OPEX) in the context of the Field X development plan.