The Humic Acid Origin of Asphalt

Abstract

Abstract Rindu sands overlay the Pertama and Kedua (P/K) sands, which are currently being steamflooded in the Duri field. Because of thin net pay, shallow depth (300 to 500 ft), and lower oil saturation, advanced technology is considered necessary to fully exploit this reservoir. A joint, multidisciplinary, P.T. Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI), Chevron, and Texaco team is developing a cost-effective method(s)/recovery process(es) to exploit Rindu sands. This paper describes results of the recovery processes screening effort. Numerical simulation results show that steamflood recovery processes (for example, steam assisted gravity drainage and steamfloods using horizontal or conventional wells) are generally preferable to primary production and hot waterflood recovery processes. The low ranking of primary processes (such as horizontal wells, ultrashort radial wells, and cold production) were driven by low recovery. Variability in reservoir quality across the field had a significant effect on results. In addition, interwell heterogeneity representations using geostatistical methods (kriged and conditional simulations) showed a notable variation in the recovery forecasts. Furthermore, kriged representation was not always the most optimistic. Crude oil viscosity also affected results. Recovery processes were ranked using Strategic Decision Analysis concepts. The selected process(es) will be field tested next year.