Techno-Economic Evaluation of Current Technologies for Producing a Heavy Oil Reservoir in the Niger Delta

Abdulrazaq Isyaku, Agogo H.

Abstract


Development of heavy oil reservoirs is always difficult to justify. This is majorly due to the low recovery factors from these type of reservoirs. Different technology and development options have been widely considered and utilized for the production of oil from these fields. This research is a study of the Ikpeba field, a heavy oil field located in the Niger Delta Basin of Nigeria. It is classified as a heavy oil field due to the nature of the fluids in the reservoir which has a low API gravity of 17oAPI.The field has one well completed in the deepest reservoir, but it is unable to flow naturally. Therefore, there is a need to consider the application of different recovery techniques to identify those recovery methods that are technically and economically viable to produce the well. Different recovery methods were screened using the Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) screening criteria developed by Taber et al. (1997). Three techniques were considered for optimal oil recovery from this field; production through the already drilled vertical well which served as the base case, drilling and production of a new horizontal well and, production using polymer flooding. ECLIPSE simulation software was used to evaluate the technical feasibility of producing the heavy oil reservoir. Polymer flooding was found to meet the criteria of producing the Ikpeba heavy oil field. It was observed that producing the heavy oil using the vertical well, horizontal well and polymer flooding gave recovery factors of 1.7%, 4.6%, and 8.22%, respectively. Additionally, an economic analysis was performed considering both the horizontal well production and the polymer flooding to examine the economic feasibility of the two recovery methods. The net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR) and discounted payback period were used as the baseline for the economic analysis. The horizontal well has an NPV of $2.8 million and a discounted payback period of 4.5 years, while the polymer flooding has an NPV of $4.4 and a discounted payback period of 5.5 years. It is recommended that similar study should be done for other heavy oil fields in the Niger Delta region.


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References


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