need help about heavy oil recovery problem

**realkleor** · 01-05-2011, 10:00 PM

Hi to everybody ,
I really need your all of your ideas or solutıon about the problem .

We have problem about heavy oil production with sucker rod pump .. Well is producing approx . for 6 years and 11 API gravity with a 90 % water cut . Wells is put on production between 3-5 hour in a day .
Our exact problem is : well is producing 2 hour after there ıs no productıon . We made workover operation to the well , pump is ok there is no problem wıth tubing and rod string or plunger . after , well started to produce for between 2,3 hour and again productıon stop . nearly we trıed these steps for 10 tımes .We check the fluıd level but ıt ıs 500 feet . Pump depth is 1500 feet .
we change the pump , plungers control the balls also for every operatıon before mental the pump , we tried with the rig and everythıng seemed ok . But when the well put on productıon the same thıng happens and well produced 2-3 hours and then stop productıon .

We thing that thıs ıs the reason of the sticking oil to the balls so the balls cannot work exactly . or we tried to ıncrease the the number of the stroke . But stıll no changes .

So dear frıends , does any body has an idea what is happenıng or what ıs the problem . Is there anythıng that we mıssed or make mıstake ?
Any suggestıon about what can we do ? What must we do ıf we stıll want to produce oıl wıth the suckker rod pump . ?
Thanks ...

**anihita** · 02-13-2011, 05:55 PM

The problem is poor inflow into the well bore from the reservoir. This is causing the SRP to have dry run, means, since there is no fluid to be lifted, the pump is running dry and there is no flow to the surface. Have you analyzed the crude. Is it asphaltene rich or wax rich. If case of high asphaltene content the recovery will be different and in case of wax content being high, the process will be different.
For asphlatene rich crude, try with solvent injection along with proper blending with HSD or diesel. This will dissolve the asphaltene and make the fluid flowable to the surface. In case of high wax content the production tubing needs to warmed up with arrangment of capillary tubes which will either inject hot / warm fluid like water or steam and circulate through the tubing casing annulus. The wax will not deposit and the crude will flow.
The asphaltene needs more experimentation to see which solvent will work better. Also, try to increase the SPM to allow more fluid lift and produce the well intermittently.