IOR in the North Sea Average recovery around 45% Remaining 55% Half due to non swept volumesHalf due to residual oil saturation 1 % increase in oil recovery : 300 billion (old prices) The National IOR centre : Contribute to increased oil recovery IORSim: Developed in the IOR centre for predicting the effect of injecting IOR chemicals on the field scale

IORSim Developed in a cooperation project IFE – IRIS in the National IOR Centre – 50 % ownership IFE - IRIS Large interest from the industry partners in the National IOR Centre Plan to commercialise IORSim via Schlumberger Ocean Store (IORSim App) Schlumberger (Eclipse) have shown great interest in the final product and contribute technically in the coupling process with Eclipse and Ocean Store (in kind contr.)

IORSim Developed as a tool for investigating the IOR potential for petroleum fields (in the North Sea) Upscaling of core scale to field conditions Implemented as a plugin to the standard reservoir simulator Eclipse ( Schlumberger ), can be coupled to others

Challenges Complex flow pattern Multiple Wells Temp. gradients Geo- chemistry Oil Displacement Water Chemistry Mature fields Chemical EOR

The Approach Eclipse Reservoir simulator IORSim (*) advect components Geo- chemistry Restart Files Sw, Po, Pw, qw … Oil Rate Water Rate SO4 Mg

Stop Eclipse process Update SATNUM No back coupling Back coupling IORSim Backward Coupling SATNUM tells ECLIPSE which rel perm curve to use X = EOR response, e.g.: Low sal  reduce Sor Silicate  reduce Perm Predefined rel perm curves

Eclipse IORSim Geochem Core flood models are used in IORSim to obtain full field results IORSim can be seen as an upscaling tool for core flood models IORSim - Eclipse Silicate

IORSim 1.0 Backward Coupling Start Eclipse.exe While(true) { Check for Eclipse_ready by monitoring Eclipse output file If ( Eclipse_ready ) { Suspend Eclipse.exe Start IORSim.exe If( IORSim_finished ) { Copy SATNUM.DAT to Eclipse interface file Touch Eclipse.OK Resume Eclipse.exe } } // end while Eclipse IORSim Controller CMD script/ Python

IORSim 2.0 Backward Coupling Start Eclipse.exe Start IORSim.exe While(true) { If ( Eclipse is finished ) { Suspend Eclipse.exe Perform IORSim simulation Updates SATNUM interface file Make Eclipse.OK file Resume Eclipse.exe } } // end while Eclipse IORSim with Controller IORSim checks if Eclipse ready Updates SATNUM interface file Makes Eclipse.OK file Other Res. Sim. (?) IORSim input Controller input

Sodium Silicate Chemistry 2M HCl 5wt% Sodium Silicate Sebastian Wilhelm and Matthias Kind, Polymers 2015, 7, 2504–2521; doi: /polym Na 2 O:(SiO 2 ) n + HCl Oligomeric silicic acid Phase separation Nano sized aggregation gelation Gelation time A. Stavland, H. Jonsbråten, O. Vikane, K. Skrettingland and H. Fischer, In-depth Water Diversion Using Sodium Silicate – Preparation for Single Well Field Pilot on Snorre, 16th European Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery Cambridge, UK, April 2011

Snurre Permeability View from the sideView from the top 100mD 4000mD injector producer 240x30x7 = blocks

5wt% Silca injection for 65 days

Permeability reduction

Water Saturation Profile injector producer

Water Saturation Profile injector producer

Water Saturation Profile injector producer

Water Saturation Profile injector producer

Water Saturation Profile injector producer

Water Saturation Profile injector producer

Water Saturation Profile injector producer

Water Saturation Profile injector producer

Water Saturation Profile injector producer

Water Saturation Profile

Production & Pressure without treatment Injector Producer Water Rate BHP Water Rate Oil Rate BHP

Production & Pressure data with treatment Injector Producer Water Rate BHP Water Rate Oil Rate BHP

Increased recovery and reduced water cut Additional Oil Reduced Water Prod No treatment

Effect of grid size 240x30x7 cells 60x15x7 cells 240x30x7 cells

Conclusions IORSim and ECLIPSE coupling works well The full potential in this technology is to apply to realistic field cases Simulation grid could have a huge impact on the EOR effect