Some reservoirs exist in crystalline rocks; The JVPC (Japan Vietnamese Petroleum Company) has some such reservoirs. Extracting oil from fractured rock poses severe challenges. One of the main challenges is enhancing recovery through water or gas injection.
Objective: The goal of this study was to construct optimum injection and pumping procedures for operating the reservoir.
Outcome: The study was conducted jointly by ACRi (using PORFLOW®) and Golder Associates. Golder used fracture simulation based on field data to identify the most likely fracture scenarios that matched existing data, assuming planar fractures with thicknesses in the centimeter range and radii around 100 meters.
For each scenario, a grid was constructed, and PORFLOW® was used to simulate recovery for both water and gas injection. The simulation was used to construct optimum injection and pumping procedures for operating the reservoir.
Outcome: This project was unique in that no other software was considered able to simulate the complex fracture structure that was considered feasible for such reservoirs. After considering different options, Golder Associates approached ACRi for use of PORFLOW®.
