Ultrasonic Technology for Enhanced Oil Recovery Overview of Ultrasonic EOR

and its possible deployment in Kuwait oil fields

1- What is Ultrasonic EOR?

Ultrasonic EOR is a physical EOR method which uses wave treatment that may or may not

be combined with chemical treatment to affect the well and reservoir leading to high oil

production.

2- Ultrasonic technology's mechanisms to enhance oil production

Ultrasonic tool converts longitudal oscillation into radial which affect the well-bore perforation

and the reservoir leading to:

1- Enhancement of flow of oil through the rock into the pumping pool

2- Reduced viscosity

3- Diminishing capillary forces

4- Cavitation

5- Emulsification

6- Coalescence and/or dispersion of oil drops

7- Chemical effects

8- Changes of wettability

3- Equipments used in Ultrasonic Technology for EOR

1- Ultrasonic generator:

- Power supply unit

- Power uint

- Magnetizing unit

- Unit to process the information about ( P, T )

!1BY ALAHDAL A. HUSSEIN

2- Downhole tools:

- Sonotrode PSMS-42

- Register of downhole data

4- Advantages for Ultrasonic EOR deployment

1- Low cost compared to other conventional EOR methods

2- Less energy used compared to other EOR methods

3- Not labor-intensive

4- Low energy consumption

5- Environmentally friendly

6- Treat the formation damage caused by thermal EOR for heavy oil

5- Companies specialized in this technology are:

1- Viatech Ltd.

2- CUT Service Ltd.

!2BY ALAHDAL A. HUSSEIN

3- Progress Ultrasonic Group

4- Xerox

5- Ultrasonic World LLC

6- The potential of deploying Ultrasonic Technology for EOR in Kuwait oil fields

1- Kuwait's oil reserves include approximately 13 billion barrels of heavy oil and the existing

technologies of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in Kuwait especially for heavy oil are energy-

intensive, labor-intensive and not environmentally safe compared to Ultrasonic EOR.

2- Most of the oil fields in Kuwait are mature fields, that means oil wells in those fields will

required well intervention work to clean the blockage of the perforations which more

efficiently and less costly done through Ultrasonic Technology.

3- The current KOC Lower Fars Project involves the development of the heavy crude oil lying

in the Lower Fars field in the north of Kuwait. Crude oil in this field is classified as extra heavy

crude oil and the gravity of the Lower Fars field is ranging between 17 API and 11 API while

the viscosity may vary from 10s to 1000s centipoises.

4- Most of the existing technologies of EOR in Kuwait are not applicable for horizontal wells

unlike Ultrasonic EOR technology.

5- Ultrasonic methods of EOR have shown promising results in the recent years.

!3BY ALAHDAL A. HUSSEIN