Enhanced Recovery of Heavy Crudes in the Niger Delta: Chops Application A Key Option

Abstract

Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand (CHOPS) is one of the key techniques employed for primary heavy oil production. It has gained wide application with great success to enhance heavy oil production in countries like Canada, China, Venezuela, California, USA and Kazakhstan. In order to investigate the productivity of CHOPS technology in the Niger Delta Oil field of Nigeriaa, aanalysis was performed on data collected for  five reservoirs, in which  comparison was made between  the natural case and  the artificial case of Progressive Cavity Pump (PCP), all without sand proof technology. The fluid flow for each case was modelled with PROSPERS, in order to ascertain the quantity of fluid (heavy oil) that could be producible. An inflow performance curve (IPR) was obtained for each case, IPR versus VLP curves were equally obtained. From the study it was discovered that, heavy oil with 18.07 to 22.14^o API can be produced naturally but higher rates are obtainable with CHOPS. This is because the oil viscosities were between 100cp and 102cp. In addition, the corresponding sand productions were estimated with a mathematical model, and sand management in CHOPS were also discussed. With the favourable attributes of heavy crudes in the Niger Delta Oil Field of Nigeria, it is evident that the application of CHOPS would be a great success.