Free drainage of foam mixed with proppants in the presence of nanoparticles
Yang Fei A B , Mary Gonzalez A and Manouchehr Haghighi AA Australian School of Petroleum, University of Adelaide, South Australia 5005, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: yang.fei@adelaide.edu.au
The APPEA Journal 58(2) 710-714 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ17047
Accepted: 20 March 2018 Published: 28 May 2018
Abstract
The focus of this paper is an experimental study at room temperature and pressure of free drainage and proppant suspension of four types of designed foams: A, 0.1 wt% regular anionic surfactant mixture; B. Foam A + 0.8% SiO2 nanoparticle; C, Foam A + 0.36% carboxymethyl hydroxypropyl guar; and D. Foam A + 7% NaCl. The results show that SiO2 nanoparticles with surfactant significantly improve the foam stability. In addition, we concluded that better proppant suspension can be achieved by higher viscosity and higher foam stability.
Keywords: foam drainage, proppant settling, rheology, surfactant.
Yang Fei is undertaking a PhD in Petroleum Engineering at the Australian School of Petroleum. Before starting his PhD, Yang received his BE (Hons) in petroleum engineering at the University of Adelaide. Previously, Yang worked as a technical assistant at Santos Ltd for four years. Yang’s area of expertise is in production engineering and optimisation, where he focuses on the development and maintenance of GAP/PROSPER/MBAL models of satellites from the Cooper Basin. In addition, he provided support in running various scenarios to identify potential projects to fully optimise satellite performance. Yang’s PhD involves researching waterless and foam-based hydraulic fracturing alternatives for Australian unconventional reservoirs. Yang is a member of SPE, PESA and AAPG. |
Mary Gonzalez is a Senior Lecturer of Petroleum Engineering and the Engineering Honours Academic Co-ordinator for ASP at the University of Adelaide, Australia. She joined the Australian School of Petroleum in 2009 after several years of experience in the oil and gas industry. Most recently as the functional leader of the Adelaide office for Advanced Well Technologies (AWT), where she provided practical Petroleum Engineering Consultancy Services and Solutions in the areas of Subsurface and Production Engineering. Previous to that, Mary worked for PDVSA E&P, and PDVSA Intevep (Technological Division of National Venezuelan Oil Co) in several production, facilities, and reservoir engineering roles. In her career she has been exposed to a vast diversity of projects, clients, and environments. She has excellent abilities in the areas of leadership, mentoring, supervision, consulting and business objectives. |
Manouchehr (Manny) Haghighi is an Associate Professor of Petroleum Engineering. His research and teaching focus is on unconventional reservoirs, reservoir simulation, well testing and formation evaluation. Manouchehr received his combined BS/MSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Teheran, Iran and then MSc and PHD in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Southern California. He has supervised more than 40 MSc and 10 PhD students. Before joining the University of Adelaide in 2009, Manouchehr was Associate Professor of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Tehran. In 2000, Manouchehr established Simtech, a consulting company for integrated reservoir simulation. He has been project director of several full-field simulation projects for oil and gas reservoirs. From 1995 to 2000, Manouchehr worked with the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) and was the director of a program for training NIOC staff at several universities in the US, UK, Canada, France, Australia and Norway. Manouchehr was a Visiting Professor at the University of Calgary during 2007–2008. Manouchehr has published more than 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals or presented in international conferences. He has served as a reviewer for different journals, including the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, and is a member of SPE. |
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