Abstract:

Commonly used methods of production allocation of multi-zones commingled wells in oil field include production logging, separate test and tracer logging. These methods however are expensive, time-consuming, and not applicable for low rate reservoirs. In this paper, oil chromatographic fingerprinting technique is introduced. The method is based on the difference of oil fingerprints for individual zones and the fingerprint variations of commingled oils. Laboratory artificial formulation is conducted to “match” the observed variations. With the best match obtained, individual zone production can be directly allocated. Results show that the difference between artificial formulation and oil chromatographic fingerprinting calculation is less than 10% for two-zones commingled oil well, and the difference between oil fingerprints calculation and production logging is less than 15%. With the proposed method, production allocation of commingled oil wells could be made faster, cheaper and simpler.

Key words: commingled oil wells, production allocation, oil chromatographic fingerprinting, formulation experiment