Nov. 18, 2009 Technical Luncheon - Sonic Cleaning of Oil Wells

SPE logo Lloydminster Section

2005 Schola

Technical Luncheon November 18, 2009

Topic: Sonic Cleaning, Stimulation, and Remediation of Heavy Oil Wells with the use of Designer Chemicals

Speaker: Emil Groves, President - Canasonics Inc.

Bio:

Inventor and designer of sonic tool technologies for oil field applications for the last 7 years. Emil has worked in the oil and gas industry for the last 15 years, 7 of which have been in running two companies that develop and market sonic and/or pulse technology. He has extensive field experience in the application of these tools run on either coil or tubing suitable for the remediation of both production and injection wells.

Abstract:

This presentation will illustrate the distinctive advantages of combining sonic pulse technology with designer chemistries for the remediation of non-thermal heavy oil wells. Customized brine based heavy oil chemistries have been batched sonically into both vertical and horizontal CHOPS wells providing a much higher success rate than previously obtained by conventional techniques. These same synergies have also benefited the remediation of injection/disposal wells. These sonically conveyed chemistries have initiated sand failure, removed near borehole skin damage, cleaned and extended worm-holes and re-established foamy oil production. Several stimulation case histories will be provided to illustrate these advantages.

Forward looking plans for the tertiary flooding of non-thermal heavy oil utilizing sonics and heavy oil surfactant based chemistries will be presented. Stabilized O/W emulsions pulsed continuously will effectively sweep heavy oil to production wells. Both bench testing and field trials are being planned to illustrate how additional heavy oil in place might be recovered using these technologies without the need for either heat or polymer.