Larry Lake - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Larry Lake

SPE projects, facilities & construction, Sep 13, 2010

Day 1 Mon, September 30, 2019, 2019

The objectives of this work are to understand the characteristics of oil saturation in residual o... more The objectives of this work are to understand the characteristics of oil saturation in residual oil zones (ROZs) and to optimize water alternating gas (WAG) injection strategies. ROZs occur in the Permian Basin and elsewhere, and operators are using CO2 injection for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in these zones. ROZs are thought to be formed by the flushing effect of regional aquifer flow acting over geological time. Both the magnitude of oil saturation and the spatial distribution of oil differ from water-flooded main pay zones (MPZs). We conducted flow simulations of CO2 injection into both synthetic and realistic geologic reservoirs to find the optimal injection strategies for several scenarios. These simulations of CO2 injection follow either man-made waterflooding or long-term natural waterflooding. We examined the effects of CO2 injection rates, well patterns, reservoir heterogeneity, and permeability anisotropy on optimal WAG ratios. Optimal is defined as being at minimal net C...

Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2018

SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering, 2017

Summary This paper summarizes the current state of the ethane industry in the United States (US) ... more Summary This paper summarizes the current state of the ethane industry in the United States (US) and explores the opportunity for using ethane for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). We show both simulation data and field examples to demonstrate that ethane is an excellent EOR injectant. After decades of research and field application, the use of carbon dioxide (CO2) as an EOR injectant has proved to be very successful. However, there are limited supplies of low-cost CO2 available, and there are also significant drawbacks, especially corrosion, involving its use. The rich gases and volatile oils developed by horizontal drilling and fracturing in the shale reservoirs have brought about an enormous increase in ethane production. Ethane prices have dropped substantially. In the US, ethane is no longer priced as a petrochemical feedstock, but is priced as a fuel. Also, substantial quantities of ethane are currently being flared. Ethane-based EOR can supplement the very successful CO2-based EOR...

All Days, 2014

The capacitance resistance model (CRM) has become a popular complement to real time reservoir ana... more The capacitance resistance model (CRM) has become a popular complement to real time reservoir analysis and improved oil recovery in water and CO2 floods. However, the current CRM model is based on a material balance of the total fluid and only the pressure propagation equation is considered. Saturation changes are also important, especially when the water cut is small. To overcome this limitation, this paper proposes a coupled CRM model based on two-phase flow by incorporating an oil material balance and fractional flow theories. In the coupled CRM model, we construct material balances on both total fluid and oil. Pressure and saturation equations are updated at each time step to account for changes of total mobility. By semi-analytically coupling the pressure and saturation in a producer-based control volume and using constrained multivariate nonlinear regression, the new coupled model can quantify the inter-well connection as well as the oil saturation. As a result, the coupled CR...

SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, 2014

Most decline curve methods have two main limitations; the model parameters as a rule are not func... more Most decline curve methods have two main limitations; the model parameters as a rule are not functions of reservoir parameters and may yield unrealistic (nonphysical) values of expected ultimate recovery (EUR) because boundary-dominated flow may not develop in unconventional reservoirs. Over the the past few years, several empirical models have emerged to address the second limitation, but they are challenged by the time to transition from infinite-acting flow period to the boundary-dominated flow. In this study, we performed statistical and model-based analysis of production data from hydraulically fractured horizontal oil wells and present a method to mitigate some of the limitations highlighted above. The production data were carefully analyzed to identify the flow regimes and understand the overall decline behavior. Following this step, we performed model-based analysis using the parallel-flow model (sum of exponential terms), and the logistic-growth model. After the model-based...

All Days, 2011

Marginal economics underscores the importance for accurate estimation of production profile and e... more Marginal economics underscores the importance for accurate estimation of production profile and expected ultimate recovery or EUR in unconventional resources. While the Arps family of type-curves and the stretched-exponential model appears to yield reasonable estimation of EURs, all insufficiently explain the intrinsic behavior of unconventional reservoirs. This study introduces and applies a new semianalytical approach for estimating production profile and EUR, validated by numerical simulations and verified by field data for unconventional gas and oil reservoirs.We obtained analytical solutions by considering concentric compressibility elements, analogous to electrical capacitors, in series using the continuity equation to obtain production from conceptual geobodies. This configuration mimics decreasing contributions from a series of concentric reservoir segments into the well with increasing distance from the stimulated-reservoir volume or SRV. The analytical formulation captures...

Proceedings of SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, 1999

This paper presents a validation of an internally consistent, physically based model for relative... more This paper presents a validation of an internally consistent, physically based model for relative permeability based on an extension of the Carman-Kozeny (CK) equation. The modified CK (MCK) expression is a function of surface areas of fluid-fluid and fluid-rock interfaces, as well as fluid saturations and tortuosity. The model uses interfacial and surface areas determined from capillary pressure measurements and, by this means, can incorporate variable wettability and hysteresis as well as assuring consistency of petrophysical properties. To validate the MCK approach, the model is fit to experiments where both capillary pressure and relative permeability are measured simultaneously during flow. The MCK model is further fit to literature-reported water-oil experimental data. Besides the MCK model, each data set is fit with a modification of the commonly used Brooks-Corey (MBC) model to compare the performances of the two. The surface areas derived from capillary pressure relationship used in the MCK model provide a good description of the experimental relative permeabilities measured under the same conditions. The investigated MCK model fits experimental data almost as well as the MBC model. Furthermore, the MCK model is physically based and appears to agree with the wetting characteristics of the investigated porous media when these are known.

SPE Advanced Technology Series, 1995

Despite several decades of study, there is no rigorous method for scaling flow through heterogene... more Despite several decades of study, there is no rigorous method for scaling flow through heterogeneous permeable media. Existing methods neglect heterogeneity and spatial correlation, which we now know to be of fundamental importance in many processes. On the basis of statistical techniques and inspectional analysis, we present a general method to scale flow through heterogeneous permeable media for an immiscible displacement of oil by water in a two-dimensional, anisotropic, heterogeneous cross section with statistically stationary properties. Our results illustrate the interplay among local heterogeneity (the variance at a lower cutoff in a power-law variogram), global heterogeneity (the variance at an upper cutoff) and zonal heterogeneity (the power-law upper cutoff and exponent). The effects of the scaling groups obtained from the method have been examined in detail, and some important flow characteristics, which were unknown or poorly understood before, have been revealed.

SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, 2013

SPE Economics & Management, 2014

Summary Identifying analogous reservoirs is important in planning the development of a new field.... more Summary Identifying analogous reservoirs is important in planning the development of a new field. Usually, information available about a new area is limited or even nonexistent. Traditionally, the search for analogous reservoirs is carried out by experienced geoscientists. This search is subject to the availability of expertise, and the results heavily depend on the geology of the area. This paper presents a systematic and unbiased procedure to search for analogous reservoirs on the basis of information contained in a large validated database of engineering and geologic parameters. Each reservoir has its own "fingerprint" characterized by a set of properties, which commonly vary from one reservoir to another. The method uses multivariate statistical techniques to find a unique and reproducible list of reservoirs with fingerprints that are most similar to the selected target. The flexibility of the method allows for evaluation of different scenarios [e.g., static, dynamic, ...

SPE Journal, 2012

Summary This paper examines the limits of the Walsh and Lake (WL) method for predicting the displ... more Summary This paper examines the limits of the Walsh and Lake (WL) method for predicting the displacement performance of solvent flood when miscibility is not achieved. Despite extensive research on the applications of fractional-flow theory, the prediction of flow performance under the loss of miscibility has not been investigated thoroughly. We introduce the idea of an analogous first-contact miscible (FCM) flood to study miscibly degraded simultaneous water and gas (SWAG) displacements using the WL method. Furthermore, numerical simulation is used to validate the WL solution on one oil/solvent pair. In the simulations, the loss of miscibility (degradation) is attributed to either flow-associated dispersion or insufficient pressure to develop the miscibility. 1D SWAG injection simulations suggest that results of the WL method and the simulations are consistent when dispersion is limited. For the 2D displacements, the predicted optimal water-alternating-gas (WAG) ratio is accurate w...

Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, 2011

Mathematical Geosciences, 2008

Page 1. Math Geosci (2009) 41: 81102 DOI 10.1007/s11004-008-9189-x Integrated Interpretation of ... more Page 1. Math Geosci (2009) 41: 81102 DOI 10.1007/s11004-008-9189-x Integrated Interpretation of Interwell Connectivity Using Injection and Production Fluctuations Ali A. Yousef · Jerry L. Jensen · Larry W. Lake Received ...

Journal of the American Statistical Association, 1998

... LWL To Kate for her continuing support. . . PWMC To Holly, Amanda, and Janet - My support and... more ... LWL To Kate for her continuing support. . . PWMC To Holly, Amanda, and Janet - My support and inspiration . . . DJG ... DJG expresses his love and thanks to Janet, the &amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;mom&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;, and Amanda and Holly, the &amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;soccer dudettes&amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;, for their patience during the never-ending crunch times. ...

SPE reservoir evaluation & engineering, Mar 8, 2022

The objective of this study is to improve understanding of the geostatistics of vertical (bed-nor... more The objective of this study is to improve understanding of the geostatistics of vertical (bed-normal) permeability (k z) and its influence on reservoir performance during CO 2 enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and storage. k z is scrutinized far less often than horizontal permeability (k x , k y) in most geological and reservoir modeling. However, our work indicates that it is equally important to understand k z characteristics to better evaluate their influence on CO 2 EOR and storage performance prediction. We conducted this study on approximately 9,000 whole-core triaxial permeability (k x , k y , k z) measurements from 42 wells in a San Andres carbonate reservoir. We analyzed k z data, including heterogeneity, correlation, and sample sufficiency measures. We analyzed wells with the largest and smallest fractions of points with k z > k max = max(k x , k y), to explore geological factors that coincided with large k z. We quantified these geological effects through conditional probabilities on potential permeability barriers (e.g., stylolites). Every well had at least some whole cores where k z > k max. This is a statistically justifiable result; only where Prob(k z > k max) is statistically different from 1/3 are core samples nonisotropic. In conventional core data interpretation, however, modelers usually assume k z is less than k max. For the well with the smallest fraction (11%) of cores where k z >k max , the cumulative distribution functions (CDFs) differ and coincide with the presence of stylolites. We found that k z is approximately twice as variable as k x in many wells. This makes k z more difficult to interpret because it was (and usually is) heavily undersampled. To understand the influence of k z heterogeneity on CO 2 flow, we built a series of flow simulation models that captured these geostatistical characteristics of permeability, while considering k z realizations, flow regimes (e.g., buoyant flow), CO 2 injection strategies, and reservoir heterogeneity. CO 2 flow simulations showed that, for viscous flow, assuming variable k x similar to the reservoir along with a constant k z /k x = 0.1 yields a close (within 0.5%) cumulative oil production to the simulation case with both k x and k z as uncorrelated variables. However, for buoyant flow, oil production differs by 10% (at 2.0 hydrocarbon pore volume (HCPV) of CO 2 injected) between the two cases. Such flows could occur for small CO 2 injection rates and long injection times, in interwell regions, and/or with vertically permeable conduits. Our geostatistical characterization demonstrates the controls on k z in a carbonate reservoir and how to improve conventional interpretation practices. This study can help CO 2 EOR and storage operators refine injection development programs, particularly for reservoirs where buoyant flow exists. More broadly, the findings potentially apply to other similar subsurface buoyancy-driven flow displacements, including hydrogen storage, geothermal production, and aquifer CO 2 sequestration.