Projects

 

 

 

 

 

Project: History Matching using Ensemble Smoother with Multiple Data Assimilations in Carbonate Reservoirs

 

Coordinator: Prof. Marcio Augusto Sampaio Pinto, PhD

 

Researcher: Paulo Henrique Ranazzi, MSc

 

Sponsor: Equinor Brasil

 

Duration: August 01, 2019 - August 30, 2023

 

 

Abstract

 

The project consists of improving the history matching using ES-MDA by investigating the location and iteration parameters. The resulting methodology should be applied and its efficiency verified in a large-scale, carbonatic complex field model with high heterogeneity. The expected result is the development of an algorithm to perform the history matching using the ES-MDA, so that the matching has a better efficiency and reliability than those performed with the currently available methodologies. The resulting methodology should be applied and its efficiency verified in a large-scale, carbonatic complex field model with high heterogeneity. The expected result is the development of an algorithm to perform the history matching using the ES-MDA, so that the matching has a better efficiency and reliability than those performed with the currently available methodologies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project: Addressing design challenges of offshore structures via Multiphysics topology optimization

 

Coordinator: Dr. Renato Picelli Sanches (Young Investigator of Fapesp)

 

Researchers: Prof. Dr. Marcio Augusto Sampaio Pinto (Poli-USP), Prof. Dr. Rafael dos Santos Gioria (Poli-USP), Profa. Dra. Hyunsun Alicia Kim (University of California, San Diego - UCSD), Prof. Dr. Josué Labaki Silva (FEM-Unicamp) and Mike Xie (RMIT University).

 

Sponsor: FAPESP (grant number 2018/05797-8)

 

Duration: December 01, 2018 - November 30, 2022

 

 

Abstract

 

This Young Investigator Awards fellowship will provide focus and innovation for optimization of structures in the offshore industry. The fellowship will enable this to be achieved by providing time and critical mass to build new expertise in multiphysics topology optimization with design-dependent loads. Methods based on explicitly defined boundaries (level set and discrete design variables) will be developed to individually tackle each of the static and dynamic loading conditions imposed by offshore locations, including fluid pressure, current loads, wind loads, subsea soil reaction, thermal expansion and underwater acoustics. The developed methodologies will be further combined in realistic multiple load cases within the offshore structural design scenario. With a four-year base funding, a team of dedicated researchers based in Santos-SP and national and international collaborators, we will deliver computational methods and codes for innovative structural design in offshore engineering.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project: Optimization of improved oil recovery through CO2-WAG injection

 

Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Marcio Augusto Sampaio Pinto

 

Researchers: Prof. Dr. Denis José Schiozer - CEPETRO/Unicamp and Prof. Dr. Eduardo Gildin - Texas A&M

 

Sponsor: FAPESP (grant number 2016/08801-0)

 

Duration: February 01, 2017 - January 31, 2019

 

 

Abstract

 

Many newly discovered reservoirs in Brazil have a high content of CO2 and the distance from the coast, make impossible the flow through pipelines. These facts, added to environmental causes, opened the possibility of recovery through CO2-WAG injection. However, a methodology that quantifies the advantages of this recovery stopped, in many times, due to complexity of the problem, since the operation of many wells involves a large number of control variables in the optimization process and, added to the high processing time of compositional simulation, increases significantly the time spent on the process, forcing a search for solutions through simplified procedures. To circumvent this problem, this project proposes the development of a methodology to assess quickly and efficiently, increasing the reservoir recovery under CO2-WAG injection, through the combination of decreased computational simulation time with increased efficiency in the optimization process. For this, the proposed method involves developing a compositional simulator of research, in order to integrate the reduced order model and modeling the physical phenomena that are not present in commercial simulators. Then, we propose the use of optimization method called simultaneous perturbation with stochastic approximation (SPSA). Thus, once achieved high speed on the simulation, we can use more complex and efficient optimization methods, and the combination of both, could result in better solutions, generating in this integration the increase of the management of the pre-salt reservoirs. The final result can fill an important gap in the literature and in practical applications, which makes it cannot quickly and clearly assess the real benefits and advantages of CO2-WAG injection. Moreover, this project aims to consolidate the collaboration between USP and two other institutions, internationally renowned in petroleum engineering, UNICAMP and Texas A&M, bringing benefits for the technical merit of this research, and for the students training in optimization methods, mathematical for simulation of CO2 and reduced models.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project: Molhabilidade e Propriedades Petrofísicas de Rochas Carbonáticas e sua Relação com a Recuperação de Hidrocarbonetos

 

Coordinators: Profa. Dra. Carina Ulsen e Prof. Dr. Cleyton de Carvalho Carneiro

 

Researchers: Prof. Dr. Marcio Augusto Sampaio Pinto, Prof. Dr. Henrique Kahn, Prof. Dr. Jean Vicente Ferrari and Prof. Dr. Rafael dos Santos Gioria.

 

Sponsor: PETROBRAS (grant number 2016/00126-2)

 

Duration: 03/30/2017 until 03/28/2020

 

 

Abstract

 

In an oilfield development project, the different strategies to be adopted from primary to tertiary oil recovery should take into account possible differences in wettability. These differences, besides the influence of pressure and temperature, can be caused by the mineralogy of the rock, the chemical composition of the oil phase (polar components of hydrophilic-hydrophobic nature), the brine composition, the surface morphology of the pores and fractures, or even the possible precipitation of compounds such as asphaltenes. All of these factors can also cause changes during the life cycle of a reservoir. The oil recovery from carbonate reservoirs, normally oil-wet, fractured, low permabilities, presents major challenges, as rates tend to be low even after the use of secondary recovery techniques. In these reservoirs, the rock matrix (pores) tends to retain oil by capillarity, being dependent on pore size, interfacial tension and contact angle. Additionally, the trapping of the oil in the fracture represents a very important aspect. The project aims to evaluate the influence of petrophysical, mineralogical, pressure and temperature and chemical factors (oil and water phase) on the wettability changes in carbonate reservoirs, in order to understand the distribution of fluids and the mechanisms that control their retention and recovery.