Downhole Flow Measurement Technology Applied in Chemical Enhanced Oil Recovery Wells. A Field Test Case

For years, we have been searching for technology capable of measuring the full range of flows present in CEOR wells, regardless of the type of mechanical installation used.

So far, each of the existing technologies covers a portion of the entire flow range.

This is partially solved by combining more than one of these technologies to meet the objective.

In different cases such technologies show complexity in their operational implementation, high-level maintenance, long-processing time and many of them imply a high cost.

The results of the Radioactive Tracer Logging Principle in Secondary Recovery System are not the same in CEOR wells.

The calculation method of the new technology considers the geometry of the installation, the rheology of the polymer solution and the conditions under which it is injected into the well, parameters that define the dynamics of the fluid in question. In this first stage, based on a total reference flow injected into the well, the relationship between the Average velocity and the Measured velocity (sphere´s velocity) is determined.

The simplicity of this technology and the years of experience in its use make it pertinent to take on the challenge of solving this matter.

At WENLEN we have developed a technology to adapt the Downhole Radioactive Tracer Logging Principle to measure flows in CEOR wells in a simple way.

We have focused on two main points: replacing the radioactive cloud thought to be as a physical event with a body able to absorb a radioactive liquid, when it is traveling through the concentric annular geometry. For this reason, this body never makes contact with the injected polymer solution. The other point is defining a New Calculation Method as an outcome of fluid dynamic characteristics and the rheologies associated with different injected polymer solutions.

WENLEN technology has simply solved the way to measure flows in CEOR wells regardless of their mechanical installation, by adapting the well-known Method of Downhole Radioactive Tracers Logging Systems. The immediate operational implementation is another advantage the technology has shown.

The Field Test Case results developed in the Diadema Field (CAPSA) and the Pampa de Castillo-La Guitarra Field (CAPEX) are presented in this work with their associated conclusions.