Qualification of new partitioning tracers

Silva defended his thesis Development of new oil/water partitioning tracers for the determination of residual oil saturation in the inter-well region of water-flooded reservoirs 15th of April.

In his doctoral work, Silva has developed a method for qualification of new oil/water partitioning tracers for use in Partitioning Inter-well Tracer Tests (PITT). This method was applied. Seven new partitioning tracers are now ready to be deployed on the field.

These tracer tests have a huge potential as characterisation tools for improved oil recovery (IOR) operations, and will gain more importance as oilfields mature on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. To date, very few successful PITTs were deployed, and one of the main reasons for this is the use of inadequate partitioning tracers.

Silva has studied the details and requirements of the tests, and created a methodology based on studies of chemical and thermal stability, fluid phase equilibrium, dynamic flooding properties and advanced analytical chemistry to develop new tracers. The tracers were selected with basis on key physico-chemical characteristics and subsequently tested. Seven new oil/water partitioning tracers for inter-well applications are now ready for testing on field. This type of test measures the residual remaining oil saturation in the swept volumes of the inter-well region, providing important data for the design and evaluation of IOR projects.

The PhD work was a project within the scope of the National IOR Centre of Norway, a research collaboration between UiS, IFE and NORCE, financed by the Research Council of Norway and 9 industry partners.

About the candidate: Mário Helder Lopes da Silva (42) lives in Strømmen. He is from Porto, Portugal. He has a Bachelors and Masters degree in Chemical Engineering from the School of Engineering of the Polytechnic University of Porto. Currently he works as a Research Scientist at the Tracer Department of the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE).