Increasing the reservoir recovery factor is one of the great challenges of the Oil and Gas Industry, it can gain a new ally: IBM FlowDiscovery (FD), cloud-based software with embedded AI that analyzes the flow of liquids such as water, oil and carbon dioxide in porous media such as rocks or soil.

The unprecedented technology, still in the research prototype phase, was developed by researchers from IBM Research Brasil in partnership with the Brazilian company Solintec and USP São Carlos (IFSC-USP). “With the prototype, it is possible to leverage nanoscience to investigate complex flow problems as they occur, for example, in the enhanced oil recovery”, says Mathias Steiner, manager of Industrial Technology and Science at IBM Research Brazil, who leads the project .

“With joint research and evaluation activities in progress, we hope to accelerate development and reduce the time for large-scale application of FlowDiscovery,” ponders Steiner, saying that it is difficult to predict when the solution will be used on an industrial scale. And as it is a project still in the prototype stage of research, it is difficult to establish a schedule. "We hope to be able to give a more specific answer to this question soon," he adds.

Research collaborations between IBM Research and IFSC / USP, started in 2017, and with Solintec, consolidated in 2019, formally started in 2019, aim to accelerate this process. This is because this solution could become a powerful tool for the industry, since, on average, more than 50% of the oil in situ (that is, in the reservoir), is retained in rocky capillaries and cannot be extracted.

Exploration tool 

According to Steiner, it all started as a fundamental scientific project more than 5 years ago. “Initially, our research team advanced in the scientific understanding of wetting and flow in small scales, the size of capillaries, in reservoir rocks. The results led us to believe that the fluid flow simulation in the reservoir rock required a new approach ”, he points out.

Noting that, in essence, the fundamental chemical and physical processes involved in carbon dioxide sequestration or enhanced oil recovery occur on a molecular length scale, Steiner talks about how it is possible to apply this tool in the industrial stage of oil and gas exploration.

“FlowDiscovery can be an exploration tool, through which the molecular properties of reservoir fluids are used to predict the flow properties in the rock,” says Steiner, stressing that the interaction of fluids with the rock surface in capillaries is of fundamental importance.

“The geometric properties of capillaries can be measured with the same rock samples used by the core analysis laboratories. We also use this data to create a dedicated flow device for laboratory validation of the results of the flow simulation ”, he adds.

According to him, the technology works based on rock images taken on a microscopic scale. “Rock samples to create a digital rock can, in principle, come from any reservoir”, he guarantees. What would make possible its application in different scenarios, such as the pre-salt and the Arctic.

“As long as it is possible to capture images of the rock samples and computationally recreate the capillary network inside the rock, we can apply the technology. If the image data was already created during the main analysis, the application of FlowDiscovery on that same data is also straightforward ”, ensures the project leader.

Regarding unconventional gas reservoirs, such as shale gas, he recalls that it is a research work in progress. "We follow the current line, due to the importance of carbon dioxide," says Steiner.

Environmental impact 

The researchers believe the software could have applications in the study of concrete in civil engineering and in the analysis of transport involving water and plant nutrients in the soil. “In more general terms, it can also be used in the study of industrial extraction processes involving fluid flow in porous media”, says Mathias Steiner.

The technology has a strong environmental appeal, since the inefficient use of water is one of the biggest problems in food production and energy generation. In Brazil alone, 2.3 million liters of water for industrial use are removed from the rivers every second. The waste of scarce natural resources can be drastically reduced using appropriate technologies.

IBM believes that FlowDiscovery can reduce the environmental impact caused by the most different industrial processes, from oil extraction to food cultivation. The good results of the partnership can bear fruit. “While we work together on FlowDiscovery, we are already analyzing future joint opportunities with Solintec and IFSC-USP”, concludes the manager of Industrial Technology and Science at IBM Research Brasil.