RE: Posts Removed31 Oct 2025 20:57
Ftse, thanks, my reasoning for H2 below.
Waxy 43°API oil will usually flows better once the near-wellbore warms above its Wax Appearance Temperature (WAT) and the oil viscosity drops, but the timescale ranges from days to several weeks assuming we rely on passive heating by produced fluids/formation/friction.
Heating above the WAT melts waxy crystals and viscosity becomes lower, as viscosity reduces the flow rate will increase, simple to understand that thin oil flows easier than thick oil.
This is quite a well known issue especially in the US and Russian oil wells, lots of info out there on steam being injected to the well bore to help thin the oil, if you want info just google “Oil well Steam Injection”.
We are not using steam but relying on passive heating, after the injection fluids (640 barrels) were removed we would have been sucking (pumping) oil, it may have been slow to start but as the well heats up the oil around the wellbore also heats making it thinner (less viscous) so it flows better, I believe this is what we have been doing and why the time scales have been longer than expected, once the well has heated itself up production increases hence thinking the longer timescale is good news as I expected daily production grows marginally with every day we pump, this will continue until we reach a stabilized flow rate, how much is anyones guess but I suspect a lot better than we expected.