Improving heavy oil recovery using a top-driving, CO2-assisted hot-water flooding method in deep and pressure-depleted reservoirs

With the continuous exploitation of most reservoirs in China, the proportion of heavy oil reservoirs increases, and the development difficulty is greater than that of conventional reservoirs. In view of the important subject of how to improve the recovery factor of heavy oil reservoir, the thermal recovery technology (hot water flooding, steam flooding, steam assisted gravity drainage SAGD and steam huff and puff) and cold recovery technology (chemical flooding, electromagnetic wave physical flooding and microbial flooding) used in the development of heavy oil reservoir are summarized. The principle of action is analyzed, and the main problems restricting heavy oil recovery are analyzed The main technologies of heavy oil recovery are introduced from the aspects of cold recovery and hot recovery. Based on the study of a large number of literatures, and according to the development trend of heavy oil development, suggestions and prospects for the future development direction are put forward.

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Application of Streamline Method to Hot Water-Flooding Simulation for Heavy Oil Recovery

10.2118/93149-ms ◽

2005 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Usman Pasarai ◽

Norio Arihara

Keyword(s):

Oil Recovery ◽

Heavy Oil ◽

Hot Water ◽

Water Flooding ◽

Heavy Oil Recovery ◽

Streamline Method

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Tertiary Recovery Improvement of Steam Injection Using Chemical Additives: Pore Scale Understanding of Challenges and Solutions Through Visual Experiments

10.2118/200841-ms ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Randy Agra Pratama ◽

Tayfun Babadagli

Keyword(s):

Porous Media ◽

Phase Change ◽

Oil Recovery ◽

Heavy Oil ◽

Phase Distribution ◽

Steam Injection ◽

Hot Water ◽

Heavy Oil Recovery ◽

Residual Oil ◽

Tertiary Recovery

Abstract Our previous research, honoring interfacial properties, revealed that the wettability state is predominantly caused by phase change—transforming liquid phase to steam phase—with the potential to affect the recovery performance of heavy-oil. Mainly, the system was able to maintain its water-wetness in the liquid (hot-water) phase but attained a completely and irrevocably oil-wet state after the steam injection process. Although a more favorable water-wetness was presented at the hot-water condition, the heavy-oil recovery process was challenging due to the mobility contrast between heavy-oil and water. Correspondingly, we substantiated that the use of thermally stable chemicals, including alkalis, ionic liquids, solvents, and nanofluids, could propitiously restore the irreversible wettability. Phase distribution/residual oil behavior in porous media through micromodel study is essential to validate the effect of wettability on heavy-oil recovery. Two types of heavy-oils (450 cP and 111,600 cP at 25oC) were used in glass bead micromodels at steam temperatures up to 200oC. Initially, the glass bead micromodels were saturated with synthesized formation water and then displaced by heavy-oils. This process was done to exemplify the original fluid saturation in the reservoirs. In investigating the phase change effect on residual oil saturation in porous media, hot-water was injected continuously into the micromodel (3 pore volumes injected or PVI). The process was then followed by steam injection generated by escalating the temperature to steam temperature and maintaining a pressure lower than saturation pressure. Subsequently, the previously selected chemical additives were injected into the micromodel as a tertiary recovery application to further evaluate their performance in improving the wettability, residual oil, and heavy-oil recovery at both hot-water and steam conditions. We observed that phase change—in addition to the capillary forces—was substantial in affecting both the phase distribution/residual oil in the porous media and wettability state. A more oil-wet state was evidenced in the steam case rather than in the liquid (hot-water) case. Despite the conditions, auspicious wettability alteration was achievable with thermally stable surfactants, nanofluids, water-soluble solvent (DME), and switchable-hydrophilicity tertiary amines (SHTA)—improving the capillary number. The residual oil in the porous media yielded after injections could be favorably improved post-chemicals injection; for example, in the case of DME. This favorable improvement was also confirmed by the contact angle and surface tension measurements in the heavy-oil/quartz/steam system. Additionally, more than 80% of the remaining oil was recovered after adding this chemical to steam. Analyses of wettability alteration and phase distribution/residual oil in the porous media through micromodel visualization on thermal applications present valuable perspectives in the phase entrapment mechanism and the performance of heavy-oil recovery. This research also provides evidence and validations for tertiary recovery beneficial to mature fields under steam applications.

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EM Heating-Stimulated Water Flooding for Medium–Heavy Oil Recovery

Transport in Porous Media ◽

10.1007/s11242-017-0873-5 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 119 (1) ◽

pp. 57-75

Author(s):

Pavel Z. S. Paz ◽

Thomas H. Hollmann ◽

Efe Kermen ◽

Grigori Chapiro ◽

Evert Slob ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Oil Recovery ◽

Heavy Oil ◽

Water Flooding ◽

Heavy Oil Recovery

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Low Salinity Hot Water Injection With Addition of Nanoparticles for Enhancing Heavy Oil Recovery

Journal of Energy Resources Technology ◽

10.1115/1.4042238 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 141 (7) ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Yanan Ding ◽

Sixu Zheng ◽

Xiaoyan Meng ◽

Daoyong Yang

Keyword(s):

Thermal Energy ◽

Oil Recovery ◽

Heavy Oil ◽

Water Injection ◽

Operating Conditions ◽

Hot Water ◽

Wettability Alteration ◽

Heavy Oil Recovery ◽

Oil Saturation ◽

Low Salinity

In this study, a novel technique of low salinity hot water (LSHW) injection with addition of nanoparticles has been developed to examine the synergistic effects of thermal energy, low salinity water (LSW) flooding, and nanoparticles for enhancing heavy oil recovery, while optimizing the operating parameters for such a hybrid enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method. Experimentally, one-dimensional displacement experiments under different temperatures (17 °C, 45 °C, and 70 °C) and pressures (about 2000–4700 kPa) have been performed, while two types of nanoparticles (i.e., SiO2 and Al2O3) are, respectively, examined as the additive in the LSW. The performance of LSW injection with and without nanoparticles at various temperatures is evaluated, allowing optimization of the timing to initiate LSW injection. The corresponding initial oil saturation, production rate, water cut, ultimate oil recovery, and residual oil saturation profile after each flooding process are continuously monitored and measured under various operating conditions. Compared to conventional water injection, the LSW injection is found to effectively improve heavy oil recovery by 2.4–7.2% as an EOR technique in the presence of nanoparticles. Also, the addition of nanoparticles into the LSHW can promote synergistic effect of thermal energy, wettability alteration, and reduction of interfacial tension (IFT), which improves displacement efficiency and thus enhances oil recovery. It has been experimentally demonstrated that such LSHW injection with the addition of nanoparticles can be optimized to greatly improve oil recovery up to 40.2% in heavy oil reservoirs with low energy consumption. Theoretically, numerical simulation for the different flooding scenarios has been performed to capture the underlying recovery mechanisms by history matching the experimental measurements. It is observed from the tuned relative permeability curves that both LSW and the addition of nanoparticles in LSW are capable of altering the sand surface to more water wet, which confirms wettability alteration as an important EOR mechanism for the application of LSW and nanoparticles in heavy oil recovery in addition to IFT reduction.

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Experimental Research on Hot Water Flooding of Different Rhythm Heavy Oil Reservoir after the Steam Injection

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.550-553.2878 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 550-553 ◽

pp. 2878-2882 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Ping Yuan Gai ◽

Fang Hao Yin ◽

Ting Ting Hao ◽

Zhong Ping Zhang

Keyword(s):

Oil Recovery ◽

Heavy Oil ◽

Physical Simulation ◽

Steam Injection ◽

Hot Water ◽

Water Flooding ◽

Oil Reservoir ◽

Steam Flooding ◽

Heavy Oil Reservoir ◽

Swept Volume

Based on the issue of enhancing oil recovery of heavy oil reservoir after steam injection, this paper studied the development characteristics of hot water flooding in different rhythm (positive rhythm, anti-rhythm, complex rhythm) reservoir after steam drive by means of physical simulation. The research shows that the positive rhythm reservoir has a large swept volume with steam flooding under the influence of steam overlay and steam channeling. Anti-rhythm reservoir has a large swept volume with hot water flooding, because hot water firstly flows along the high permeability region in upper part of the reservoir, in the process of displacement, hot water migrates to the bottom of reservoir successively for its higher density.

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Coupling of Solvent and Hot Water to Improve Heavy Oil Recovery: Experimental and Simulation Studies

10.2118/165444-ms ◽

2013 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Weiguo Luo ◽

Farshid Torabi

Keyword(s):

Oil Recovery ◽

Heavy Oil ◽

Hot Water ◽

Simulation Studies ◽

Heavy Oil Recovery

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Synergistic Effect of Nanofluids and Surfactants on Heavy Oil Recovery and Oil-Wet Calcite Wettability

Nanomaterials ◽

10.3390/nano11071849 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (7) ◽

pp. 1849

Author(s):

Jinjian Hou ◽

Lingyu Sun

Keyword(s):

Synergistic Effect ◽

Oil Recovery ◽

Heavy Oil ◽

Interaction Force ◽

Hot Water ◽

Wettability Alteration ◽

Heavy Oil Recovery ◽

Optimal Salinity ◽

Synergistic Mechanism ◽

Enhance Oil Recovery

In recent years, unconventional oils have shown a huge potential for exploitation. Abundant reserves of carbonate asphalt rocks with a high oil content have been found; however, heavy oil and carbonate minerals have a high interaction force, which makes oil-solid separation difficult when using traditional methods. Although previous studies have used nanofluids or surfactant alone to enhance oil recovery, the minerals were sandstones. For carbonate asphalt rocks, there is little research on the synergistic effect of nanofluids and surfactants on heavy oil recovery by hot-water-based extraction. In this study, we used nanofluids and surfactants to enhance oil recovery from carbonate asphalt rocks synergistically based on the HWBE process. In order to explore the synergistic mechanism, the alterations of wettability due to the use of nanofluids and surfactants were studied. Nanofluids alone could render the oil-wet calcite surface hydrophilic, and the resulting increase in hydrophilicity of calcite surfaces treated with different nanofluids followed the order of SiO2 > MgO > TiO2 > ZrO2 > γ-Al2O3. The concentration, salinity, and temperature of nanofluids influenced the oil-wet calcite wettability, and for SiO2 nanofluids, the optimal nanofluid concentration was 0.2 wt%; the optimal salinity was 3 wt%; and the contact angle decreased as the temperature increased. Furthermore, the use of surfactants alone made the oil-wet calcite surface more hydrophilic, according to the following order: sophorolipid (45.9°) > CTAB (49°) > rhamnolipid (53.4°) > TX-100 (58.4°) > SDS (67.5°). The elemental analysis along with AFM and SEM characterization showed that nanoparticles were adsorbed onto the mineral surface, resulting in greater hydrophilicity of the oil-wet calcite surface, and the roughness was related to the wettability. Surfactant molecules could aid in the release of heavy oil from the calcite surface, which exposes the uncovered calcite surface to its surroundings; additionally, some surfactants adsorbed onto the oil-wet calcite surface, and the combined role made the oil-wet calcite surface hydrophilic. In conclusion, the study showed that hybrid nanofluids showed a better effect on wettability alteration, and the use of nanofluids and surfactants together resulted in synergistic alteration of oil-wet calcite surface wettability.

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