Surface Facilities for Thermal EOR Projects: Extra Heavy Oil

Volume 8: Polar and Arctic Sciences and Technology; Petroleum Technology ◽

10.1115/omae2018-77792 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Gilberto Peña Villegas ◽

María del Carmen Echeverrías

Keyword(s):

Heavy Oil ◽

Steam Injection ◽

Oil Field ◽

Steam Flooding ◽

Facilities Design ◽

Integrated Project ◽

Integrated Study ◽

Global Project ◽

New Facilities

A Giant Heavy Oil Field requires extending and maintaining the production plateau during a continuous period of more than 30 years. In order to increase the revenues of the global project, the construction of Upgrader plant is always considered. Cold production conditions are first, the project has estimated between 10-8% of the STOIIP obtained through cold production but it would not be enough to extend the production plateau. Therefore, later on it will be necessary to apply thermal EOR techniques, as: • Steam Injection: 1-CSS + Steam Flooding, 2-SAGD or HASD • In-situ combustion Aim for this integrated study was to visualize the new facilities design and modification on the exiting cold production facilities to manage the hot production (investments) in function of reservoir/production requirements. The benefit of this integrated study is to value the additional investments in surface facilities required under thermal EOR production to get the global integrated project evaluation.

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Extra-Heavy Oil Aquathermolysis Using Nickel-Based Catalyst: Some Aspects of In-Situ Transformation of Catalyst Precursor

Catalysts ◽

10.3390/catal11020189 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 189

Author(s):

Alexey V. Vakhin ◽

Firdavs A. Aliev ◽

Irek I. Mukhamatdinov ◽

Sergey A. Sitnov ◽

Sergey I. Kudryashov ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Heavy Oil ◽

Nickel Sulfide ◽

Batch Reactor ◽

Saturated Hydrocarbon ◽

Steam Injection ◽

Oil Field ◽

Catalyst Precursor ◽

Catalytic Aquathermolysis ◽

Gas Products

In the present work, we studied the catalytic performance of an oil-soluble nickel-based catalyst during aquathermolysis of oil-saturated crushed cores from Boca de Jaruco extra-heavy oil field. The decomposition of nickel tallate and some aspects of in-situ transformation of the given catalyst precursor under the steam injection conditions were investigated in a high-pressure batch reactor using XRD and SEM analysis methods. The changes in physical and chemical properties of core extracts after the catalytic aquathermolysis process with various duration were studied using gas chromatography for analyzing gas products, SARA analysis, GC-MS of saturated and aromatic fractions, FT-IR spectrometer, elemental analysis, and matrix-activated laser desorption/ionization (MALDI). The results showed that nickel tallate in the presence of oil-saturated crushed core under the injection of steam at 300 °C transforms mainly into nonstoichiometric forms of nickel sulfide. According to the SEM images, the size of nickel sulfide particles was in the range of 80–100 nm. The behavior of main catalytic aquathermolysis gas products such as CH4, CO2, H2S, and H2 depending on the duration of the process was analyzed. The catalytic upgrading at 300 °C provided decrease in the content of resins and asphaltenes, and increase in saturated hydrocarbon content. Moreover, the content of low-molecular alkanes, which were not detected before the catalytic aquathermolysis process, dramatically increased in saturates fraction after catalytic aquathermolysis reactions. In addition, the aromatics hydrocarbons saturated with high molecular weight polycyclic aromatic compounds—isomers of benzo(a)fluorine, which were initially concentrated in resins and asphaltenes. Nickel sulfide showed a good performance in desulfurization of high-molecular components of extra-heavy oil. The cracking of the weak C–S bonds, which mainly concentrated in resins and asphaltenes, ring-opening reactions, detachment of alkyl substitutes from asphaltenes and inhibition of polymerization reactions in the presence of catalytic complex reduced the average molecular mass of resins (from 871.7 to 523.3 a.m.u.) and asphaltenes (from 1572.7 to 1072.3 a.m.u.). Thus, nickel tallate is a promising catalyst to promote the in-situ upgrading of extra-heavy oil during steam injection techniques.

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Application and Exploration of Early In-Situ Combustion Huff-and-Puff Technology in a Deep Undisturbed Reservoir with Extra Heavy Oil

SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering ◽

10.2118/205391-pa ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-13

Author(s):

Wang Xiaoyan ◽

Zhao Jian ◽

Yin Qingguo ◽

Cao Bao ◽

Zhang Yang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Pressure ◽

High Temperature ◽

Heavy Oil ◽

Gas Injection ◽

Thermal Recovery ◽

Oil Field ◽

Pilot Test ◽

In Situ Combustion ◽

Coiled Tubing

Summary Achieving effective results using conventional thermal recovery technology is challenging in the deep undisturbed reservoir with extra-heavy oil in the LKQ oil field. Therefore, in this study, a novel approach based on in-situ combustion huff-and-puff technology is proposed. Through physical and numerical simulations of the reservoir, the oil recovery mechanism and key injection and production parameters of early-stage ultraheavy oil were investigated, and a series of key engineering supporting technologies were developed that were confirmed to be feasible via a pilot test. The results revealed that the ultraheavy oil in the LKQ oil field could achieve oxidation combustion under a high ignition temperature of greater than 450°C, where in-situ cracking and upgrading could occur, leading to greatly decreased viscosity of ultraheavy oil and significantly improved mobility. Moreover, it could achieve higher extra-heavy-oil production combined with the energy supplement of flue gas injection. The reasonable cycles of in-situ combustion huff and puff were five cycles, with the first cycle of gas injection of 300 000 m3 and the gas injection volume per cycle increasing in turn. It was predicted that the incremental oil production of a single well would be 500 t in one cycle. In addition, the supporting technologies were developed, such as a coiled-tubing electric ignition system, an integrated temperature and pressure monitoring system in coiled tubing, anticorrosion cementing and completion technology with high-temperature and high-pressure thermal recovery, and anticorrosion injection-production integrated lifting technology. The proposed method was applied to a pilot test in the YS3 well in the LKQ oil field. The high-pressure ignition was achieved in the 2200-m-deep well using the coiled-tubing electric igniter. The maximum temperature tolerance of the integrated monitoring system in coiled tubing reached up to 1200°C, which provided the functions of distributed temperature and multipoint pressure measurement in the entire wellbore. The combination of 13Cr-P110 casing and titanium alloy tubing effectively reduced the high-temperature and high-pressure oxygen corrosion of the wellbore. The successful field test of the comprehensive supporting engineering technologies presents a new approach for effective production in deep extra-heavy-oil reservoirs.

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The Experimental Analysis of the Role of Flue Gas Injection for Horizontal Well Steam Flooding

Journal of Energy Resources Technology ◽

10.1115/1.4039870 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 140 (10) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Zhanxi Pang ◽

Peng Qi ◽

Fengyi Zhang ◽

Taotao Ge ◽

Huiqing Liu

Keyword(s):

Oil Recovery ◽

Heavy Oil ◽

Flue Gas ◽

Three Dimensional ◽

Steam Injection ◽

Displacement Efficiency ◽

Oil Viscosity ◽

Sweep Efficiency ◽

Steam Flooding ◽

Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Heavy oil is an important hydrocarbon resource that plays a great role in petroleum supply for the world. Co-injection of steam and flue gas can be used to develop deep heavy oil reservoirs. In this paper, a series of gas dissolution experiments were implemented to analyze the properties variation of heavy oil. Then, sand-pack flooding experiments were carried out to optimize injection temperature and injection volume of this mixture. Finally, three-dimensional (3D) flooding experiments were completed to analyze the sweep efficiency and the oil recovery factor of flue gas + steam flooding. The role in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) mechanisms was summarized according to the experimental results. The results show that the dissolution of flue gas in heavy oil can largely reduce oil viscosity and its displacement efficiency is obviously higher than conventional steam injection. Flue gas gradually gathers at the top to displace remaining oil and to decrease heat loss of the reservoir top. The ultimate recovery is 49.49% that is 7.95% higher than steam flooding.

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