Preliminary Experimental Results of High-Pressure Nitrogen Injection for EOR Systems

1983 ◽  
Vol 23 (02) ◽  
pp. 339-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Ahmed ◽  
D. Menzie ◽  
H. Crichlow
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Gas Injection ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Injection System ◽  
Oil Reservoir ◽  
Reservoir Model ◽  
Oil Viscosity ◽  
Nitrogen Injection ◽  
Experimental Apparatus

Summary Miscible-displacement processes have generally been recognized by the petroleum industry as an important enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method. Nitrogen flooding has become an attractive method for economical EOR. Since no previous studies have been undertaken to observe miscibility conditions directly during their development in an oil reservoir, a research program was initiated to investigate experimentally the mechanism by which miscibility could be achieved in a reservoir model undergoing high-pressure nitrogen injection. Several experiments were conducted in a low-permeability, consolidated sandpacked stainless-steel tube 125 ft long and 0.435 in. in diameter. The apparatus was designed to allow sampling at selected locations along the core tube enabling researchers to investigate fluid behavior during the process. A more-detailed representation of the nitrogen displacement process is formulated and the graphical chromatographic results are presented to illustrate the nitrogen miscibility in consolidated cores. Introduction Previous researchers have investigated, experimentally and theoretically, the problem of predicting the effects of dry-gas injection into a reservoir. Most earlier experimental studies were concerned primarily with the effects of changing pressure, temperature, and gas solubility on oil recovery during gas injection. Vogel and Yarborough conducted a number of laboratory tests on several different reservoir fluids to determine the effect of nitrogen contact by varying the amounts of nitrogen. They reported that the solution-gas gravity, oil density, and oil viscosity increased with continued contact by nitrogen. No previous studies have been conducted to observe miscibility conditions directly during their development in an oil reservoir. This experimental work was initiated to investigatecompositional changes taking place during displacing of crude oil by continuous high-pressure nitrogen injection,change in properties of the liquid and vapor phases during the nitrogen injection,miscible pressures for nitrogen displacement, anddistance from the injection point at which miscibility would be achieved. Experimental Apparatus and Materials Apparatus The experiment was designed to studyvaporization of oil by high-pressure nitrogen injection,mechanisms of nitrogen multiple contact miscibility displacement, andcompositional changes that take place between nitrogen and in-situ oil during the test. Fig. 1 shows a schematic of the equipment used to perform the experimental study. For the purpose of description, the laboratory apparatus may be divided into three parts: a laboratory oil reservoir model, an injection system, and a production and analytical system. SPEJ P. 339^

High-Pressure Data and Modeling Results for Phase Behavior and Asphaltene Onsets of Gulf of Mexico Oil Mixed With Nitrogen

2014 ◽  
Vol 17 (03) ◽  
pp. 384-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odd Steve Hustad ◽  
Na Jia ◽  
Karen Schou Pedersen ◽  
Afzal Memon ◽  
Sukit Leekumjorn
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Phase Behavior ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Viscosity Reduction ◽  
Fluid Composition ◽  
Viscosity Data ◽  
Oil Viscosity ◽  
Reservoir Fluid

Summary This paper presents fluid composition, high-pressure pressure/volume/temperature (PVT) measurements, and equation-of-state (EoS) modeling results for a recombined Tahiti oil, Gulf of Mexico (GoM), and for the oil mixed with nitrogen in various concentrations. The data include: Upper and lower asphaltene onset pressures and bubblepoint pressures for the reservoir fluid swelled with nitrogen. At the reservoir conditions of 94 MPa (13,634 psia) and 94°C (201.2°F), asphaltene precipitation is seen after the addition of 27 mol% of nitrogen. Viscosity data for the swelled fluids showing that the addition of nitrogen significantly reduces the oil viscosity. Slimtube runs indicating that the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) of the oil with nitrogen is significantly higher than estimated from published correlations. The data were modeled with the volume-corrected Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK) EoS and the perturbed-chain statistical association fluid theory (PC-SAFT) EoS. Although both equations provide a good match of the PVT properties of the reservoir fluid, PC-SAFT is superior to the SRK EoS for simulating the upper asphaltene onset pressures and the liquid-phase compressibility of the reservoir fluid swelled with nitrogen. Nitrogen-gas flooding is expected to have a positive impact on oil recovery because of its favorable oil-viscosity-reduction and phase behavior effects.

scholarly journals The Research and Application of Microbial Degradation Technology on Heavy Oil Reservoir in Huabei Oilfield

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 01054
Author(s):  
Guan Wang ◽  
Rui Wang ◽  
Yaxiu Fu ◽  
Lisha Duan ◽  
Xizhi Yuan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Heavy Oil ◽  
High Surface ◽  
Effective Rate ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Oil Reservoir ◽  
Displacement Efficiency ◽  
Oil Viscosity ◽  
Reservoir Conditions ◽  
Heavy Oil Reservoir

Mengulin sandstone reservoir in Huabei oilfield is low- temperature heavy oil reservoir. Recently, it is at later stage of waterflooding development. The producing degree of water flooding is poor, and it is difficult to keep yield stable. To improve oilfield development effect, according to the characteristics of reservoir geology, microbial enhanced oil recovery to improve oil displacement efficiency is researched. 2 microbial strains suitable for the reservoir conditions were screened indoor. The growth characteristics of strains, compatibility and function mechanism with crude oil were studied. Results show that the screened strains have very strong ability to utilize petroleum hydrocarbon to grow and metabolize, can achieve the purpose of reducing oil viscosity, and can also produce biological molecules with high surface activity to reduce the oil-water interfacial tension. 9 oil wells had been chosen to carry on the pilot test of microbial stimulation, of which 7 wells became effective with better experiment results. The measures effective rate is 77.8%, the increased oil is 1,093.5 tons and the valid is up to 190 days.

Prediction of Recovery in Unstable Miscible Flooding

1972 ◽  
Vol 12 (02) ◽  
pp. 143-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.L. Claridge
Keyword(s):  
Economic Evaluation ◽  
Crude Oil ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Pore Space ◽  
Vertical Direction ◽  
Oil Reservoirs ◽  
Oil Reservoir ◽  
Oil Viscosity ◽  
Recovery Processes ◽  
First Choice

Abstract A new correlation bas been developed for estimating oil recovery in unstable miscible five-spot pattern floods. It combines existing methods of predicting areal coverage and linear displacement efficiency and was used to calculate oil recovery for a series of assumed slug sizes in a live-spot CO2 slug-waterflood pilot test. The economic optimum slug size varies with CO2 cost; at anticipated CO2 costs the pilot would generate an attractive profit if performance is as predicted Introduction Selection of good field prospects for application of oil recovery processes other than waterflooding is often difficult. The principal reason is that other proposed displacing agents are far more costly proposed displacing agents are far more costly than water and usually sweep a lesser fraction of the volume of an oil reservoir (while displacing oil more efficiently from this fraction). Such agents must be used in limited amounts as compared with water; and this amount must achieve an appreciable additional oil recovery above waterflooding recovery. For these reasons, there is in general much less economic margin for engineering error in processes other than waterflooding. The general characteristics of the various types of supplemental recovery processes are well known, and adequate choices can be made of processes to be considered in more detail with respect to a given field. Comparative estimates must then be made of process performance and costs in order to narrow the choice. A much more detailed, definitive process-and-economic evaluation is eventually process-and-economic evaluation is eventually required of the chosen process before an executive decision can be made to commit large amounts of money to such projects. It is in the area between first choice and final engineering evaluation that this work applies. A areal cusping and vertical coning into producing wells. These effects can be seated by existing "desk-drawer" correlation which can confirm or deny the engineer's surmise that he has an appropriate match of recovery process and oil reservoir characteristics is of considerable value in determining when to undertake the costly and often manpower-consuming task of a definitive process-and-economic evaluation. process-and-economic evaluation. An examination of the nature of the developed crude oil resources in the U.S. indicates that the majority of the crude oil being produced is above 35 degrees API gravity and exists in reservoirs deeper than 4,000 ft. The combination of hydrostatic pressure on these oil reservoirs, the natural gas usually present in the crude oil in proportion to this pressure, the reservoir temperatures typically found, and the distribution of molecular sizes and types in the crude oil corresponding to the API gravity results in the fact that, in the majority of cases, the in-place crude oil viscosity was originally no more than twice that of water. A large proportion of these oil reservoirs have undergone pressure decline, gas evolution and consequent increase in crude oil viscosity. However, an appreciable proportion are still at such a pressure and proportion are still at such a pressure and temperature that miscibility can be readily attained with miscible drive agents such as propane or carbon dioxide, and the viscosity of the crude oil is such that the mobility of these miscible drive agents is no more than 50 time s that of the crude oil. Under these circumstances, a possible candidate situation for the miscible-drive type of process may exist. process may exist. Supposing that such a situation is under consideration, the next question is: what specific miscible drive process, and how should it be designed to operate? In some cases, the answer is clear: when the reservoir has a high degree of vertical communication (high permeability and continuity of the permeable, oil-bearing pore space in the vertical direction), then a gravity-stabilized miscible flood is the preferred mode of operation; and the particular drive agent or agents can be chosen on the basis of miscibility requirements, availability and cost. SPEJ P. 143

Unsteady-State Distributions of Fluid Compositions in Two-Phase Oil Reservoirs Undergoing Gas Injection

1967 ◽  
Vol 7 (01) ◽  
pp. 61-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert C. McFarlane ◽  
T.D. Mueller ◽  
F.G. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Gas Injection ◽  
Gas Storage ◽  
Oil Reservoirs ◽  
Oil Reservoir ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Secondary Recovery ◽  
Compositional Effects ◽  
Gas Cycling

Abstract During the process of gas storage in pressure-depleted oil reservoirs, it has been observed that in some instances additional liquid oil is recovered and that the composition of the storage gas is materially altered. A mathematical study was made of the dynamic behavior of such a depleted oil reservoir undergoing gas injection. The important variable considered in this study, not included in previously published work, was that of compositional effects on the phase behavior of two-phase flow. Pressure, saturation and component composition profiles were developed for a linear, horizontal and homogeneous porous medium containing oil and gas but undergoing dry gas injection. Special new techniques were developed to overcome the problems of numerical smoothing which arise in the solution of the equations representing such systems. The method of solution includes the development of partial differential equations describing the behavior of the system, representing these equations by finite difference approximations, making certain simplifying assumptions and, finally, applying methods of numerical analysis with the aid of a high-speed digital computer. In an example calculation, results using the mathematical model are compared with field observations made on a gas storage project in Clay County, Tex. This field project involved a depleted oil reservoir used' for gas storage and gas cycling purposes. As a result of these processes, the reservoir yielded substantial amounts of secondary oil, both in the form of stock tank oil and as vaporized products in the produced gas. The methods derived in this study may be applied to a variety of oil reservoir problems which are dependent on compositional effects. INTRODUCTION In recent years the number of oil reservoirs being used for gas storage purposes has increased greatly, and there has been at least one published account of additional oil recovery resulting from gas cycling a depleted oil reservoir after repressuring with dry gas for storage purposes. Additional oil recovery from oil reservoirs resulting from gas storage operations could become an important secondary recovery process. This is especially true since the use of natural gas in large metropolitan areas continues to increase and more gas storage volume near these areas is needed. These facts provided the motivation for the work reported here. This paper reports on a study of the inter-relations of composition, saturation and pressure changes which occur when hydrocarbon gas is injected into an oil reservoir system. From an understanding of the process, prediction methods may be developed for use in forecasting the secondary recovery products from gas storage operations in oil reservoirs and, consequently, .the economics of such projects can be developed.

scholarly journals Experimental Study on Enhanced Oil Recovery by Nitrogen-Water Alternative Injection in Reservoir with Natural Fractures

Geofluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Xiang Li ◽  
Yuan Cheng ◽  
Wulong Tao ◽  
Shalake Sarulicaoketi ◽  
Xuhui Ji ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Gas Injection ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Injection Pressure ◽  
Injection Rate ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Orthogonal Experimental Design ◽  
Fractured Reservoir ◽  
Natural Fractures ◽  
Nitrogen Injection

The production of a low permeability reservoir decreases rapidly by depletion development, and it needs to supplement formation energy to obtain stable production. Common energy supplement methods include water injection and gas injection. Nitrogen injection is an economic and effective development method for specific reservoir types. In order to study the feasibility and reasonable injection parameters of nitrogen injection development of fractured reservoir, this paper uses long cores to carry out displacement experiment. Firstly, the effects of water injection and nitrogen injection development of a fractured reservoir are compared through experiments to demonstrate the feasibility of nitrogen injection development of the fractured reservoir. Secondly, the effects of gas-water alternate displacement after water drive and gas-water alternate displacement after gas drive are compared through experiments to study the situation of water injection or gas injection development. Finally, the reasonable parameters of nitrogen gas-water alternate injection are optimized by orthogonal experimental design. Results show that nitrogen injection can effectively enhance oil production of the reservoir with natural fractures in early periods, but gas channeling easily occurs in continuous nitrogen flooding. After water flooding, gas-water alternate flooding can effectively reduce the injection pressure and improve the reservoir recovery, but the time of gas-water alternate injection cannot be too late. It is revealed that the factors influencing the nitrogen-water alternative effect are sorted from large to small as follows: cycle injected volume, nitrogen and water slug ratio, and injection rate. The optimal cycle injected volume is around 1 PV, the nitrogen and water slug ratio is between 1 and 2, and the injection rate is between 0.1 and 0.2 mL/min.

Laboratory Evaluation Experiment for Adaptability Analysis of Nitrogen Injection in Yanchang Oil Field

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiaxi Gao ◽  
Yuedong Yao ◽  
He Bao ◽  
Jinjiang Shen
Keyword(s):  
Field Test ◽  
Formation Energy ◽  
Gas Injection ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Oil Field ◽  
Injection System ◽  
Laboratory Evaluation ◽  
Energy Supplement ◽  
Nitrogen Injection ◽  
Wide Range

Abstract: Yanchang Oilfield conducts systematic research on nitrogen injection to enhance oil recovery. Through the research of this project, the energy supplement method of horizontal wells suitable for the study area is determined, and its injection system and process parameters are optimized and determined. The optimal energy replenishment method selected by the mine field test achieves the following economic and technical indicators: Provide a nitrogen suitability evaluation plan; Complete the nitrogen flooding matching process design of the target well; Complete the design of the injection-production plan for the target well; Compare with other energy supplement methods. Through the analysis of two supplementary energy methods of water injection and gas injection in indoor and similar reservoirs, the following understandings have been obtained: (1) Nitrogen is insoluble in water, slightly soluble in oil, good swelling, large elastic energy, is an inert gas, exists widely in the atmosphere, inexhaustible, inexhaustible, has a wide range of sources. (2) the recovery rate of nitrogen flooding is significantly higher than that of water flooding. (3) The field test results of water injection and nitrogen test in similar reservoirs show that the supplementary formation energy of nitrogen injection is suitable for the later development of Chang 64 and Chang 71 in the Haobasi oil field. (4) Compared with deep ultra-low permeability reservoirs, it is more economical to use nitrogen to supplement formation energy and change oil. The rate is higher. From the above analysis, it can be seen that the supplementary energy of Chang 64 and Chang 71 reservoirs in the Haobasi oil area should be nitrogen injection as the main supplement, and water injection as a supplement. Gas/water alternate injection is used to adjust the gas injection profile to slow down the escape of injected nitrogen. . Although water injection supplements the formation energy with greater uncertainty, it can be used as a technical means of fluidity control in the gas injection process and is relatively economical.

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