Experimental Investigation of In-Situ Emulsion Formation To Improve Viscous-Oil Recovery in Steam-Injection Process Assisted by Viscosity Reducer

SPE Journal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (01) ◽  
pp. 130-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuan Lu ◽  
Huiqing Liu ◽  
Wei Zhao ◽  
Keqin Lu ◽  
Yongge Liu ◽  
...  

Summary In this study, the effects of viscosity-reducer (VR) concentration, salinity, water/oil ratio (WOR), and temperature on the performance of emulsions are examined on the basis of the selected VR. Different VR-injection scenarios, including single-VR injection and coinjection of steam and VR, are conducted after steamflooding by use of single-sandpack models. The results show that high VR concentration, high WOR, and low salinity are beneficial to form stable oil/water emulsions. The oil recoveries of steamflooding for bitumen and heavy oil are approximately 31 and 52%, respectively. The subsequent VR flooding gives an incremental oil recovery of 5.2 and 6.4% for bitumen and heavy oil, respectively. Flooding by steam/VR induces an additional oil recovery of 8.4–11.0% for bitumen and 12.1% for heavy oil. High-temperature steam favors the peeling off of oil and improving its fluidity, as well as the in-situ emulsions. VR solution is beneficial for the oil dispersion and further viscosity reduction. The coinjection of high-temperature steam and VR is much more effective for additional oil production in viscous-oil reservoirs.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celal Hakan Canbaz ◽  
Cenk Temizel ◽  
Yildiray Palabiyik ◽  
Korhan Kor ◽  
Luky Hendrandingrat ◽  
...  

Abstract Oil Industry is going green and there is no solid and comprehensive publication that outlines the use of green energies and methods in oil recovery. Thus, this paper is going to close that gap. As there are more environmental restrictions especially in developed countries, inclusion of green energy methods in petroleum recovery processes is very important for the future of these reserves. We will focus on extra/heavy oil as conventional oil is simpler to produce and doesn't need EOR processes that may come with environmental footprints. The objective of this study is to investigate and outline the ‘green’ production and recovery processes of heavy oil recovery in environmentally-sensitive locations where greenhouse gas emissions, type of energy used to extract oil and gas (e.g., generation of steam using natural gas vs solar), environmental impact of surface facilities, transportation of produced oil and gas and other associated materials/chemica ls required for recovery (e.g. solvents for steam injection process) are critical for the operations as well as economics.


2012 ◽  
Vol 268-270 ◽  
pp. 547-550
Author(s):  
Qing Wang Liu ◽  
Xin Wang ◽  
Zhen Zhong Fan ◽  
Jiao Wang ◽  
Rui Gao ◽  
...  

Liaohe oil field block 58 for Huancai, the efficiency of production of thickened oil is low, and the efficiency of displacement is worse, likely to cause other issues. Researching and developing an type of Heavy Oil Viscosity Reducer for exploiting. The high viscosity of W/O emulsion changed into low viscosity O/W emulsion to facilitate recovery, enhanced oil recovery. Through the experiment determine the viscosity properties of Heavy Oil Viscosity Reducer. The oil/water interfacial tension is lower than 0.0031mN•m-1, salt-resisting is good. The efficiency of viscosity reduction is higher than 90%, and also good at 180°C.


2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (13-14) ◽  
pp. 1283-1295
Author(s):  
Chun-sheng Guo ◽  
Fang-yi Qu ◽  
Yong Liu ◽  
Jing-ran Niu ◽  
Yong Zou

2015 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Changjiu Wang ◽  
Huiqing Liu ◽  
Qiang Zheng ◽  
Yongge Liu ◽  
Xiaohu Dong ◽  
...  

Controlling the phenomenon of steam channeling is a major challenge in enhancing oil recovery of heavy oil reservoirs developed by steam injection, and the profile control with gel is an effective method to solve this problem. The use of conventional gel in water flooding reservoirs also has poor heat stability, so this paper proposes a new high-temperature gel (HTG) plugging agent on the basis of a laboratory experimental investigation. The HTG is prepared with nonionic filler and unsaturated amide monomer (AM) by graft polymerization and crosslinking, and the optimal gel formula, which has strong gelling strength and controllable gelation time, is obtained by the optimization of the concentration of main agent, AM/FT ratio, crosslinker, and initiator. To test the adaptability of the new HTG to heavy oil reservoirs and the performance of plugging steam channeling path and enhancing oil recovery, performance evaluation experiments and three-dimensional steam flooding and gel profile control experiments are conducted. The performance evaluation experiments indicate that the HTG has strong salt resistance and heat stability and still maintains strong gelling strength after 72 hrs at 200 °C. The singular sand-pack flooding experiments suggest that the HTG has good injectability, which can ensure the on-site construction safety. Moreover, the HTG has a high plugging pressure and washing out resistance to the high-temperature steam after gel forming and keeps the plugging ratio above 99.8% when the following steam injected volume reaches 10 PV after gel breakthrough. The three-dimensional steam flooding and gel profile control experiments results show that the HTG has good plugging performance in the steam channeling path and effectively controls its expanding. This forces the following steam, which is the steam injected after the gelling of HTG in the model, to flow through the steam unswept area, which improves the steam injection profile. During the gel profile control period, the cumulative oil production increases by 294.4 ml and the oil recovery is enhanced by 8.4%. Thus, this new HTG has a good effect in improving the steam injection profile and enhancing oil recovery and can be used to control the steam channeling in heavy oil reservoirs.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Nikolaevich Kozhin ◽  
Andrey Valerevich Mikhailov ◽  
Konstantin Vasilievich Pchela ◽  
Ivan Ivanovich Kireev ◽  
Sergey Valerevich Demin ◽  
...  

Abstract The paper presents the results of lab and filtration studies aimed at improving the procedure of thermal/gas/chemical effect (TGCE) with the generation of thermogenic system in reservoir conditions, proposed as an alternative to the methods of increasing oil recovery, such as water-gas effect procedure and foam injection process. The objects of research were thermal/gas generating compositions at the basis of sodium salts of sulfamic and nitric acids. Moreover, the influence of the ionic composition of the aqueous solution and temperature on the surface properties of the attracted solutions of surfactants (surfactants) was also evaluated. Filtration tests have shown that the use of a thermal/gas generating composition leads to additional displacement of high-viscous oil. The introduction of surfactants in the thermal/gas generating composition promotes foaming in the porous medium of the reservoir model and prevents gas breakthrough that leads to an increase in the oil displacement factor up to 24 %.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 4633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar E. Medina ◽  
Yira Hurtado ◽  
Cristina Caro-Velez ◽  
Farid B. Cortés ◽  
Masoud Riazi ◽  
...  

This study aims to evaluate a high-performance nanocatalyst for upgrading of extra-heavy crude oil recovery and at the same time evaluate the capacity of foams generated with a nanofluid to improve the sweeping efficiency through a continuous steam injection process at reservoir conditions. CeO2±δ nanoparticles functionalized with mass fractions of 0.89% and 1.1% of NiO and PdO, respectively, were employed to assist the technology and achieve the oil upgrading. In addition, silica nanoparticles grafted with a mass fraction of 12% polyethylene glycol were used as an additive to improve the stability of an alpha-olefin sulphonate-based foam. The nanofluid formulation for the in situ upgrading process was carried out through thermogravimetric analysis and measurements of zeta potential during eight days to find the best concentration of nanoparticles and surfactant, respectively. The displacement test was carried out in different stages, including, (i) basic characterization, (ii) steam injection in the absence of nanofluids, (iii) steam injection after soaking with nanofluid for in situ upgrading, (iv) N2 injection, and (v) steam injection after foaming nanofluid. Increase in the oil recovery of 8.8%, 3%, and 5.5% are obtained for the technology assisted by the nanocatalyst-based nanofluid, after the nitrogen injection, and subsequent to the thermal foam injection, respectively. Analytical methods showed that the oil viscosity was reduced 79%, 77%, and 31%, in each case. Regarding the asphaltene content, with the presence of the nanocatalyst, it decreased from 28.7% up to 12.9%. Also, the American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity values increased by up to 47%. It was observed that the crude oil produced after the foam injection was of higher quality than the crude oil without treatment, indicating that the thermal foam leads to a better swept of the porous medium containing upgraded oil.


Fuel ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 187 ◽  
pp. 417-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Mohsenzadeh ◽  
Y. Al-Wahaibi ◽  
R. Al-Hajri ◽  
B. Jibril ◽  
N. Mosavat

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