scholarly journals Downhole heating and hybrid cyclic steam methods: evaluating technologies from the laboratory to the field

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-60
Author(s):  
Romel Perez ◽  
Hugo Garcia Duarte ◽  
Laura Osma ◽  
Carolina Barbosa Goldstein ◽  
Luis Eduardo Garcia Rodríguez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Heavy Oil ◽  
Screening Method ◽  
Steam Injection ◽  
Management Decision ◽  
Steam Flooding ◽  
Oil Markets ◽  
Management Decision Making ◽  
Injection Methods ◽  
Multiple Challenges

The development of heavy oil reservoirs under steam injection methods is facing multiple challenges due to the volatility of oil markets, energy efficiency, and new and stricter environmental regulations. This study aims to summarize the advances of a Research and Development (R&D) program established by Ecopetrol in 2018 to identify potential opportunities to improve the recovery performance of steam injection projects in heavyoil reservoirs in the Middle Valley Magdalena Basin (VMM) of Colombia.This paper summarizes an approach used to evaluate downhole heating and hybrid steam injection technologies assisted by basic benefit-cost ratios and energy and environmental indexes.Specifically, the methodology is described for the identification of optimum development plan scenarios for heavy oil wells. This study also summarizes recent advances in laboratory studies for the evaluation of hybrid steam flooding technologies (steam plus flue gas and solvents) and provides updates on the hybrid cyclicsteam-foam pilot carried out in two VMM wells.The proposed approach represents a fast screening method that has proven to be valuable in supporting management decision-making to allocate resources for laboratory and engineering studies to evaluate thermal enhanced oil recovery (tEOR) technologies in Colombia. The proposed methodology has also contributed to reducing the implementation cycle of tEOR technologies following the reservoir analog description ofreserve analysis. The latter was validated with the successful pilot results of the hybrid steam injection with foams implemented in July 2019.

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

2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (10) ◽  
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.

A New High-Temperature Gel for Profile Control in Heavy Oil Reservoirs

2015 ◽  
Vol 138 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Changjiu Wang ◽  
Huiqing Liu ◽  
Qiang Zheng ◽  
Yongge Liu ◽  
Xiaohu Dong ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Temperature ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Heavy Oil ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Heat Stability ◽  
Steam Injection ◽  
Oil Reservoirs ◽  
Steam Flooding ◽  
Profile Control ◽  
Heavy Oil Reservoirs

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.

scholarly journals Combination of Cyclic Steam Stimulation and Steam Flooding to Improve Oil Recovery in Unconsolidated Sand Heavy Oil Reservoir

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 80-87
Author(s):  
Ahmad Muraji Suranto ◽  
Boni Swadesi ◽  
Indah Widyaningsih ◽  
Ratna Widyaningsih ◽  
Sri Wahyu Murni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Reservoir Simulation ◽  
Heavy Oil ◽  
Steam Injection ◽  
Steam Chamber ◽  
Steam Flooding ◽  
Cyclic Steam Stimulation ◽  
Unconsolidated Sand ◽  
Reservoir Simulation Model ◽  
Steam Stimulation

Steam injection can be success in increasing oil recovery by determining the steam chamber growth. It will impact on the steam distribution and steam performance in covering hot areas in the reservoir.  An injection plan and a proper cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) schedule are critical in predicting how steam chamber can grow and cover the heat area. A reservoir simulation model will be used to understand how CSS really impact in steam chamber generation and affect the oil recovery. This paper generates numerous scenarios to see how steam working in heavy oil system particularly in unconsolidated sand reservoir. Combine the CSS method and steam injection continue investigate in this research. We will validate the scenarios based on the how fast steam chest can grow and get maximum oil recovery. Reservoir simulation resulted how steam chest behavior in unconsolidated sand to improve oil recovery; It concluded that by combining CSS and Steam Injection, we may get a faster steam chest growth and higher oil recovery by 61.5% of heavy oil system.

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

2012 ◽  
Vol 550-553 ◽  
pp. 2878-2882 ◽  
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.

Adaptability Research of Thermal–Chemical Assisted Steam Injection in Heavy Oil Reservoirs

2017 ◽  
Vol 140 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wu Zhengbin ◽  
Liu Huiqing ◽  
Wang Xue
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Heavy Oil ◽  
Water Saturation ◽  
Steam Injection ◽  
Chemical Flooding ◽  
Displacement Efficiency ◽  
Reservoir Heterogeneity ◽  
Steam Flooding ◽  
Switch Time ◽  
Improvement Effect

Thermal–chemical flooding (TCF) is an effective alternative to enhance heavy oil recovery after steam injection. In this paper, single and parallel sand-pack flooding experiments were carried out to investigate the oil displacement ability of thermal–chemical composed of steam, nitrogen (N2), and viscosity breaker (VB), considering multiple factors such as residual oil saturation (Sorw) postwater flood, scheme switch time, and permeability contrast. The results of single sand-pack experiments indicated that compared with steam flooding (SF), steam-nitrogen flooding, and steam-VB flooding, TCF had the best displacement efficiency, which was 11.7% higher than that of pure SF. The more serious of water-flooded degree, the poorer of TCF effect. The improvement effect of TCF almost lost as water saturation reached 80%. Moreover, the earlier TCF was transferred from steam injection, the higher oil recovery was obtained. The parallel sand-pack experiments suggested that TCF had good adaptability to reservoir heterogeneity. Emulsions generated after thermal–chemical injection diverted the following compound fluid turning to the low-permeable tube (LPT) due to its capturing and blocking ability. The expansion of N2 and the disturbance of VB promoted oil recovery in both tubes. As reservoir heterogeneity became more serious, namely, permeability contrast was more than 6 in this study, the improvement effect became weaker due to earlier steam channeling in the high-permeable tube (HPT).

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

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.

Research Status and Prospect of Heavy Oil Recovery Technology

2021 ◽  
Vol 888 ◽  
pp. 111-117
Author(s):  
Yi Zhao ◽  
De Yin Zhao ◽  
Rong Qiang Zhong ◽  
Li Rong Yao ◽  
Ke Ke Li
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Heavy Oil ◽  
Development Trend ◽  
Thermal Recovery ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Water Flooding ◽  
Oil Reservoir ◽  
Heavy Oil Recovery ◽  
Steam Flooding ◽  
Heavy Oil Reservoir

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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