Experimental Evaluation of Heavy Oil Recovery by Hot Water Injection in a Middle Eastern Reservoir

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdullah Fahad Faleh Alajmi ◽  
Meshal Kh. Algharaib ◽  
Ridha Cherif Gharbi
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Heavy Oil ◽  
Experimental Evaluation ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Heavy Oil Recovery

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

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (7) ◽  
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.

A visual investigation of enhanced heavy oil recovery by foam flooding after hot water injection

2016 ◽  
Vol 147 ◽  
pp. 361-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhengbin Wu ◽  
Huiqing Liu ◽  
Zhanxi Pang ◽  
Yalong Wu ◽  
Xue Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Heavy Oil ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Heavy Oil Recovery ◽  
Foam Flooding

scholarly journals Injection of biosurfactant and chemical surfactant following hot water injection to enhance heavy oil recovery

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yahya Al-Wahaibi ◽  
Hamoud Al-Hadrami ◽  
Saif Al-Bahry ◽  
Abdulkadir Elshafie ◽  
Ali Al-Bemani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Heavy Oil ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Heavy Oil Recovery

scholarly journals Semi-Analytical Method for Accurate Calculation of Well Injectivity During Hot Water Injection for Heavy Oil Recovery

2021 ◽  
Vol 2090 (1) ◽  
pp. 012141
Author(s):  
I M Indrupskiy ◽  
A D Bukatkina
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Heavy Oil ◽  
Water Injection ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Large Temperature ◽  
Heavy Oil Recovery ◽  
Reservoir Properties ◽  
Well Injectivity ◽  
Grid Block ◽  
Inflow Performance

Abstract Representation of wells in numerical simulation of petroleum reservoirs is a challenging task due to large difference in typical scales of grid blocks (tens to hundreds meters) and wells (~0.1 m), with high pressure and saturation gradients around wells. Although a variety of grid refinement techniques can be used for local simulations, they have limited application in field-scale problems due to huge model dimensions. Thus, auxiliary quasi-stationary local solutions (so-called inflow performance relations) are used to relate well flow rate with well and grid block pressures. These auxiliary solutions are strictly derived for linear cases and generalized to non-linear problems by using grid-block averaged values of fluid and reservoir properties. In the case of hot water injection for heavy oil recovery, this results in significant errors in well injectivity calculations due to large temperature and saturation gradients dynamically influencing viscosity and relative permeability distributions around the well. In this paper we propose a method which combines a semi-analytical solution of the hyperbolic Entov-Zazovsky problem for non-isothermal oil displacement with integration for pressure distribution taking into account nonlinear dependencies of fluid viscosities and relative permeabilities on temperature and saturations. Both constant injection rate and constant well pressure cases are considered. Example calculations demonstrate that the method helps to avoid underestimation of well injectivity in non-isothermal problems caused by grid-block averaging of fluid and reservoir properties in conventional inflow performance relations.

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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