A Comprehensive Kinetics Model for Light Oil Oxidation/Combustion Reactions under High Pressure Air Injection Process (HPAI)

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yalda Barzin ◽  
R.G. Moore ◽  
S.A. Mehta ◽  
M.G. Ursenbach ◽  
F. Tabasinejad
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Air Injection ◽  
Kinetics Model ◽  
Oil Oxidation ◽  
Injection Process ◽  
Light Oil

Thermal kinetics investigation on light oil oxidation during high-pressure hypoxic air injection process

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (14) ◽  
pp. 1307-1314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng-Gang Liu ◽  
Wan-Fen Pu ◽  
Yi-Qing Zhao ◽  
Zhe-Zhi Liu ◽  
Hong-Jun Gu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Air Injection ◽  
Oil Oxidation ◽  
Injection Process ◽  
Thermal Kinetics ◽  
Light Oil

Chemically Assisted Ignition Technologies for a Light Oil Air Injection Process

2008 ◽  
Vol 47 (07) ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Li ◽  
S.A. Mehta ◽  
R.G. Moore ◽  
M.G. Ursenbach ◽  
E. Zalewski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Air Injection ◽  
Injection Process ◽  
Light Oil

Recovery Factors in High-Pressure Air Injection Projects Revisited

2008 ◽  
Vol 11 (06) ◽  
pp. 1097-1106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dubert Gutierrez ◽  
Archie R. Taylor ◽  
Vinodh Kumar ◽  
Matthew G. Ursenbach ◽  
Robert G. Moore ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Combustion Front ◽  
Combustion Zone ◽  
Oil Prices ◽  
Suggested Method ◽  
Air Injection ◽  
Driving Mechanism ◽  
Light Oil ◽  
Early Production

Summary High-pressure air injection (HPAI) is an improved-oil-recovery (IOR) process in which compressed air is injected into a deep light-oil reservoir with the expectation that the oxygen in the injected air will react with a fraction of the reservoir oil at an elevated temperature to produce carbon dioxide. The resulting flue-gas mixture provides the main mobilizing force to the oil downstream of the reaction region, sweeping it to production wells. The combustion zone itself may provide a critical part of the sweep mechanism. In 1994, Fassihi et al. proposed a method for estimating recovery factors of light-oil air-injection projects on the basis of the performance of two successful HPAI projects. Their suggested method relies on the extrapolation of the field gas/oil ratio (GOR) up to an economic limit. In other words, it treats HPAI as an immiscible gasflood and neglects any potential oil that could be recovered by the combustion front. The truth is that, although early production during an HPAI process is caused mostly by repressurization and gasflood effects, once a pore volume of air has been injected, the combustion front becomes the main driving mechanism. Moreover, one of the unique features of air injection is the self-correcting nature of the combustion zone, which promotes good volumetric sweep of the reservoir. This paper presents laboratory and field evidence of the presence of a thermal front during HPAI operations and evidence of its beneficial impact on oil recovery. An analysis of the three HPAI projects in Buffalo field, which are the oldest HPAI projects currently in operation, shows that only a small fraction of the reservoir has been burned and, if time allows and the projects are managed appropriately, burning of more reservoir volumes could result in much higher oil recoveries than those predicted by the gasflood approach. Introduction HPAI is an emerging technology for the recovery of light oils that has proved to be a valuable IOR process, especially in deep thin low-permeability reservoirs (Erickson et al. 1994; Kumar and Fassihi 1995; Kumar et al. 2007a, 2007b; Fassihi et al. 1996, 1997). The first extended field test of HPAI began in 1963 on the Sloss field in Nebraska (Parrish et al. 1974a, 1974b), where Amoco's Combination of Forward Combustion and Waterflooding (COFCAW) process was applied as a tertiary-recovery process to a deep (6,200 ft), thin (11 ft), light-oil (38.8°API), watered-out reservoir. This COFCAW pilot recovered 83,992 bbl of oil, which is equivalent to 43% of the oil remaining in the five-spot pattern after waterflood. In 1967, the pilot was expanded from an 80- to a 960-acre project and recovered 527,000 bbl of incremental oil. However, it proved to be uneconomical, with crude-oil prices at less than USD 3/bbl. The second application of HPAI was the West Heidelberg pressure-maintenance project (Huffman et al. 1983) in the US state of Mississippi, which started in 1971 as a secondary-recovery project in the deep (11,400 ft) Cotton Valley sands. Even though oil prices were less than USD 4/bbl during the early period of the air-injection operations, payout of the project occurred at approximately 2.5 years, and the project continued to be a successful air-injection project. One interesting aspect of this project was the simulation work presented by Kumar (1991), which showed that, although the early production was mainly because of pressure maintenance, more than half of the cumulative oil production was mainly a result of thermal effects. An important milestone in the advance of HPAI was the implementation of commercial secondary HPAI projects in the North and South Dakota portions of the Williston basin, which started in 1979 and continues to be a technical and economic success (Erickson et al. 1994; Kumar and Fassihi 1995; Kumar et al. 2007a, 2007b; Fassihi et al. 1996, 1997). The estimation of ultimate recovery in HPAI projects is subject to a high level of uncertainty and requires history matching. Nevertheless, in 1994, Kumar and Fassihi (1995) proposed a method for estimating recovery factors of light-oil air-injection projects on the basis of the performance of two HPAI projects. Their suggested method relies on the extrapolation of the field GOR up to an economic limit. In other words, it considers HPAI as an immiscible gasflood. This paper intends to challenge that "gasflood" approach with a "combustion" approach, on the basis of laboratory results and field data gathered mostly from the Buffalo field, which comprises the three oldest HPAI projects currently in operation.

Risk Assessment and Field Case Study on Oil/Natural Gas Explosion during High-Pressure Air Injection Process

SPE Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Lijuan Huang ◽  
Yu Wang ◽  
Liang Zhang ◽  
Shufeng Pei ◽  
Zhe Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Natural Gas ◽  
Necessary Conditions ◽  
Safety Issue ◽  
Fault Tree Analysis ◽  
Air Injection ◽  
Heavy Oils ◽  
Gas Explosion ◽  
Flammability Limits ◽  
Injection Process

Summary Air injection techniques have been widely applied in oil fields, but the associated safety issue of natural gas (NG) and oil explosion has been of great concern. In this study, explosion experiments of different NG compositions were conducted under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions (up to 15 MPa and 373 K) to reveal the necessary conditions for gas explosion in the air injection process. The experimental results indicate that the lower flammability limits (LFLs) and upper flammability limits (UFLs) of NGs change logarithmically with increasing pressure, which can significantly increase the explosion risk. The rise of temperature can also expand the flammability limit range. Based on the mechanisms and necessary conditions for NG and oil component explosion, fault tree analysis (FTA) models for explosion occurring during the air injection process were proposed that can provide valuable guidelines for designing anti-explosion procedures for field applications. Several explosion incidents that have occurred in air injection operations in different oil reservoirs are described, and the explosion mechanisms are analyzed. NG explosion can occur during air injection when NG is the main component present in the gas phase that can mix with air to form a combustible gas. For heavy oils with little NG, autoignited explosion of vaporized oil components can be the main reason for the incidents during the steam and air coinjection process because the autoignition temperature of heavy oil can be greatly reduced at high pressure.

A Methodology for Screening and Ranking of Reservoirs for Light Oil Air Injection Implementation

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.. Niz-Velasquez ◽  
M. L. Trujillo ◽  
C.. Delgadillo ◽  
J.. Padilla
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Simulation ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Evaluation Method ◽  
Feasibility Studies ◽  
Air Injection ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Screening Criteria ◽  
Oil Companies ◽  
Injection Process ◽  
Light Oil

Abstract A great portion of the produced oil currently comes from mature fields, reason why the increase in oil production of current reservoirs is the main objective of oil companies. Thermal enhanced oil recovery processes have been studied, implemented and improved over the years. In the last decade there has been significant interest in the light oil air injection (LOAI) process since the successful implementation of the process known as High Pressure Air Injection in the Buffalo Field (USA), which is a variation from the air injection process in light oil, applicable to deep reservoirs with low permeability and porosity. Proof of this are the West Hackberry Field (USA), more than five commercial projects along the Willinston Basin (USA) and recently a pilot in the Zhong Yuan Field (China). Additionally, feasibility studies have also been initiated and performed in Mexico, Argentina and Colombia. This article proposes screening criteria for the selection of potential light oil reservoirs to be candidates for air injection, as well as a general methodology for the prioritization of the reservoirs with the highest LOAI implementation potential. Said methodology employs screening criteria, analogies and numerical simulation. The first part goes beyond the binary screening by assigning a weight to each one of the criteria, therefore resulting in a numerical ranking. For the analogies the reservoirs in which the technology has already been applied are grouped in four group types, against which the field on evaluation is compared. There is also a numerical simulation in 1D – 2D, where the injectivity with or without pressurization is evaluated, as well as the displacement stability. Additionally a multi-criteria evaluation method is used to select the best candidate.

Effect of low-temperature oxidation of light oil on oil recovery during high pressure air injection

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (13) ◽  
pp. 937-943 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wan-Fen Pu ◽  
Shuai Zhao ◽  
Jing-Jun Pan ◽  
Zhi-Zhong Lin ◽  
Ru-Yan Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Pressure ◽  
Low Temperature ◽  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Air Injection ◽  
Low Temperature Oxidation ◽  
Temperature Oxidation ◽  
Light Oil
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