Enhanced-Oil-Recovery Potential of Heavy-Oil Fields in Africa

Abstract

fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractThis paper presents an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) evaluation for two heavy-oil fields in Africa. The objective of the evaluation is to identify the technically and economically viable EOR techniques for the fields. A total of thirteen established and emerging EOR techniques were evaluated in this study. The study included the first degree approximation of the oil recovery for the viable EOR techniques and the stand-alone project economics estimation.The data required for the study include: 1) fluids and rock properties; 2) driving mechanism; 3) production data; 4) OOIP and recoverable reserves; and 5) relative permeability curves. Various EOR technique screening criteria, consisting of a list of reservoir parameters and their ranges which are likely to lead to a success, were applied to match the parameters of the study fields. The oil recovery predictions were estimated utilizing general reservoir parameters and developed correlations 1 . The economic feasibility of the potential EOR techniques was then evaluated based on the stand-alone project economics that accounted for the revenue from the incremental oil and the associated operating and capital costs.The evaluation results showed that the thermal EOR techniques: steam flooding and in-situ combustion are technically the most viable EOR techniques for the fields. It was then followed by the chemical EOR techniques. The performances of steam flooding and in-situ combustion are both very promising, with oil recovery of up to 49% OOIP. Comparing to the oil recovery of water flooding, a significant incremental oil recovery of 24% OOIP was obtained. However, the in-situ combustion process is able to accelerate the oil production, which significantly impacts the economic viability assessment, rendering the in-situ combustion process as the most technically, and economically feasible EOR process for the fields.Based on the EOR evaluation, the oil recovery predictions and economic assessments of the thirteen EOR techniques, including the chemical, gas, thermal and microbial EOR techniques, served as a guideline to develop the long term corporate strategy regarding the EOR potential of the fields.

Viscoelastic Behavior of Crude Oil-Gum Emulsions in Enhanced Oil Recovery

“…A considerable amount of crude oil—around half of the original magnitude—cannot be produced by traditional methods. Thus, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is a very effective approach to extract the retained oil in an oil well [ 1 ]. There are many techniques that can be utilized to achieve this goal; some of these methods are alkali and surfactants as reported by Wylde et al (2013) [ 2 ], and carbon dioxide injection [ 3 , 4 ].…”

On the Role of Polymer Viscoelasticity in Enhanced Oil Recovery: Extensive Laboratory Data and Review

“…A secondary production phase using artificial methods such as pressure support by water flooding or the application of pumps can yield RFs of approximately 50–60% [ 1 , 2 ]. The last phase of recovery—the tertiary recovery phase enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods—is applied in order to achieve RFs of up to 80% [ 3 , 4 ].…”