Enhanced oil recovery techniques for heavy oil and oilsands reservoirs after steam injection

Dong, Xiaohu; Liu, Huiqing; Chen, Zhangxin; Wu, Keliu; Lü, Ning; Zhang, Qichen

doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.01.244

Cited by 384 publications

(150 citation statements)

References 281 publications

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“…Nevertheless, high costs [3], steam channeling [4], and no appreciable change in crude oil quality [5] are the difficulties that the conventional steam injection has. To increase the efficiency of the steam injection technology and overcome the problems associated with the transport and refining operations because of the low quality of the crude oils [6], non-condensable gases [7] and chemical agents [8] are injected into the reservoir in parallel or in sequence with steam, showing excellent results in some field cases related mainly to the increase in oil productivity.…”

Section: Of 20mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Upgrading of Extra-Heavy Crude Oils by Dispersed Injection of NiO–PdO/CeO2±δ Nanocatalyst-Based Nanofluids in the Steam

et al. 2019

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The main objective of this study is to evaluate the injection of a dispersed nanocatalyst-based nanofluid in a steam stream for in situ upgrading and oil recovery during a steam injection process. The nanocatalyst was selected through adsorption and thermogravimetric experiments. Two nanoparticles were proposed, ceria nanoparticles (CeO2±δ), with and without functionalization with nickel, and palladium oxides (CeNi0.89Pd1.1). Each one was employed for static tests of adsorption and subsequent decomposition using a model solution composed of n-C7 asphaltenes (A) and resins II (R) separately and for different R:A ratios of 2:8, 1:1, and 8:2. Then, a displacement test consisting of three main stages was successfully developed. At the beginning, steam was injected into the porous media at a temperature of 210 °C, the pore and overburden pressure were fixed at 150 and 800 psi, respectively, and the steam quality was 70%. This was followed by CeNi0.89Pd1.1 dispersed injection in the steam stream. Finally, the treatment was allowed to soak for 12 h, and the steam flooding was carried out again until no more oil production was observed. Among the most relevant results, functionalized nanoparticles achieved higher adsorption of both fractions as well as a lower decomposition temperature. The presence of resins did not affect the amount of asphaltene adsorption over the evaluated materials. The catalytic activity suggests that the increase in resin content promotes a higher conversion in a shorter period of time. Also, for the different steps of the dynamic test, increases of 25% and 42% in oil recovery were obtained for the dispersed injection of the nanofluid in the steam stream and after a soaking time of 12 h, compared with the base curve with only steam injection, respectively. The upgraded crude oil reached an API gravity level of 15.9°, i.e., an increase in 9.0° units in comparison with the untreated extra-heavy crude oil, which represents an increase of 130%. Also, reductions of up to 71% and 85% in the asphaltene content and viscosity were observed.

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Section: Of 20mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Experimental setup: (1) positive displacement pumps,(2,3,4,5) oil, brine water, and nanofluid-containing cylinders, respectively, (6) steam generator, (7) manometers, (8) thermocouple,(9) pressure transducer, (10) core holder, (11) sand packed bed, (12) sample output and (13) hydraulic pump.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Upgrading of Extra-Heavy Crude Oils by Dispersed Injection of NiO–PdO/CeO2±δ Nanocatalyst-Based Nanofluids in the Steam

et al. 2019

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“…Specically, its high viscosity, which is much larger than that of its own gas and liquid phases, effectively increases the mobility control capacity, and alleviates some problems from N 2 ooding, such as low sweep efficiency and premature breakthrough caused by viscous ngering, gravity segregation and thief zone. [1][2][3] On the other hand, in heterogeneous formation, foam tends to be generated in highpermeability layers and effectively block them, thus facilitating subsequent ooding uid diversion into lowpermeability layers and enlarging the sweep volume of high residual oil regions. In addition, the higher the permeability contrast between the formation layers, the better selective the plugging performance of foam.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Giant surfactant-stabilized N₂-foam for enhanced oil recovery after water flooding

Bai

Lian

et al. 2019

RSC Adv.

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“…It had been proved by the core flooding test and field application that foam assisted steam flooding can recover more oil than the conventional steam flooding. 18,19 Talbi et al 20 realized that immiscible CO 2 can help increase oil recovery by dissolving in crude oil when the formation pressure is above 6 MPa. Meanwhile, Emadi et al 21 believed that injecting CO 2 into heavy oil could result in low sweep efficiency as well as low displacement efficiency comparing with that injecting CO 2 into light oil.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among them, CO 2 dissolution in oil can reduce viscosity and improve oil displacement efficiency, which is beneficial to displace the remaining oil at the top. Wu et al 32 and Dong et al 19 studied the mechanism of enhancing oil recovery using flue gas assisted steam flooding. Han et al 33 uses full diameter core to study the feasibility of supplementing formation energy by flue gas drive after water flooding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of flue‐gas foam in thermal‐chemical flooding for medium‐depth heavy oil reservoirs

Líu

et al. 2019

Energy Science & Engineering

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Heat loss in wellbore during steam injection is considerable due to the deep burial of medium‐depth heavy oil reservoirs, leading to a low steam quality in the bottom of well. As for hot water flooding, the mobility ratio between oil and water is small, which decreases oil recovery. Flue‐gas foam assisted thermal‐chemical flooding is a new method for heavy oil reservoir. Compared to hot water flooding, flue‐gas foam assisted thermal‐chemical flooding can decrease oil viscosity, achieving higher sweep efficiency. However, the combined mechanisms of all the injected components have not been studied systematically. In this work, the role of CO2, viscosity reducer and hot water for oil viscosity reduction and distribution characteristics of residual oil were studied using the numerical simulation methods. Results show that although the percentage of viscosity reduction contribution of viscosity reducer can be as high as 60%, only wider range of this effect can help recover more remaining oil effectively. In the presence of flue‐gas foam, CO2 and viscosity reducer can decrease oil viscosity in the upper and bottom layers of the reservoir, respectively. Two parameters of the area proportion of removed‐oil (ARRO) and the average removed‐oil saturation (SDRO) are defined. It is believed that both ARRO and SDRO are quite small for the hot water flooding, which is assisted by viscosity reducer. The flue‐gas foam can obviously expand the area of removed‐oil, but the average removed‐oil saturation is slightly lower. The combination of flue‐gas foam and viscosity reducer is a promising displacement method.

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Enhanced oil recovery techniques for heavy oil and oilsands reservoirs after steam injection

Cited by 384 publications

References 281 publications

Upgrading of Extra-Heavy Crude Oils by Dispersed Injection of NiO–PdO/CeO2±δ Nanocatalyst-Based Nanofluids in the Steam

Upgrading of Extra-Heavy Crude Oils by Dispersed Injection of NiO–PdO/CeO2±δ Nanocatalyst-Based Nanofluids in the Steam

Giant surfactant-stabilized N₂-foam for enhanced oil recovery after water flooding

Application of flue‐gas foam in thermal‐chemical flooding for medium‐depth heavy oil reservoirs

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Enhanced oil recovery techniques for heavy oil and oilsands reservoirs after steam injection

Cited by 384 publications

References 281 publications

Upgrading of Extra-Heavy Crude Oils by Dispersed Injection of NiO–PdO/CeO2±δ Nanocatalyst-Based Nanofluids in the Steam

Upgrading of Extra-Heavy Crude Oils by Dispersed Injection of NiO–PdO/CeO2±δ Nanocatalyst-Based Nanofluids in the Steam

Giant surfactant-stabilized N2-foam for enhanced oil recovery after water flooding

Application of flue‐gas foam in thermal‐chemical flooding for medium‐depth heavy oil reservoirs

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Giant surfactant-stabilized N₂-foam for enhanced oil recovery after water flooding