EOR: Past, Present and What the Next 25 Years May Bring

Stosur, George

doi:10.2523/84864-ms

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…Polymers, surfactants, and hydrocarbon solvents are the liquid chemicals used. Polymer is used to improve the sweep efficiency by changing the mobility ratio; the surfactant lowers the interfacial tension between the oil and displacing fluid (Stosur 2003;Abbas et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural polymer flow behaviour in porous media for enhanced oil recovery applications: a review

Agi

Gbonhinbor

Onyekonwu

2018

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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When a reservoir is flooded with polymer, the mobility ratio between the displaced fluid and the displacing fluid become favourable compared to the conventional water flooding. In the oil and gas industry, the synthetic polymer polyacrylamide in hydrolysed form and the biopolymer xanthan are being used for this purpose. However, the polyacrylamide is susceptible to high temperature and salinity. Also, its synthetic nature makes it harmful to the environment. The biopolymer xanthan has the problem of degradation and both are very expensive. With the shortfall in crude oil price and the high cost of exploitation and drilling new wells, there is need to look inward and think out of the box in formulating new improved polymers that can combat these problems. Natural polymers from agricultural and forest produce are abundant in nature, cheap and environmentally friendly. These agricultural and forest produce contain starch and cellulose which are known to have rigid and long polysaccharide chains that can withstand the harsh reservoir conditions. But the design of a polymer flood or a permeability-modified process involving polymer requires knowledge about the polymer flow mechanism and the rheological behaviour of the porous media. This paper, therefore, reviews the available natural polymers that can be used for enhanced oil recovery applications and the mechanism affecting their flow behaviour in porous media. The emphasis is on the physical aspect of the flow, the microscopic rheological behaviour of the natural polymers. The dominant mechanism of the flow process was adsorption, mechanical entrapment and hydrodynamic retention. It was observed that the polymer exhibited non-Newtonian, pseudoplastic and shear-thinning behaviours. The literature review on oil displacement test indicates that natural polymers can recover additional oil from an oil field. Environmental application issues associated with the application of natural polymers have opened new frontier for research and are also highlighted herein.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Natural polymer flow behaviour in porous media for enhanced oil recovery applications: a review

Agi

Gbonhinbor

Onyekonwu

2018

J Petrol Explor Prod Technol

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“…This consequences in a huge amount of discovered oil seized in the reservoir in spite of an existing production infrastructure. The demand to increase the recovery factor of the petroleum reservoirs at economically feasible production rates is the main motivation for the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) applications around the world [3,4].…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Surfactant flooding is among the most effective and widely applied EOR process [3][4][5][6][7]. The efficiency of surfactant flooding methods in EOR is often related to the reduction of oil/water IFT [6][7][8], while wettability changes of the reservoir rock from oil wet to more water wet conditions are considered to play an important role in microscopic oil displacement [9].…”

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confidence: 99%

Dynamic wettability alteration for combined low salinity brine injection and surfactant flooding on silica surface

et al. 2020

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Experimental results of dynamic contact angle measurements of low salinity brine and combined low salinity water and surfactant flooding (LSW-SF) on silica surface are presented in this study. Dynamic contact angle experiments were carried out for four crude oil samples with low salinity brines and combined low salinity and sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS) solutions. Similar measurements with the same ion strength in presence of different cations, Na + and Ca 2+ , for low salinity injections and combined low salinity-SDBS solutions were also carried out to study the change in dynamic contact angles and wetting behavior. The presences of different cations change the initial contact angles in low salinity solution injections and show different dynamic behaviors in presence of different crude oils. The signs and values of the line tension to oil/water interfacial tension ratios have been calculated from the size dependence of the dynamic contact angle measurements on the silica coated quartz crystal microbalance sensors. Analysis indicates positive line tension values for low salinity brine systems and negative values for LSW-SF systems. Injection of surfactant solutions in presence of electrolyte prompts the spreading of the oil droplet over the surface, which is induced by interfacial tension gradient from the top of the oil droplet toward the contact line. The results indicated that spreading time, which is the required time for oil drop to gradually flatten out, is dependent on type of electrolytes and is a function of surface excess concentration of the surfactant.

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“…Large deposits are especially interesting, from the point of view of the application of EOR methods [1][2][3]. Various classifications of enhanced oil recovery methods and conditions for their use have been provided in the literature, defined for very heavy, heavy, and other hydrocarbons [2,[4][5][6]. In the former group, EOR methods such as the injection of water, chemical materials, gas, heat, as well as other methods such as microbiological, ultrasonic, and so on have been distinguished.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laboratory Testing of Novel Polyfraction Nanoemulsion for EOR Processes in Carbonate Formations

et al. 2020

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Nanoemulsions and polymers are widely used for increasing the efficiency of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes. The application of both these additives enables the synergistic use of several physical phenomena that are crucial to the process. One of the methods used for assessing these processes is laboratory core flooding tests using natural cores. In various experiments, carbonate rocks are subjected to oil displacement under high pressure and temperature. Polymer solutions and a newly developed polyfraction nanoemulsion are tested. The test results confirm the usefulness of these products for EOR processes and demonstrate their stability under high pressure, high temperature, and in the presence of H2S. Under these conditions the polymers maintain high efficiency in displacing crude oil from carbonate rocks, while the tested nanoemulsion improves the wettability of carbonate rocks and reduces interfacial tension, factors which increase the efficiency of oil displacement.The best result in the laboratory EOR simulation was obtained for polymer and nanoemulsion concentrations in dilute reservoir water of 0.05% and 1%, respectively. In this case, the measured oil recovery was 37.5% higher than that obtained when using water without additives.

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EOR: Past, Present and What the Next 25 Years May Bring

Cited by 16 publications

References 0 publications

Natural polymer flow behaviour in porous media for enhanced oil recovery applications: a review

Natural polymer flow behaviour in porous media for enhanced oil recovery applications: a review

Dynamic wettability alteration for combined low salinity brine injection and surfactant flooding on silica surface

Laboratory Testing of Novel Polyfraction Nanoemulsion for EOR Processes in Carbonate Formations

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