Mass Transfer From Bypassed Zones During Gas Injection

Burger, Jon; Mohanty, Kishore K.

doi:10.2118/30768-pa

Cited by 46 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Four mechanisms have been found to contribute to this mass transfer: dispersion/diffusion-drive (Hara and Christman 1990), gravity-drive (Firoozabadi and Markeset 1994), pressure-drive (Pande and Orr 1990) and capillarity-drive (Lee and Fayers 1992). Burger et al (1996) and Burger and Mohanty (1997) have found that mass transfer increases with solvent enrichment and that horizontal mass transfer provides the most efficient oil recovery as a result of gravity-driven crossflow. The inverted, or positive gravity orientation, exhibits counter current gravity-driven cross-flow that inhibits mass transfer somewhat.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microscopic Mechanisms of Oil Recovery By Near-Miscible Gas Injection

et al. 2007

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As gas flooding becomes a more viable means of enhanced oil recovery, it is important to identify and understand the pore-scale flow mechanisms, both for the development of improved gas flooding applications and for the predicting phase mobilisation under secondary and tertiary gas flooding. The purpose of this study was to visually investigate the pore-level mechanisms of oil recovery by near-miscible secondary and tertiary gas floods. High-pressure glass micromodels and model fluids representing a near-miscible fluid system were used for the flow experiments. A new pore-scale recovery mechanism was identified which significantly contributed to oil recovery through enhanced flow and cross-flow between the bypassed pores and the injected gas. This mechanism is strongly related to a very low gas/oil interfacial tension (IFT), perfect wetting conditions and simultaneous flow of gas and oil in the same pore, all of which occur as the gas/oil critical point is approached. The results of this study helps us to better understand the pore-scale mechanisms of oil recovery in very low-IFT (near-miscible) systems. In particular we show that in near-miscible gas floods, behind the main gas front, the recovery of the oil continues by cross-flow from the bypassed pores into the main flow stream and as a result almost all of the oil, which has been contacted by the gas, could be recovered. Our observations in high-pressure micromodel experiments have demonstrated that this mechanism can only occur in near-miscible processes (as opposed to immiscible and completely miscible processes), which makes oil displacement by near-miscible gas floods a very effective process.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microscopic Mechanisms of Oil Recovery By Near-Miscible Gas Injection

et al. 2007

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“…The orientation of the bypassed region with respect to gravity and enrichment of the solvents affect the mass-transfer rate. The mass transfer was least for the vertically up orientation (against gravity), intermediate for the vertically down, and highest for the horizontal orientation for the experiments by Burger et al 14 The mass-transfer rate increased monotonically with enrichment. Most of these experiments were conducted without any water in the core.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 77%

“…11,12 Morel et al 13 demonstrated the importance of capillary-driven crossflow in nitrogen floods of a fractured block. Burger et al 14 in near-miscible hydrocarbon floods. In nitrogen flooding, the gas/ oil interfacial tension (IFT) decreases with distance into the bypassed region; gas/oil IFT increases with distance into the bypassed region in the near-miscible hydrocarbon floods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Effect of Wafer Saturation on Oil Recovery by Near-Miscible Gas Injection

Wylie

Mohanty

1997

SPE Reservoir Engineering

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During gas injection, bypassing of oil is common because of gravitational, viscous, and/or heterogeneity effects. The oil in the bypassed regions can be recovered through enhanced flow and mass transfer between the bypassed region and the injectant gas. Previously, experiments in our laboratory have been carried out to evaluate the effects of phase behavior and capillary crossflow in near-miscible gasfloods; however, these studies were conducted in the absence of water. In this paper, we evaluate the effects of water saturation on oil bypassing and the rate of mass transfer from the bypassed zones. Injectant gases are first-contact miscible (FCM), multicontact miscible (MCM), or submiscible with the bypassed oil. Gasfloods are conducted in different orientations with different levels of water saturation. Mass-transfer experiments are carried out to isolate and investigate mass-transfer mechanisms. Results indicate that oil recovery from vertical, submiscible gasfloods is not influenced by water-saturation level. Horizontal gasfloods showed evidence of less gravity override in the presence of water. The mass-transfer experiments showed that recovery increases with enrichment and is reduced by the presence of water. Effective diffusion coefficients are estimated as functions of water saturation and enrichment.

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“…Part of bypassed oil can be recovered by the transverse mass flux between the bypassed and flowing regions as reported by a number of researchers (Pande, 1992;Pande andOrr, 1994a, 1994b;Burger et al, 1994Burger et al, , 1996Burger and Mohanty, 1997;Zhou et al, 1997;Cinar et al, 2006;Al-Wahaibi et al, 2007). The transverse flux between the two regions can occur because of diffusion, dispersion, viscous forces, and capillarity [Pande, 1992;Pande andOrr, 1994a, 1994b].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 88%

“…The degree of miscibility between oil and gas also affects the level of bypassing in gas floods (Mohanty and Johnson, 1993;Burger and Mohanty, 1997). Experimental results (Burger et al, 1994) showed that the bypassed-oil fraction was smaller for less miscible processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling of capacitance flow behavior in EOS compositional simulation

Okuno

2015

Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

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Mass Transfer From Bypassed Zones During Gas Injection

Cited by 46 publications

References 21 publications

Microscopic Mechanisms of Oil Recovery By Near-Miscible Gas Injection

Microscopic Mechanisms of Oil Recovery By Near-Miscible Gas Injection

Effect of Wafer Saturation on Oil Recovery by Near-Miscible Gas Injection

Modeling of capacitance flow behavior in EOS compositional simulation

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