Thermal Methods of Recovery

Speight, James G.

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-813025-4.00003-9

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…Cyclic steam injection involves two main phases: injection of steam followed by the production of heavy oil with the condensed steam. This is carried out alternatingly with a new cycle started when the rate of oil production declines below a critical level [32]. This method is favoured in the following conditions: in reservoirs that can withstand high-pressure steam and in the presence of thick pay zones (> 10 m) containing sands with high porosity (> 30%) [32].…”

Section: Heavy Oil Reservoirsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is carried out alternatingly with a new cycle started when the rate of oil production declines below a critical level [32]. This method is favoured in the following conditions: in reservoirs that can withstand high-pressure steam and in the presence of thick pay zones (> 10 m) containing sands with high porosity (> 30%) [32]. Steam flooding is the injection of steam into the reservoir to raise the temperature of the oil whilst reducing its viscosity [33,34].…”

Section: Heavy Oil Reservoirsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Production from Unconventional Petroleum Reservoirs: Précis of Stimulation Techniques and Fluid Systems

Eshiet¹

2022

Emerging Technologies in Hydraulic Fracturing and Gas Flow Modelling

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An overview of the different categories of unconventional oil and gas reservoirs, and corresponding stimulation techniques appropriate for them is examined. Three main groups of unconventional oil and gas formations are appraised: heavy oil, oil shale and tight reservoirs. The scope of stimulation methods applicable to heavy oil reservoirs is limited. This kind of formation contains characteristic high-viscous hydrocarbons and are produced majorly by cold production and thermal stimulation. On the other hand, a wider range of stimulation methods are successfully used to produce tight and oil shales formations. For oil shales, these include drilling horizontal wells as substitutes to vertical wells, hydraulic fracturing, surfactant treatment, water imbibition, thermal treatment and acidisation; whilst for tight formations, these include hydraulic fracturing, surfactant treatment, water imbibition, acidisation and the application of electro-kinetics. Fracturing fluid systems are integral to the implementation of most stimulation operations and are evaluated herein under the following groups: water-based, oil-based, foam-based and acid-based. The most commonly used fracturing fluids are water based, albeit there are several instances where other types of fluids or combination of fluids are more suitable based on factors such as formation sensitivity, costs, wettability, rock solubility, surface tension, capillarity, viscosity, density, rheology and reactivity.

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Section: Heavy Oil Reservoirsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Heavy Oil Reservoirsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Production from Unconventional Petroleum Reservoirs: Précis of Stimulation Techniques and Fluid Systems

Eshiet¹

2022

Emerging Technologies in Hydraulic Fracturing and Gas Flow Modelling

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“…These methods use steam at 200–350 °C to reduce the viscosity of bitumen, allowing it to flow and be produced. Among these methods, SAGD is the principal recovery method in Canada, with ultimate recoveries as high as 60–70%. , Although commercially successful, thermal methods require considerable energy to generate steam and therefore are inefficient. They have undesirable environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas emissions, high water consumption and contamination, and land disturbances .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of Solvent-Assisted Gravity Drainage in a Packed Hele-Shaw Cell with Liquid Toluene over Bitumen

2022

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The condensing solvent process is a heavy oil (or bitumen) recovery method where the injected vapor solvent condenses when it contacts the colder bitumen and the bitumen diffuses into the condensed liquid. The process has been piloted, but field implementation is impeded by the absence of a reliable model to upscale laboratory measurements to the field scale. In order to better understand and represent the mechanisms controlling the process, a glass-bead-packed Hele-Shaw type apparatus was partially filled with bitumen with a sloped interface, and liquid toluene was flowed on top of the bitumen layer at a fixed flow rate. Bitumen and solvent recoveries were measured over time, and the change in the bitumen profile was tracked with a camera. The key mechanisms of the process were verified to be the diffusion of bitumen into solvent through convective mass transfer and convective flow of the resulting mixture in the drainage layer by gravity. An approximate analytical solution was derived for dilute conditions (high solvent flow rates) and used to identify the transition from a finite to a semi-infinite mass transfer boundary condition in the drainage layer. A numerical model was fitted to the experimental data, and a correlation was established for the convective mass transfer coefficient of bitumen into the solvent in porous media. The correlation has only one adjustable parameter which was constant for steady-state mass transfer in the semi-infinite acting regime.

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Experimental Investigations of Forward and Reverse Combustion for Increasing Oil Recovery of a Real Oil Field

et al. 2020

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The work presented herein is devoted to a unique set of forward and reverse combustion tube (CT) experiments to access the suitability and potential of the in situ combustion (ISC) method for the light oil carbonate reservoir. One forward and one reverse combustion tube tests were carried out using the high-pressure combustion tube (HPCT) experimental setup. However, during reverse combustion, the front moved in the opposite direction to the airflow. The results obtained from experiments such as fuel/air requirements, H/C ratio, and recovery efficiency are crucial for further validation of the numerical model. A quantitative assessment of the potential for the combustion was carried out. The oil recovery of forward combustion was as high as 91.4% of the initial oil in place, while that for the reverse combustion test demonstrated a 43% recovery. In the given conditions, forward combustion demonstrated significantly higher efficiency. However, the stabilized combustion front propagation and produced gases of reverse combustion prove its possible applicability. Currently, there is a limited amount of available studies on reverse combustion and a lack of publications within the last decades despite advances in technologies. However, reverse combustion might have advantages over forward combustion for heavy oil reservoirs with lower permeability or might serve as a reservoir preheating technique. These experiments give the opportunity to build and validate the numerical models of forward and reverse combustion conducted at reservoir conditions and test their field application using different scenarios.

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Thermal Methods of Recovery

Cited by 3 publications

References 55 publications

Production from Unconventional Petroleum Reservoirs: Précis of Stimulation Techniques and Fluid Systems

Production from Unconventional Petroleum Reservoirs: Précis of Stimulation Techniques and Fluid Systems

Investigation of Solvent-Assisted Gravity Drainage in a Packed Hele-Shaw Cell with Liquid Toluene over Bitumen

Experimental Investigations of Forward and Reverse Combustion for Increasing Oil Recovery of a Real Oil Field

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