Utilization of carbon dioxide and methane in huff-and-puff injection scheme to improve heavy oil recovery

Firouz, Alireza Qazvini; Torabi, Farshid

doi:10.1016/j.fuel.2013.10.040

Cited by 46 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 17 publications

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“…Qazvini Firouz and Torabi (2014) studied the feasibility of CO2 in the CSI process at different injection pressures. They saturated a core of 1.7 D-permeability and 24%-porosity with a dead (gas-free) heavy oil of 952 mPa•s viscosity at 28°C.…”

Section: Vapour Solvent Solubility In Heavy Oilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Study of Heavy Oil Recovery Mechanisms during Cyclic Solvent Injection Processes

2020

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Summary The cyclic solvent injection (CSI) process has recently shown to be a promising method for enhanced heavy oil recovery in Canada. Laboratory testing is often run before development of field pilots to assess the effect of parameters, such as solvent choice and process conditions, on the CSI response. However, differences between laboratory results vs. field applications have been observed. CSI laboratory studies work for only two to three cycles due to low incremental oil in subsequent cycles, whereas field pilots continue for years over multiple cycles. This experimental study is intended to capture the production mechanisms responsible for heavy oil production in CSI. Primary production and CSI tests were conducted using sandpack models saturated with live heavy oil of 9530 mPa·s viscosity. The experiments were conducted in horizontal and vertical mode injection at high- and low-pressure depletion rates using two solvent mixtures of CH4 and C3H8. The sandpacks were scanned after every cycle to analyze the evolution of gas and oil saturations using computed tomography (CT). Three cores were used to study the effect of several parameters: gravity forces, pressure depletion rate, solvent composition, and initial oil saturation on the performance of CSI processes. CSI cycles run after primary production in horizontal systems produced negligible incremental oil for both slow and fast drawdown rates due to the large void space and high free gas saturation inhibiting the pressure buildup to push the solvent-diluted oil. These CSI experiments were only initially successful in dead oil systems, in which the initial oil saturation was higher and appropriate pressure gradient was generated through fast depletion rates. During the vertical alignment, CSI cycles exhibited higher incremental oil recovery per cycle. Slow depletion cycles were more efficient in terms of pressure and incremental recovery per cycle; however, faster depletion cycles performed better as a function of time. These results are more in line with the repeated recoveries measured over multiple cycles in field CSI pilot studies. More volume of diluted oil was drained out of the core when the solvent mixture with higher propane (C3H8) content was injected. These results demonstrate the importance of gravity drainage in the CSI process and its significance on successful oil recovery rates. This study illustrates the limitations of previous horizontal laboratory tests and shows an improved test configuration for modeling and prediction of the improved response observed in CSI pilots.

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Section: Vapour Solvent Solubility In Heavy Oilmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Study of Heavy Oil Recovery Mechanisms during Cyclic Solvent Injection Processes

2020

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Unconventional Reservoirs

Ghanbarian

Liang

Liu

2023

Physics of Fluid Flow and Transport in Unconventional Reservoir Rocks

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Experimental investigation on influencing factors of CO₂huff and puff under fractured low‐permeability conditions

Bai

et al. 2019

Energy Science & Engineering

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The fracture system is a vital component of fractured low‐permeability reservoirs. The presence of fractures can improve reservoir flow capacity and injected carbon dioxide (CO2) utilization, thus leading to higher oil recovery. In this study, the effects of the presence of fracture, fracture morphology, soaking time, and CO2 injection volume on CO2 huff and puff were investigated through 11 low‐permeability cores with different properties. The experimental results indicated that the presence of fractures enhanced cyclic oil recovery and increased the effective cycle numbers during CO2 huff and puff in low‐permeability cores. Moreover, compared with low‐permeability cores without fractures, ultimate oil recovery of CO2 huff and puff was risen up by ~11% in fractured cores. Longer soaking time was conducive to enhancing ultimate oil recovery of CO2 huff and puff in fractured low‐permeability cores, but the excessive soaking time had little effect on ultimate oil recovery. Meanwhile, excessive CO2 injection volume did not significantly improve the performance of CO2 huff and puff, but it did reduce the CO2 utilization. Moreover, gravity caused the produced oil to deposit on the bottom surface of the blowout end of the fracture, which made oil recovery of the core with a horizontal fracture slightly higher (~7%) than that of the core with a vertical fracture. In addition, variation in the intersection angle of fractures had little effect on ultimate oil recovery of CO2 huff and puff in fractured low‐permeability cores. It, however, did change the conductivity of the entire core, thus affecting oil recovery during the first two cycles remarkably.

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Utilization of carbon dioxide and methane in huff-and-puff injection scheme to improve heavy oil recovery

Cited by 46 publications

References 17 publications

Experimental Study of Heavy Oil Recovery Mechanisms during Cyclic Solvent Injection Processes

Experimental Study of Heavy Oil Recovery Mechanisms during Cyclic Solvent Injection Processes

Unconventional Reservoirs

Experimental investigation on influencing factors of CO₂huff and puff under fractured low‐permeability conditions

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Utilization of carbon dioxide and methane in huff-and-puff injection scheme to improve heavy oil recovery

Cited by 46 publications

References 17 publications

Experimental Study of Heavy Oil Recovery Mechanisms during Cyclic Solvent Injection Processes

Experimental Study of Heavy Oil Recovery Mechanisms during Cyclic Solvent Injection Processes

Unconventional Reservoirs

Experimental investigation on influencing factors of CO2huff and puff under fractured low‐permeability conditions

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Experimental investigation on influencing factors of CO₂huff and puff under fractured low‐permeability conditions