Coral Creek Field Study: A Comprehensive Assessment of the Potential of High-Pressure Air Injection in a Mature Waterflood Project

Glandt, C.A.; Pieterson, Roelof; Dombrowski, Anna; Balzarini, Maria A.

doi:10.2118/52198-ms

Cited by 19 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Further reported simulations studies that evaluated the feasibility of field implementation have modelled it as a flue gas process. Sakthikumar et al (13) simulated air injection process as an immiscible nitrogen flood, Glandt et al (14) modelled the process as an isothermal flue-gas flood and Mohiuddin et al (15) simulated air injection process as a nitrogen injection process. Even though those simulations were rightly seen as a conservative case, they neglect the "bulldozing" effect described by Gutiérrez et al (16) and could predict neither liquid natural gas production nor thermal effects related to the combustion process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is High-Pressure Air Injection (HPAI) Simply a Flue-Gas Flood?

Montes

Gutiérrez²,

Moore

et al. 2010

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

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High-pressure air injection (HPAI) is an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process in which compressed air is injected into a deep, light-oil reservoir, with the expectation that the oxygen in the injected air will react with a fraction of the reservoir oil at an elevated temperature to produce carbon dioxide. Over the years, HPAI has been considered a simple flue-gas flood, giving little credit to the thermal drive as a production mechanism. The truth is that, although early production during a HPAI process is mainly due to re-pressurization and gasflood effects, once a pore volume of air has been injected the combustion front becomes the main driving mechanism. This paper presents laboratory and field evidence of the presence of a thermal front during HPAI operations, and of its beneficial impact on oil production. Production and injection data from the Buffalo Field, which comprises the oldest HPAI projects currently in operation, were gathered and analyzed for this purpose. These HPAI projects definitely do not behave as simple immiscible gasfloods. This study shows that a HPAI project has the potential to yield higher recoveries than a simple immiscible gasflood. Furthermore, it gives recommendations about how to operate the process to take advantage of its full capabilities. Introduction High-Pressure Air Injection (HPAI) is an emerging technology for the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) of light oils that has proven to be a valuable process, especially in deep, thin, low-permeability reservoirs(1-7). A number of successful high-pressure air injection projects in light oil reservoirs have been documented in the literature(8-10). Most of these projects have been operating for many years, attesting to their technical and economic success. The improvement in recovery of light oil by HPAI involves a combination of complex processes, each contributing to the overall recovery. These processes include flue gas sweeping, field re-pressurization, oil swelling, viscosity reduction, stripping of the lighter components of the oil, and thermal effects. Early production during the HPAI process is related to re-pressurization and gasflood effects; hence, the influence of the thermal zone is secondary during the early life of an injector. The oil displaced directly by the thermal front will depend on the effectiveness of the generated flue gas on oil displacement from outside the thermal region.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is High-Pressure Air Injection (HPAI) Simply a Flue-Gas Flood?

Montes

Gutiérrez²,

Moore

et al. 2010

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Simplifications are also a subject of controversy because the extent of the contribution of thermal effects to the oil recovery has not been assessed fully despite recent efforts (Montes et al 2008;Niz-Velásquez et al 2006). The need for research in this area has recently increased, as a result of the success of field applications in the Williston basin (Glandt et al 1999;Watts et al 1997;Kumar et al 1995) and experimental studies showing that even at high-water-saturation conditions the combustion front is sustained and displaces oil effectively (Pascual et al 2005;Juan et al 2005;Fraim et al 1997). A significant number of studies have dealt with topics related to HPAI such as the characterization of reaction kinetics (Greaves et al 2000;Belgrave et al 1993), flue-gas/light-oil compositional interactions (Shokoya 2005), and the modeling of the latter with an integrated approach (De Zwart et al 2005;Kuhlman 2000;Clara et al 1999), but the simultaneous flow of oil, water, and gas phases at the process conditions remains largely unexplored.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental and Numerical Modeling of Three-Phase Flow Under High-Pressure Air Injection

Niz-Velasquez

Moore

Fraassen

et al. 2010

SPE Reservoir Evaluation &Amp; Engineering

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In this paper, an improved characterization of three-phase flow under high-pressure-air-injection (HPAI) conditions was achieved on the basis of experimental results and numerical reservoir simulation.A three-phase coreflood experiment was conducted at reservoir conditions, using 37°API stock-tank oil, an 84% nitrogen and 16% carbon dioxide flue-gas mixture, and 3% potassium chloride brine. The aim of the test was to evaluate the effects that the highly liquid-saturated front produced by the thermal reactions has on the mobility of each phase. Departing from connate-water saturation and reservoir pressure and temperature, sequential injection of water, gas, and oil was carried out, followed by a final gasflood to residual liquid saturation. Other two-and three-phase tests performed on this rock specimen were published elsewhere ). Numerical history matching was employed to determine oil/water and liquid/gas relative permeability (k r ) curves for both imbibition and drainage cases. A combustion-tube (CT) test was simulated using conventional k r curves and a set that included hysteresis. The degree of hysteresis observed during the coreflood test was maintained for the CT simulation.History matching of the coreflood showed that k r to the gas phase is much smaller during liquid reimbibition than during drainage. The use of gas-phase hysteresis for the CT test allows for a better matching of liquid volumes and pressure drop. Analysis of the simulated data suggests that the reduction in gas-phase mobility encourages an early increase in the oil rate, which is more consistent with experimental data than what is predicted by a model with conventional k r . The analysis also reveals that water distilled below the saturated steam temperature plays an important role in the increase of liquid saturation and oil mobilization.The improved characterization of relative permeability considering gas-phase hysteresis for simulating HPAI enhances the predictive capability of available commercial simulators, providing a more certain method to evaluate the technical and economical feasibility of a project. The ability to predict an early increase in oil rate, consistent with experimental observations, results in improved economics for the project.

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“…Simplifications are also a subject of controversy since the extent of the contribution of thermal effects to the oil recovery has not been fully assessed despite recent efforts (Montes et al, 2008;Niz-Velasquez et al, 2006). The need for research in this area has recently increased due to the success of field applications in the Willinston basin (Glandt et al, 1999;Watts, Hall and Petri, 1997;Kumar, Fassihi and Yannimaras, 1995) and experimental studies showing that even at high water saturation conditions the combustion front is sustained and effectively displaces oil (Pascual et al, 2005;Juan et al, 2005;Fraim, Moffitt and Yannimaras, 1997). A significant amount of studies have dealt with topics related to HPAI such as the characterization of reaction kinetics (Greaves et al, 2000;Belgrave et al, 1990), flue gas/light oil compositional interactions (Shokoya, 2005), and its modeling with an integrated approach (De Zwart et al, 2005, Kuhlman, 2000Clara et al, 1999;) but the simultaneous flow of oil, water and gas phases at the process conditions remains largely unexplored.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental and Numerical Modeling of Three-Phase Flow Under High-Pressure Air Injection (HPAI)

et al. 2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this paper, an improved characterization of three-phase flow under HPAI conditions was achieved based on experimental results and numerical reservoir simulation.A three-phase coreflood experiment was conducted at reservoir conditions, using 37˚API stock tank oil, 84% nitrogen -16% carbon dioxide flue gas mixture, and 3% KCl brine. The aim of the test was to evaluate the effects that the highly liquid-saturated front produced by the thermal reactions has on the mobility of each phase. Departing from connate water saturation and reservoir pressure and temperature, sequential injection of water, gas and oil was carried out, followed by a final gas flood to residual liquid saturation. Other twoand three-phase tests performed on this rock specimen were published elsewhere. Numerical history matching was employed to determine oil-water and liquid-gas relative permeability (k r ) curves for both imbibition and drainage cases. A Combustion Tube (CT) test was simulated using both conventional k r curves and a set including hysteresis. The degree of hysteresis observed during the coreflood test was maintained for the CT simulation.History matching of the coreflood showed that k r to the gas phase is much smaller during liquid re-imbibition than during drainage. The use of gas phase hysteresis for the CT test allows for a better matching of liquid volumes and pressure drop. Analysis of the simulated data suggests that the reduction in gas phase mobility encourages an early increase in the oil rate, which is more consistent with experimental data than that predicted by a model with conventional k r . It also reveals that water distilled below the saturated steam temperature plays an important role on the increase of liquid saturation and oil mobilization.The improved characterization on relative permeability considering gas phase hysteresis for simulating HPAI enhances the predictive capability of the available commercial simulators, providing a more certain method to evaluate the technical and economical feasibility of a project. The ability to predict an early increase in oil rate, consistent with experimental observations, results in improved economics for the project.

show abstract

Coral Creek Field Study: A Comprehensive Assessment of the Potential of High-Pressure Air Injection in a Mature Waterflood Project

Abstract: This paper was prepared for presentation at the 1999 SPE Mid-Continent Operations Symposium held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 28-31 March 1999.

Cited by 19 publications

References 11 publications

Is High-Pressure Air Injection (HPAI) Simply a Flue-Gas Flood?

Is High-Pressure Air Injection (HPAI) Simply a Flue-Gas Flood?

Experimental and Numerical Modeling of Three-Phase Flow Under High-Pressure Air Injection

Experimental and Numerical Modeling of Three-Phase Flow Under High-Pressure Air Injection (HPAI)

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