Economics of Light Oil Air Injection Projects

Fassihi, M.R.; Yannimaras, Demetrios; Westfall, E.E.; Gillham, Travis

doi:10.2118/35393-ms

Cited by 28 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…HPAI is an emerging technology for the recovery of light oils that has proven to be a valuable IOR process, especially in deep thin low-permeability reservoirs (Erickson et al 1994;Kumar et al 1995Kumar et al , 2007aKumar et al , 2007bFassihi et al 1996.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery Factors in High-Pressure Air Injection Projects Revisited

Gutiérrez¹,

Taylor

Kumar

et al. 2008

SPE Reservoir Evaluation &Amp; Engineering

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High-pressure air injection (HPAI) is an increased-oil-recovery (IOR) 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. The resulting flue-gas mixture provides the main mobilizing force to the oil downstream of the reaction region, sweeping it toward production wells. The combustion zone itself may provide a critical part of the sweep mechanism.In 1994, proposed a method for estimating recovery factors of light-oil air-injection projects on the basis of the performance of two successful HPAI projects. Their suggested method relies on the extrapolation of the field gas/oil ratio (GOR) up to an economic limit. In other words, it treats HPAI as an immiscible gasflood and neglects any potential oil that could be recovered by the combustion front. The truth is that, although early production during an HPAI process is mostly caused by repressurization and gasflood effects, once a pore volume of air has been injected, the combustion front becomes the main driving mechanism. Moreover, one of the unique features of air injection is the self-correcting nature of the combustion zone, which promotes good volumetric sweep of the reservoir. This paper presents laboratory and field evidence of the presence of a thermal front during HPAI operations, and its beneficial impact on oil recovery. An analysis of the three HPAI projects in Buffalo field, which are the oldest HPAI projects currently in operation, shows that only a small fraction of the reservoir has been burned and, if time allows and the projects are managed appropriately, burning of more reservoir volumes could result in much higher oil recoveries than predicted by the gasflood approach. (482-572°F) range, while in heavier oils, bond-scission reactions are more likely to occur above 450°C (842°F). During oxygenaddition reactions, oxygen atoms are chemically bound into the molecular structure of the oil, producing various oxygenated compounds such as hydroperoxides, aldehydes, ketones, and acids. The compounds tend to further react and polymerize with each other, forming heavier, less-desirable fractions. To compound the problem, because oxygen is being removed from the gas phase to the

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery Factors in High-Pressure Air Injection Projects Revisited

Gutiérrez¹,

Taylor

Kumar

et al. 2008

SPE Reservoir Evaluation &Amp; Engineering

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“…Until 1979, air injection development is mainly used in heavy oil development, without the artificial fracture of carbonate rocks in the process of the linear displacement [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Light oil air injection development is the use of high pressure oxidation flue gas produced by the light component of crude oil development, through the low temperature oxidation reaction to remove oxygen from the air, the temperature rise at the same time, reducing the viscosity of crude oil, with oil immiscible, under the condition of partially miscible or completely miscible to enhance oil flow ability, so as to improve recovery factor.…”

Section: The Light Oil Air Injection Development Principle Featuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Light oil air injection development is the use of high pressure oxidation flue gas produced by the light component of crude oil development, through the low temperature oxidation reaction to remove oxygen from the air, the temperature rise at the same time, reducing the viscosity of crude oil, with oil immiscible, under the condition of partially miscible or completely miscible to enhance oil flow ability, so as to improve recovery factor. Air injection development compared to other method to improve recovery efficiency in terms of operating costs, recovery efficiency and economic benefit has obvious advantages: [4,10,11] (1)The air injection ability, forming effective stress more easily than water injection development system, gas inspiratory capacity is greater than the water absorbing capacity of low permeability reservoirs with low permeability and extremely low permeability reservoir has very good adaptability;…”

Section: The Light Oil Air Injection Development Principle Featuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhance Light Oil Air Injection Recovery With High Efficiency Oxygen Consuming

Wang¹,

Li²,

Liu³

et al. 2014

Proceedings of the 2014 International Conference on Mechatronics, Control and Electronic Engineering

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Abstract-Paper introduces the problems, challenges which light oil air injection faces, the meaning of high efficiency oxygen consuming and its key. From the result of indoor and outdoor experiments home and abroad, we analyse the mechanism of high efficiency oxygen consuming during air injection 、 how EOR effects and its affect factors. High efficiency oxygen consuming is significance to light oil air injection.

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“…It has previously (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14) been established that GAIGI is a highly effective oil recovery operation, yielding best performance on reservoirs that are water wet and have significant dip to the structure. In a water wet reservoir, in the presence of a free gas phase, oil will tend to spread out over the water film.…”

Section: Gaigi and Cdpd Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The gravity drainage process is a very effective and efficient method for obtaining high oil recoveries from water wet, dipping reservoirs. This has been born out in laboratory (7)(8)(9)(10) and field studies (11)(12)(13)(14) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Improved Oil Recovery Methods to Offshore Oil Fields: Expanding On a New Philosophy

Aikman

Kantzas

Moore

1999

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

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A literature survey of both improved oil recovery ("IOR") methods, and offshore oil operations, has been performed. The survey of IOR methods examined both current field applications (commercial and pilot operations), and "horizon" research investigations. The survey of offshore oil operations has focussed upon the European North Sea, to understand the implications for marginal field development there, and also in the Canadian East Coast. It is believed that oil recovery can be increased above a base waterflood development. This would be accomplished by earlier application of improved oil recovery methods, rather than the application of same late in the life of a watered-out field. The specific IOR method would require very early studies to design and tailor a method that is appropriate for the unique qualities of a given reservoir. In this paper, a "Type Field", hypothetical, but representative of a marginal field or isolated fault block, is used to illustrate this philosophy. Evaluation of various operational enhancements are performed via numerical simulation. Cases compared are a base waterflood, and IOR operations utilizing Gravity Assisted Immiscible Gas Injection ("GAIGI"). A novel operational scheme has been developed and is termed "Coupled Dual Phase Displacement" ("CDPD"). The oil recovery factor obtained for certain models using CDPD is 58%. This compares to a base waterflood recovery factor of 44% for the same models, giving an incremental recovery of 14% oil initially in place. Hurdles that must be overcome are early characterization of the reservoir prior to production, and the identification of the optimal depletion process. This will require an integrated study team. Nonetheless, novel IOR schemes can be designed in some circumstances that can be insensitive to some forms of geological traps under displacement processes. The benefits of early IOR applications are enhanced by the deferral of abandonment, which, on an incremental basis, will contribute positive cashflow to an already economic process. It is pointed out that although the concept is outlined here for offshore oil fields, the natural extension of these ideas to onshore oil fields should also be considered. Introduction A literature survey has been conducted regarding the status of Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) methods and the historical developments of the North Sea oil industry. This was done in order to understand potential IOR applications for offshore oil production operations. In the context of this survey, IOR was considered to be any process that obtains oil production and recovery incremental to either primary or waterflood pressure maintenance operations. The survey included all major IOR forms, and encompassed the time period up to late 1996. Increases in recovery by mechanical methods, such as infill drilling of new wells, were considered as enhancements to a given process, and not the base IOR operation itself. There are many reasons why IOR methods should be strongly considered for offshore oil operations. Those issues that are pertinent to this paper are the very high cost of abandonment, large volumes of oil initially in place, and large volumes of remaining oil in place at the end of a waterflood operation.

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Economics of Light Oil Air Injection Projects

Cited by 28 publications

References 6 publications

Recovery Factors in High-Pressure Air Injection Projects Revisited

Recovery Factors in High-Pressure Air Injection Projects Revisited

Enhance Light Oil Air Injection Recovery With High Efficiency Oxygen Consuming

Application of Improved Oil Recovery Methods to Offshore Oil Fields: Expanding On a New Philosophy

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