Heavy Oil Waterflooding: Effects of Flow Rate and Oil Viscosity

Mai, A.; Kantzas, Apostolos

doi:10.2118/2007-144

Cited by 20 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(21 reference statements)

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“…In fact, the optimal oil recoveries were around 70% of OOIP, and most floods actually recovered less oil. Under very low rate waterflooding for many pore volumes 3,39 , it is also possible to achieve similar residual oil saturation by allowing water imbibition to slowly sweep oil from the core. Therefore, as also observed previously by Jennings et al 24 , the improved oil response is one of improved sweep and accelerated oil production.…”

Section: Oil Recovery Through DI As Injection At Various Ratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investigation into the Processes Responsible for Heavy Oil Recovery by Alkali-Surfactant Flooding

2008

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This paper describes a suite of alkali-surfactant (AS) floods that were performed in systems containing viscous heavy oil (11,500 mPa⋅s). The study investigates how AS injection can be used to generate oil and water emulsions, which can in turn lead to improved sweep efficiencies and oil recovery. Data is obtained from core flooding, with in-situ saturation measurements made using low field NMR. This work is applicable to the many heavy oil reservoirs in countries like Canada and Venezuela that contain viscous oil that still has some limited mobility under reservoir conditions. In previous studies, improved oil recovery compared to waterflooding was observed. This work provides additional information that can be used to better understand how chemical injection can lead to oil recovery.The core floods in this study indicate that emulsification is most efficient when used to block pre-formed water channels and improve the sweep efficiency of the flood. Both O/W and W/O emulsions may form in the same system, even under controlled salinity conditions. The re-distribution of water from the flooded channels into emulsified droplets in the oil is at least partially responsible for the pressure increase seen in these systems. W/O emulsification is accompanied by wettability alteration, as evidenced by the NMR spectra obtained. After the chemical flood is completed, it may be possible to restore the original water wet condition of the rock, which can provide potential for future non-thermal improved oil recovery.

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Section: Oil Recovery Through DI As Injection At Various Ratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous research in our group [2][3][4][5] has focused on improved heavy oil recovery through the application of waterflooding and alkali-surfactant (AS) flooding. In this work, several conclusions have been reached.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation into the Processes Responsible for Heavy Oil Recovery by Alkali-Surfactant Flooding

2008

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“…At low injection rates, water imbibition can be used to stabilize the waterflood and improve oil recovery. This is why waterflooding can be a viable nonthermal EOR technology even in fields with very high oil viscosity (Mai and Kantzas 2007).…”

Section: Waterfloodingmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Extensive Review on the Effective Sequence of Heavy Oil Recovery

Mohammadpoor

Torabi

2012

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Different enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques for heavy oil reservoirs were reviewed for their ranges of applicability using available reports and publications. EOR screening criteria found in the literature are reprinted and provided. After reviewing more than 100 papers on the subject, it is apparent that there is a definitive knowledge gap on the effective sequence of EOR recovery strategies. While there are numerous studies on the application of heavy oil recovery techniques, there is a lack of comparison and categorization of the results.For Canadian reservoirs, the first recovery method that is implemented first is either waterflooding, cold production or in some cases steamflooding. Chemical flooding and other emerging technologies are mostly coupled with these methods. In most reports, conversion of producers to injectors and introducing line drive and edge drive will improve the waterflooding performance. However, coupling waterflooding with horizontal wells, the addition of water mobility control agents and steam stimulation did not improve the waterflooding performance in some cases. In the case of fractured limestone reservoirs, it seems that immiscible gas injection is a suitable EOR method to implement, but because of the reservoir complexity, a clear understanding of the recovery mechanism and reservoir geology is needed. In-situ combustion and steamflooding are among the most efficient heavy oil recovery methods with a large range of applicability, and next to waterflooding, can become the most widely used heavy oil recovery method. Fireflooding methods can be more profitable if they are coupled with simultaneous or intermittent water injection with air.The results obtained from this paper not only will help the petroleum industry to apply each technique to the right candidate fields, but also it will prevent researchers from duplicating unsuccessful research projects.

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“…As a result, a large amount of the residual oil at the end of water flooding is significantly bypassed in these reservoirs. Therefore, in order to recover additional heavy oil after water flooding, the injected fluids must somehow improve the mobility ratio between the oil and water 7 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparative Study of Alkaline Flooding and Alkaline/Surfactant Flooding for Zhuangxi Heavy Oil

Pei

Zhang

et al. 2012

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In this study, a comparative study of alkaline flooding and alkaline/surfactant flooding was conducted for Zhuangxi heavy oil with viscosity of 325 mPa·s at 55 °C. The results of core flooding tests show that, the tertiary oil recovery of alkaline-only flooding with the alkaline concentration in the range of 0.4-1.0 wt% can reach 22% -31% OOIP. The coexistence of the surfactant and alkali can reduce the IFT between the heavy oil and aqueous phase to an ultralow level. However, the tertiary oil recovery of alkaline/surfactant flooding are lower than those of alkaline-only flooding. Further flood study via glassetching micromodel tests demonstrates that injected alkaline-only solution can penetrate into the oil phase and creates some discontinuous water droplet inside the oil. The subsequent formation of droplet flow tends to reduce the mobility of the water phase and damp viscous fingering, leading to the improvement of sweep efficiency. While for alkaline/surfactant flooding, because of the addition of the surfactant, these systems exhibit better capacity in emulsification and IFT reduction, the viscous oil can be break up into fine droplets and entrained along with the flowing aqueous phase. Therefore, viscous fingering phenomena are occurred during the displacement, resulting in its relatively lower oil recovery. Comparing the results of alkaline flooding and alkaline/surfactant flooding, improving the sweep efficiency by the droplet flow in alkaline flooding is more effective than lowering IFT by alkaline/surfactant flooding for heavy oil recovery.

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Heavy Oil Waterflooding: Effects of Flow Rate and Oil Viscosity

Cited by 20 publications

References 17 publications

Investigation into the Processes Responsible for Heavy Oil Recovery by Alkali-Surfactant Flooding

Investigation into the Processes Responsible for Heavy Oil Recovery by Alkali-Surfactant Flooding

An Extensive Review on the Effective Sequence of Heavy Oil Recovery

A Comparative Study of Alkaline Flooding and Alkaline/Surfactant Flooding for Zhuangxi Heavy Oil

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