Progress Review of the K&S Carbonated Waterflood Project

Abstract

A carbonated waterflood process which comprises the treatment of a hydrocarbon reservoir with controlled amounts and concentrations of carbon dioxide is one of the newer methods of increasing oil recovery being used in a commercial field application. The process consists of the treatment of a crude-oil reservoir with controlled amounts and concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) or solutions of carbon dioxide. To achieve this end, the techniques of water flooding are combined with the injection of carbonated water into a reservoir during the early stage of the flood. The K and S project is the first commercial application of this process. Water injection was initiated on the and project in Feb., 1958, and CO2 injection started in April of the same year. The carbonation period should be completed by April 1, 1960. At this time it is too early to predict the ultimate oil recovery from the project. However, several notable accomplishments have been recorded to date. When the project was initially developed, several areas were noted to be highly water productive due to a previous dump flood. These areas subsequently have produced considerable oil, indicating that additional recovery has been gained. Second, injectivity has been increased to two to four times the rate of neighboring input wells which have not been subjected to the carbonated water process. And third, in 1959 more oil was produced than has been previously produced for the total primary life of the property. Introduction This paper is a progress report outlining the accomplishments and difficulties experienced to Jan. 1, 1960, at the K and S project. The K and S project is located 10 miles north of Bartlesville, Okla., and consists of three contiguous leases totaling 240 acres. There are 35 input wells and 24 producing wells spaced on a regular 10-acre five-spot pattern, as shown in Fig. 1. Water injection was initiated in Feb., 1958, and CO2 injection started in April of the same year. CO2 injection will be completed by April 1, 1960. Water injection will continue throughout the life of the project. The property was acquired in June, 1957. With 80 per cent of the working interest, Oil Recovery Corp. acts as engineering consultant and supervises the application of the process. Wellsville Oil Co., with the remaining 20 per cent of the working interest, is flood operator of the joint venture.

Coreflooding Studies to Investigate the Potential of Carbonated Water Injection as an Injection Strategy for Improved Oil Recovery and CO2 Storage

“…Tertiary CWI in the cores was reported to have reduced the oil saturations after plain water injection by almost 50% (Holm 1963;Hickok et al 1960). Based on the results of high pressure direct flow visualization (micromodel) experiments on decane and refined viscous oil, Sohrabi et al (2008) deduce that oil swelling and viscosity reduction due to CO 2 diffusion from the water into the oil phase were one of the main oil recovery mechanisms in CWI.…”

Integrated PVT and Coreflooding Studies of Carbonated Water Injection in Tight Oil Reservoirs: A Case Study

“…Its development stems from the study of CO 2 , while searching for a new raw material that is suitable as a reservoir surfactant, yet cheap enough to use in quantity. 20 Hickok et al 21 reported the first commercial application of CWI at the K&S project in Texas and Oklahoma. The performance of CWI was encouraging; additional oil recovery and enhanced injectivity were obtained.…”

Effects of geochemistry and interphase transport of CO2on hybrid carbonated low salinity waterflood to improve oil recovery and CO2sequestration

“…In the Allegany County field, the application of CWF significantly increased oil production from 92 bbl/acre/year to 1260 bbl/acre/year. From commercial application of CWF deployed in Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas in 1958, considerable improvements in oil recovery and injectivity were monitored. Recently, experimental works and numerical simulation have demonstrated the potential of CWF to enhance oil recovery and CO 2 storage .…”