Recent Advances in Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies for Unconventional Oil Reservoirs

Balasubramanian, Sriram; Chen, P.; Bose, Sushanta; Alzahabi, Ahmed; Thakur, Ganesh

doi:10.4043/28973-ms

Cited by 24 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…This implementation also proved to be a profitable effort. These endeavors had a significant impact on improving shale oil production . The methods of multistage hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling augmented U.S. oil production from 5.6 million barrels per day (bbl/d) to 11.9 million bbl/d within less than two decades .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Huff-n-Puff Technology for Enhanced Oil Recovery in Shale/Tight Oil Reservoirs: Progress, Gaps, and Perspectives

et al. 2021

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In recent times, particularly in the 21st century, there has been an alarming increase in the demand for global energy, along with continuous depletion in conventional oil reservoirs. This necessity has incentivized interested scholars and operators worldwide to seek alternative oil resources. To secure such accelerating energy demand, considerable effort has been directed toward the development of previously unconventional oil formations that, in past decades, had remained sidelined. Although shale oil reservoirs have seen tremendous success over the past decade, the continued challenges of rapidly declining oil flow rates and oil retention in the pores continuously persist. Substantial attempts have been made to improve shale-bypassed oil recovery; however, there is little data about the accessibility on recovery mechanisms, especially in the oil field. Furthermore, approachesparticularly, Huff-n-Puff (H-n-P) experiments using conventional proceduresfail to properly represent field conditions and they generate deceptive findings, because the utilized cores are not simulated under realistic reservoir conditions, leaving the significance of critical factors unclear. Therefore, this review study comprehensively and specifically discusses the feasibility of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods in unconventional oil reservoirs. Beside addressing the validity of the currently applied H-n-P technology in shale/tight oil reservoirs and underlining some critical gaps regarding laboratory results, modified technology is proposed in this paper for a better field future performance. The study is divided into sections, and each section analyzes the role of one specific H-n-P portion in detail, such as preferable injected solvents, their mechanisms, and critical factors affecting H-n-P recovery. The exceptions to this are the first and second sections, which provide a brief introduction about shale and tight oil reservoirs, a history of applied technology, and the method’s current problem statement. In the Introduction section, the authors will justify why this Review fills a critical gap in the field. Within the assessment study, great focus is given to the H-n-P technique, its parameters, and effective processes. In the final sections, carefully chosen experimental results and tools are reviewed to highlight the controversy and state “the gap”.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Huff-n-Puff Technology for Enhanced Oil Recovery in Shale/Tight Oil Reservoirs: Progress, Gaps, and Perspectives

et al. 2021

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“…Oil has always been the most important energy source, and it will make an important contribution to meeting future energy needs (Balasubramanian et al, 2018;Lakatos, 2005). As a fluid deposit buried deep in the stratum, compared with other mineral resources, the special extraction method of oil makes the recovery rate always low.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the early 1980s, many researchers focused their attention on CEOR research. Chemical EOR (CEOR) methods have received special attention over other methods due to its effectiveness, technical and economic feasibilities (Balasubramanian et al, 2018;Gbadamosi et al, 2019;Hu et al, 2018;Siggel et al, 2012). As oil prices continue to rise, global oil demand continues to increase, new oil fields are rarely discovered and global oil fields are rapidly maturing, CEOR technologies have drawn increased interest (Al-Adasani and Bai, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Research progress of viscoelastic surfactants for enhanced oil recovery

Tang

Mpelwa

et al. 2021

Energy Exploration & Exploitation

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Although new energy has been widely used in our lives, oil is still one of the main energy sources in the world. After the application of traditional oil recovery methods, there are still a large number of oil layers that have not been exploited, and there is still a need to further increase oil recovery to meet the urgent need for oil in the world economic development. Chemically enhanced oil recovery (CEOR) is considered to be a kind of effective enhanced oil recovery technology, which has achieved good results in the field, but these technologies cannot simultaneously effectively improve oil sweep efficiency, oil washing efficiency, good injectability, and reservoir environment adaptability. Viscoelastic surfactants (VES) have unique micelle structure and aggregation behavior, high efficiency in reducing the interfacial tension of oil and water, and the most important and unique viscoelasticity, etc., which has attracted the attention of academics and field experts and introduced into the technical research of enhanced oil recovery. In this paper, the mechanism and research status of viscoelastic surfactant flooding are discussed in detail and focused, and the results of viscoelastic surfactant flooding experiments under different conditions are summarized. Finally, the problems to be solved by viscoelastic surfactant flooding are introduced, and the countermeasures to solve the problems are put forward. This overview presents extensive information about viscoelastic surfactant flooding used for EOR, and is intended to help researchers and professionals in this field understand the current situation.

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“…In recent years, shale gas has undergone significant development as an unconventional resource [1]. With the success of industrial shale gas development in the United States, the research and development of shale gas have become important for increasing global oil and gas resources [2]. With rising energy demand, increasing pressure on energy, and growing environmental awareness, it is urgently necessary to explore and develop shale gas resources.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three-Dimensional Morphology and Connectivity of Organic Pores in Shale from the Wufeng and Longmaxi Formations at the Southeast Sichuan Basin in China

Jiang

Jin

et al. 2021

Geofluids

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Organic pores play an important role in shale reservoirs. Organic pores occur where shale gas was produced and accumulated. However, there is little scientific understanding of the distribution and connectivity of organic pores. Organic pore types and their structural characteristics were studied using a total organic carbon (TOC), thin section, focused ion beam scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM), and nano-CT. The samples were from the Wufeng Formation in the Upper Ordovician and Longmaxi Formations from the lower Silurian. The results show that organic matter is mainly concentrated in the Wufeng Formation and the bottom of the Longmaxi Formation and that the middle and upper parts of the Longmaxi Formation contain a low amount of organic matter. The shale of the Wufeng-Longmaxi Formation has high maturity, and its organic pores are well developed. There are three types of organic pores: algae, graptolite, and pyrobitumen pores. The pore connectivity of shale with a high organic content is better than that of shale with a low organic content. The volume of the organic pores accounts for more than 50% of the volume of the organic matter. Majority of the organic pores have an aperture smaller than 100 nm and are round, nearly circular, and elliptical in morphology. Most of the organic pores in a shale formation are developed in pyrobitumen, and most of the larger organic pores are concentrated at the center of solid pyrobitumen. The organic pores in pyrobitumen have the best connectivity and are the most favorable reservoir spaces and migration channels for shale gas, which is a crucial point of reference for future research of shale gas.

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Recent Advances in Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies for Unconventional Oil Reservoirs

Cited by 24 publications

References 19 publications

Huff-n-Puff Technology for Enhanced Oil Recovery in Shale/Tight Oil Reservoirs: Progress, Gaps, and Perspectives

Huff-n-Puff Technology for Enhanced Oil Recovery in Shale/Tight Oil Reservoirs: Progress, Gaps, and Perspectives

Research progress of viscoelastic surfactants for enhanced oil recovery

Three-Dimensional Morphology and Connectivity of Organic Pores in Shale from the Wufeng and Longmaxi Formations at the Southeast Sichuan Basin in China

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