The Evaluation of Variable-Injection Rate Waterflooding, Immiscible CO<sub>2</sub>Flooding, and Water-alternating-CO<sub>2</sub>Injection for Heavy Oil Recovery

With the depletion of light oil, heavy oil is becoming one of the most promising resources for meeting future energy consumption. Heavy oil resources are abundant, but the traditional water flooding method can only achieve less than 20% of heavy oil recovery. Thermal recovery has proven effective in producing heavy oil, but not suitable for many heavy oil formations that are either thin or buried deep underground. Carbon Dioxide injection is a ‘win‐win’ enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique for many heavy oil fields. Injected CO2 not only increases heavy oil output, but also traps injected CO2 underground. Carbon dioxide effectively recovers heavy oil thanks to several mechanisms, including oil swelling, viscosity reduction, and blow‐down recovery. This review discusses the advances of CO2 flooding at both laboratory scale and field scale. Laboratory tests show that CO2 can significantly improve heavy oil recovery. Several field cases in the USA, Turkey, Trinidad, and China are reviewed. Field experiences show that CO2 flooding is a successful EOR method for heavy oil fields. However, some issues were encountered in field applications, such as early gas breakthrough, corrosion, CO2 availability, and high costs.

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“…WAG recovered as much as 34.5% of OOIP, while CGI recovered up to 15%. This conclusion was also supported by a recent study …”

Section: Advances In Scientific Researchsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Th is conclusion was also supported by a recent study. 36 In 2010, CO 2 injection was coupled with polymer injection. 37 Th e test oil had a gravity of 18.3°API and a viscosity of 353 cP at 24°C.…”

Section: Advances In Scientifi C Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heavy oil production by carbon dioxide injection

Gao

Guo

et al. 2013

Greenhouse Gases

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“…Although CO 2 injection is a wellestablished oil recovery method applied to light oil reservoirs, it can be an effective EOR technique for cold heavy oil production, including waterflooding, immiscible CO 2 flooding, and CO 2 water-alternating gas (WAG) (Mai et al, 2009;Nasehi and Asghari, 2010;Tchambak et al, 2012;Torabi et al, 2012). CO 2 is not expected to be miscible with heavy oil and hence the reservoir sweep efficiency is generally lower than that for conventional reservoirs.…”

Section: Miscible Displacementmentioning

confidence: 99%

An overview of heavy oil properties and its recovery and transportation methods

Santos

Loh

Bannwart

et al. 2014

Braz. J. Chem. Eng.

392

176

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-Unconventional oils -mainly heavy oils, extra heavy oils and bitumens -represent a significant share of the total oil world reserves. Oil companies have expressed interest in unconventional oil as alternative resources for the energy supply. These resources are composed usually of viscous oils and, for this reason, their use requires additional efforts to guarantee the viability of the oil recovery from the reservoir and its subsequent transportation to production wells and to ports and refineries. This review describes the main properties of high-viscosity crude oils, as well as compares traditional and emergent methods for their recovery and transportation. The main characteristics of viscous oils are discussed to highlight the oil properties that affect their flowability in the processes of recovery and pipeline transportation. Chemical composition is the starting point for the oil characterization and it has major impact on other properties, including key properties for their dynamics, such as density and viscosity. Next, enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods are presented, followed by a discussion about pipeline and transportation methods. In addition, the main challenges to achieve viable recovery and transportation of unconventional oils are compared for the different alternatives proposed. The work is especially focused on the heavy oils, while other hydrocarbon solid sources, such as oil sands and shale oil, are outside of the scope of this review.

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“…According to different reservoir properties, many researchers have designed a variety of CO 2 flooding simulation experimental devices to study the mechanisms underlying changes in the physical properties of reservoirs that are caused by CO 2 flooding and to simulate the effect of CO 2 flooding under physical conditions. Researchers have obtained the key parameters of the range of miscible displacement by using these experiments [29][30][31][32][33] . In addition to physical experiments, many component models used for CO 2 flooding have been established, and numerical simulation technology has also been widely used in the evaluation and prediction of the effects of CO 2 flooding.…”

Section: Influencing Factors and Application Prospects Of Co 2 Floodimentioning

confidence: 99%

Influencing factors and application prospects of CO2 flooding in heterogeneous glutenite reservoirs

Wang

Zhang

Xie

2020

Sci Rep

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The Evaluation of Variable-Injection Rate Waterflooding, Immiscible CO₂Flooding, and Water-alternating-CO₂Injection for Heavy Oil Recovery

Cited by 26 publications

References 7 publications

Heavy oil production by carbon dioxide injection

Heavy oil production by carbon dioxide injection

An overview of heavy oil properties and its recovery and transportation methods

Influencing factors and application prospects of CO2 flooding in heterogeneous glutenite reservoirs

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The Evaluation of Variable-Injection Rate Waterflooding, Immiscible CO2Flooding, and Water-alternating-CO2Injection for Heavy Oil Recovery

Cited by 26 publications

References 7 publications

Heavy oil production by carbon dioxide injection

Heavy oil production by carbon dioxide injection

An overview of heavy oil properties and its recovery and transportation methods

Influencing factors and application prospects of CO2 flooding in heterogeneous glutenite reservoirs

Contact Info

Product

Resources

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The Evaluation of Variable-Injection Rate Waterflooding, Immiscible CO₂Flooding, and Water-alternating-CO₂Injection for Heavy Oil Recovery