The Experimental Investigation of Nitrogen and Carbon Dioxide Water-alternating-gas Injection in a Carbonate Reservoir

Abstract

Floods were conducted using rock–fluid systems consisting of carbonate cores from Binak reservoir, which is located in southwest of Iran, oil and brine. The coreflood protocol consisted of a series of steps including brine saturation, absolute permeability determination, flooding with oil to initial oil saturation, endpoint oil permeability determination, and, finally, nitrogen and carbon dioxide water-alternating-gas (WAG) injections. The effect of slug size on oil recovery was investigated using immiscible nitrogen (N₂) WAG injection and the amount of oil recovered was compared with continuous injection of N₂. Experimental results show that ultimate oil recovery is not very sensitive to changing the slug sizes for N₂ WAG injection, although the slug size of 0.15 pore volume (PV) injection is better than others. As less PV is injected, a higher oil production rate is achieved. Also, N₂ WAG flood appeared to be better in performance than continuous gas injection (CGI) of nitrogen. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) injection was performed in three modes, including CGI, WAG injection, and hybrid WAG. Experimental results show that for optimization of oil recovery in CO₂ floods, a continuous gas slug of 0.4–0.5 PV followed by 1:1 WAG needs to be injected.     

An Experimental Study on the Applicability of Water-alternating-CO2 Injection in the Secondary and Tertiary Recovery in One Iranian Reservoir

Abstract

The objective of this study was to experimentally investigate the performance of water-alternating gas (WAG) injection in one of Iran's oil reservoirs that encountered a severe pressure drop in recent years. Because one of the most appropriate studies to evaluate the reservoir occurs generally on rock cores taken from the reservoir, core samples drilled out of the reservoir's rock matrix were used for alternating injection of water and gas. In the experiments, the fluid system consisted of reservoir dead oil, live oil, CO₂, and synthetic brine; the porous media were a number of carbonate cores chosen from the oilfield from which the oil samples had been taken. All coreflood experiments were conducted using live (recombined) oil at 1,700 psi and reservoir temperature of 115°F. A total of four displacement experiments were performed in the core, including two experiments on secondary WAG injection and others on the tertiary water and gas invaded zones WAG injections. Prior to each test porosity and permeability of dried cores were calculated then 100% water-saturated cores were oil-flooded to obtain connate water saturation. Therefore, all coreflooding tests started with the samples at irreducible water saturation. Parameters such as oil recovery factor, water cut, and gas-oil ratio and production pressure of the core were recorded for each test. The most similar experimental work with the main reservoir condition, indicated that approximately 64% oil were recovered after 1 pore volume of WAG process at 136,000 ppm brine salinity. Although tests show ultimate recovery of 79% and 55% for secondary and tertiary injection in gas and water invaded zones, respectively, immiscible WAG injection efficiency in the gas and water invaded zones will not be proper. In the similar test to field properties, the average pressure difference about 70 Psig was observed, which shows stable front displacement. These experiments showed that there was significant improvement in the oil recovery for alternating injection of water and CO₂, especially in the secondary recovery process. Water breakthrough time in almost all of the tests shows frontal displacement of injected fluid in cores and produced gas-oil ratio changes a little whenever the injection is miscible and increases rapidly in immiscible processes.     

江苏油田CO2混相驱现场试验研究

对江苏油田富14断块进行的可行性研究结果表明,复杂小断块油藏可以进行经济有效的CO₂混相驱。江苏油田富14断块在保持最低混相压力的状态下,于1998年末开始进行了CO₂—水交替(WAG)的注入试验。进行了6周期的注入试验后,水气比由0.86:1升至2:1。油井见到了明显的增油降水效果,水驱后油层中形成了新的含油富集带。试验区采油速度由0.5%升至1.2%,综合含水率由93.5%降至63.4%。到目前为止,CO₂波及区采收率已提高4%,CO₂利用率为1240m³/t(油)。试验仍在继续进行。富14断块CO₂混相驱的成功为提高复杂小断块油藏采收率和丰富国内三次采油技术提供了重要的依据。     

A laboratory study of hot WAG injection into fractured and conventional sand packs

Gas injection is the second largest enhanced oil recovery process,next only to the thermal method used in heavy oil fields.To increase the extent of the reservoir contacted by the injected gas,the gas is generally injected intermittently with water.This mode of injection is called water-alternating-gas(WAG).This study deals with a new immiscible water alternating gas(IWAG) EOR technique,"hot IWAG" which includes combination of thermal,solvent and sweep techniques.In the proposed method CO2 will be superheated above the reservoir temperature and instead of normal temperature water,hot water will be used.Hot CO2 and hot water will be alternatively injected into the sand packs.A laboratory test was conducted on the fractured and conventional sand packs.Slugs of water and CO2 with a low and constant rate were injected into the sand packs alternatively;slug size was 0.05 PV.Recovery from each sand pack was monitored and after that hot water and hot CO2 were injected alternatively under the same conditions and increased oil recovery from each sand pack and breakthrough were measured.Experimental results showed that the injection of hot WAG could significantly recover residual oil after WAG injection in conventional and fractured sand packs.     

Integrated Investigation of Enhanced Oil Recovery in South Slattery Minnelusa Reservoir,Part 2: CO2 Miscible Injection

Abstract

The authors used experiment and full-field reservoir modeling to investigate and optimize the design of a CO₂ miscible flooding project for the Minnelusa reservoir of the South Slattery field. Minimum miscibility pressure and core flooding tests were conducted to estimate the CO₂ injection feasibility at Slattery conditions. A full-field CO₂ model with finely gridded patterns was built using oil saturations and pressures at the end of history in the waterflood model. The CO₂ model identified the best patterns for CO₂ flooding and was instrumental in selecting a strategy for sizing the initial flood area and in determining the size, location, and timing of future expansions of the CO₂ flood. Continuous CO₂ miscible injection (CMI) and alternating (WAG) were simulated. WAG injections were simulated mainly to observe the improvement of low sweep efficiency caused by override and unfavorable mobility ratio. The integrated recovery efficiency comparison of CMI and WAG was used to demonstrate the mobility control of the WAG process.     

Evaluation of miscible and immiscible CO2 injection in one of the Iranian oil fields

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) flooding is one of the most important methods for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) because it not only increases oil recovery efficiency but also causes a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. It is a very complex system, involving phase behavior that could increase the recovery of oil by means of swelling, evaporation and decreasing viscosity of the oil. In this study, a reservoir modeling approach was used to evaluate immiscible and miscible CO₂ flooding in a fractured oil field. To reduce simulation time, we grouped fluid components into 10 pseudo-components. The 3-parameter, Peng–Robinson Equation of State (EOS) was used to match PVT experimental data by using the PVTi software. A one-dimensional slim-tube model was defined using ECLIPSE 300 software to determine the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) for injection of CO₂. We used FloGrid software for making a reservoir static model and the reservoir model was calibrated using manual and assisted history matching methods. Then various scenarios of natural depletion, immiscible and miscible CO₂ injection have been simulated by ECLIPSE 300 software and then the simulation results of scenarios have been compared. Investigation of simulation results shows that the oil recovery factor in miscible CO₂ injection scenario is more than other methods.     

气水交替改善CO2驱油效果的适应界限*

针对低渗特低渗透油藏CO2驱油效果差、气窜现象严重等特点,开展了CO2驱气水交替注入(WAG)方式改善CO2驱油效果研究,评价了岩心渗透率及其非均质性对气水交替驱油效果的影响;选取天然露头和人造非均质岩心,对气水交替的注入速率、注入参数及注入量进行优选,进行了WAG驱的适应性评价。研究表明,对于0.5×10^-3、1×10^-3和5×10^-3μm^2的低渗特低渗均质岩心,气水交替驱能够实现良好的流度控制作用,延长CO2的窜逸时间,且渗透率越低,气窜时间越晚;渗透率级差为5、10和50的非均质性岩心,渗透率级差越小,气水比越高,提高采收率效果越好。渗透率级差大于10时,气窜时间明显提前,特别是当级差大于50时,气水段塞无法有效启动低渗基质中的剩余油,快速气窜而无经济效益。利用气水交替在适应界限范围内可显著降低CO2流度,延长CO2窜逸时间,启动基质中的剩余油,提高剩余油采收率。图16表2参20。     

The Evaluation of Variable-Injection Rate Waterflooding,Immiscible CO2 Flooding,and Water-alternating-CO2 Injection for Heavy Oil Recovery

Abstract

Despite the existence of studies for separate evaluation of waterflooding, immiscible CO₂ flooding, and CO₂ water-alternating gas (WAG) for heavy oil recovery, there is a lack of an experimental, comparative evaluation of these three methods. The authors conducted tests for comparative evaluation of variable-injection rate waterflood (VIWF), immiscible CO₂ flood, and CO₂ WAG. The results illustrate the (a) effectiveness of VIWF, immiscible CO₂ flood, and CO₂ WAG; (b) effect of permeability and oil viscosity on VIWF, immiscible CO₂ flood, and CO₂ WAG; (c) effect of injection rate on VIWF; and (d) effect of slug ratio on CO₂ WAG.     

Study on the blockage in pores due to asphaltene precipitation during different CO2 flooding schemes with NMR technique

CO₂ flooding is an effective way in the tertiary oil recovery. While asphaltene often precipitates from the crude oil during the CO₂ flooding, and the mechanisms of blockage resulting from asphaltene precipitation is still unclear in different CO₂ flooding schemes. In this work, pure-CO₂ flooding, water-alternating-CO₂ flooding (WAG), and CO₂-foam flooding were applied to conduct the core-flooding experiments. Then, as for each flooding scheme, we quantitatively investigated the blockage degree in different pores due to asphaltene precipitation with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique. Tests results show that CO₂-foam flooding has a relatively higher blockage degree both in the smaller pores and the larger pores than WAG and pure-CO₂ flooding. Although pure-CO₂ flooding has the least asphaltene precipitation and blockage degree among three flooding schemes, its oil recovery degree is far less than the other two flooding schemes. Compared with pure-CO₂ flooding and CO₂-foam flooding, WAG flooding has the highest oil recovery and an acceptable asphaltene precipitation.     

Scaled 3-D model studies of immiscible CO2 flooding using horizontal wells

In this study, a comprehensive laboratory investigation was conducted for the recovery of heavy oil from a scaled three-dimensional (3-D) physical model, packed with 18° API gravity crude oil, brine and crushed limestone. A total of 20 experiments were conducted using the scaled 3-D physical model with 30×30×6 cm³ dimensions. Basically, four different immiscible CO₂–water displacement processes were used for recovering heavy oil: (i) continuous CO₂ injection, (ii) waterflooding, (iii) simultaneous injection of CO₂ and water, and (iv) water alternating gas (WAG) process. Three groups of well configurations were mainly used: (1) vertical injection and vertical production wells, (2) vertical injection and horizontal production wells, and (3) horizontal injection and horizontal production wells. Base experiments were run with water only and carbon dioxide alone and optimum rates for WAG and simultaneous water–CO₂ injection were determined. In continuous CO₂ injection, highest recovery was obtained by vertical injection–horizontal production (VI–HP), followed by vertical injection–vertical production (VI–VP) and the least by horizontal injection–horizontal production (HI–HP). In VI–HP configuration, the best recovery was obtained as 15.1% OOIP. Higher oil recovery was obtained with a VI–HP wells than with a pair of vertical wells and horizontal wells. The WAG 1:5 ratio yielded a final recovery of 34.5% OOIP with VI–VP well configuration and 17.0% OOIP of additional recovery over waterflooding. In turn, the WAG 1:10 ratio was the best with a final recovery of 20.9% of OOIP with VI–HP well configuration. Oil production from WAG injection is higher than that obtained from the injection of continuous CO₂ or waterflooding alone.     

浅层油藏稠油热水/CO2驱油效率实验模拟研究

新疆油田九_6区齐古组浅层稠油油藏已进入蒸汽开采中后期,油藏开采经历了蒸汽吞吐、加密调整、蒸汽驱过程,采出程度为37%。现阶段单一蒸汽驱效果明显下降,地层亏空严重,蒸汽热利用效率低,吸汽不均,波及程度差异大,油水流度比大,采收率低。热水复合CO_2驱油充分利用热水热效应和发挥CO_2溶解降黏等作用,是提高原油采收率的有效方法。因此,针对九_6区稠油开展不同混合方式热水/CO_2驱油模拟实验,分别研究了纯热水驱、热水与CO_2混注、热水与CO_2段塞的驱油效率。结果表明,纯热水驱累积驱油效率为49.19%,热水/CO_2混注累积驱油效率最大为71.25%,段塞驱累积驱油效率高达85.96%。同时,分析了驱出原油及岩心残余油组分变化。     

A laboratory investigation of carbon dioxide-enhanced oil recovery by focusing on CO2-oil physical properties

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) miscible flooding has become an important method in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) for recovering residual oil. In addition it may help in protection of the environment as (CO₂) is widely viewed as an important agent in global warming. Knowledge of the interactions between (CO₂) and reservoir crude oil is very critical for any (CO₂)-enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects. This paper shows the effect of (CO₂) miscible flooding application for Egyptian oil fields by swelling studies. The swelling test is a laboratory simulation of the process of injecting gradually different percentage of (CO₂) gas into a reservoir containing under-saturated oil. The gas (injection solvent) can dissolve, causing the reservoir fluid to swell. This paper presents a summary of a wide range of laboratory tests conducted on ten different crude oils varying from 26.4 to 40.5 API. These were used to invested the use of (CO₂) and its effect on parameters such as viscosity, density, gas solubility and swelling factor as a function of pressure at temperature from 620.3 to 706.0?°R.     

Recovery Improvement Using Water and Gas Injection Scenarios

Abstract

Water and miscible gas injection scenarios are considered in an Iranian oil reservoir for the purpose of recovery improvement. Firstly reservoir fluid modeling and modeling of a slim tube test were performed. Then, water alternating gas (WAG) injection was evaluated by optimizing the WAG half cycle and WAG ratio. Alternatively, hybrid WAG and separate injection of water and gas in the top and bottom of the reservoir were also investigated. The numerical simulation results showed that the optimum WAG, with half cycle of 1.5 years and WAG ratio of one, gave the highest recovery factor. Moreover, economic evaluation of these scenarios indicated that WAG had the highest net present value and was the most interesting scenario for improving the recoveries.     

A simulation approach in economic assessment and risk analysis of the CO2 miscible flooding process

Due to high cost and technical uncertainty of recovery processes, predictive models developed for CO₂ miscible flooding processes should be used to evaluate the production performance of projects. This study presents the reservoir simulation study and probabilistic cash flow analysis of CO₂ miscible flooding projects in West Virginia. An extended black oil reservoir simulator was used in this study. Historical data and information from a CO₂ injection pilot in Granny's Creek Field of Clay County in West Virginia were used. A history match was done, and then alterative matched cases were run, such as pure CO₂ injection and water-alternate-gas (WAG) injection. A PC-based probabilistic cash flow analysis (PCFA) model was developed to analze the economic evaluation of the CO₂ miscible flooding project on a popular spreadsheet.Statistical analysis of the results shows: (1) the WAG case is more profitable than the pure CO₂ injection case; (2) the pure CO₂ injection case and the WAG case are more economical than the base case. Therefore, given current oil prices, the CO₂ processes have a higher potential to succeed in tec technical aspects but not in economical aspects. This study initiates the adaptation of the model to specific parameters of West Virginia oil fields. The newly formulated microcomputer PCFA model overcomes some of the problems commonly found in the conventional Monte Carlo simulation. Thus, the simulation approach in economic assessment and risk analysis can be readily adopted in future projects.     

Experimental Investigation of Miscible CO2 Flooding

Abstract

Management of water alternating gas (WAG) injection projects requires making decisions regarding the WAG ratio, half-cycle-slug size, and ultimate solvent slug size. The impact of these decisions affects the capital cost and ultimate incremental oil recovery. Core flooding runs were conducted on 2 and 4 ft core samples. Injection scheme (continuous gas injection [CGI] vs. WAG), WAG ratio, and slug size were investigated. In addition, miscible WAG flooding as a secondary process was investigated and its efficiency was compared to the conventional tertiary miscible gas flooding. Miscible gas flooding at different miscible WAG parameters (WAG ratio and slug size) indicate that 1:2 WAG ratio at 0.2 PV slug size is the best combination yielding the highest recovery and tertiary recovery factors. Miscible WAG flooding as a secondary process indicated a higher ultimate recovery compared to the conventional tertiary WAG flooding. However, a larger amount of gas injection is consumed particularly in the early stages of the injection process. Miscible CGI mode conducted using n-Decane as oleic phase appears to have better performance than miscible WAG injection in term of recovery. When light Arab crude oil was used as oleic phase, higher recovery was obtained for miscible WAG flooding. The reversal trend seen in is believed to be due to the presence of crude oil, which alters the rock wettability toward an oil-wet condition, preventing the water blockage during the WAG process.     

高凝油油藏气水交替驱提高采收率参数优化

通过开展室内物理模拟实验,验证了高凝油油藏气水交替驱提高采收率的可行性,得到了岩心尺度下的最优化参数,采出程度较纯水驱时提高19.83%。在物模研究的基础上,利用实验岩心和流体参数、含气活油相渗曲线建立数值模型,分别研究注采井网、注采井距、段塞尺寸、气水体积比、注入时机、注入周期各参数对采收率的影响。研究结果表明:当采用五点系统、300 m井距、0.2PV段塞尺寸、1∶2气水体积比、含水率60%时转注、连续注入9个周期为最佳方案,可以保证在较低的注气成本下获得较高的采收率,对以后该类油藏的气水交替驱开发具有理论指导意义。     

濮城油田沙一段油藏CO2/水交替驱提高采收率试验

水驱废弃的高温高盐油藏,化学驱提高采收率的发展受到限制,为了探索进一步提高油藏采收率的新途径,在濮城油田沙一段水驱废弃油藏开展了CO2/水交替驱先导试验。通过细管实验确定了该区CO2驱的最小混相压力,利用长岩心物理模拟开展了完全水驱后CO2/水交替驱替实验。结果表明,该区注CO2的最小混相压力为18.42 MPa,目前油藏条件下,CO2/水交替驱可提高采收率35.89%。现场优选了1个井组开展先导试验,生产动态资料表明,地层压力保持在最小混相压力之上,产出油质变轻,驱替达到了混相,单井最高增油量16 t/d,采出程度提高5.15%。研究表明,CO2/水交替驱可以获得比水驱更高的采收率,试验规模可以进一步扩大。     

Black Oil and Compositional Reservoir Simulation for Increasing the Recovery Performance of an Iranian Fractured Carbonate Reservoir

Abstract

Naturally fractured reservoirs contain a significant amount of world oil reserves. Accurate and efficient reservoir simulation of naturally fractured reservoirs is one of the most important, challenging, and computationally intensive problems in reservoir engineering. Black oil and compositional reservoir simulators have been used to determine the reservoir management and production strategies to increase the oil recovery from a low-porosity, low-permeability fractured carbonate reservoir, with an average matrix permeability of 0.8 md, average fracture permeability of 500 md, and an average matrix porosity of 10%. This reservoir is a candidate for an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process, because the reservoir production rate has been declined due to increasing the water cut as a result of rising the water oil contact. The injection techniques that have been considered in this study for black oil model include (a) gas injection, (b) water injection, and (c) simultaneous water alternating gas injection and for the compositional model include (a) dry gas injection, (b) CO₂ injection, and (c) N₂ injection. Simulation results show that CO₂ injection has the maximum oil recovery between the EOR scenarios.     

The Effect of the Salinity of Injected Water and Reservoir Water on WAG Injection: A Study in an Iranian Reservoir

The effect of salinity of injected water and reservoir water in water alternating gas injection in one of an Iranian reservoir was investigated. Usually in simulation works water salinity of reservoir or salinity of injected water may be ignored. Without applying salinity effect, it would cause estimated overall oil recovery to be different with real. Salinity of water phase would increase the viscosity of injected water also obviously the mobility ratio of oil. Because of this improvement in water mobility, more oil would be displaced toward production wells. The problem of increasing salinity of injected water is that too much salt may harm pump equipments. Over time, salt deposits in pumping devices may cause reduction in pumps efficiency and corrosion of pipes, thus injecting salty water would cause corrosion problems and pump failures. Since the salinity of the reservoir water in the study was not available so it was chosen in two modes: reservoir water without salt (Cs = 0) and with concentration of 140 kg/m³ (Cs = 140). In this work 0.8 reservoir pore volume WAG was injected. Salinity of injected water was varied from zero to 4,800 kg/m³; by increasing salinity of injected water, because of mobility ratio increment between water and oil, production efficiency would be increased. The economic dimension of this view must be examined. By considering reservoir water salinity, recovery would be increased in WAG injection.     

The Evaluation of Gas,Water, WAG Injections,and Infill Wells for Improving Recovery of an Iranian Reservoir

Abstract

Increasing demand for energy has forced oil companies to resort to secondary and tertiary methods to increase the recovery from the existing reservoirs. The author investigated enhancing the recovery factor of one Iranian reservoir, which is a naturally fractured reservoir. For this reservoir, it is estimated that 96.5% of oil is contained in the matrix and 3.5% in the fractures. The field is an undersaturated reservoir with no active gas cap and no strong water aquifer. Injections of water, gas, water-alternating gas (WAG), and infill wells on this field were investigated to increase the recovery factor. Eclipse100 was employed to simulate the reservoir. The simulated results showed that gas, water, and WAG injections had nonsignificant improvements on oil recovery. However, it was found that infill wells contribute an appreciable increase in recovery. The amount of increase for drilling 8 infill wells was around 5%. Since development of existing resources contributes a major role on the supply of oil for the future oil market (around 45% by 2030), these results are used to screen the various methods for increasing the recovery of such reservoirs.