Hydrocarbon Classification EOR 110

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101
Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS ..........................................................................................................................1 GEOPOLITICS OF INTERNATIONAL HO & KEROGEN DEPOSITS ............................................................2 TECHNICAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES .........................................................................................3 OIL CLASSIFICATION AND INTERMEDIATE HYDROCARBONS ...............................................................3 SINGLE-PHASE FLOW IN POROUS MEDIA ............................................................................................4 DRY GAS RESERVOIRS ........................................................................................................................5 LNG AND ENERGY POLICY.................................................................................................................6 WET GAS RESERVOIRS .......................................................................................................................7 2-PHASE RELATIVE PERMEABILITY AND FRACTIONAL FLOW ..............................................................8 RELATIVE PERMEABILITY AND MOBILITY RATIO ................................................................................9 RETROGRADE GAS RESERVOIRS .......................................................................................................10 VOLATILE OILS .................................................................................................................................10 CRUDE BLACK OILS ......................................................................................................................12 CONVENTIONAL (LIGHT & INTERMEDIATE) CRUDE OIL ...................................................................12 API GRAVITY AND HEAVY CRUDE OILS (HO) .................................................................................13 HO & BITUMEN, ACCORDING TO USGS: .........................................................................................15 RESERVOIR CONDITIONS AND FLUID DENSITIES................................................................................15 RESERVOIR CONDITIONS AND OIL VISCOSITIES ................................................................................15 RESERVOIR CONDITIONS, POROSITIES & WETTABILITIES .................................................................16 PRIMARY OIL RECOVERY DRIVE MECHANISMS ................................................................................16 ORIGINAL OIL IN PLACE AND RECOVERY EFFICIENCY ......................................................................18 CONSEQUENCES OF OIL RESERVOIR DEPLETION ...............................................................................19 WATERFLOODING & HOT WATER INJECTION....................................................................................20 SCREENING PRODUCING OIL FIELDS FOR WF & EOR.......................................................................20 WATERFLOOD AND EOR UNITS........................................................................................................21 MISCIBLE EOR PROCESSES: .............................................................................................................21 EOR FOR HO FIELDS: TRHO .........................................................................................................22 CYCLIC STEAM INJECTION (CSI).......................................................................................................23 STEAMFLOODING (SF) ......................................................................................................................23 IN-SITU COMBUSTION (ISC) .............................................................................................................24 DILUTION OF HO FOR PIPELINES.......................................................................................................25 DEAD OIL AND RECOVERY EFFICIENCY ........................................................................................25 STRIPPER WELLS IN THE US .............................................................................................................25 AN EMERGING EOR CHEMICAL FLOODING PROCESS .......................................................................26 HORIZONTAL DRILLING IN PROVEN OILFIELDS .................................................................................26 MICRO HOLE DRILLING ....................................................................................................................29 SUMMARY: LIGHT OIL LEGACY, HEAVY OIL DESTINY ....................................................................30 US ENERGY POLICY ISSUES ..............................................................................................................31 REFERENCES .....................................................................................................................................32 APPENDIX 1. DARCYS LAW ............................................................................................................33 APPENDIX 2. PITCH (ASPHALT) LAKES ............................................................................................34 APPENDIX 3. FAIRWAY JAMES LIME FIELD, EAST TEXAS ................................................................34 APPENDIX 4. EXXON MOBIL ADDS 1.5B BARRELS TO PROVED RESERVES.........................................35 APPENDIX 5. OIL FROM CANADAS TAR SANDS CAN BE MADE CLEAN, OBAMA SAYS ................35 APPENDIX 6. ANWR RESIDENTS FAVOR DEVELOPMENT ..................................................................37
Jim Myers, MPE
Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009
Page 1 of 37
Geopolitics of International HO & Kerogen Deposits
Especially for assignment to various classes of oil refineries, crude oils are classified according to their API Gravities, sulfur content, and other measured characteristics. Thus the implications of downstream Refining and Marketing components of the Oil and Gas Industry have influenced the Exploration and Production components (E&P) view of crude oil classification. Before quickly reviewing the definition of API Gravity and the International classifications of various classes of hydrocarbon reservoirs, a quick introduction to the International setting of the known Heavy Oil (HO) and kerogen deposits and their potential geopolitical significance is provided. An abundance of information on heavy and extra-heavy oils and what USGS calls kerogens was published at http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs070-03/fs070-03.html. Table 1. Is excerpted from this publication: Table 1. 2003 USGS Summary: International distribution of estimated technically
recoverable heavy & extra-heavy oil and natural bitumen in billions of barrels (BBO). The total estimated petroleum in these known accumulations is about equal to remaining conventional (light) oil reserves, and is concentrated in the Western Hemisphere. recovery factor* North America South America W. Hemisphere Africa Europe Middle East Asia Russia E. Hemisphere GLOBAL TOTAL 0.19 0.13 0.13 0.18 0.15 0.12 0.14 0.13 0.13
recoverable
Heavy Oil, BBO 35.3 265.7 301.0 7.2 4.9 78.2 29.6 13.4 133.3 434.3
recovery factor* 0.32 0.09 0.32 0.10 0.14 0.10 0.16 0.13 0.13
recoverable Natural Bitumen, BBO
530.9 0.1
531.0
43.0 0.2 0.0 42.8 33.7

119.7
650.7
*Recovery factors were based on published estimates of technically recoverable and in-place oil or bitumen by accumulation. Where unavailable, recovery factors of 10 percent and 5 percent of heavy oil or bitumen in place were assumed for sandstone and carbonate accumulations, respectively.
In addition, 212.4 billion barrels of natural bitumen in place is located in Russia but is either in small deposits or in remote areas in eastern Siberia. The USGS article excerpted here is a clear patriotic and scientific call for official and public awareness. HO and kerogens, as strategic domestic resources concentrated in the
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 2 of 37
Western Hemisphere, could be key elements in a National Energy Policy.

Technical and Environmental Issues
Many environmental issues are associated with recovery of heavy oil and kerogens. Traditional thermal recovery processes include consumption of water, fuels and solvents. Tar sand recovery may also involve surface mining and, similarly, use water, fuels and solvents, and is often unsightly on profoundly grander scales. Tar sand recovery involves strips and open pits of Canadian land. Please note that Canada has huge quantities of oil, gas, minerals, timber, etc. These are on monumental expanses of abundant land remote from population centers, environmental political success, and tourist attractions. Canadian government has legitimate, sound, and fortunate jurisdiction over exploitation and their fiscal attitude might be named. Call it needy, greedy, pragmatic, or statesmanlike, it is very profitable to the government and perhaps a vital benefit to citizens of the Great White North. The ownership of Canadian mineral royalties by the Crown will always outway environmentalism. Canada is perfect for study of exploitation technical issues without undue environmental and political restraint. US E&P professionals face greatly enhanced ethical, moral, and legal issues overprinting those technical issues. In 2003, the USGS lumped light and intermediate crude oils together as conventional or light, and pointed out:
Because conventional light oil can typically be produced at a high rate and a low cost, it has been used before other types of oil. Thus, conventional oil accounts for a declining share of the Earth's remaining oil endowment. In addition to assessing conventional oil resources, scientists of the U.S. Geological Survey's Energy Resources Program collect data on the abundant energy resources available as heavy oil (including extra-heavy oil) and natural bitumen... Historically, heavy oil was found incidentally during the search for light oil and was produced by conventional methods when economically feasible. However, to sustain commercial well production rates, heavy and extra-heavy oil production almost always requires measures to reduce oil viscosity and to introduce energy into the reservoir... Natural bitumen (often called tar sands or oil sands) and heavy oil differ from light oils by their high viscosity (resistance to flow) at reservoir temperatures, high density (low API Gravity), and significant contents of nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur compounds and heavy-metal contaminants. They resemble the residuum from the refining of light oil The Western Hemisphere has 69 percent of the world's technically recoverable heavy oil and 82 percent of the technically recoverable natural bitumen. In contrast, the Eastern Hemisphere has about 85 percent of the world's light oil reserves.
On Page 53, McCain mentions that the petroleum engineer is rarely concerned with solid hydrocarbons. This is an example of Industry historic unfamiliarity with deposits of heavy and extra-heavy crude oils and kerogens.
Oil Classification and Intermediate Hydrocarbons
Crude oil is classified as light, medium, heavy, or extra-heavy, according to its measured
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 3 of 37
API Gravity, based on this crude oils specific gravity (SG), its gravimetric density compared to that of water, at 60F. API Gravity = (141.5 / SG@60F) - 131.5, so SG = 141.5 / (API Gravity +131.5). This temperature of 60F is a component of Standard Temperature and Pressure (STP). The exact temperature of STP has been numerically redefined regularly since the STP concept was introduced. Currently the North America petroleum Industry uses predominantly STP of 60F and 14.73 psi (to define the natural gas sales unit MCF @STP, for example). Natural gas companies in Europe and South America have adopted 15 C (59 F) and 101.325 kPa (14.696 psi) as their STP. Please note that methane is CH4, ethane is C2H6, propane is C3H8, butanes are C4H10s, pentanes are C5H12s, and hexanes are C6H14s. Methane occurring alone is often called natural gas or dry gas; a more inclusive definition of dry gas is provided below. The collection of ethane through the hexanes is called intermediate hydrocarbons, or intermediates. The intermediates are discussed regularly in classification of hydrocarbon gases and liquids. Light crude oil is defined as having an API Gravity higher than 31.1API. The continuum of hydrocarbons is best understood within the unified concepts of fractionation and equilibria related to deposits of natural gas, intermediates, volatile oils and crude oils. When a wellsite geologist uses a wellsite gas chromatograph (GC) to analyze the combustible gases, these hydrocarbon gases are fractionated to methane (CH 4), ethane (C2H6), propane (C3H8), and the butanes (C4H10s). The 5 gases are reported as C1, C2, C3, C4, and C5. C4 and C5 are the butanes; pentane is often a liquid and thus not always logged. Butane, also called n-butane, is the unbranched alkane with four carbon atoms, CH3CH2CH2CH3. Butane is also used as a collective term for n-butane together with its only other isomer, isobutane (also called methylpropane), CH(CH 3)3;; the isobutane molecule is triangular. When the butanes are blended with propane and other hydrocarbons, it is referred to commercially as liquified petroleum gas (LPG). For decades the butanes, C4H10s, were commonly used as fuels, especially in agricultural engines. Propane, C3H8, and LPG have replaced the butanes in these routine rural applications, and propane now commonly used in motor vehicles, outdoor cooking, and home heating. This replacement avoids the problem of butane condensing to a vaporless liquid during cold weather. Liquid hydrocarbons do not burn; only hydrocarbon vapors burn under control by design. Likewise, pentanes, C5H12, and hexanes, C6H14, are liquids at STP. All these heavier hydrocarbons require vaporization by some process such as carburation or fuel injection to fuel controlled combustion.
Single-Phase Flow in Porous Media
Darcy's law is a simple proportional relationship between the instantaneous discharge rate
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 4 of 37
through a porous medium, the viscosity of the fluid and the pressure drop over a given distance. The rate at which a fluid flows through a permeable substance per unit area is equal to the permeability, which is a property only of the substance through which the fluid is flowing, times the pressure drop per unit length of flow, divided by the viscosity of the fluid. Darcys Law is presented below in its 1D form:
The total discharge, Q (units of volume per time) is equal to the product of the permeability of the medium, the crosssectional area (A) to flow, and the pressure drop (Pb Pa), all divided by the fluids dynamic viscosity , and the length. Figure 1. Schematic view of Darcys Law for single-phase fluid flow through a porous medium.
Q = - A (Pb Pa) / L.
The total discharge, Q (units of volume per time, e.g., m/s) is equal to the product of the permeability ( units of area, e.g. m) of the medium, the cross-sectional area (A) to flow, and the pressure drop (Pb Pa), all divided by the dynamic viscosity (in SI units e.g. kg/(ms) or Pas), and the length L the pressure drop is taking place over. The negative sign is needed because fluids flow from high pressure to low pressure. So if the change in pressure is negative (in the x-direction) then the flow will be positive (in the xdirection). Dividing both sides of the above equation by the Area A results in a more general notation for the differential form of Darcys Law:
q = - p / .
This simple law, detailed in Appendix 1., is completely adequate to formulate numerical simulations of saturated groundwater movement. It also describes the movement of dry gas and wet gas in downhole reservoirs lacking oil or water, and is completely adequate for their numerical simulation. Darcys Law is perhaps the most unavoidable buzz-word in subsurface reservoir engineering.
Dry Gas Reservoirs
Virtually all petroleum reservoirs contain some accumulation of methane, CH 4. This methane may be dissolved in crude or volatile oil. It may have accumulated as a gravitystable gas cap above a bank of saturated oil. Most oil deposits also contain some intermediates. Methane in a cap above oil is usually rich in intermediates. Methane found without oil may be almost pure (dry) or may be dissolved with intermediates. Methane, ethane and propane, with their small molecules, are gases at STP and at all common surface atmospheric conditions. If a petroleum reservoir contains only water, methane, ethane, and/or propane, the deposit is called dry gas. The dry gas may also
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 5 of 37
contain butane, C4H10s, but these will condense at the surface during cold weather.
Dry gas is primarily methane with some intermediates. This is the phase diagram of a typical dry gas. Both the line of isothermal reduction and separator condition point are outside the phase envelope. The looping lines within the phase envelope represent constant liquid volume as fractions of total volume. They are called iso-vols or quality lines. The dry gas hydrocarbon mixture is 100% gas in the reservoir, the tubing, at surface, and even at separator conditions. The very light intermediates, C2H6 and/or C3H8, will require processing equivalent to refrigeration for separation from methane. Figure 2. Dry Gas (methane, ethane, and/or propane) McCain, 1990.
Local offsite processing of the ethane, propane, and/or butane enrichments to methane can be very profitable, however. These are generally called plant products. Ethane and butane may have markets as petrochemical feedstocks or heavy oil diluente. Butane and propane and LPG are also commercial fuels, of course. These are generally called plant products. These most convenient gases can also remain dissolved in natural gas and contribute to the heat value of the gas. Their contribution should be honored when negotiating gas unit sales value. Specification and timing of the heat value measurement will help optimize pipeline sales contracts. The International oil markets which swirl with superstition and uncertainty are not completely reproduced in the Continental markets for natural gas. Thus some additional stability occurs in the natural gas markets.
LNG and Energy Policy
Before this dry (natural) gas can be moved overseas it must be liquified cryogenically. Liquified natural gas (LNG) technology is mature but unpopular. Methane is refrigerated to 163C, -258F, reducing the methanes volume below STP by approximately the factor 600. LNG is about half as dense as water, so it is suited to transport by sea to locations without adequate domestic natural gas supplies. LNG is a transparent, odorless, non-toxic, noncorrosive, very cold, very flammable liquid, stored and transported in insulated pressure containers. About 200 LNG transport vessels are in service, and at least 13 nations export to 17 nations importing LNG. LNG prices are sometimes more than twice those for natural gas. In absence of very long pipelines and/or LNG shipments, natural gas supplies are huge
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 6 of 37
geopolitical issues, especially in Eurasia. Europe and Asia rely upon former Soviet Republics for natural gas supplies. Hopefully the gas markets on other Continents will perform less brutally than has Eurasias market. About 84% of the US natural gas supply, about 19.3 TCF annually, comes from the approximately 500,000 US natural gas wells and associated gas from a similar number of US oil wells. About 83% of US gas imports, 3.3TCF annual, comes from Canada. Slightly more US gas is exported to Mexico than is imported from Mexico. The 2% balance of US natural gas needs, 771BCF annual, is met by importing LNG from Trinidad/Tobago (58%), Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, and Qatar. The 8 US LNG import terminals are located on the Gulf of Mexico coast (4), in Massachusetts (2), in Maryland and Georgia. Mexico has terminals at Altamira and Baja California. The US exports LNG to Japan, Mexico, and Russia. The oldest marine terminal has been in service at Kenai, Alaska since 1969, exporting mostly to Japan and other Pacific Rim customers. At least 12 LNG import terminal proposals are now before the FERC, including Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf Coasts, including the Pacific Northwest region. Compared to 2005 demand, International LNG import demand will double in the next few years. With Totals commitment to develop a terminal in Yemen, that nation is posed to become the Worlds newest exporter of LNG. The US natural gas Industry has underwritten moderate product cost increases by its aggressive replacement of reserves since 2000. Natural gas and LNG deserve detailed attention in the US Energy Policy as a domestic strategic resource.
Wet Gas Reservoirs
The hydrocarbon accumulations in most petroleum reservoirs are saturated with water due to their contact and equilibrium with water. Luckily the solubility of water in hydrocarbons is low.
Wet gas reservoirs produce condensate stock tank liquids, with GORs above 5,000 (even 50,000) scf/STB. The gravity of the stock tank liquid is in the 40-50API range and does not change during reservoir life; GOR is also constant during reservoir life. This liquid is usually clear as water. No hydrocarbon liquid exists in the wet gas reservoir. The pressure path line in a wet gas phase diagram does not enter the liquid phase envelope. Separator conditions lie within the phase envelope, however, causing liquid to be formed at the surface.
Figure 3. Phase diagram for a wet gas reservoir. McCain, 1990.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 7 of 37
As a classification, the term wet gas reservoir is named, not for water, but for their rich cocktails of downhole hydrocarbons in gaseous form. These downhole gases condense in separators at surface facilities. These liquids are called condensates.
Figure 3. Gas Chromatograph display, showing a retrograde gas or wet gas response. The butanes are liquids at many winter temperatures. The pentanes would be liquids at all common uphole temperatures. All might gaseous in situ, depending upon downhole temperature and pressure. http://www.srigc.com/ These volatile, (brown, orange, or green) translucent and perhaps almost transparent stock tank liquids may contain hexanes and above, pentanes, butanes and limited evaporating propane. If these surface condensates existed in situ downhole as gases dissolved with fractions of methane, ethane, propane and/or other lightweight hydrocarbons, they are called condensates when they condense uphole. In the early oil and gas business these were sometimes called drip gas because they might be burned as gasoline in a vehicle. Gasolines API Gravity averages 50, so its SG= 141.5 / (50 + 131.5) = 0.778.
2-Phase Relative Permeability and Fractional Flow
The BuckleyLeverett equation or the BuckleyLeverett displacement can be interpreted as a way of incorporating the microscopic effects due capillary pressure in two-phase flow into Darcy's law. In a 1D sample (control volume), let S(x,t) be the water saturation; f is the fractional flow rate, Q is the total flow, (, phi) is porosity and A is area of the cross-section in the sample volume. Forward in this primer, subsequent types of oil and gas accumulations will require concepts of 2-phase reservoir flow. Under control of surface tension between oil and water and gravity segregation between oil, gas, and water.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 8 of 37
In fluid dynamics, the BuckleyLeverett equation is a transport equation used to model two-phase flow in porous media[1] . The BuckleyLeverett equation or the Buckley Leverett displacement can be interpreted as a way of incorporating the microscopic effects due to capillary pressure in two-phase flow into Darcy's law. The BuckleyLeverett equation is derived for a 1D sample given mass conservation capillary pressure pc(S) is a function of water saturation S only dpc / dS = 0 causing the pressure gradients of the two phases to be equal. General solution: The solution of the BuckleyLeverett equation has the form S(x,t) = S(x U(S)t) which means that U(S) is the front velocity of the fluids at saturation S.
Relative Permeability and Mobility Ratio
Especially during the development of reservoir engineering for secondary recovery (waterflooding), the relative permeability concept received generations of empirical and theoretical research.
Figure 4. 2-phase oil-water relative permeability curves measured in laboratory (2004, L. Qingjie, L. Li, Manli).
A reservoir mobility gas-liquid mobility ratio, Mg-l, of gas to liquid, can be defined as
M g-l = kg l / kl g
where M= l and g. are the viscocities of the liquid and gas phases, kg and kl are the
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 9 of 37
2-phase reservoir relative permeabilities to gas and liquid. A similar mobility ratio can be formulated for water to oil, M w-o, gas to oil, Mg-o, etc. The most interesting relative permeability considerations are in 3-phase reservoir circumstances, where Herb Stones 3-phase relative permeabilities equations are required to estimate 30-phase data from 2-phase data for use in numerical reservoir simulation programs.
Retrograde Gas Reservoirs
An initial producing GOR of 3,300 to 5,000 indicates a very rich retrograde gas. Without pressure maintenance, such a rich gas will condense sufficient retrograde liquid to represent a saturation of 35%. Even such a large quantity of retrograde liquid normally cannot be produced, due to its unfavorable mobility ratio as compared to reservoir gas. Economics incentive pressure maintenance and/or gas cycling to keep this valuable solvent/gas in its gaseous phase! GOR > 50,000 indicates negligible retrograde effect.
Retrograde gas reservoir phase diagrams have the critical point on the left side. Critical temperature is less than reservoir temperature; the cricondentherm is greater. Initially retrograde gas is totally gas downhole (1); under production pressure may drop to dew point (2). Then liquid condenses downhole. This liquid is called retrograde liquid. Laboratory phase diagrams indicate lower pressures (3) where retrograde liquid revaporizes. This effect is uncertain in producing reservoirs due to downhole fluid composition changes during production. Figure 5. Phase diagram for a retrograde gas reservoir. McCain, 1990.
Retrograde gas reservoirs produce lightly colored, brown, orange, greenish, or waterwhite stock tank condensates with the same range of API Gravity, 40-50 API, as the liquids from wet gas reservoirs. The surface gas is very rich in intermediates; it is usually processed to remove propane, butanes, pentanes, and/or heavier hydrocarbons. These are often called plant liquids or plant products. GORs increase and stock tank liquid gravity increase after reservoir pressure drops below the dew-point (2). Retrograde gas reservoirs are cycled with reinjection of miscible gases (especially methane) to facilitate surface liquid recovery. They may also undergo water injection to maintain pressure and retard the retrograde process.
Volatile Oils
The class of light petroleums that are 100% liquids under initial downhole reservoir
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 10 of 37
conditions, those in the 40-50 API Gravity range, is called volatile oils. Volatile oils contain fewer heavy molecules and more intermediates (ethane through hexanes) than crude oils. Note that volatile oils, wet gas, and retrograde gas/condensate reservoirs all have very low viscosity and high API Gravity and very low fractions of very large heavy hydrocarbon molecules. The distinction between downhole liquids and gases can be arbitrary and/or academic among such light hydrocarbons. Laboratory-determined compositions of volatile oils will have mole 12.5-20% heptanes and above. The dividing line between volatile oils and retrograde gases at 12.5% mole percent heptanes plus is fairly definite. When the mole concentration of heptanes-plus is below 12.5%, the reservoir fluid is almost always gas and exhibits a dew point. When this concentration is above 12.5%, the reservoir fluid is almost always a liquid and exhibits a bubble point. Any exceptions to this rule normally do not meet the rules of thumb regarding stock-tank oil gravity and color. Laboratory observation of a volatile oil will reveal an initial formation volume factor greater than 2.0 RB/STB. The oil produced at point 2. of the Figure will shrink by more than 0.5, often 0.75, on its journey to the stock tank (3 or more stages of surface separation are recommended). Volatile oils have also been called high-shrinkage crude oils and near-critical oils.
The volatile oil reservoir phase envelope critical point is low and close to reservoir temperature. The iso-vols are not evenly spaced; they are shifted upwards toward the bubble-point line. The vertical line shows the path taken by the constant-temperature pressure reduction during production, releasing a large proportion of gas for a small pressure drop. A volatile oil may become as much as 50% reservoir gas at only a few hundred psi below the bubble-point pressure. Also, an iso-vol with even lower gas proportion crosses the separator condition point. Figure 6. Phase diagram for a volatile oil reservoir. McCain, 1990.
As reservoir pressure drops to point 2 in Figure 4, creation of a secondary gas saturation begins. The secondary downhole gas associated with a volatile oil reservoir is very rich, usually a retrograde gas; also, often over 50% of stock tank liquid produced from a volatile oil reservoir entered the wellbore as a gas. Remember the favorable mobility ratio allowing gas to flow preferentially due to its low viscosity. The critical temperature of a volatile oil is always greater than the reservoir temperature;
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 11 of 37
its initial production GOR is between 2,000 and 3,3000 scf/STB. Producing GOR and stock tank API Gravity increases with primary production. Literature is slight on volatile oil deposits. The largest accumulation I personally observed is the Fairway James Lime Field, East Texas with 410 MMBOIP, of which 213 MMBO had been recovered in 2007 after 4 decades of gas recycling and water injection to maintain reservoir pressure. (Appendix 3.) Another noteworthy volatile oil accumulation is in Eugene Island, Block 99, Lease OCSG 21637, 20 miles offshore of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. The Properties of Petroleum Fluids By William D. McCain states: Volatile oils contain relatively fewer heavy molecules and more intermediates ethane-hexanes [methane is CH4, ethane is C2H6, propane is C3H8, butanes are C4H10s, pentanes are C5H12, hexanes are C6H14]. Their critical temperatures are much lower than for black oils and are close to reservoir temperatures. Their gas-oil ratios (GORs) are in the range of 2,000-3,3000 scf/STB.
Crude Black Oils
Note that Dr. McCain wrote the Book, and refers to the non-volatile light oils as black, low-shrinkage crude oils, or ordinary oils. So, black oil is a synonym for crude oil, and is expected to have a GOR < 2,000scf/STB, an API Gravity < 45, and to be dark due to presence of heavy hydrocarbons. Black, or crude oils contain a wide variety of chemical species, including those large, heavy, molecules resistant to evaporation. Black, or crude, oils contain more heavy molecules and less intermediates (ethane through hexanes) than volatile oils. As the reservoir pressure drops below bubble point, a secondary gas saturation is created. The lower viscosity of gas eventually allows it to be preferentially drained during production. Oil volumes shrink slightly as their dissolved gases evaporate from this hydrocarbon mixture downhole.
Conventional (Light & Intermediate) Crude Oil
Intermediate or Medium crude oil is defined as having an API Gravity between 22.3API and 31.1API. Note the EU defines medium crude gravity between 25.7 API and 31.1API. Especially the most economically favorable crude oils are classified by API Gravity and sulfur content and given names. For example, Brent Crude is actually a combination of crude oil from 15 different North Sea oil fields with an API Gravity of 35.5. The Permian Basins West Texas Intermediate (WTI) has an API Gravity of around 39.6 (specific gravity of around 0.827), lighter than Brent Crude. It contains about 0.24% sulfur, rating it a sweet crude, less sulfurous and thus sweeter than Brent. WTI properties and production sites make it ideal for being refined in the United States, mostly in the Midwest and Gulf Coast regions where demand for gasoline and petrochemical products is high. Thus its listed market price is often higher than Brent crude. WTI is extensively stockpiled at locations like Cushing, Oklahoma.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 12 of 37
From January 1, 1987 to June 15, 2005, OPEC calculated an arithmetic average of seven crude oil streams (known as the OPEC Basket). This basket included Algeria's Saharan Blend, Indonesia Minas, Nigeria Bonny Light, Saudi Arabia Arab Light, Dubai Fateh, Venezuela Tia Juana and Mexico Isthmus (a non-OPEC oil) to estimate the OPEC basket price.
The black (crude) oil phase envelope has the critical point higher above reservoir temperature. Iso-vols are spaced rather evenly within the envelope. Line 123 indicates the reduction in pressure during primary production. Along Line 12, the oil is undersaturated; if more reservoir gas were present, it would dissolve at these higher pressures. Along Line 23, the gas is saturated, and pressure reduction releases gas from the crude oil to form a volumetric pore system saturation of a free gas phase. Figure 7. Phase diagram for a black, or crude oil reservoir. McCain, 1990.
Effective June 16, 2005, OPEC's new reference basket consists of eleven crude streams representing the main export crudes of all member countries, weighted according to production and exports to the main markets. The crude oil streams in the basket are: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Minas (Indonesia), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basra Light (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Qatar Marine (Qatar), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and BCF 17 (Venezuela). According to OPEC, the API Gravity for the new basket is heavier (32.7 compared to 34.6). In addition, the sulfur content of the new basket is more sour (1.77% compared to 1.44%).
API Gravity and Heavy Crude Oils (HO)
Heavy crude oil is defined as having an API Gravity between or 10 and 22.3 API. The EU has a slightly different definition of heavy'. Their cutoff between heavy' and intermediate' lies at 25.7 API Gravity. This causes there to be more heavy crude oil in their view. Extra-heavy crude oil is generally defined as having an API Gravity below 10. The USGS definition of natural bitumens, which are yet denser than extra-heavy crude oils, is presented below. This indication of oil specific gravity at temperature 60F places the heaviest of the HO class, with API Gravity = 10, at the specific gravity (SG) of 1.0 (identical to water at 60F). The lightest HO, at a SG= 141.5 / (22.3 + 131.5) = 0.922, floats on water.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 13 of 37
Asphalt, in the extra-heavy class, on average has an API Gravity of 8 (sinks in water). Its high viscosity makes it seem more solid than liquid; hence its desirability for pavement composites. The heaviest crude oils and natural bitumens, composed of very large complex carbonrich hydrocarbon molecules, have very high heat contents. They were originally refined to produce fuel oil, but require specialized refining to yield the petrochemical products in highest demand today. Some of the rarest and most profitable petroleum refineries today are those devoted specifically to processing heavy and extra-heavy crude oils. A memorable example is Valeros Bill Greehey Refinery in Corpus Christi, TX; one of the most profitable refineries in the USA is refining very heavy oils to produce gasoline and other topprice petrochemicals! The properties of heavy and extra-heavy crude oil and kerogens are very strongly influenced by temperature. Their form as perhaps solids, perhaps liquids, is much different depending upon temperature. The crude oil may be on the surface at 0.0 C, or at 100.0 C also on location, or at 100.0 C in a thermal recovery process at a depth of 2,000. These Celsius temperatures convert to 32 and 212 Fahrenheit. The very high kinematic viscosities of these heaviest crude oils and bitumens are especially strongly affected by their temperatures in their various environments.
Cumulative percentage of annual production (blue) and cumulative percentage of technically recoverable resources (brown) of heavy oil as a function of oil density (API Gravity) in 2000. Less than 10 percent of the heavy oil produced annually is extra-heavy oil (API Gravity of 10 or less), whereas 33 percent of the technically recoverable heavy oil has an API Gravity of 10 or less. Figure 8. Cumulatives production and recoverable vs. API Gravity, USGS.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 14 of 37
HO & Bitumen, According to USGS:
For some of their discussions, USGS lumps the Light and Heavy crude oil classes together as :
(USGS) Light oil, also called conventional oil, has an API Gravity of at least 22 and a viscosity less than 100 centipoise (cP). Heavy oil is an asphaltic, dense (low API Gravity), and viscous oil that is chemically characterized by its content of asphaltenes (very large molecules incorporating most of the sulfur and perhaps 90 percent of the metals in the oil). Although variously defined, the upper limit for heavy oil has been set at 22 API Gravity and a viscosity of 100 cP. Extra-heavy oil is that portion of heavy oil having an API Gravity of less than 10. Natural bitumen, also called tar sands or oil sands, shares the attributes of heavy oil but is yet more dense and viscous. Natural bitumen is oil having a viscosity greater than 10,000 Centpoise (cP). Water has a kinematic viscosity of 1.0 cP at 60F. Natural bitumen (often called tar sands or oil sands), extra-heavy and heavy crude oils differ from lighter oils by their high viscosity (resistance to flow) at reservoir temperatures, high density (low API Gravity), and significant contents of nitrogen, oxygen, and sulfur compounds and heavy-metal contaminants. They resemble the refinery residuum from the refining of light oil.
Many liquid hydrocarbons in this class are found in tar sands, such as the Athabasca Tar Sands in Canada. These tar sands are shallow, and due to their northern latitude these shallow deposits are rather cool. When the Tar Sands are sampled in core barrels, only the tar consolidates the core, and the core falls into a blob when warmed!
Reservoir Conditions and Fluid Densities
The oil and gas Industrys exploration and production (E&P) activities, a legacy of observational context based on gravimetric density permeates the views of the geoscientist and engineer. In this legacy, gas floats on oil, and oil floats on water. Innumerable geologic crossections, areal maps, and well log breakdowns are thus aligned. The maps show primary and secondary gas caps perched upon rings of light and intermediate oils. The oil rings very often float on aquifers or smaller deposits of formation water. The Yates Field Unit of Pecos Co., Texas, is an example: After generations of injection of possibly every available fluid, including nitrogen, CO2, heated and unheated water, this is still a $billion property. The oil accumulation is now described as a seven-foot oil column, above a water column, below a gas cap. Subsurface accumulations of heavy and especially extra-heavy crude oils challenge this gravimetric stereotype. The lightest of the extra-heavy crudes have neutral buoyancy in fresh waters. Formation brines have specific gravities up to about 1.1, but low-salinity connate waters may be gravity-stable above heavy oils. This density contrast defies the Industry stereotype of the oil-water contact, replacing it with a water-oil contact.
Reservoir Conditions and Oil Viscosities
The API Gravity a crude oil and its basis in specific gravity (SG), based on the density of
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 15 of 37
water, reflect the molecular weights of their constituent liquid hydrocarbons. Generally liquid hydrocarbon viscosities increase as do their densities, but this correlation exhibits considerable statistical scatter, especially when the various international occurrences of these very heavy hydrocarbons are examined. Note that while API Gravities of reservoir oils and their gravimetric implications are themselves of interest in TRHO, HOs very high kinematic viscosities have even more impact on their performance under all recovery processes. The primary recovery characteristics of Californias largest fields benefited greatly from their extreme overpressure, however. This extreme pressure regime temporarily overcame the disadvantage of the very high viscosities of the HOs, and was probably greatly influenced by the regions pronounced tectonic stresses. This discussion assumes subject HOs have viscosities more than 50 times that of water under reservoir conditions. This is consistent with real HOs under recovery using TRHO options.
Reservoir Conditions, Porosities & Wettabilities
Perhaps the most accessible parameters in reservoir characterization are average porosities. Perhaps the least accessible parameters in reservoir characterization are wettabilities. A reservoir pore may be primary (created during sedimentary deposition) or secondary (created during lithification or diagenesis long after sediments are deposited). The primary porosity systems may be intergranular, especially in sandstones, siltstones, and shales. Porosity systems may be intercrystalline, karstic, fractured, or all of the above, especially in carbonate reservoir rocks. Wireline compensated neuton lithodensity combination porosity logs give average reservoir porosity measurements with accuracy ranging from excellent to barely adequate. Generally these nuclear porosity logs provide adequate accuracy for average reservoir porosity evaluation. The surfaces of a reservoir pore may be hydrophobic (repelling water) or hydrophilic (attracting water). Oil will cling electrostaticly to hydrophobic surfaces. Water will cling similarly to hydrophilic surfaces. These concepts are easily demonstrated in simplisitc experiments. Many reservoir porosity systems exhibit mixed, checkerboard, or dalmation nonuniform wettabilities. Since many techniques to evaluate reservoir systems wettability states and distributions unfortunately involve alteration of these states, wettability evaluations are very difficult.
Primary Oil Recovery Drive Mechanisms
Primary recovery in oil reservoirs depends on a primary reservoir drive mechanism. Hydrostatic and/or lithostatic forces have charged the compressible oil accumulation with potential energy. Gravity drainage occurs when a heavy oil drips down from the reservoir into production wells. This is significant in water-free reservoirs with depleted pressures and when producing heavy oil.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 16 of 37
If the oil is saturated with gas, a primary gas cap may exist gravity-stable above banks of oil and water. If the water bank is small, water drive will not be significant. In gas cap drive, the very high compressiblility of natural gas may allow the a gas caps expansion to significantly support pressure and maintain reservoir energy during production. With great care, oil production may be controlled and limited to prevent premature fingering of a gas bank into production wells. Since gas has very low viscocity and very high mobility ratio, this is a difficult engineering task. Volatile and crude oils without water drive often depend upon dissolved gas drive (DGD). This mechanism, also known as depletion drive, is especially important in the early period of high production rate sometimes called flush production. Above bubble point, the oil enters the wellbore without gas liberation or significant reduction of reservoir potential energy. As the GDG oil reservoirs pressure drops during production, it eventually reaches bubble point, and gas is liberated from the oil. Especially near the wellbore, regions of free gas occur. Viscosities and mobility ratios predict preferential flow of gas, and the producing GOR increases. Oil composition is thus changed, and reservoir oil gradually shrinks slightly and loses much of its natural gas and intermediates content. Without pressure maintenance operations the reservoirs oil loses its potential energy, becomes heavier and more viscous. This undesireable and destructive loss of DGD oil reservoir energy can be prevented by instituting a pressure maintenance plan before reservoir pressure drops significantly below bubble point. Encouragement or requirement of such conservation measures is admiriably institutionalized in Canada and China, for example. The US E&P Industry is now super-mature way beyond much benefit from such regulation, however.
Figure 9. Schematic cross sections of 3 basic reservoi drive mechanisms: depletion or dissolved gas drive, gas cap drive, and water drive.
An oil reservoir with an oil-water contact directly connected to an extensive aquifer may benefit from the aquifers advance toward production wells, water drive. Given adequate management to moderate production and minimum heterogeneity regarding reservoir/aquifer permeability, a large aquifer may support reservoir pressure for a generation before the free water impinges upon production wells. These water drives
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 17 of 37
may be considered strong and active (large aquifer moving quickly as oil is produced), moderate, or weak.
Original Oil in Place and Recovery Efficiency
A reservoir engineers evaluation of an oil deposit begins with calculation of original oil in place (OOIP). This calculation is simple: multiply the volume of the oil accumulation by its average porosity by its porosity-weighted oil saturation. After volumetric units like acre-feet are converted to barrels of oil (BO), an estimate of the original oil in place in BO results. The Lower 48 States of the US abounds with counties which have produced over 1 billion BO; some of these records were set before WW2, and very many have followed. The ratio of cumulative oil recovery to OOIP, in BO, is called recovery efficiency. In carefully engineered conditions, under the most fortunate drive mechanisms and other reservoir details, more than half of OOIP (50%) may be produced during primary recovery. This is most likely under conditions of strong water drive, very high reservoir porosity and permeability, with moderate drawdown of bottomhole tubing pressure (BHTP). The bank of water moves toward the oil column as the oil column moves toward the wellbore, maintaining downhole reservoir pressure. Along with oil fields on land where the oil column is in direct contact with a very large acquifer, these conditions are especially likely in marine settings like the Gulf of Mexico (GoM). Occasionally a column of reservoir brine may even outcrop on the marine floor, placing it in direct contact with the marine hydrostatic gradient. Due to the unfavorable mobility ration of gas to oil, oil accumulations with gas cap drive seldom approach such a high recovery efficiency as 50%. Accumulations depending upon DGD never approach such a high value of recovery efficiency, and the economics of primary production eventually becomes marginal, leaving most of OOIP remains in the reservoir. Recovery efficiency under primary recovery for DGD reservoirs ranges from 3% to 30%, at an average of around 12%.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 18 of 37
Figure 10. Chemical analysis of a Texas intermediate crude oil thought to be Paleozoic in origin, from a reservoir on production for almost 100 years. Note that methane and intermediates are almost absent, with heptane (n7) the lightest component displayed with significant amplitude. This stripping of light HCs is a characteristic of loss of reservoir energy due to excessive drop of reservoir pressure in a DGD oil reservoir. Because of its increased viscocity and lowered API Gravity, such oil is called dead oil.
Consequences of Oil Reservoir Depletion
In the Lower 48 States of the US, during primary recovery, most active oil field produced by the dissolved gas drive (DGD) recovery mechanism, somes called depletion drive. As was just mentioned, drawing an oil reservoirs far below bubble point quickly promotes a premature severe change in downhole reservoir conditions. Several changes in the reservoirs character are then inevitable:
Gas is progressively liberated from reservoir oil, forming banks of gas. Due to unfavorable mobility ratio of oil to gas, these banks of free gas flow preferentially to the wellbore. This gas is typically rich in intermediates, having been in contact with oil. Thus methane and intermediates are progressively stripped from the oil, making the oil heavier. Eventually the GOR ratio will vanish to near zero; such remaining oil is called dead oil. Consequences of this oil composition change are inevitable: The progressively heavier oil becomes more denser, shrinking in density. Additional pore space is thus evacuated as oil shrinks into the less accessible volumes of the porosity system. This reduced oil saturation increases relative permeability to gas, enhancing the unfavorable oil-gas mobility ratio. The progressively heavier oil becomes more viscous, thickening in viscocity, further enhancing the unfavorable oil-gas mobility ratio.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 19 of 37
High gas flow rates near the wellbore enhance the stripping of reservoir oil from the completion area, further enhancing the unfavorable oil-gas mobility ratio near the wellbore.
The largest of the producing oil fields, and those with the largest amounts of original oil in place (OOIP), will institute unitization to implement a waterflood for pressure maintenance. In small accumulations the result of poorly managed reservoir pressure yields a stripper well, which produces a few BO/day or less.
Waterflooding & Hot Water Injection
A waterflood (WF) pilot or unit attempts to mimic the natural strong water drive, which is one of the most efficient drive mechanisms observed in primary recovery operations. Waterflooding is also called secondary recovery. Banks of this injected water can displace banks of oil toward producing wells wholesale. Reservoir rock heterogeneity and wettability cause some oil banks to be bypassed, however, as water banks break through prematurely at production wells. This premature water breakthrough is greatly enhanced when reservoir oil is many times more viscous than reservoir water. This viscosity contrast is called an unfavorable mobility ratio. Hot water injection, the most basic and probably the earliest thermal recovery technique uses water heaters at surface injection facilities to provide hot water for injection. Remember the term hot is relative, especially under cold surface conditions. The warming of water for injection can be a vital measure in its overall assistance to field operations. Especially when some heavy oil or fractions are involved, accumulations of paraffin or other solids can be major themes in maintenance. Field facilities professionals routinely employ heater-treaters to remediate problems with viscous or solid heavy crudes, lubricants, cements, or solids or break emulsions. The viscous/solid problem materials may include whatever crude or oils, solvents, cements, plastics, natural materials combine to contaminate a rental part or operator production component. So, the ability to bring this practicality of heating water at a water injection site is a very important option. Combined with general detergents and industrial chemicals to control injectant properties, heating water is just a routine industrial activity.
Screening Producing Oil fields for WF & EOR
After economic performance of a waterflood unit becomes inadequate, the operator may propose additional measures to increase the units profit and and producing life. These measures are collectively known as Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) or tertiary recovery. The stepchild in the family of EOR processes is Chemical Flooding, involving polymers to increase water viscocity and surfactants to reduce surface tension between oils and water. Its importance will remain minor until very high oil prices become sustained. The bases for planning and organizing a WF or EOR operation can perhaps be divided into these components:
reservoir rock (depth, permeability, porosity, wettability) characterization oil properties (especially viscosity) reservoir drive mechanism
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 20 of 37
water quality and availability analog field examination pilot projects, and Unitization.
When screening oil fields regarding WF, heterogeneity, continuity, and non-oil-bearing reservoir volumes (thieves or thief zones) are dominant reservoir characterization issues. The geologic thieves may be connected aquifers below the hydrocarbon column and/or wet areas on its flanks. Due to the limitations of cement jobs, major WFs often inadvertently provide pressure maintenance in uphole and even downhole reservoirs. These unplanned flows can enhance oil well performance, even on relatively distant adjacent leases. These operations problems may also be regarded as thief zones. They are huge windfalls for nearby ventures receiving this free pressure maintenance. The accepted methods to screen a field or lease for secondary recovery (WF) are reservoir characterization and subsequent study of analog fields. Both these steps are best taken in concert between engineering and geosciences. The next step before unitization for WF is the choice of an area of the field for a pilot WF involving a reasonable number of injectors and producers. This choice is best made with input from any leaseholders willing to be involved.
Waterflood and EOR Units
Generally the formation of a waterflood or EOR unit is facilitated by the extremely reduced performance of the existing leases in the field under its previous recovery technique. Often the process of elimination makes the decision of leaseholders to participate obvious. In Texas, the Railroad Commission is famous for providing incentive for leaseholders to unitize. Regardless, the considerations mentioned here and above are necessary to justify and accomplish this transition from primary recovery to a more engineered combination of characterization, development and recovery methods. Before launching the complicated study and economic expense of EOR, oil fields producing HO may be waterflooded, with all the issues mentioned above. The unfavorable viscosity ratio between water and a HO enhances the bypassing of oil banks and premature breakthrough of water banks during WF. This secondary recovery process also provides invaluable information regarding reservoir characterization, however. As an augmentation of the waterflood process, chemical flooding has been the subject of major oil company and service company research and development for many decades. Surfactants to reduce oil-water surface tension can act similarly to household detergents, dissolving oil fractions in the injected aqueous phase. Engineered aqueous polymers increase water viscocity to reduce unfavorable oil-water mobility ratios.
Miscible EOR Processes:
The most prevalent EOR processes for recovery of light and intermediate crudes are various forms of miscible displacement. An injectant is chosen to mix downhole with residual crude oil. This miscible injectant is called a solvent; it is usually some
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 21 of 37
combination of CO2 combined with anything inconvenient for the EOR surface gas processing plant to remove. These contaminants may include methane CH 4, hydrogen sulfide H2S, sulfur dioxide SO2, and even Nitrogen N2. Regarding miscible EOR processes and field conformance, major conformance issues I have seen repetitively include these issues: Premature solvent (CO2) breakthrough in volumes so large as to
overload the surface CO2 processing plant, indicate excessive bypassing of reservoir oil by injected CO2.
Note that bypass of oil by injected CO2 is serious; only those volumes of CO2 which actually contact reservoir oil can mix with the downhole oil to accomplish
lower oil viscosity (thinning) increase oil volume (swelling).
Of course, these are the reasons for the injecting water part of water alternating with gas (WAG) studied and employed so widely in simulations, Pilots, and Units include:
Maintenance of oil reservoir downhole pressure Reduction of downhole miscible gas mobility, thus remediating premature CO2 breakthrough, and Displacement of downhole oil banks by banks of injected water.
Another conformance issue I see frequently is the alteration of reservoir rock at injection wells due to chemical leaching and processes associated with high injection rates, enlarging pores and increasing injectivity. The most constant and frequent issue I have observed in fields using CO 2 WAG is corrosion, both uphole and downhole (especially in production wells and facilities). Brine or brackish water, of course, causes corrosion in a waterflood. The copious water downhole in a waterflood converted to a CO2 flood becomes carbonated, and the resulting carbonic acid is even more corrosive than formation or injection water. Add a little H2S downhole and/or in CO2 stream, and completions & facilities may seem to disintegrate before your eyes!
EOR for HO Fields: TRHO
Many of the known HO deposits exist in sandstone reservoirs; CAs most prolific oil fields are examples. Thus, the use of water or steam for downhole injection may activate downhole clay minerals, causing these clays to swell. This swelling is a notorious mechanism to reduce formation permeability by the blocking pore throats by swelling and/or migrating clay crystals. Water must be procured and treated for injection, and motors must be operated to inject the water. Industry introductions of Steamfloods (SF) and Cyclic Steam Injection (CSI) were based on waterflood experience and/or use of heat to handle oil on surface production facilities. Steam was generated at the ground surface and substituted for water as an injectant as in a waterflood. When a bank of super-heated steam progresses in an oil reservoir,
oil viscosity is reduced as temperature increases.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 22 of 37
Reservoir pressure is increased through additional water volume partial distillation of the oil.
Whether SF or CSI was introduced first is not clear. The discovery of the SCI process is attributed by at least one source to a steamflooding accident in Venezuela noticed by Shell in 1959. I suspect this was the independent discovery of a secret proprietary and confidential unpatented stimulation treatment already being performed behind locked lease gates in CA and perhaps elsewhere. By 1966 the Kern River Fields production rate had exceeded its 1904 rate of 47,100 BBL/day. This almost matched the total oil daily production rate of the entire State of Texas!
Cyclic Steam Injection (CSI)
The most basic step in EOR for increasing production of HO is cyclic steam injection (CSI). This is a single-well stimulation method in which high-pressure steam is generated at the ground surface for injection into 1 or more wells. After a period of injection into each well, the same well is temporarily converted to a period of production. Between steam injection and production periods there is an idle period, allowing additional heat transfer, leading to the term Steam Soak. This cycle is repeated while recovery is economic; it is also called huff n puff. Advances in the details improving the CSI option of TRHO were introduced and developed in prolific HO deposits like the Kern County area of California (CA), Venezuela and Indonesia. Many of the legendary CA producing fields were identified around 1900, so today they are some of the most super-mature assets in the USA, leaving remaining recoverable reserves as low as 20% of Original Oil in Place (OOIP). Regardless, at least 1 billion barrels of oil are likely to remain in these fields. As a single-well stimulation process, CSI requires relatively little increase in petrophysical, geological, and reservoir study over those conducted for primary recovery. CSI is normally applied to wells proved as previous producers under primary recovery. Since it effects a region of limited extent around a single wellbore, its effectiveness eventually declines over its period of application. Wellbore heat absorption limits CSI formation depth to less than 3,000ft (1,000m). The requirement of surface steam generation depends upon the procurement and treatment of water for injection, the use of natural gas to generate steam from said water, and the management of related environmental issues.
Steamflooding (SF)
CSI has continued as a mainstay of TRHO, holding steady in CA during the period of relatively low oil prices in the Industry slump ending in 2005, for example. During this period WF recovery declined in CA. The employment of more advanced techniques such as Steamflooding (SF) and In-Situ Combustion (ISC, also called Fireflooding) has been in flux over the same period. The Steamflood rationale combines some waterflooding principles and some CSI
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 23 of 37
principles. Downhole injected steam warms the oil to reduce its viscosity. This effect is reduced by absorption of steam heat by the reservoir rock, water, wellbore, and adjacent formations. Employment of SF has gradually increased since 1995; these SF projects often enhance or replace CSI processes. As for CSI, wellbore heat absorption limits formation depth for SF to less than 3,000ft (1,000m). Steam condenses downhole to yield liquid water. As with CSI and WF, these wet processes have dangerous possibilities of clay activation. Their requirement of surface steam generation depends upon the procurement and treatment of water for injection, the use of natural gas and treated water to generate steam, and the management of related environmental issues. Regarding reservoir characterization, SF benefits from all the attention to petrophysics, geosciences, and reservoir study, pilot and unitization required for optimized WF. Conformance of the WF is invaluable characterization data. The financial expenses and the physical issues are so enhanced for SF, however, that characterization must be truly sophisticated during the screening, pilot, and unitization phases. Loss of effective injection to various thieves and injectant bypassing oil no longer involves only treated water and its injection horsepower, but also heating cost and the increased complexity of SF facilities.
In-Situ Combustion (ISC)
The incentives to reduce uphole heat loss, clay activation, and various environmental issues have accumulated to motivate research and production personnel to seek alternatives to the wet methods mentioned above. So, the In-Situ Combustion (ISC) process, also called Fireflood, has benefited from considerable analysis, experiment, and discussion. In-situ combustion is a flameless dry process. As a bare minimum, oxygen (O2) must be injected. O2 (pure, atmospheric with Nitrogen, staged or otherwise combined) then reacts with a downhole fuel flamelessly to heat the reservoir rock and HO. Reliance upon reservoir HO alone as a downhole fuel is a convenient notion, but probably impractical. Methane, a solvent, and/or other staged and/or optimized additives are probably required to engineer this combustible injectant. Note that CH 4 and O2 combine to form CO2 and H20 in combustion, along with at least traces of CO (carbon monoxide) and perhaps O3 (ozone), so such a process is not completely dry! CO 2 is, of course, desirable since it will dissolve in water and oil at low pressures. Larger fuel molecules would yield more complex combustion product compounds. Theoretically, ISC avoids wellbore heat loss, most of the water involved with CSI and SF, and some surface environmental issues. ISC introduces, however, many complex physical issues like ignition, choice of fuel(s), choice of O 2 or mixture, sources of these, the flameless processes imagined downhole, and the details of their effects on rock and HO. I have seen no indication that ISC techniques are beyond their research phases and the rare fringes of field operations.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 24 of 37
Dilution of HO for Pipelines
Extra-heavy oil requires addition of diluents (gas condensate, natural gas liquids, or light crude) to enable pipeline transport. Extra-heavy oil must also be chemically upgraded to reduce density and remove contaminants for refinery feedstock. In recent Venezuelan Orinoco heavy oil belt projects, 1 barrel of diluents is required for every 3 or 4 barrels of extra-heavy oil produced. Horizontal wells and optimally positioned lateral branches equipped with improved electrical submersible or progressing cavity pumps can deliver up to 2,000 BO/day in the Venezuelas Orinoco heavy oil belt. Horizontal well costs drippped in recent years, and this extra-heavy crude oil is commercial. Fuel for reservoir injection and facilitating transport to upgrading facilities are still significant. In 2001, concession operators still planned to increase Orinoco production to 600,000 barrels of extra-heavy oil per day by 2005, however, and to sustain that rate for 35 years. (Petroleum Review, 2001, v. 55, no. 653, p. 30).
Dead Oil and Recovery Efficiency
Over 1,800,000 crude oil wells have been drilled and brought into production in the United States in the past 125 years. Over 90% of the wellheads in the Global well-count are in the Lower 48 states. Most of the large oil fields of the US lower 48 states are very old. Many of the smaller oil fields are also quite old. Those not already on waterflood may soon be unitized for this. Recall, however, that many sandstones contain sensitive reservoir clays which migrate and/or swell when contacted with water. Before implementation of waterflood, prolonged and pronounced reduction of reservoir pressure under DGD has rendered the crude oil dead, lacking methane and intermediate hydrocarbons, and thus more viscous and dense than its original character. Yet, of the 430,000,000,000 barrels of crude oil proven to be in place within the various oil-bearing formations throughout the United States and Canada, no more than 25% of that crude oil, on the average, has actually been recovered, leaving about 325,000,000,00 billion barrels of crude oil still in place within the various rock formations.
Stripper Wells in the US
In the United States of America, one out of every six barrels of crude oil produced comes from a marginal oil well, and over 78 percent of the total number of U.S. oil wells are now classified as such. There are over 400,000 of these wells in the United States, and together they produce nearly 900 thousand barrels of oil per day, 15 percent of U.S. production. These are known as stripper wells. Many of the huge population of stripper wells lie in these fields; some are tiny accumulations known as single-well fields. Until a field reaches a critical size with quite a few wells, unitization for waterflood is not feasible, though many tiny fields which include water disposal wells have constituted tiny waterflood pilots. Between 1994 and 2003, approximately 142,000 marginal wells were plugged and
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 25 of 37
abandoned. The resultant loss in oil revenue is significant: more than $3.0 billion in lost oil revenue at the 2003 average world oil price. Until improved economics occurs, especially based on oil pricing, these wells cannot be replaced by drilling replacement wells. During this interminable period local, regional and National payrolls, rental fees, property taxes, and balance of trade are lost. Unitization for waterflood and EOR helps to reverse this trend, but is often not feasible due to geologic or environmental limitations. Industry badly needs new EOR alternatives. Petroleum geochemists have investigated long and hard to provide analysis and operations to bridge the gap between the stripper well and enhancement of its economics and longevity.
http://stripperwells.com An Emerging EOR Chemical Flooding Process
One such bridge is a proprietary technlogy presented by EPRS Energy. Dr. R C Ropp, VP of Technical Affairs, Fellow and Certified Chemist of The Royal Society of Chemistry (London), has patented this process. EPRS performs the patented chemical analysis to characterize each specific accumulation of crude oil. A concentrated stimulation treatment chemical is then designed specifically for the accumulation at hand, and EPRS sends a team to that specific location to implement that treatment. About a barrel of this aqueous chemical concentrate is injected per well, followed by a chaser slug of 15-20 barrels of water to displace and dilute the engineered concentrate. A reaction between heavy components of the crude oils hydrocarbon molecular weight range and the contents of the engineered concentrate forms natural gas downhole. The result of this effect can be compared to TRHOs distillation or Miscible Recoverys mixing, or even the catalytic cracking reactions performed in petrochemical refineries. Reservoir crude oil is thus depleted of these unfavorable heavy fractions and restored with light hydrocarbons. Some of the restored methane and intermediates dissolve in the enhanced reservoir crude, and some remains as a free gas phase dowhole. The reservoir crude oil is thereby rendered less dense and less viscous. API Gravity is increased. Reservoir and well-head pressures increase. Post-treatment wellhead pressures as high as 1600psi have been achieved. EPRS has experimented with about 65 different crude oils from all over the U.S. and has generated significant gas volumes from each. The EPRS chemical flooding technology exhibits potential to accomplish these effects in accumulations of heavy and extra-heavy crude oils. This may extend even to tar sands, kerogens, and even oil shales.
Horizontal Drilling in Proven Oilfields
In the last 10 years the Natural Gas Industry has invested the time and money to perfect most aspects of directional drilling and measurement while drilling (MWD) to replace considerable fractions of US natural gas consumption. This has moderated prices, exploded the performance of tight gas. Along with the slick water fracture treatments this has created most of the unconventional shale gas plays.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 26 of 37
This technology has equal aptitude for rejuvenating many oil fields, especially those with low permeability and almost all their OOIP still in place to be recovered. Many of these are shaly sands reservoirs, where waterflooding is hazardous due to sensitive reservoir clays.
Figure 11. Geologic cross-section illustrates advantages for reservoir exploitation (increased initial potential, IP, and ultimate recovery, OR) and surface land conservation advantages of directional drilling. http://www.americandirectionaldrill.com.
Horizontal drilling in such settings has multiple appeals:

Initial production Potential (IP): Vertical completion, sandstone, vertical thickness 40, for example, 50,000 BO cumulative, can be completed across a 4,000 horizontal interval. Ultimate Recovery (OR): Horizontal completion contacts much more formation volume, especially banks of oil bypassed by previous development, and may be expected to produce at least 10 times the vertical completions cumulatives. As is already demonstrated for thermal recovery of heavy crudes, low-permeability sands with viscous intermediate crudes are horizontal drilling targets. New drilling rig designs allow horizontal kick-off from vertical wells at much shallower depths, allowing targeting shallower oil reservoirs.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 27 of 37
Figure 12. American Directional Drillings VR-500 eliminates many traditional drilling components, such as draw works, cables, manual tongs, and catheads, which reduces injuries and downtime. Standard Operating Procedures limits the need for crew members to be on the drilling floor, which contributes to improved jobsite safety. Push/Pull Thrust and Rotary Torque for increased working power and reserve capacity. The Best-In-Industry Top Head Drive equipped with Slip Spindle is rugged and durable yet easy on Pipe Threads. The VR-500 provides optimum bit load from initial surface contact throughout the entire drilling operation. Operators also have the ability to immediately start a horizontal curve after surface penetration resulting in greater access to shallow formations, possibly as shallow as 1,200. www.americandirectionaldrill.com.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 28 of 37
Micro Hole Drilling
Micro-hole drilling has the potential to greatly reduce the cost of drilling shallow and moderate-depth holes for exploration, field development, long-term subsurface monitoring and, to a limited degree, actual oil and gas production. It also offers greatly enhanced reservoir imaging, making access to data cheaper and more precise, as well as being invaluable during exploration activities. These new low-cost production capabilities are needed to invigorate the domestic oil and gas industry so that more of the petroleum resources in the USA's mature basins can be recovered. Dedicated boreholes with permanent reservoir monitoring systems will provide high-resolution, real-time information while monitoring and optimising improved oil recovery (IOR) processes. This low-cost, long-term, improved imaging method of monitoring fluids in the reservoir will enhance oil recovery and allow dedicated boreholes for reservoir monitoring, eliminating production interruptions.
Figure 13. Small trailer mounted coiled tubing Micro Hole system. Design was funded by DOE and LANL, uses coiled tubing, mud motor, bent bit sub, reduction gear sub, and ultra-compact steering tool. Horizontal depth can be far less than 1,000.
Figure 14. Schematic displays its hole diameter range vs conventional hole sizes.
www.offshoretechnology.com/features/feature758/
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 29 of 37
Summary: Light Oil Legacy, Heavy Oil Destiny

USGS: In spite of an immense resource base, heavy oil and natural bitumen accounted for only about 3 billion barrels of the 25 billion barrels of crude oil produced in 2000. Compared to light oil, these resources are generally more costly to produce and transport. Also, extraheavy oil and natural bitumen must usually be upgraded by reducing their carbon content or adding hydrogen before they can be used as feedstock for a conventional refinery. The extra production, transportation, and upgrading costs explain why development and production of extra-heavy oil and bitumen are still limited. Their abundance, strategic geographic distribution, quality, and costs will shape their role in the future oil supply.
The legacy of E&P, both Internationally in the USA, is emphasis and expertise devoted to the wholesale finding, developing, recovering, transporting, and refining of Light and Intermediate grades of crude oil. Virtually all the Earths remaining reserves of these most convenient feedstocks occur in the Eastern Hemisphere. These geopolitical settings include many governments that are unstable and/or unfriendly to the USA and its allies. Emerging technologies and geopolitical pressures are pointing to future enhancement of and reliance upon the recovery of heavy and extra-heavy oils. This same trend applies to large deposits of natural bitumens, especially regarding tar sands. It is time to study and plan for the large potential environmental consequences of commercial recovery of these vast resources.
Stacked pair of horizontal wells for steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), a natural bitumen recovery process. Steam injected through the upper well mobilizes bitumen, and gravity causes the mobilized fluid to move toward the lower well, where the bitumen is pumped to the surface. Graphic copyright Schlumberger "Oilfield Review". From Carl Curtis and others, 2002, Oilfield Review, v. 14, no. 3, p. 50.
Figure 15. In Canada, natural bitumen is extracted from Alberta oil sand deposits that are too deep to surface mine by a process known as steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). Production wells could produce in excess of 2,000 barrels of bitumen per day. (USGS)
In 2001, about 735,000 barrels per day were extracted by mining and by in-situ production from Alberta oil sands, accounting for 36 percent of Canada's total oil production. Projected 2011 production is 2.2 million barrels per day (Alberta Energy and Utility Board, 2002, Alberta's Reserves 2001 and Supply/Demand Outlook 2002-2011, Statistical Series 2002-98, p. 2-8 to 2-9).
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 30 of 37
US Energy Policy Issues
In review, key issues in formulating a US Energy Policy for the 21 st Century include:
Excessive reliance upon light and medium crude oils to provide the refined domestic products necessary for domestic commerce, science, health, and welfare. This reliance is despite the heavy concentration of global heavy oil and bitumen resources in California, Canada and South America. The precarious state of up to 250,000 stripper wells in the US. These wells produce only a few barrels of oil daily, at most. The economics of these wells are extremely sensitive to oil price. They contribute significantly to US production, reducing balance of trade problems and reliance upon unfriendly and unreliable Internation sources. The stripper well aggregate also contributes greatly to their local economies, providing ad valorem tax base, local payrolls, specialty materials purchases, royalty contributions, and surface rentals. New Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) alternatives are needed to improve recovery and and prolong production of crude oils from old fields with critically low reservoir pressures and/or advanced deadening of their original crude oil compositions. At least one of these is available for licensing and implementation today. The Peak Oil concept has recently emerged, describing a theory that the International oil production rate is now nearing its peak. The theory is that oil production rate will soon begin declining and continue its decline indefinitely. If this production rate peak occurs, huge waves of price increases and/or regional shortages are inevitable, with potentially dire economic and logistical effects. Horizontal and micro-hole drilling: Horizontal drilling helped spur the US gas boom in 2000. It is now proven, and new rig designs are ready for US oil fields, perhaps in combination with waterflooding and/or EOR. Micro-holes will also be very helpful. Another anomaly of high oil prices will occur soon: Pricing in 2010 will average about $75/BO. Now is the time to explore and develop the remaining very large structures of Alaska, while existing field activities support heallthy infrastructure, lending critical mass to moderate the huge costs of such geoscience and engineering projects under such challenging conditions. Residents of Kaktovik, the only people living on the Coastal Plain of ANWR, support oil and gas development in their 'back yard'. (Appendix 6.) Natural gas is a domesticly strategic resource. Its use to generate electric power and even power motor vehicles could result in premature depletion in North America. Future generations could have no recourse but to heat their homes with coal. Burning coal in power plants and biofuels in vehicles are examples of available substitutes. Emissions from coal fired power plants can be scrubbed. Use of coal to generate electric power is perhaps the best way to conserve natural gas and assist transition to alternative energy sources like wind, solar, and nuclear technologies. To mitigate pollution, the emissions of plants fired by high-sulfur coals can be scrubbed of their carbon, soot, sulfur, etc., with manageable (25%) impacts on their economics. Emerging technologies: Prolonging stripper production, improving EOR processes, wind, solar and bio-fuel technologies, recycling, and especially for scrubbing the emissions from power plants fueled by high-sulfur coals, are technologies that will experience exploding demand in the coming generations, decades, and even immediately. US technological leadership: If the US is not a pre-eminent provider of at least the design of such technologies, our Nation will have to procure them overseas. Such a circumstance would represent tragic loss of International prestige, National revenue, and a myriad of opportunities both tangible and intangible.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 31 of 37
References
Heavy Oil and Natural Bitumen -- Strategic Petroleum Resources, Richard F. Meyer and Emil D. Attanasi: USGS Fact Sheet 70-03, August 2003 - Online Version 1.0.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs070-03/fs070-03.html
The Properties of Petroleum Fluids, McCain, William D., Jr., 596 pages, Pennwell Books; 2 Sub edition (April 1990) ISBN-10: 0878143351 ISBN-13: 978-0878143351. LNG Update, Maslowski, Andy: Well Servicing Magazine, Nov./Dec. 2008, pages 43-46. Petroleum Reservoir Rock and Fluid Properties by Abhijit Y. Dandekar. Effect of Wettability Alteration on Relative Permeability Curves for Low Permeability Oil-Wet Reservoir Rocks, 2004, L. Qingjie, L. Li, Manli, Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina.
http://www.scaweb.org/assets/papers/2004_papers/1-SCA2004-39.pdf
S.E. Buckley and M.C. Leverett (1942). "Mechanism of fluid displacements in sands". Transactions of the AIME (146): 107116.
http://stripperwells.com
Standard Handbook of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering, Second Edition (Complementary Science) by PhD, PE,, William C. Lyons and BS, Gary J Plisga (Hardcover - Oct 15, 2004). KGS--Petroleum a primer for Kansas:
http://www.kgs.ku.edu/Publications/Oil/index.html SRI Instruments - GC, HPLC, Data Systems, Hydrogen Generators www.srigc.com/ www.americandirectionaldrill.com www.xtremecoildrilling.com www.offshore-technology.com/features/feature758/ www.rmotc.doe.gov/Pdfs/RSFFeb06.pdf
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 32 of 37
Appendix 1. Darcys Law
Henri DArcy (drsz l) was the French civil engineer who discovered these valuable connections between the porous mediums porisity and permeability, fluid viscocity, pressure gradient, and fluid flow. Darcys Law: Darcy's law is a simple proportional relationship between the instantaneous discharge rate through a porous medium, the viscosity of the fluid and the pressure drop over a given distance. http://www.answers.com/topic/darcy-s-law (fluid mechanics) The law that the rate at which a fluid flows through a permeable substance per unit area is equal to the permeability, which is a property only of the substance through which the fluid is flowing, times the pressure drop per unit length of flow, divided by the viscosity of the fluid. http://www.answers.com/topic/darcy-s-law Darcy's law states that where the Reynolds number is very low, the velocity of flow of a fluid through a saturated porous medium is directly proportional to the hydraulic gradient. For example, the flow of groundwater from one site to another through a rock is proportional to the difference in water pressure at the two sites:
V = hPl
where h is the height difference between the highest point of the water-table and the point at which flow is being calculated (the hydraulic head), V is the velocity of flow, P is the coefficient of permeability for the rock or soil in question, and l is the length of flow. Darcy's law is valid for flow in any direction, but does not hold good for well-jointed limestone which has numerous channels and fissures. The total discharge, Q (units of volume per time, e.g., m/s) is equal to the product of the permeability ( units of area, e.g. m) of the medium, the cross-sectional area (A) to flow, and the pressure drop (Pb Pa), all divided by the dynamic viscosity (in SI units e.g. kg/(ms) or Pas), and the length L the pressure drop is taking place over. The negative sign is needed because fluids flow from high pressure to low pressure. So if the change in pressure is negative (in the x-direction) then the flow will be positive (in the x-direction). Dividing both sides of the equation by the area and using more general notation leads to where q is the flux (discharge per unit area, with units of length per time, m/s) and is the pressure gradient vector. This value of flux, often referred to as the Darcy flux, is not the velocity which the water traveling through the pores is experiencing[2]. The pore velocity (v) is related to the Darcy flux (q) by the porosity (). The flux is divided by porosity to account for the fact that only a fraction of the total formation volume is available for flow. The pore velocity would be the velocity a conservative tracer would experience if carried by the fluid through the formation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darcy's_law
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 33 of 37
Appendix 2. Pitch (Asphalt) Lakes
(of Trinidad, Venezuela, and California)

http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=485
A pitch lake is a deposit of natural asphalt in a great expanse of more or less mobile character, covering many acres, and resembling in many ways a similar expanse of water, said petroleum geologist Clifford Richardson in 1917. (1) The most classic of all pitch lakes is Trinidad Lake in the Caribbean West Indies Island of Trinidad, but other pitch lakes exist throughout the world, including the Bermudez Lake in Venezuela, and the Rancho La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California. The meanings of the related terms asphalt, petroleum, bitumen, pitch, tar and hydrocarbons, are continuously evolving. Their meanings emanate from certain times and places, for example, the Roman era of bitumen and the modern era of petroleum. Even the term lake, as applied to natural asphalt deposits, may overstate the reality of these often soggy, belching, smelly, weeping sores of the Earths crust.
Appendix 3. Fairway James Lime Field, East Texas
Still Developing After 48 Years Robert E. Webster, David Luttner, and Lawrence Liu Hunt Oil Company, Dallas, TX Fairway (James Lime) Field, in Henderson and Anderson counties, Texas, trapped volatile 48 oil in the Aptian age James Lime member of the Pearsall Formation. The reservoir is a large patch reef complex of varied carbonate facies that grew on a paleobathometric high in the interior platform of the Lower Cretaceous shelf. For reservoir management purposes, the James is divided into an upper A zone with reefderived skeletal grainstone and/or lagoonal facies with moldic and interparticle porosity, a B dense zone of non-porous reef core, and a lower C zone composed of uniform fine grainstone. Porosity and permeability average 12.5% and 33 mD in the A zone and 12.9% and <1 mD in the C zone, respectively, at depths of 9,800 to 10,200 ft. Total net pay averages 56 ft. Following discovery in 1960, 157 wells were drilled on 160 acre spacing during the initial development phase. In 1963, a high pressure gas gathering system and gas plant were put into operation, and in 1965 a field-wide unit of 28,518 acres was approved, designed to conduct gas and water pressure maintenance operations. An injection project was then initiated to preserve reservoir energy and increase recovery through use of a WAG (water-alternating-gas) miscible recovery process. Additional infill drilling projects were implemented in 1971, 1980, 1991, and 2006 to optimize recovery; to date 237 wells have been drilled, including 3 recent horizontal wells targeting bypassed pay in the upper A and lower C zones. A large secondary gas saturation developed over the years as the gas recycling program was implemented. Gas sales began in 2000, and gas injection was terminated in January, 2005. OOIP in the James was calculated as 410 MMBO, of which 213 MMBO has been produced. As of Aug. 1, 2007, production was 1,220 BOPD, 23,400 BWPD, 70 MMCFD, and 3,360 BNGLPD. Field life is projected
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 34 of 37
beyond 2015. AAPG Article #900782008 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas
Appendix 4. Exxon Mobil adds 1.5B barrels to proved reserves
Associated Press, 02.16.09, 03:17 PM EST Exxon Mobil Corp. said Monday it added 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent to its proved reserves last year, once again extending a positive trend of replacing more barrels than it produced. The added reserves for the industry's biggest player totaled 103 percent of its 2008 output. The company said it added 2.2 billion oil-equivalent barrels to its resource base in 2008, with reserves additions from the Kearl Phase 1 oil sands project in Canada totaling 1.1 billion oil-equivalent barrels. It said proved additions were also made in the U.S., Norway, Nigeria, Australia and Angola. For 2008, the company's resource base - which includes proved and probable reserves grew by 0.3 billion oil-equivalent barrels to 72.4 billion oil-equivalent barrels. That figure includes production, revisions to existing discoveries, asset sales and increased government take, which reduced the base by 0.5 billion oil-equivalent barrels. Comment On This Story Last month Exxon reported a U.S. record for annual profit even as its fourth-quarter results fell 33 percent to $7.8 billion.
Appendix 5. Oil From Canadas Tar Sands Can Be Made Clean, Obama Says
Jim Efstathiou Jr. Jim Efstathiou Jr. Wed Feb 18, 12:00 am ET Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Oil extracted from tar sands in Canada can be made a clean energy source, and the U.S. will work with its northern neighbor to develop the technology, President Barack Obama said. A joint effort by the U.S. and Canada, its biggest trading partner, on ways to capture and store carbon dioxide underground would be good for everybody, Obama said yesterday in an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Obama will make his first journey as president outside the U.S. tomorrow to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Conservationists on both sides of the border have called on Obama to reject any bid to exempt tar-sands oil from proposed climate-protection rules. Government officials in Canada say restrictions on oil-sands exports would increase U.S. dependence on oil from unfriendly countries. The oil is separated from sand and clay with intense heat in a process that releases more greenhouse gases than pumping conventional crude. The United States is the Saudi Arabia of coal, but we have our own homegrown problems in terms of dealing with a cheap energy source that creates a big carbon footprint, said Obama, who has backed clean-coal technology in the U.S. over skepticism about its prospects from environmentalists such as former Vice President Al Gore. Reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from energy sources such as coal and oil sands will
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 35 of 37
promote economic growth in both countries, Obama said. Ceiling on Growth If we dont, then were going to have a ceiling at some point in terms of our ability to expand our economies and maintain the standard of living thats so important, particularly when youve got countries like China and India that are obviously interested in catching up, the president said. The U.S. imported about 780,000 barrels a day of tar-sands oil in 2008, 60 percent of total production, according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. PetroCanada, the countrys third-largest oil company, and other producers expect to more than double industry output to 3.3 million barrels a day by 2020. Albertas oil sands may hold the equivalent of 173 billion barrels, enough to supply the U.S. for 24 years, according to some government estimates. Only Saudi Arabia, the biggest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, has more reserves. Canadas energy industry is willing to invest money, technology, know-how and time in this effort, but we really cant do it alone, Petro-Canada Chief Executive Officer Ronald Brenneman told reporters last week in New York. It will take the combined efforts of the industry, government, regulators and consumers. Environment Minister Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice has said Canada and the U.S. should work together to develop systems to capture and sequester underground carbon-dioxide emissions. The total life- cycle of emissions released, all the way to filling a cars tank with gasoline, are 20 percent more than conventional oil, the Rand Corp. research organization of Santa Monica, California, said in a 2008 report. Carbon capture would help transition from a high-carbon present to a low-carbon future while avoiding a disruptive and dislocative period, Prentice said on Jan. 20. Obama backs slashing emissions of heat-trapping gases to 1990 levels. The new president will have to square his environmental agenda with his call to trim dependence on oil supplies from the Mideast and with the U.S.s longstanding policy to treat Canada as a commercial and strategic ally. Would I rather rely on Canada for my energy security or would I rather rely on Hugo Chavez? Gordon Giffin, U.S. ambassador to Canada during President Bill Clintons second term, said in an interview, referring to Venezuelas president. What Canada is saying to the United States is we now believe that we ought to be developing a North American approach to energy and to the environment. Our energy issues are not identically connected, but theyre logically connected. To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at
jefstathiou@bloomberg.net.
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 36 of 37
Appendix 6. ANWR residents favor development
The residents of Kaktovik, the only people living on the Coastal Plain of ANWR, support oil and gas development in their 'back yard'. Alaska's indigenous people have benefited greatly from North Slope production. In addition to providing a tax base for the local government, oil development has provided jobs, funding for water and sewer systems and schools. Native and village corporations with oil field-related subsidiaries are working on the North Slope, and the local government has a voice in permitting and environmental regulation. Organizations representing the residents of the Coastal Plain and surrounding area such as the City of Kaktovic, Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation, North Slope Borough, Arctic Slope Regional Corp., Doyon Regional Corporation and Alaskan Federation of Natives have all endorsed development based on their experience with Prudhoe Bay.
http://www.anwr.org/people/people.htm
Jim Myers, MPE
Page 37 of 37

Hydrocarbon Classification EOR 110

Загружено:

Сведения о документе

Исходное описание:

Авторское право

Доступные форматы

Поделиться этим документом

Поделиться или встроить документ

Параметры публикации

Этот документ был вам полезен?

Это неприемлемый материал?

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Hydrocarbon Classification EOR 110

Загружено:

Авторское право:

Доступные форматы

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Geopolitics of International HO & Kerogen Deposits

recoverable Natural Bitumen, BBO

43.0 0.2 0.0 42.8 33.7

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Western Hemisphere, could be key elements in a National Energy Policy.

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Figure 3. Phase diagram for a wet gas reservoir. McCain, 1990.

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

HO & Bitumen, According to USGS:

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Consequences of Oil Reservoir Depletion

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Dilution of HO for Pipelines

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Jim Myers, MPE

Hydrocarbon Classification and EOR 101, March 26, 2009

Horizontal drilling in such settings has multiple appeals:

Jim Myers, MPE