Miscible Gas Injection

Samad Ali Siddiqui

PE-009 (B.E)

Slaughter Estate Unit CO2 Flood

This miscible flood pilot is in the West Texas San Andres dolomite and is an example
of a gas flood with very good oil recovery. The permeability is low averaging around
4 mD at a depth of about 5000 ft. Good recovery was obtained in a water flood in
the early 1970s prior to gas flooding. The gas injected contained 72 mol% CO2 and
28 mol% H2S. The MMP of approximately 1000 psia with this gas and moderate API
oil (32 API) is substantially less than the average reservoir pressure of 2000 psia.
Thus, this flood is MCM. The acid gas was eventually replaced with a chase gas
consisting of mostly nitrogen and then water. Water was injected alternately with
the acid gas with a WAG ratio of about 1.0. A 25% hydrocarbon pore volume (HCPV)
slug of acid gas was injected. The chase gas was also alternated with water, and
eventually the gas-water ratio was reduced to 0.7 to improve vertical sweep.
The cycles for the chase gas correspond to the cycles in WAG injection. During WAG,
water injectivity losses of about 50% were experienced owing to trapping of gas as
water is injected. Furthermore, there is evidence of gas channeling as the GOR
began to climb at the same time or just prior to the oil production. Incremental
tertiary recovery was 19.6% OOIP, which is largely the result of good WAG
management and the use of H2S in the gas (Stein et al., 1992). H2S, although very
dangerous, is a very good miscible agent. When added to the primary and
secondary recovery (water flood) of about 50%, the total recovery in this pilot is
expected to be around 70% OOIP, which is well above the average for most fields.
Because of the great success of the pilot, the unit was gas flooded field wide. The
field-wide flood has also been successful although a higher gas-water ratio was
used.

Jay Little Escambia Creek Nitrogen Flood

The Jay field near the Alabama-Florida border is one of the few nitrogen floods ever
conducted. The reservoir is in the Smackover carbonate at a depth of 15,000 ft.
Nitrogen is a good miscible gas in this reservoir because of its very light sour crude
(50 API), and high reservoir pressure around 7850 psia. The formation permeability
averages 20 mD. A significant advantage of nitrogen is that it is readily available via
separation from the air, is relatively cheap, and does not cause corrosion unlike
CO2. Nitrogen was injected using a WAG ratio near 4.0, which is greater than
typical. The overall recovery at Jay is expected to be near 60% OOIP.
Incremental recovery beyond water flood recovery from miscible nitrogen injection
is forecast to be around 10% OOIP. The high primary and secondary recovery of
around 50% OOIP is likely the result of low vertical permeability coupled with good
horizontal permeability in the dolomite facies (Lawrence et al., 2002). Low vertical
permeability caused by shale lenses or in this case cemented zones associated with
thin stylolites, is an ideal candidate for both water and gas flooding as fluids are less
able to segregate vertically so that gravity override is reduced. This is especially

true in this flood since nitrogen has very low density compared to the resident
fluids, and would likely have gone to the top of the reservoir otherwise.

Immiscible Weeks Island Gravity Stable CO2 Flood

A pilot test of the S sand at the Weeks Island, Louisiana field was performed in the
early 1980s. This sand, which is up against a salt dome, is highly dipping (30 degree
dip) and is very permeable both vertically and horizontally.
The initial reservoir pressure for this sand was 5100 psia at a reservoir temperature
of 225F, but at the time of the pilot the pressure was lower. The pilot lasted 6.7
years and consisted of one up-dip injector and two producers about 260 ft down-dip.
Following a water flood, gas was injected up-dip so that gravity would stabilize the
front in a relatively horizontal interface. The main idea of this gravity stable flood is
that the gas-oil contact (oil bank) will move down vertically recovering oil and
displacing it to the down-dip production wells. This process can be highly efficient
(good volumetric sweep) as long as there is good vertical permeability, and the gas
interface is stable and moves vertically downward.
The gas injected at Weeks Island was a mixture of CO2 and about 5% plant gas. The
plant gas was used to lighten the CO2 so that the gas-oil interface is more stable.
Injection of plant gas with CO2, however, was found unnecessary to ensure a
gravity stable flood at Weeks Island as CO2 was effectively diluted by dissolved gas
(methane) from the reservoir oil. At the reservoir temperature of 225_F and
pressure at gas injection, the flood was immiscible, not miscible. Nevertheless a
pressure core taken in zones where the gas traversed were nearly white with
average oil saturations in the CO2 swept zone of approximately 1.9% .This low oil
saturation value is lower than miscible flood residuals, Sorm, that are typically
observed due to oil-filled bypassed pores. The unexpectedly good recovery
demonstrates that even immiscible floods when properly designed can achieve
good extraction of oil components by gravity drainage. A subsequent commercial
test of the gravity stable process was not as successful largely because of
significant water influx down-dip of the production wells. Injection of CO2 largely
pressurized the gas cap, but did not cause the gas-oil interface to move vertically
downward. A gravity stable process like this would be very effective as long as
water influx is relatively small. Perhaps one solution could have been outrunning the
aquifer with water production wells or trying to plug off water influx.
One difficult problem also encountered was the production of the thin oil bank owing
to both gas and water coning. The second producer was not planned but was drilled
to measure saturations in the oil bank and to speed oil bank capture. Immiscible gas
floods in general can achieve better displacement efficiency as a secondary
recovery method if gravity override is controlled, than for water floods owing to
decreased oil viscosity, oil swelling, interfacial tension lowering, extraction of oil
components, and the potential for gravity drainage as occurred at Weeks Island.
Immiscible gas floods could also be a good alternative for reservoirs with injectivity
issues when water is used. Two main disadvantages of immiscible gas flooding over

water flooding are the potential for poor sweep due to its adverse mobility ratio, and
gravity override due to higher contrast between oil and gas gravities

The Weyburn Oilfield

The Weyburn and Midale oil fields were discovered in 1954 near Midale,
Saskatchewan.The Weyburn Oilfield covers an area of some 52,000 acres (210 km2)
and has a current oil production rate of 3,067 m3/day. Original oil-in-place is
estimated to be 1.4 billion barrels (220,000,000 m3). The oil is produced from a total
of 963 active wells made up of 534 vertical wells, 138 horizontal wells, and
171 injection systems. There are also 146 enclosed wells. Current production
consists primarily of medium-gravity crude oil with a low gas-to-oil ratio.
The Midale oil field is about 102 square miles (260 km2) in size, and has 515 million
barrels (81,900,000 m3) of oil-in-place. It began injecting CO 2 in 2005. Various
enhanced oil recovery techniques were used in the Weyburn field prior to the
introduction of CO2, between the 1970s and 1990s. These include additional vertical
drilling, the introduction of horizontal drilling, and the use of water floods to
increase pressure in the reservoir. In October 2000, Cenovus (formerly Pan
Canadian, EnCana) began injecting significant amounts of carbon dioxide into the
Weyburn field in order to boost oil production. Cenovus is the operator and holds the
largest share of the 37 current partners in the oilfield. The chart below illustrates
the effect of the various forms of enhanced oil recovery on the production of oil

Initial CO2 injection rates in the Weyburn field amounted to ~5,000 tonnes/day or 95
million scf/day (2.7 million m3/d); this would otherwise have been vented to the
atmosphere from the Dakota Gasification facility. Current CO2 injection by Cenovus
at Weyburn is up to 6500 tonnes per day. Apache Canada is injecting approximately
1500 tonnes per day into the Midale field.
Overall, it is anticipated that some 40 Mt of carbon dioxide will be permanently
sequestered over the lifespan of the project in the Weyburn and Midale fields. The
gas is being supplied via a 320 kilometre mile long pipeline (completed in 1999)
from the lignite-fired Dakota Gasification Company synfuels plant site in Beulah,
North Dakota (See attached image). The company is a subsidiary of Basin Electric
Power Co-operative. Cenovus is taking ~40% of the synfuels plants CO 2 capacity. At
the plant, CO2 is produced from aRectisol unit in the gas cleanup train. The
CO2 project adds about $30 million of gross revenue to the gasification plants cash
flow each year. Approximately 8000 MT of compressed CO 2 (in liquid form) is
provided to the Weyburn and Midale fields each day via the pipeline.
During its life, the Weyburn and Midale fields combined are expected to produce at
least 220 million additional barrels of incremental oil, through miscible or nearmiscible displacement with CO2, from a fields that have already produced over 500
million barrels (79,000,000 m3) since discovery in 1954. This will extend the life of
the Weyburn field by approximately 2025 years. It is estimated that ultimate oil
recovery will increase to 34% of the oil-in-place. It has been estimated that, on a full
life-cycle basis, the oil produced at Weyburn by CO 2 EOR will release only two-thirds
as much CO2 to the atmosphere compared to oil produced using conventional
technology.
This is the first instance of cross-border transfer of CO 2 from the USA to Canada and
highlights the ability for international cooperation with GHG mitigation technologies.
Whilst there are emissions trading projects being developed within countries such
as Canada, the Weyburn project is essentially the first international project where
physical quantities of CO2 are being sold commercially for enhanced oil recovery,
with the added benefit of carbon sequestration.

The First Phase of the IEAGHG Weyburn CO 2 Monitoring and Storage Project (the
Midale oil field did not join the research project until the Final phase research) which
began in 2000 and ended in 2004, verified the ability of an oil reservoir to securely
store CO2 for significant lengths of time. This was done through a comprehensive
analysis of the various process factors as well as monitoring/modeling methods
designed to measure, monitor and track the CO 2. Research was conducted into
geological characterization of both the (the geological layers deeper than near
surface) and biosphere (basically from the depths of groundwater up). As well,
prediction, monitoring and verification techniques were used to examine the
movements of the CO2. Finally, both the economic and geologic limits of the
CO2 storage capacity were predicted, and a long-term risk assessment developed
for storage of CO2 permanently in the formation.
A critical part of the First Phase was the accumulation of baseline surveys for both
CO2 soil content, and water wells in the area. These baselines were identified in
2001 and have helped to confirm through comparison with more recent readings
that CO2 is not leaking from the reservoir into the biosphere in the study area.