Determination of Minimum Miscibility Pressure Using Vanishing Interfacial Tension (VIT)

in Support of EOR for Alaska North Slope (ANS) Heavy Oil

Tathed V S (ftvst@uaf.edu), Dandekar A Y, Patil S L
Department of Petroleum Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-5880, USA

ABSTRACT
The answer to the growing Petroleum crises is the
development and production of heavy oils. The production
from light oil fields of Alaskas North Slope is on the verge
of decline. Due to the extremely viscous nature of these
oils, it is hard to produce by natural pressure. Miscible gas
injection displacement Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) can
be one of the methods for production of these heavy oils.
Minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) is an important
optimization parameter for EOR processes involving CO2 or
hydrocarbon gas injection. The MMP for a gas-oil system is
directly related to the interfacial tension between the
injected gas and the reservoir crude oil. In this study, a new
technique called Vanishing Interfacial Tension (VIT) was
used to measure MMP at reservoir conditions. Experiments
were conducted using various gas-oil systems to determine
the MMP. The experimental results were modeled using the
PengRobinson Equation-of-State (EOS) by CMG
simulator. The Peng-Robinson EOS was tuned with
experimental data to predict the MMP accurately.
This study has demonstrated the accurateness of the VIT
technique in predicting MMP by pendant drop method
experiments and simulations using CMG software.

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

RESULTS

RESULTS contd
Oil Sample

CO2 MMP

CH4 MMP

VRI MMP

Expt.

Simulated

Expt.

Simulated

Expt.

Simulated

Sample A Dead Oil

2150

2178

6432

6450

2725

2754

Sample B Dead Oil

2215

2243

6618

6645

2884

2900

Sample A Live Oil

2478

2505

6652

6690

3206

3215

Sample B Live Oil

2586

2625

6988

7013

3550

3577

TEST MATERIALS
OILS:
ANS Sample A Dead Oil
ANS Sample B Dead Oil
ANS Sample A Live Oil
ANS Sample B Live Oil
GAS INJECTANTS:
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Methane (CH4)
Viscosity Reducing Agent (VRI)

[Replace, move, resize, or delete graphic, as necessary.]

PROCEDURE
Gas at a particular pressure is injected into the cell.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the MMP of different injection gas-oil systems
at reservoir temperature by measuring the gas-oil IFT at
various pressures.

Crude at a pressure slightly higher than that of the injected gas in

allowed to enter the gas phase in the form of drops.
The images of the falling drops are captured and the value of de
and ds are determined.
Density of gas phase and crude oil are determined using Anton
Par Densitometer.

To quantify the MMP experimentally using the pendant

drop method and by equation of state (EOS) simulations
using a CMG simulator.

Using the above values interfacial tension is determined by :

To characterize the mass transfer interactions between

gas-oil systems by carrying out compositional and density
measurements at varying pressures and at reservoir
temperature by tuned EOS simulations using a CMG
simulator.

where,

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS &
DISCLAIMER
This material was prepared with support of the US
Department of Energy (US DOE), BPXA and Conoco
Phillips. The opinions, findings and conclusions expressed
herein are solely of those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the US Government or any
agency thereof.

CONCLUSIONS
The equilibrium time allowed in the VIT technique
simulates the gas and reservoir oil to continuously
interact and attain equilibrium.

gd ( l g )
2
e

Miscibility was seen to be achieved by forward contact

process.

= interfacial tension, dynes/cm

g = acceleration due to gravity,

The amount of components extracted by the injection

gases from the reservoir oils depends on the volumetric
ratio between the oil and the gas. Results obtained from
MCM simulations showed that MMP was lower for higher
injection gas to reservoir oil ratios.

cm/s2

de = equatorial diameter or the maximum horizontal diameter of the

drop, cm
ds = is the diameter of the drop measured at a distance de above
the tip of the drop, cm
H = is a function of S = (ds/ de), S is the drop shape factor.
Plot a graph of IFT vs P and measure the P where IFT is zero
(straight line plot). This point is the known as the Minimum
Miscibility Pressure (MMP).
The value is then compared with results obtained from CMG.

Oil Sample

CO2 MMP

CH4 MMP

VRI MMP

Expt.

Simulated

Expt.

Simulated

Expt.

Simulated

Sample A Dead Oil

2150

2178

6432

6450

2725

2754

Sample B Dead Oil

2215

2243

6618

6645

2884

2900

Sample A Live Oil

2478

2505

6652

6690

3206

3215

Sample B Live Oil

2586

2625

6988

7013

3550

3577

The MMP measurements obtained by MCM simulations

prove that the results obtained by the pendant drop
technique are accurate and reliable.
The correlations used to measure MMP were based on
parameters, components which may or may not be
present in the gas-oil systems used here. Hence, there
was a vast deviation between experimental results and
those obtained by correlations.