Screening criteria of Thermal recovery (EOR) process

INTRODUCTION Thermal methods include hot water, steam injection and in-situ combustion and can be applied mainly in case of heavy oil reservoir, since the application of primary and secondary methods in such reservoir shows very poor recovery factor due to high mobility ratio between water and oil. steam flooding has been successfully tested in light oil reservoirs . The main purpose of the thermal methods is to heat the reservoir and therefore to reduce the oil viscosity to enable it to flow to the production well. Thermal methods are the most widely employed tertiary recovery method worldwide CLASSIFICATION Thermal processes are usually classified according to the difference in methodology of the specific heating process in order to achieve the same objective as described above also the specific heating medium or fluid is employed for distinct case Thermal techniques include 1-Steam flooding 2-In situ combustion 3-Hot water flooding 4-Standard forward combustion 5-Wet combustion 6-Steam and hot water injection 7-Reverse combustion 8-Cyclic steaming 9-Steam stimulation 10-Surface mining and Extraction is also categorized as a mechanical process 11-O2 enriched combustion (fire flooding) 12- steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) GENERAL EVALUATION OF THERMAL PROCESSES Thermal process have been successful for more than 30 years in general thermal methods have been used for those heavy oil reservoirs that cant be produced in any other way because oil is too viscous to flow without application of heat and pressure To be produced at profitable rates the sands / reservoir must have a high permeability and initial oil saturations The three most commonly practiced thermal techniques worlds wide are In situ combustion Steam flooding Surface mining

To evaluate the efficiency of these three EOR processes we have to consider various parameters which will define their screening criteria Screening criterion
Oil properties

Combustion >10-16 <5000- avg.1200 Asphaltic >52- avg.72 >10 >50 <11500- avg.3500 >100- avg.135

Steam >8-13.5 <200000-avg.4700 >40 avg.66 >20 >200- avg.2540 <4500- avg.1500 -

Surface mining 7-11 0 cold flow >8 wt% sand >1 >3.1 -

Gravity (API) Viscosity (cp) Composition Oil saturation (% PV)

Rock properties

Net thickness (ft) Avg Permeability (md) Depth (ft) Temperature (F)

Steam flooding Steam flood is considered to be the most successful EOR process and has a potential for still greater use, the main reasons for its success are 1-the cost of steam is low enough for it to be used in an inefficient manner 2-almost 60% of all EOR production can be attributed directly to steam flooding 3-the largest EOR projects in terms of oil production are steam floods Duri steam flood in Indonesia has produced more than twice as much oil as any other project in the world 245000 bbl/day 4-steam flood was probably the first EOR method to take advantage of the benefits of horizontal wells 5-laboratory and field analysis shows that steam flooding is an efficient mechanism to displace light oils An in-depth analytical assessment of steam flood demonstrates that good projects require thick shallow deposits with high oil saturation and permeabilities Duri steam flood project is sometimes referred to as a light-oil project because its 22 API oil gravity is outside heavy oil API range of 10-20 API Its the worlds largest successful EOR project with the initial oil saturation of 63% which is near to average saturation for successful steam floods in the world For light oils with less saturation steam floods may not yield desirable economic results for medium oils there is often a competition between water flood and steam flood the project with better economic appeal is chosen in the end However, according to one research steam injection can be applied only in shallow depth (less than 2500 ft) to avoid steam condensation and the formation thickness should be greater than 25 ft to reduce heat losses to other layers.

In situ Combustion Its one of the earliest EOR methods it can be an ideal EOR process because of the following 1-it utilizes the two cheapest and most plentiful of all EOR injectants, air and water 2- for fuel it burns about 10% of the least desirable fraction of the oil and may upgrade the rest 3-it works over a wider range of field conditions than steam flooding especially in deep reservoirs The process performs well in laboratory but not so well in the field Field tests demonstrated that the theoretical and operational complexities of the process are considerably greater than originally anticipated Some of the problems include consistent channeling, corrosion , sanding , emulsion and pumping problems Early breakthrough may destroy production wells In situ combustion can be a valuable consideration particularly in thin or deep formations containing medium gravity oil Combustion continues to show great promise for deeper reservoirs when certain problems related to it are resolved Newer technology can solve various field problems Oxygen enriched fire flooding can be applied to the reservoirs where large volumes of gas are required at high flow rates specially when oxygen is cheaper than air Deep light oil reservoirs with significant dip can also be the targets of in situ combustion with the combination of enhanced gravity drainage by nitrogen or flue gas in this process air is injected in the formation and the resulting combustion front moves downward to displace the oil either miscibly or immiscibly by flue gas produced from combustion sometimes horizontal wells are planned to improve light oil in situ combustion projects (31 to 42 API) in north and south Dakota Surface mining and extraction Tar sands are such an important hydrocarbon resource and the production of synthetic crude from bitumen keeps increasing so it is generally included in EOR processes mining is only used when high viscosity oil is not recoverable by any other method Mining and upgrading of the bitumen are more costly than in situ recovery methods Tar sands must have high bitumen saturation and ratio of overburden to tar sand must be low as shown in the screening criteria in above table Only two commercial surface mining and processing plants exist today and both are found in shallow area of Athabasca tar sands deposits in Alberta Canada these entail hot water bitumen separation and some upgrading with cokers Future plants may incorporate dry distillation or retort concepts Other experimental techniques include radio frequency RF heating, resistance heating microbial EOR and solvent extraction

SAGD is implied as steam assisted gravity drainage this method can be applied in horizontal wells in a variation of steam flooding known as SAGD it is similar to enhanced gravity drainage by immiscible gas injection, in general the screening criteria for SAGD and steam flooding are similar except the depth, viscosity and oil gravity ranges should be extended to include tar sands SAGD can also be executed in heavy-oil tar sands almost all these techniques require one or more horizontal wells to inject the steam and withdraw the melted bitumen normally the steam is injected in to the upper well of the two parallel horizontal wells with the application of hot steam and pressure the tar melts and flows by gravity to the lower well where it is pumped to the surface References 1- EOR Screening criteria revisited by J.J Taber, F D Martin & R S Seright, SPE New Mexico Petroleum Recovery Research Center 2- Heavy oil recovery in the low oil price regime by George J.Stosur U.S Department of Energy Washington DC 3-Conventional and Unconventional methods to Enhanced Oil Recovery Mohammed M. Amro King Saud University, Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering Dept.