Heavy-oil solution gas drive: a laboratory study

2002-07-01
When some heavy-oil reservoirs are produced using solution gas drive, they show: (1) higher than expected production rates, (2) low produced gas-oil ratio, and (3) relatively high recovery. The reasons for this behavior are not clear. A series of X-ray computerized-tomography (CT)-monitored, heavy-oil pressure depletion experiments were carried out to examine the core-scale phenomena using high pressure/high temperature equipment. Viscous white mineral oil (mu = 220 cp at 20 degreesC) and 9degrees API heavy crude oil from the Hamaca region of the Orinoco Belt, Venezuela, were used. A transparent cell attached to the outlet of the sand pack allowed monitoring of bubble size and shape as bubbles exited the sand pack. Conventional solution-gas-drive behavior was observed in the experiments conducted with the mineral oil: large regions of pore space within the core became saturated with a continuous gas phase and ample gas mobilization was witnessed. In the heavy-crude-oil experiment, however, it was inferred that gas bubbles were of slightly greater size than pore dimensions. The fraction of gas mobilized was not large. The difference in behavior between mineral oil and crude oil results suggests an effect due to large oil-phase viscosity, relatively rapid depletion rate, and possibly the high asphaltene content of Hamaca crude oil. Critical gas saturation was gauged as the saturation at which mobile gas was first observed regardless of whether the gas was continuous. For both experiments, the critical gas saturation was observed to be around 3% to 4%.
JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING

Suggestions

Thermal characterization of crude oils by pressurized differential scanning calorimeter (PDSC)
Kök, Mustafa Verşan; Nurgaliev, Danis K. (Elsevier BV, 2019-06-01)
In this research, pressurized differential scanning calorimeter (PDSC) were used to estimate the thermal and kinetic behaviour of two different crude oils from Tatarstan oil fields under three different pressures (100, 600, 2000 kPa) at a constant heating rate (10 degrees C/min). The heat flow curves of both crude oils indicated two reaction regions known as low temperature oxidation (LTO) and high temperature oxidation (HTO). The reaction intervals were shifted to lower temperature regions with the increas...
Combustion kinetics of oil shales by reaction cell experiments
Kök, Mustafa Verşan; Bagci, S. (Estonian Academy Publishers, 2008-01-01)
In this study, kinetics parameters of combustion reaction of Seyitomer and Beypazari oil shales were determined using Weijdema's model of reaction kinetics. The analysis of reaction kinetics experiments showed two different reaction regions at combustion of Beypazari oil shale sample. Only one reaction region was observed at combustion of Seyitomer oil shale. CO2/CO ratios increased gradually at low and medium temperatures and stabilized at high temperatures, especially after complete combustion. A decrease...
Isoconversional methods to determine the kinetics of crude oils - thermogravimetry approach
Kök, Mustafa Verşan; Nurgaliev, Danis K. (Elsevier BV, 2018-08-01)
In this research, kinetics of four crude oils from different origins are determined by iso-conversional methods using thermogravimetry data (TGA-DTG). The experiments were performed at three different heating rates (5-10-15 K/min) between 300 and 1200 K. Thermal characteristics of the crude oil samples such as, reaction intervals and corresponding peak and burn-out temperatures are also determined. Three different iso-conversional methods, known as Starink, Kissinger and Friedman are used in order to determ...
Laboratory steam injection applications for oil shale fields of Turkey
Kök, Mustafa Verşan; Bagci, S. (Estonian Academy Publishers, 2008-01-01)
In this study, applicability of oil production from oil shales by steam recovery in a three-dimensional (3-D) reservoir model was investigated. Four different oil shale samples from several fields (Seyitomer, Beypazan, Himmetoglu and Hatildag) were used. 3-D steam injection experiments showed that steam injection was insufficient to drive oil production for the oil shale samples studied, and it was concluded that the steam injection process is not feasible in these oil shale fields.
A new drilling performance benchmarking: ROP indexing methodology
Eren, Tuna; Kök, Mustafa Verşan (Elsevier BV, 2018-04-01)
The performance efficiency in drilling oil, gas wells is eventually measured by means of comparing the time versus depth curve. However this is now being questioned, is a well drilled relatively in a shorter time period the most efficient well? Large data are now being acquired while drilling, however not all of the data available is utilized appropriately to get the big picture of the well being drilled. This research study is aiming to introduce a performance comparison methodology based on Rate of Penetr...
Citation Formats
S. Akın, “Heavy-oil solution gas drive: a laboratory study,” JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, pp. 33–48, 2002, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/47493.