Enhanced Oil Recovery Field Case Studies bridges the gap between theory and practice in a range of real-world EOR settings. Areas covered include steam and polymer flooding, use of foam, in situ combustion, microorganisms, "smart water"-based EOR in carbonates and sandstones, and many more. Oil industry professionals know that the key to a successful enhanced oil recovery project lies in anticipating the differences between plans and the realities found in the field. This book aids that effort, providing valuable case studies from more than 250 EOR pilot and field applications in a variety of oil fields. The case studies cover practical problems, underlying theoretical and modeling methods, operational parameters, solutions and sensitivity studies, and performance optimization strategies, benefitting academicians and oil company practitioners alike. - Strikes an ideal balance between theory and practice - Focuses on practical problems, underlying theoretical and modeling methods, and operational parameters - Designed for technical professionals, covering the fundamental as well as the advanced aspects of EOR

This chapter briefly presents the interactions between alkali and polymer and the drive mechanisms of alkaline-polymer flooding. The alkaline-polymer field cases presented in this chapter include those in Almy Sands (Isenhour Unit), Moorcroft West and Thompson Creek in Wyoming, David Lloydminster “A” Pool and Etzikom in Canada, and Xing-28 Block (Liaohe Field) and Yangsanmu in China.

Enhanced oil recovery field case studies bridge the gap between theory and practice in a range of real-world EOR settings. Areas covered include steam and polymer flooding, use of foam, in situ combustion, microorganisms, "smart water"-based EOR in carbonates and sandstones, and many more. Oil industry professionals know that the key to a successful enhanced oil recovery project lies in anticipating the differences between plans and the realities found in the field. This book aids that effort, providing valuable case studies from more than 250 EOR pilot and field applications in a variety of oil fields. The case studies cover practical problems, underlying theoretical and modeling methods, operational parameters, solutions and sensitivity studies, and performance optimization strategies, benefitting academicians and oil company practitioners alike. Strikes an ideal balance between theory and practice.

Based on the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) survey in Oil and Gas Journal (2010), approximately 280,000bbl of oil per day or 6% of US crude oil production was produced by carbon dioxide (CO2) EOR. Just like any other gas injection processes, field CO2 flooding projects suffer from poor sweep efficiency due to early gas breakthrough, unfavorable mobility ratio, reservoir heterogeneity, viscous fingering and channeling, and gravity segregation. Many of these problems are believed to be alleviated or overcome by foaming the injected CO2. Since the 1970s, CO2-foam flooding has been used as a commercially viable method for EOR processes. Foams, defined as a mixture of internal gas phase in a continuous external liquid phase containing surfactant molecules, can improve sweep efficiency significantly by reducing gas mobility, especially in the reservoirs with a high level of geological heterogeneity. This chapter consists of three main parts: the first part (Section 2.1) deals with fundamentals on foams in porous media and recent advances in this field of research, including three foam states (weak-foam, strong-foam, and intermediate states) and two steady-state flow regimes of strong foams; the second part (Section 2.2) overviews field examples of foam-assisted CO2-EOR processes; and the third part (Section 2.3) covers typical field injection and production responses if CO2-foam pilot or field-scale treatments are successful.

Microbial-enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is the use of microorganisms to increase the recovery of oil from existing oil reservoirs. There are nearly 400 US patents dealing with MEOR, some of which add microorganisms to nearly depleted oil reservoirs while others rely on the indigenous microorganisms. The patent literature is reviewed and two successful field trials by the author are described. A completed field trial using microbial permeability profile modification (MPPM) in a field using waterflooding as the secondary method of oil recovery was proven to recover over 360,000bbl of oil since 2004 and is predicted to recover another 230,000bbl of oil by 2018. A second field trial using MPPM is being employed in a field with a petroliferous formation at 115°C. The field is undergoing CO2 flooding as the secondary recovery method and MPPM has been proven to produce extra oil from five surrounding wells.

Steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), since its inception over 30 years ago, has been developed into one of the primary thermal recovery processes for bitumen in Canadian oil sands deposits. This chapter is aimed to provide a high-level description of process principle, features, and challenges. The focuses will be on the evaluation of resource quality suited for SAGD development, the process of start-up to initiate and establish the gravity drainage, the well design, and operational aspects to achieve stable operation and maximize thermal performance, as well as the importance of integration between the subsurface and surface processes, and finally the trend of solvent addition to steam to improve the thermal performance of SAGD.

Cold production is a solution-gas drive process in which a reservoir saturated with live heavy oil reservoir is depleted as quickly as possible to generate relatively stable gas bubbles leading to higher oil recoveries (5–10% original oil in place (OOIP)) than for light oils (2–5% OOIP). More specifically, these bubbles increase the oil/gas mixture compressibility, which maintains the reservoir pressures for longer times than for light oils.

This chapter introduces the reader to the fundamentals of field implementation for chemical EOR projects. Chemical handling, processing, and injection schemes are discussed and current-day facilities and equipment systems are shown from actual projects. Design requirements for processing polymer, alkaline agents, and surfactants provide the reader with an understanding of special considerations for facility process flow design, materials of construction, project logistics, and daily operations. Useful spreadsheets for calculating chemical consumption rates and polymer system design basics are shown. Basic water quality issues are introduced for polymer, surfactant-polymer, alkaline-polymer, and alkaline-surfactant-polymer projects.

This chapter covers the alkaline surfactant–polymer (ASP) process and field results. Background information describing the history of alkaline, alkaline surfactant, alkaline polymer, and ASP flooding processes is given, followed by a review of the requirement of high acid content in the crude oil for these processes to be effective.

This chapter contains a thorough coverage of in situ combustion (ISC) as an enhanced oil recovery method, describing its complex aspects in a simple and practical manner. It is the first really international treatise of the subject as the international experience was carefully put together.