Experimental investigation of heavy oil recovery from fractured reservoirs by secondary steam - Gas assisted gravity drainage

A. Mohsenzadeh, M. Escrochi, M. V. Afraz, Yahya Al-Wahaibi, Shahab Ayatollahi*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this study, gas-oil gravity drainage process and steam-gas assisted gravity drainage processes for heavy oil recovery from fractured models were investigated experimentally. For each test, six oil- wet saturated outcrop cores, 8.7 cm in diameter and 15 cm length, were stacked in a long core holder. In the first step, gas injection was started into the model at reservoir condition that results in oil production under gas-oil gravity drainage mechanism. In the second round of tests when no more oil was produced by gas injection, the tests were continued using steam-gas assisted gravity drainage process. In this stage, gas was injected together with specific steam/gas ratio at saturated temperature condition. In the course of experiments, oil and water productions, pressure and temperatures of system were monitored carefully. The experiments were performed using three different combination of gases consist of pure CO2, pure N2 and mixture of 15 % CO2 and 85% N2 as synthetic flue gas. The results showed that after gas breakthrough and fracture depletion, the ultimate oil recovery for CO 2 injection was 58.4 % (14.8% for gas injection and 43.6 % for steam-gas co-injection), in the case of flue gas injection, it was 73.8 % (9.8 % for gas injection and 64% for steam-gas co-injection) and for N2 injection was 47% (13.5 % for gas injection and 33.5% for steam-gas co-injection). The results indicate the high performance of flue gas injection for heavy oil recovery from fractured reservoirs during gas-oil gravity drainage and steam-gas assisted gravity drainage processes.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSociety of Petroleum Engineers - SPE Heavy Oil Conference Canada 2012
PublisherSociety of Petroleum Engineers
Pages395-412
Number of pages18
ISBN (Print)9781622761111
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012
EventSPE Heavy Oil Conference Canada 2012 - Calgary, AB, Canada
Duration: Jun 12 2012Jun 14 2012

Publication series

NameSociety of Petroleum Engineers - SPE Heavy Oil Conference Canada 2012
Volume1

Other

OtherSPE Heavy Oil Conference Canada 2012
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityCalgary, AB
Period6/12/126/14/12

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geochemistry and Petrology
  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology

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