Layer | Fill | Outline |
---|
Map layers
Theme | Visible | Selectable | Appearance | Zoom Range (now: 0) |
---|
Fill | Stroke |
---|---|
Collaborating Authors
Chemical flooding methods
R&D Grand Challenges - This is the last in a series of articles on the great challenges facing the oil and gas industry as outlined by the SPE R&D Committee. The R&D Grand Challenges Series, comprising articles published in JPT during 2011 and 2012. The R&D Grand Challenges Series, comprising articles published in JPT during 2011 and 2012, is available as a collection on OnePetro (SPE-163061-JPT). In May 2011, the SPE R&D Committee kicked off a series of guest articles in JPT to highlight the oil and gas industry’s major research and development (R&D) challenges. Defining these challenges is important because the committee’s primary goal is to encourage R&D and promote dialog between industry and research groups with the aim of matching industry needs with R&D activities. The R&D challenges comprise five broad upstream business needs plus the environment: Increasing recovery factors In-situ molecular manipulation Carbon capture and sequestration Produced water management Higher resolution subsurface imaging of hydrocarbons Environment Why Have Grand Challenges? Exploiting hydrocarbons from the deep reaches of Earth has been no easy task. The scale of innovation required rivals those in any other high technology industry. As an industry, we have done well in finding and producing sufficient hydrocarbons to satisfy the world’s energy needs to date; however, the task becomes harder in the future as the resource base becomes more difficult to extract and our desire to minimize environmental impact strengthens. Increasing Recovery Factors Gary A. Pope, Texaco Centennial Chair in Petroleum Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, kicked off the series of “R&D Grand Challenges” articles with his view on recent developments and remaining challenges of enhanced oil recovery. He wrote, “There has been a renaissance in chemical EOR during the past few years because of major advances in the technology and high oil prices. Thermal and miscible gas methods are much more mature with the exception of processes such as coinjection of gases and surfactants for mobility control. The synergy between the EOR processes and improved reservoir characterization and formation evaluation, reservoir modeling and simulation, reservoir management, well technology, production methods, and facilities is significant and not as widely recognized as it should be. “So what are the most significant constraints on any kind of EOR? My guess is the following in order of importance: a shortage of experienced engineers and geoscientists with a fundamental understanding of EOR, uncertainty in oil prices, and risk aversion due in part to out-of-date knowledge and in part to the complexity of EOR compared with more conventional oil recovery. There are also environmental concerns that must be addressed for each process and location. For these and other reasons, it may take many years to ramp up EOR production to millions of barrels per day.
- Health, Safety, Environment & Sustainability > Environment > Climate change (0.90)
- Health, Safety, Environment & Sustainability > Environment > Water use, produced water discharge and disposal (0.89)
- Production and Well Operations > Well Operations and Optimization > Produced water management and control (0.55)
- Reservoir Description and Dynamics > Improved and Enhanced Recovery > Chemical flooding methods (0.54)
Technology Focus In spite of continued investment and advances in exploiting alternative-energy sources, oil and natural gas will continue to be a significant portion of US and global energy portfolios for decades. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) uses unconventional hydrocarbon-recovery methods that target the approximately two-thirds of the oil volume remaining in reservoirs after conventional-recovery methods have been exhausted. Though limited by high capital and operating costs, EOR techniques will have a substantial effect on the future supply of oil. In 2011, SPE hosted an EOR conference in Kuala Lumpur, and three workshops to address EOR technologies in Malaysia, Kuwait, and the Syrian Arab Republic. The Malaysia workshop focused on chemical-EOR methods, the Kuwait workshop addressed opportunities and for challenges of EOR methods in the Middle East, and the Syrian Arab Republic workshop discussed EOR in carbonate reservoirs. More than 300 EOR papers were published in SPE conferences, with many additional presentations in EOR workshops. These papers address important issues related to practical application of conventional EOR methods and the development of novel EOR technologies. The topics cover experience with, opportunities for, and challenges of EOR technologies; fundamental study of EOR mechanisms for different methods; feasibility study and improvement of an EOR method for a specific reservoir; EOR-screening criteria; reservoir surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation technologies; reservoir simulation and modeling; lessons learned from EOR pilot and field trials; and some novel EOR methods. Polymer flooding has been proved the most cost-effective chemical-EOR method in the laboratory and in the field. A recent focus on polymer flooding evaluated associative polymers because of their advantage over traditional hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) polymers; thus, one paper about comparing the flow behavior of associative polymer and HPAM in porous media was selected for this feature. CO2 injection is a win/win strategy because it can enhance oil recovery and be used for CO2 storage in reservoirs to reduce greenhouse-gas levels in the atmosphere. However, CO2 EOR targets maximum oil recovery while CO2 sequestration targets maximum storage capacity without leakage. One paper featured here provides some guidance to balance the two technologies. Steamflooding has been applied successfully in heavy-oil reservoirs. However, one paper synopsized in this feature will describe successful steamflooding in a light-oil reservoir. Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. SPE 142668 Enhanced Waterflood for Middle East Carbonate Cores—Impact of Injection-Water Composition. By Robin Gupta, ExxonMobil Upstream Research, et al. SPE 142105 A Simplified Model for Simulations of Alkaline/Surfactant/Polymer Floods. By Mojdeh Delshad, SPE, University of Texas at Austin, et al. SPE 144294 Large-Scale High-Viscous-Elastic-Fluid Flooding in the Field Achieves High Recoveries. By Wang Demin, SPE, Daqing Oil Company, et al. \ SPE 144599 A Combined Experimental and Simulation Workflow To Improve Predictability of In-Situ Combustion. By M. Bazargan, Stanford University, et al. SPE 147858 In-situ Combustion Using Sugar Dust, ‘Sweet Reservoirs’—A Smart and Better Alternative by Panchamlal, SPE, Maharashtra Institute of Technology, et al. SPE 147999 Lessons Learned From Nine Years of Immiscible-Gas-Injection Performance and Sector-Modeling Study of Two Pilots in a Heterogeneous Carbonate Reservoir by Lakshi Konwar, SPE, Zakum Development Company, et al.
- Asia > Middle East > Syria (0.47)
- Asia > Middle East > Kuwait (0.47)
- North America > United States > Texas > Travis County > Austin (0.26)
- (2 more...)
- Geology > Petroleum Play Type > Unconventional Play > Heavy Oil Play (0.57)
- Geology > Geological Subdiscipline > Economic Geology > Petroleum Geology (0.57)