Thermal Enhancement of Water-flooding in Medium-Heavy Oil Recovery

Thermal Enhancement of Water-flooding in Medium-Heavy Oil Recovery

Kermen, E.

Slob, E.C. (mentor)
Bruining, J. (mentor)
Van Odyck, D.E.A. (mentor)
Zitha, P.L.J. (mentor)

Civil Engineering and Geosciences

Applied Earth Sciences

Section Petroleum Engineering

2011-12-15

Water-flooding in heavy oils is generally not an efficient way of production due to high viscosity of heavy oil compared to water. Therefore, thermal recovery methods are commonly used in heavy oil production. Most thermal methods involve fluid injection to transfer heat further into the reservoir. Hot water-flooding is among these methods. In hot water-flooding, thermal energy will increase oil mobility, and possibly provide a more efficient sweep. This research investigates the effect of heat on water-flood recovery. An approximate analytical model has been constructed to describe fluid flow and heat transfer, simultaneously. Furthermore, several core flooding experiments have been conducted. These experiments involve regular (isothermal water-flooding at room temperature), and non-isothermal (hot) water-flooding. X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) scans have been also taken during the experiments to detect the movement of the water phase and the stability of the displacement front. It has been observed from the experiments, that increasing the injection temperature delays water breakthrough, and increases recovery factor of the water-flood. Moreover, due to the decrease in oil viscosity, the pressure drop along the core also decreases with increasing temperature. On the other hand, the movement of the water phase cannot be detected accurately from CT images.

Hot water-flooding
Heavy oil recovery
Buckley-Leverett
Core flooding experiments
CT-Scan

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:8d58d9e9-d54c-49b1-8fa7-7882c52df6f2

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2011 Kermen, E.