Enhanced recovery
Technology and partnerships remain important, while phased approaches may supplant lengthy appraisal programs, experts said during CERAWeek.
This paper describes the operator’s initiative to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and recover additional hydrocarbon, monetizing it as sales gas, by integrating upstream and downstream gas facilities in a unified approach.
This paper introduces a novel steam-sensitive flow-control device designed to restrict the production of steam and low-subcool liquids while allowing higher mobility of oil-phase fluids.
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The low recovery rates observed in most shale reservoirs has prompted a number of research projects to develop new enhanced oil recovery methods. -
This paper describes a gas-injection pilot that has been implemented in offshore Middle East carbonate reservoirs to assess injectivity, productivity, macroscopic-sweep efficiency, flow assurance, and operational efficiency in a field that has a long water-injection history.
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The operator has initiated a cyclic-steam-stimulation project in the Opal A diatomite of the Sisquoc formation on the Careaga lease in the Orcutt oil field in Santa Barbara County, California. This paper discusses steam-injection step-rate tests (SRTs) for this asset as part of its expansion.
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The polymer-injection project in the Dalia field, one of the main fields of Block 17 in deepwater Angola, represents a world first for both surface and subsurface aspects.
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The Loma Alta Sur (LAS) field is a multilayer fluvial sandstone reservoir in the Neuquén basin of Argentina. Colloidal-dispersion-gel injection was considered a viable strategy to improve oil recovery in the field after early water breakthrough.
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Since 2006, production from gas injection has outstripped that from thermal, and is continuing to grow. Even though industry conditions remain tough, EOR is expected to be increasingly important in the future, with the possibility of further uptake of it linked to the climate-change agenda.
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Part of what makes DME an intriguing EOR technology is that it is soluble in both water and oil—with a preference for the latter. Shell’s plan is to add DME to the waterflooding stream to reach a concentration of about 16%, the upper limit of its dissolvability.
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With the recent drop in oil prices, operators are shifting to optimization of existing assets with minimal costs. For mature floods (water, chemical, and CO2), one low-cost optimization strategy is the intelligent adjustment of well-rate targets.
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Chemical enhanced-oil-recovery methods such as polymer and alkaline/surfactant/polymer (ASP) flooding are generally not considered suitable for oil viscosities greater than 100 or 200 cp.
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Thermal steam stimulation is considered the most effective of current methods for heavy-oil production. However, the method has problems with low coverage by steam injection and decreased efficiency.
