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CBE 555: Chemical EngineeringConnections: Impact of Chemical Engineering on the Outside World Tertiary Oil Recovery Steve Ng Kim Hoong 16 October 2007.

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Presentation on theme: "CBE 555: Chemical EngineeringConnections: Impact of Chemical Engineering on the Outside World Tertiary Oil Recovery Steve Ng Kim Hoong 16 October 2007."— Presentation transcript:

1 CBE 555: Chemical EngineeringConnections: Impact of Chemical Engineering on the Outside World Tertiary Oil Recovery Steve Ng Kim Hoong 16 October 2007

2 Outline of This Presentation Reasons for supporting tertiary oil recovery Primary Oil Recovery Secondary Oil Recovery Tertiary Oil Recovery - Thermal Processes - Miscible Processes - Chemical Processes - Biological Processes

3  $86 per barrel of crude oil  Primary oil recovery – can only recover 10 percent of a reservoir’s original oil in place  Secondary oil recovery – 20 to 40 percent  Tertiary oil recovery – 30 to 60 percent  Undeveloped domestic oil resources still in the ground total more than 430 billion barrels. Why are we doing this??

4 Primary Oil Recovery The initial stage of producing oil from a reservoir Use natural forces such as - expansion of oil, gas or both - displacement by naturally pressurized water - drainage from a reservoir in high elevation to a well in lower elevation - artificial techniques (pumps)

5 Secondary Oil Recovery Injection of fluids in a series of wells to force oil into another series of wells (essentially augmenting the natural forces used in primary methods) Waterflooding

6 Thermal Processes Viscosity is a measure of a liquid’s ability to flow High viscosity of oil makes it difficult to flow Reduce the viscosity with high temperature Steam Injection - Cyclic steam injection - Steam drive

7 Cyclic Steam Injection High pressure of steam (or steam and hot water) injected into well for days/weeks Injection is stopped and the reservoir is “soaked” Well is then allowed to backflow to surface Condensed steam/ hot water vaporizes to drive oil out When production is low, process is repeated “Huff and Puff” method

8 Steam Drive “Steam flooding” Same method as water flooding Continuous injection of steam (or steam and hot water) A reservoir is developed with interlocking patterns of injection and production wells Series of zones developed as the fluids move from injection wells to production wells

9 Miscible Processes Injected fluid dissolves the oil that it contacts Variety of fluid: - Alcohol - Carbon dioxide - Petroleum hydrocarbons (propane, propane-butane) - Petroleum gasses (ethane, propane, butane, pentane) Fluid selectivity depends on the type of reservoir and crude oil Expensive fluid (supplementary process to recover fluid or use it sparingly) “Slug” – 5% to 50% of reservoir volume pushed through by gas/water brine or chemically treated brine

10 CO 2 Enhanced Oil Recovery All the petroleum hydrocarbons are expensive (not viable in economic sense) CO 2 is cheap and widely available (mostly use natural CO 2 deposits) Complete mixing depends on reservoir temperature, pressure, chemical nature and density of oil Generally, it’s deeper than 1200m and oil lighter than 22 0 API CO 2 is stable in supercritical state (6.9 MPa and 31 0 C) Injected CO 2 will diminish the interfacial tension between itself and the crude oil

11 Chemical Processes Involved the usage of surfactant/polymer, polymer, alkaline flooding Surfactant/polymer flooding: - microemulsion/micellar flooding - detergent-like material injected to modify the oil interactions with its surroundings - emulsify/partly dissolve oil - high cost, small volume

12 Polymer flooding - a chemically augmented waterflood - polyacrylamides/polysaccharides - increase effectiveness of water in displacing oil Alkaline flooding - sodium hydroxide, sodium silicate, sodium carbonate - react with constituents in the crude oil or rock/crude oil interface - detergent-like material to reduce the ability of the formation to retain oil

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14 Biological Processes Utilize microbes to enhance oil recovery Occupy pore spaces to release trapped oil and reduce water cut Microbial response: - larger - shrink - oleophilic - attach and surround oil droplets - deform droplets to form smaller droplets - smaller droplets able to escape pore spaces - byproduct of metabolism (CO 2 and biomass) - biosurfactants (slimy substances – exopolysaccharides) - Xanthomans campestris bacteria (Xantan) Reservoir response: - microbes attached to water and oil droplets move faster through high permeable sections of the field (thief zones). This combination and fast flow creates a natural emulsion only in the thief zones. - thief zones are temporarily blocked - water is diverted to unswept areas of the field, thus increasing sweeping efficiency

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19 Case Study: Beatrice Field, North Sea, England The Beatrice Field is in a steep North Sea production decline Scheduled to be abandoned in 1995-96 Applied the microbial enhanced oil recovery (Titan Process) from 1992-95 Oil production scheduled to decline to 5000 bopd (now producing 12000 bopd) 5.5 million barrels of excess oil was produced

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21 REFERENCES http://www.titanoilrecovery.com/pdfs/TitanBrochure.pdf http://www.biobasics.gc.ca/english/View.asp?x=793 http://www.fossil.energy.gov/programs/oilgas/eor/index.h tml Enhanced Oil Recovery Potential in the United States, Congress of the United States, Office of Technology Assessment, January 1978, #PB-276594 Enhanced Oil Recovery Scoping Study, A. Amamath, 1999

22 THANK YOU!!


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