Mechanisms of pore level displacement in chemical floods for heavy oil
Date
2012
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Abstract
In Canada, many heavy oil fields are nearing the end of the primary production. These reservoirs have been depleted of their natural energy, and have been disturbed to an unknown extent through the formation of wormholes. There is a large amount of heavy oil resources and only about 8-10% of its original oil in place (OOIP) can be recovered with the primary production. In small or thin reservoirs, the thermal recovery methods do not work and so non thermal recovery methods such as alkali surfactant flooding seem as suitable alternatives in improving the oil recoveries. This research is a laboratory study that investigates the mechanisms of the pore level displacement in chemical floods for heavy oil. The Alkali-Surfactant is used as the chemical to generate oil and water emulsions which can in turn improve the oil recoveries. A bulk liquid study is performed in order to choose the optimal concentrations for both the alkali and the surfactant. Furthermore, data is obtained from three core flood runs with unconsolidated sand packs containing heavy oil of viscosity 15,800 cp at 23 C. A series of high injection rate and low injection rate core floods are performed and finally, there is another set of core floods performed on two cores in parallel having a large permeability difference between them in order to get a more detailed insight on reservoirs containing channels and wormholes. The data collected from all these experiments alongside the analysis of the results are discussed in detail which provides a further step forward in discovering the mechanisms and the potential implications for improved recovery processes for these systems.
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Bibliography: p. 138-146
Some pages are in colour.
Some pages are in colour.
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Citation
Shamekhi, O. H. (2012). Mechanisms of pore level displacement in chemical floods for heavy oil (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/5055