Browsing by Subject "heavy oil"
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Item Experimental studies of steam and steam-propane injection using a novel smart horizontal producer to enhance oil production in the San Ardo field(Texas A&M University, 2007-09-17) Rivero Diaz, Jose AntonioA 16????16????5.6 in. scaled, three-dimensional, physical model of a quarter of a 9-spot pattern was constructed to study the application of two processes designed to improve the efficiency of steam injection. The first process to be tested is the use of propane as a steam additive with the purpose of increasing recovery and accelerating oil production. The second process involves the use of a novel production configuration that makes use of a vertical injector and a smart horizontal producer in an attempt to mitigate the effects of steam override. The experimental model was scaled using the conditions in the San Ardo field in California and crude oil from the same field was used for the tests. Superheated steam at 190 ?????? 200????C was injected at 48 cm3/min (cold water equivalent) while maintaining the flowing pressures in the production wells at 50 psig. Liquid samples from each producer in the model were collected and treated to break emulsion and analyzed to determine water and oil volumes. Two different production configurations were tested: (1) a vertical well system with a vertical injector and three vertical producers and (2) a vertical injector-smart horizontal well system that consisted of a vertical injector and a smart horizontal producer divided into three sections. Runs were conducted using pure steam injection and steam-propane injection in the two well configurations. Experimental results indicated the following. First, for the vertical configuration, the addition of propane accelerated oil production by 53% and increased ultimate recovery by an additional 7% of the original oil in place when compared to pure steam injection. Second, the implementation of the smart horizontal system increased ultimate oil recovery when compared to the recovery obtained by employing the conventional vertical well system (49% versus 42% of the OOIP).Item Experimental Study of In-Situ Upgrading for Heavy Oil Using Hydrogen Donors and Catalyst under Steam Injection Condition(2012-07-16) Zhang, ZhiyongThis research is a study of the in-situ upgrading of Jobo crude oil using steam, tetralin or decalin, and catalyst (Fe(acac)?) at temperatures of 250 ?C, 275 ?C and 300 ?C for 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours using an autoclave. Viscosity, API gravity and compositional changes were investigated. We found that tetralin and decalin alone were good solvents for heavy oil recovery. Tetralin or decalin at concentrations of 9% (weight basis) could reduce the Jobo crude oil viscosity measured at 50 ?C by 44?2% and 39?3%. Steam alone had some upgrading effects. It could reduce the oil viscosity by 10% after 48 hours of contact at 300?C. Tetralin, decalin or catalyst showed some upgrading effects when used together with steam and caused 5.4?4%, 4?1% and 19?3% viscosity reduction compared with corresponding pre-upgrading mixture after 48 hours of reaction at 300?C. The combination of hydrogen donor tetralin or decalin and catalyst reduced the viscosity of the mixture the most, by 56?1% and 72?1% compared with pre-upgrading mixture. It meant that hydrogen donors and catalyst had strong synergetic effects on heavy oil upgrading. We also found that 300 ?C was an effective temperature for heavy oil upgrading with obvious viscosity reduction in the presence of steam, hydrogen donors and catalyst. Reaction can be considered to have reached almost equilibrium condition after 48 hours. The GC-MS analysis of the gas component showed that light hydrocarbon gases and CO? were generated after reaction. The viscosity reduction from decalin use is larger than that of tetralin because decalin has more hydrogen atoms per molecule than tetralin. A mechanism of transferring H (hydrogen atom) from H?O and hydrogen donors to heavy oil, which can lead to structure and composition changes in heavy oil, is explained. The study has demonstrated that in-situ heavy oil upgrading has great potential applications in heavy and extra heavy oil recovery.Item Ionizing Electron Incidents as an Efficient Way to Reduce Viscosity of Heavy Petroleum Fluids(2012-10-19) Alfi, MasoudThe dependence on oil and the fact that petroleum conventional reservoirs are becoming depleted direct attentions toward unconventional-and harder to access-reservoirs. Among those, heavy and extremely heavy oil reservoirs and tar sands form a considerable portion of all petroleum resources. Conventional thermal and thermocatalytic refining methods are not affordable choices in some cases, as they demand a considerable energy investment. On the other hand, electron irradiation, as a novel technology, provides more promising results in heavy oil upgrading. Electron irradiation, as a method of delivering energy to a target molecule, ensures that most of the energy is absorbed by the molecule electronic structure. This leads to a very efficient generation of reactive species, which are capable of initiating chemical reactions. In contrast, when using thermal energy, only a small portion of the energy goes into the electronic structure of the molecule; therefore, bond rupture will result only at high energy levels. The effect of electron irradiation on different heavy petroleum fluids is investigated in this study. Radiation-induced physical and chemical changes of the fluids have been evaluated using different analytical instruments. The results show that high energy electron particles intensify the cracking of heavy hydrocarbons into lighter species. Moreover, irradiation is seen to limit any post-treatment reactions, providing products of higher stability. Depending on the characteristics of the radiolyzed fluid, irradiation may change the distribution pattern of the products, or the radiolysis process may follow the same mechanism that thermal cracking does. In addition to that, we have studied the effectiveness of different influencing variables such as reaction temperature, absorbed dose values, and additives on radiolytic reactions. More specifically, the following subjects are addressed in this study: *Radiation?induced chain reactions of heavy petroleum fluids *Complex hydrocarbon cracking mechanism *High and low temperature radiolysis *Synergetic effects of different chemical additives in radiolysis reactions *Time stability of radiation products