Steam and CO{sub 2} combination processes in fractured porous media: Numerical studies

Book · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:435808

Liu, C; Sharma, M P; Harris, H G ^[1]

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1. Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States)

A novel steam-plus-CO{sub 2} flooding process for oil recovery in fractured cores has been investigated experimentally. The oil recovery increased as much as 25% and 20% of original oil in place by steam-plus-CO{sub 2} process compared to steam-alone process from non-fractured and fractured cores respectively. In addition to the effects of injection temperature and injection rates on oil recovery and residual oil saturation, the ratio of steam to CO{sub 2}, a dimensionless number, was found to dominate the oil recovery process. In non-fractured sandstone cores, there exists an optimum ratio of steam to CO{sub 2} which yields a maximum oil recovery with the lowest residual oil saturation. The ratio does not depend on injection temperature and injection rates. In fractured cores, there still exists an optimum steam-CO{sub 2} ratio which yields a maximum oil recovery. However, it depends on injection temperature. A dual porosity and dual permeability thermal compositional simulator was employed to investigate the experimental processes numerically. The mechanisms in the simulations are based on the observations of the experiments which indicated that rate and amount of inhibition was favored by adding CO{sub 2} to steam by temperature increase. Some other mechanisms such as permeability change as temperature increase as well as conventional mechanisms in steam flooding are also investigated in this research.

• OSTI ID: 435808
• Report Number(s): CONF-951135--; ISBN 0-7918-1755-5
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
CARBON DIOXIDE INJECTION
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
SANDSTONES
STEAM SOAK PROCESSES
THEORETICAL DATA
THERMAL RECOVERY