Big Muddy DOE Project: Final report

Technical Report · Tue Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:5269772

Brister, W L; Borah, M T; Gregory, M D

The Big Muddy Low-Tension Flood was a 90-acre demonstration project in the heart of the Second Wall Creek reservoir in the Big Muiddy Oil Field. The goal was to provide data for commercialization of the low-tension ehanced oil recovery process. Results wee therefore intended to help in the application of the process to other low-permeability and freshwater reservoirs in the Rocky Mountain region, particuarly the sandstone reservoirs similar to the Second Wall Creek at Big Muddy. There were 3 main phases of injection for the project. A brine preflush, followed by the low-tension slug and then a polymer drive. The polymer drive was later tapered back and eventually only produced project water was injected. The project was conducted with few operational problems. The injection plant operated as expected. On the production side, very little downtime occurred during the project. The oil treatment for sulfonate was troublesome at times, yet merchantable oil was always achieved. A total of 289,643 STBO were produced through May 31, 1987. Actual recovery was far short of expectations, only a fourth of original projections. Out of the total oil produced, 219,000 STBO are considered to be true tertiary oil. This was derived from a plot of the oil cut versus time, with the oil cut experssed as a percent of injection. All oil recovered above the waterflood baseline was tertiary oil. The chemical slug was optimized with respect to composition and viscosity to achieve maximum oil recovery and slug injectivity. The process design was good, but the project failed due to a lack of fluid containment. 14 refs., 68 figs., 28 tabs.

• Research Organization: Conoco, Inc., Casper, WY (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC03-78SF01424
• OSTI ID: 5269772
• Report Number(s): DOE/SF/01424-66; ON: DE88001222
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
ACRYLAMIDE
AMIDES
CHLORIDES
CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
CONTROL
DATA
DISPLACEMENT FLUIDS
DOCUMENT TYPES
ENERGY SOURCES
ENHANCED RECOVERY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLUID INJECTION
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
MOBILITY
NUMERICAL DATA
OIL SATURATION
OIL WELLS
OPTIMIZATION
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC SULFUR COMPOUNDS
PERMEABILITY
PETROLEUM
POLYMERS
POROSITY
PROGRESS REPORT
RECOVERY
ROCKS
SANDSTONES
SATURATION
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SULFONATES
SURFACTANTS
VISCOSITY
WATERFLOODING
WELLS