Experimental studies of oil withdrawal from salt cavities by freshwater injection

Journal Article · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1986 · SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) Product. Eng.; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2118/13307-PA· OSTI ID:5597829

Reda, D C; Russo, A J

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) program coordinates storage of crude oil in underground salt caverns. Oil removed from these caverns by the injection of water into a brine volume located beneath the oil will be recovered through a production pipe near the top of the cavern. The critical question concerning this procedure was whether the crude oil would protect the salt walls from dissolution on exposure to unsaturated brine following oil/brine interface passage. Oil/brine/salt interactions were investigated experimentally. Cylindrical cavities were created by hollowing out salt cores from one end, leaving the circular wall and bottom as an integral piece. In four experiments, a salt cavity was placed vertically in a pressure vessel and was filled with crude oil overlying a saturated-brine ''pocket.'' The vessel was sealed and pressurized to actual SPR-cavern pressure. Fresh water was injected down a tube into the brine pocket, displacing the oil upward for recovery through a production tube. A traversable gamma-beam densitometer positioned above the initial saturated-brine/oil interface defined the presence or absence of salt dissolution (cavity shape change) during the transient oil-withdrawal process. Such measurements showed salt-wall recession immediately following interface passage in all tests; i.e., crude-oil adherence and/or penetration at the salt wall failed to protect the salt from dissolution when exposed to unsaturated brine. Measured post-test cavity shapes corroborated the transient results. Both transient and steady-state measurements were in good agreement with numerical predictions generated by SANSMIC (Sandia Solution-Mining Code) once ''no oil-layer protection'' was assumed.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs.
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 5597829
• Journal Information: SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) Product. Eng.; (United States), Journal Name: SPE (Society of Petroleum Engineers) Product. Eng.; (United States) Vol. 1:1; ISSN SPENE
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
024000* -- Petroleum-- Storage-- (-1989)
BRINES
CAVITIES
COMPUTER CODES
CONTAINERS
DENSITOMETERS
DISSOLUTION
DRAWDOWN
ENERGY SOURCES
FOSSIL FUELS
FRESH WATER
FUELS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
LEACHING
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MINING
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PETROLEUM
PHOTOMETERS
PIPES
PRESSURE VESSELS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
RESERVES
RESOURCES
S CODES
SALT CAVERNS
SATURATION
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLUTION MINING
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS
STORAGE
STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE
UNDERGROUND STORAGE
WATER