Improvement of CO/sub 2/ flood performance. Quarterly report, January 1-March 31, 1985

Technical Report · Mon Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5880227

Heller, J P

Progress has been made in each of the three major areas which our CO/sub 2/ flooding research is directed. In the phase behavior area, there is continuing effort for the refinement of the existing Continuous Multiple Contact (CMC) experiment. One of the high-pressure, oscillating crystal viscometers designed for use in this system has been completed, leak-tested and checked electrically. The entire CMC system is being reconstructed to fit into a temperature-controlled air bath, and for operation without use of mercury. The major new data from the reconstructed apparatus will concern the viscosities of the CO/sub 2/-rich and of the heavier fractions that may comprise part of the transition zone during displacements both above and below the MMP. The phase behavior and fluid properties activity has also produced further thermodynamic calculations and data for the correlation of MMP and oil composition. The second area of activity concerns the fluid-mechanical and chemical processes involved in displacement itself. Research in this category is concerned both with the microscopic or pore-level aspects, and with larger scale description. An important objective of this part of the work is to define and elucidate the dependence of reservoir-scale displacement behavior on those smaller-scale core and micromodel properties which are accessible to laboratory measurements. To this end, there are continuing observations of diffusion processes in CO/sub 2/ and of displacement mechanisms in etched-glass micromodels, as well as core-flooding studies. The third area of research on CO/sub 2/ flooding concerns another aspect of large-scale displacement phenomena - the effect of the unfavorable mobility ratio between displaced and displacing fluids. Progress is reported here on the selection of new surfactants for use in making ''CO/sub 2/-foams,'' and also in the synthesis of polymeric solutes to increase the viscosity of dense CO/sub 2/. 29 refs., 27 figs., 3 tabs.

• Research Organization: New Mexico Inst. of Mining and Technology, Socorro (USA). New Mexico Petroleum Recovery Research Center
• DOE Contract Number: FC21-84MC21136
• OSTI ID: 5880227
• Report Number(s): DOE/MC/21136-4; ON: DE85010683
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
AGING
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON DIOXIDE INJECTION
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
COLLOIDS
COMPRESSIBILITY
CONTROL
DATA
DIFFUSION
DISPERSIONS
DRILL CORES
ENERGY SOURCES
ENHANCED RECOVERY
EQUILIBRIUM
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FLUID INJECTION
FOAMS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HIGH PRESSURE
HYDROCARBONS
INFORMATION
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MEDIUM PRESSURE
MEDIUM TEMPERATURE
MISCIBLE-PHASE DISPLACEMENT
MIXING
MOBILITY
NUMERICAL DATA
OIL WELLS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PETROLEUM
PHASE STUDIES
POLYMERS
POROSITY
PRESSURE DEPENDENCE
RECOVERY
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SURFACTANTS
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
THERMODYNAMICS
TIME DEPENDENCE
VISCOSIMETERS
VISCOSITY
WELLS