Fireflood at Fruitvale

Journal Article · · Pacific Oil World; ()

OSTI ID:6321756

Rintoul, B

Gulf Oil has taken the direct approach to applying heat to oil sand to make the sand give up more of its heavy crude in the Fruitvale, California, oil field. Gulf set a 15-ft thick section of Middle Kernco sand on fire at approximately 3500 ft, trading off the estimated 10% of the oil that will be burned in return for recovering a higher percentage of the remaining oil. The burn will heat crude oil in place, rendering it more fluid. By controlling the burn front through injection of the air that is necessary to support underground combustion, Gulf will push the remaining oil toward producing wells, through which the oil may be recovered. If the Gulf Project is successful, and if fireflooding eventually is expanded to include the entire Fruitvale Field, engineers estimate that it could result in the recovery of perhaps as much as 4 times the amount of oil already produced by the field. The stakes could be 400 million bbl of oil that is largely unrecoverable by conventional means. The field has produced 107 billion bbl since its discovery 48 yr ago.

• OSTI ID: 6321756
• Journal Information: Pacific Oil World; (), Journal Name: Pacific Oil World; () Vol. 73:11-12
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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