Steamflooding of preheated tar sand

Technical Report · Fri Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:6619005

Romanowski, Jr, L J; Thomas, K P

Steamflooding was evaluated as a thermal oil recovery process for a Utah tar sand. A series of one-dimensional steamflood experiments were conducted to study the effects of the processing conditions on oil recovery efficiency and product oil quality. Processing variables included (1) injected steam fluxes ranging from 200 to 670 scfh/ft/sup 2/, (2) tar sand preheat temperatures ranging from 215/sup 0/ to 500/sup 0/F (102 to 260/sup 0/C), and (3) initial bitumen saturations of 47% and 62% of pore volume. Oil recoveries ranged from 50% original oil in place (OOIP) for the highly saturated tar sand to 35% OOIP for the leaner tar sand. The oil yields improved with increasing initial oil saturations mainly because the steamflood residual oil saturation was independent of the initial bitumen saturation. Residual oil saturations, which decreased with increased steam temperature, averaged 30% of the pore volume regardless of the preheat temperature or the steam injection flux. Increased preheat temperatures reduced the bitumen viscosity and increased the steam zone velocity. This resulted in increased oil production rates and improved product oil quality. However, as preheat temperatures increased, improvements in oil quality and production rate became less significant. Based on the conventional measure for steamflood performance (steam-oil ratio), steamflooding Asphalt Ridge tar sand does not appear to have economic potential as an oil recovery process. At least six pore volumes of steam were injected to produce 35% OOIP from the preheated, highly saturated tar sand. This resulted in a steam-oil ratio of 30 while a ratio of 4 to 6 is typical for commercially operated heavy oil steamfloods which recover 30% to 60% OOIP. 13 refs., 14 figs., 3 tabs.

• Research Organization: Western Research Inst., Laramie, WY (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: FC21-83FE60177
• OSTI ID: 6619005
• Report Number(s): DOE/FE/60177-2326; ON: DE87009537
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040401 -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- In Situ Methods
True & Modified
040402* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Surface Methods
ASPHALT RIDGE DEPOSIT
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
BITUMENS
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
DATA
DIAGRAMS
ENERGY SOURCES
ENHANCED RECOVERY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FEASIBILITY STUDIES
FEDERAL REGION VIII
FLOWSHEETS
FLUID INJECTION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
HIGH TEMPERATURE
INFORMATION
MATERIALS
MEDIUM TEMPERATURE
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
OIL SAND DEPOSITS
OIL SANDS
OIL SATURATION
OIL YIELDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OTHER ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
RECOVERY
SATURATION
STEAM INJECTION
TAR
THERMAL RECOVERY
USA
UTAH
VISCOSITY
YIELDS