The impact of oil aromaticity on carbon dioxide flooding

Conference · Sun Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1984 · Soc. Pet. Eng. AIME, Pap.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6869910

Monger, T G

This paper investigates the role of oil aromaticity in miscibility development, and in the deposition of high molecular weight material during CO/sub 2/ flooding. The results of phase equilibria measurements, phase compositional studies, sandpack displacements and consolidated corefloods are reported for synthetic and natural oil systems. Previous studies suggest that oil compositional effects are dominated by the distribution of hydrocarbon molecular weights. Results presented in this report establish that oil compositional effects overall are augmented by increasing the oil's aromatic content, and that oil aromaticity effects can compete with the other variables that control CO/sub 2/ flood performance. Phase compositional analyses performed for CO/sub 2/-synthetic oil mixtures which model the phase behavior of CO/sub 2/-crude oil systems, demonstrate that increased oil aromaticity correlates with improved hydrocarbon extraction into a CO/sub 2/-rich phase. To determine whether the improvement in hydrocarbon extraction observed in static P-V-T measurements would translate into higher oil recoveries in CO/sub 2/ displacement tests, tertiary corefloods were performed using the synthetic oils. The results show that the oil displacement efficiency for CO/sub 2/ flooding is improved by increasing the aromatic content of the oil. These influences of oil aromaticity are favorable. Experiments with CO/sub 2/-reservoir oil mixtures show that significant deposition of aromatic hydrocarbon material occurs when CO/sub 2/ contacts highly asphaltic crude oil. Solid phase formation was observed in phase equilibria and displacement studies with Brookhaven crude, and led to severe plugging during linear flow in consolidated Berea cores. How this solid phase will affect oil recovery on a reservoir scale is not known, but potential benefits from mobility control and/or wettability change merit continued investigation.

• Research Organization: Louisiana State Univ.
• OSTI ID: 6869910
• Report Number(s): CONF-840495-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Soc. Pet. Eng. AIME, Pap.; (United States) Journal Volume: SPE/DOE 12708
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
AROMATICS
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON DIOXIDE INJECTION
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION
DISPERSIONS
DISPLACEMENT FLUIDS
ENERGY SOURCES
ENGINEERING
ENHANCED RECOVERY
FLUID INJECTION
FLUIDS
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
MISCIBLE-PHASE DISPLACEMENT
MIXTURES
MOLECULAR WEIGHT
OIL WELLS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PETROLEUM
PHASE STUDIES
QUANTITY RATIO
RECOVERY
RESERVOIR ENGINEERING
ROCK-FLUID INTERACTIONS
ROCKS
SANDSTONES
SCALING
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SWEEP EFFICIENCY
SYNTHETIC FUELS
SYNTHETIC PETROLEUM
WELLS
WETTABILITY