Abstract
Thermal oil recovery is a special technique belonging to Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods and includes steam flooding, cyclic steam stimulation, and in-situ combustion (fire flooding) applied especially in the heavy oil reservoirs. Starting 1970 in-situ combustion (ISC) process has been successfully applied continuously in the Suplacu de Barcau oil field, currently this one representing the most important reservoir operated by ISC in the world. Suplacu de Barcau field is a shallow clastic Pliocene, heavy oil reservoir, located in the North-Western Romania and geologically belonging to Eastern Pannonian Basin. The ISC process are operated using a linear combustion front propagated downstructure. The maximum oil production was recorded in 1985 when the total air injection rate has reached maximum values. Cyclic steam stimulation has been continuously applied as support for the ISC process and it had a significant contribution in the oil production rates. Nowadays the oil recovery factor it’s over 55 percent but significant potential has left. In the paper are presented the important moments in the life-time production of the oil field, such as production history, monitoring of the combustion process, technical challenges and their solving solutions, and scientific achievements revealed by many studies performed on the impact of the ISC process in the oil reservoir.
Highlights
Low recovery factor of the oilfields in the world during oil production pushing the oil operators to apply enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques in order to improve the ultimate oil recovery factor and accelerating oil production
In the production life of an oilfield operated by in-situ combustion (ISC) there are many technical, operational and managerial challenges to solve for ensuring the success of the ISC process
Suplacu de Barcau oil field is one of the biggest oil fields in Romania and probably the largest oil field operated by ISC in the world
Summary
Low recovery factor of the oilfields in the world (averaging 20-30 %) during oil production pushing the oil operators to apply enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques in order to improve the ultimate oil recovery factor and accelerating oil production. Thermal EOR methods uses thermal energy to heat heavy oil in order to reduce its viscosity instead the non-thermal EOR suffering in the heavy oil reservoirs due the high mobility contrast between crude oil and injection fluids. Thermal EOR methods require a special attention from engineers due to the associated CO2 emissions but these emissions can be collected and injected into reservoirs during applying these techniques to crude oil production. In the paper we aimed to pointed out the celebration of half a century of successful application of in-situ combustion in the Suplacu de Barcau oil field presenting in a comprehensive manner the history of the exploitation of this famous heavy oil field, reviewing the information on reservoir geology, production history, monitoring of the oil recovery methods applied in the oil reservoir, and technical challenges solved during production life for ensuring the success of the production process. A particular attention was paid to the geochemical effects of the EOR thermal methods (in-situ combustion and steam drive) on the reservoir rocks
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