Minimum miscibility pressure measurement for CO2 and oil using rapid pressure increase method

Abstract

CO2-enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR) is a technique for commercially producing oil from depleted reservoirs with associated benefits of capturing and storing large quantities of CO2. Minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) for gas and oil system is one of the most important factors affecting projecting and developing of EOR CO2 miscible flooding to reach maximum recovery efficiency. Determination of MMP can be performed with computational techniques and experimental methods. The slim tube test (STT), the pressure rising bubble apparatus (RBA), the vanishing interfacial tension (VIT), and recently, developed the sonic response method (SRM) can be considered as the petroleum industry experimental approaches for determination of the MMP for hydrocarbons and CO2. This paper presents a new technique, named rapid pressure increase method (RPI) to measure MMP and investigate the phase behavior of the analyzed fluids. The main principle of the measurement are determination of the relation between pressure increase and reduced volume of binary system and registration of the moment at which derivative of the function is the lowest. This point corresponds to ratio change of pressure increase to reduced volume and is considered as MMP. Determined values fit well with previous work and literature data. This experimental method of MMP is simple, time-saving, and more easily to conduct than other experimental techniques of measurement MMP.