Research of steam injection in-situ production technology to enhance unconventional oil and gas recovery: A review

Abstract

With the rapid in energy consumption today, unconventional oil and gas have become popular resources for many countries to explore, and the development of unconventional oil and gas resources has broad prospects. Its in-situ pyrolysis development technology is characterized by high thermal efficiency and low pollution, which is the direction of large-scale unconventional oil and gas development in the future. Currently, oil shale is abundantly available in unconventional oil and gas. The main method for oil shale exploitation is surface distillation technology. However, this technology poses significant environmental risks, such as high-pollution gas, high-acid wastewater, and excessive waste slag. With the improvement of environmental protection requirements, in-situ heating exploitation will become the primary technology for large-scale and commercial utilization of oil shale. The injection of high-temperature steam is an effective technique for in-situ heating extraction of oil shale. Compared to traditional surface retorting technology, this technology has the advantages of safety, environmental protection, high heating efficiency, good economic benefits, and does not need to destroy the shale reservoir. At present, research on in-situ steam injection and enhanced oil recovery for unconventional gas is gaining popularity. However, there is a lack of comprehensive review of relevant research articles. This paper aims to study and organize the technology of in-situ pyrolysis exploitation and enhanced oil recovery of unconventional oil and gas injection. It provides a specific theoretical foundation for the further development of in-situ pyrolysis exploitation and enhanced oil recovery of unconventional oil and gas.