The impacts of CO2 flooding on crude oil stability and recovery performance

Abstract

Numerous studies have investigated the fundamental mechanisms by which CO2 flooding can increase oil production by altering the properties of the hydrocarbon fluid, including oil swelling, viscosity and interfacial tension reductions, and the extraction of light-to-intermediate components. However, the interactions between CO2 and hydrocarbon fluid may also cause several problems, such as asphaltene precipitation due to crude oil's instability during the CO2 flooding process. This study investigates the complex factors that affect the instability of crude oil, including CO2 injection pressures, temperatures, and crude oil compositions. The light-dead oil samples taken from two Indonesian oil fields were used. The impacts of the instability of crude oil on CO2 displacement performance were also observed to evaluate oil recovery and minimum miscibility pressure (MMP). The observation was performed using a slim tube under varying CO2 high-pressure injections at 90 °C and 70 °C. The produced oils were analyzed based on their polarity component, saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes fractions, to observe the changes in oil composition and colloidal index instability. The results showed that increasing temperatures at given pressures resulted in higher oil recovery. Moreover, the asphaltene and resin fractions in the oil produced at a lower temperature significantly decrease compared to those at a higher temperature. It was also shown that asphaltene tends to precipitate more easily at a lower temperature. The other phenomenon revealed that the lighter oil resulted in a lower recovery than the heavier oil at a given pressure and temperature and correspondingly higher MMP. It was also suggested that CO2 flooding is more likely to cause asphaltene precipitation in light oils.