High-viscosity Oil Pools Research Articles

Modelling and assessing the effectiveness of developing the Shumovskoye field

With the depletion of light oil stock, the heavy high-viscosity oil stock is rising. In this regard, there appear the technologies allowing to provide industrial levels of high-viscosity oil extraction. Therefore, the research of effective methods of developing heavy high-viscosity oil pools is one of the important development directions in the oil industry. One of the most cost-effective technology is non-stationary waterflooding (NW). There are currently not so many examples of using the technology of non-stationary waterflooding at the HVO pools. This is due to the fact that waterflooding as a development method has low efficiency at the HVO pools. The obtained results, based on modelling, showed that the technology of non-stationary impact is quite effective.

Варианты полимерного заводнения залежи с высоковязкой нефтью

Варианты полимерного заводнения залежи с высоковязкой нефтью

Storing CO2 underneath the Siberian Permafrost: A win-win solution for long-term trapping of CO2 and heavy oil upgrading

Abstract A two-year project entitled “Assessment of the Feasibility of CO 2 Storage in the Russian Permafrost” was carried out in Russia in collaboration with the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This project delivers new conclusions about the safety role of the permafrost and specific conditions of storage in an area of abnormal geothermal gradient in Western Siberia. One of the specific issues of the project was the potential formation of carbon dioxide hydrates from the injected CO 2 and the possible reaction between the existing methane hydrates and the injected CO 2 . Maps have been constructed showing the areas of CO 2 hydrate stability. A second specific issue was the compatibility of CO 2 storage in the permafrost with oil production. Pilot tests of EOR technologies, involving either the injection of CO 2 or the generation of CO 2 in situ, proved very efficiency for high-viscosity oil pools. Therefore, we propose to inject CO 2 in West Siberia into high-viscosity oil fields. High-viscosity oil fields are mainly located in the centre of the Western Siberian Basin in Khanty-Mansijsk autonomous okrug (KMAO). An alternative or complementary solution is storage in aquifers. Deep aquifers, such as the Pokur formation overlain could also be storage targets, but their potential is unknown because they have not been explored in detail. The inventory of major CO 2 sources in Western Siberia has shown that the major CO 2 emission in the power sector comes from the KMAO, where power stations in Surgut and Nizhnevartovsk are large CO 2 sources. GIS mapping of the permafrost depth and thickness, and the associated stability domain of the CO 2 hydrates, has shown that a good overlap could exist between these industrial areas and the stability domain of the gas hydrates, underneath the permafrost. Storage beneath the permafrost as CO 2 hydrate is not suitable due to the probable rapid plugging of the porosity by solid gas hydrates. But, the CO 2 should be stored at supercritical state in the hydrocarbon fields, with added value of heavy oil upgrading, and trapped underneath a classical cap rock. In addition, the permafrost would act as a secondary cap-rock by trapping the CO 2 as hydrates if the primary caprock should fail.

Improved Oil Recovery of High-Viscosity Oil Pools with Physicochemical Methods and Thermal-Steam Treatments

Novel physicochemical technologies have been developed at IPC SB RAS to improve oil recovery from high-viscosity oil pools using thermal-steam and cyclic-steam treatments. The results of laboratory investigations and pilot tests carried out in oil fields of Russia and China are presented. The use of thermotropic inorganic and polymer gels increases coverage by steam injection, decreases water cut of the production well by 3-45%, increases the oil production rate by 11-33% and decreases the fluid production rate by 14-25%. Surfactant-based systems, generating CO2 and alkaline buffer solution in situ, decrease oil viscosity 2-3 times and water cut of the production well by 10-20% and thereby increase the oil production rate by 40% and the fluid production rate by 5-10%.