Petroleum Processing / CHE451

Background Information The modern history of petroleum began in 1846 with the discovery of the process of refining kerosene from coal by a Nova Scotian named Abraham Pineo Gesner. Meerzoeff built the first Russian refinery Baku in 1861. At that time Baku produced about 90 % of the world's oil. The first commercial oil well was drilled in Romania in 1857 at Bend, North of Bucharest. The first oil well in North America was in Oil Springs, Ontario Canada in 1858.

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The industry grew through the 1800s, driven by the demand for kerosene and oil lamps. It became a major national concern in the early part of the 20th century with the introduction of the internal combustion engine providing a demand that has largely sustained the industry to this day. Early finds like those Ontario were quickly outpaced by demand, leading to "oil booms" in Texas, Oklahoma and California. Early production of crude petroleum in the United States: 1859: 2,000 barrels 1869: 4,215,000 barrels 1879: 19,914,146 barrels 1889: 35,163,513 barrels 1899: 57,084,428 barrels 1906: 126,493,936 barrels Today, Canada remains the largest exporter of total petroleum to the United States. In May, 2008, exporting 2.346 million barrels per day. The second largest exporter of total petroleum was Saudi Arabia with 1.604 million barrels per day. By 1910, significant oil fields had been discovered in Canada (specifically, in Ontario), the Dutch East Indies, Iran, Peru, Venezuela and Mexico, and were being developed at an industrial level. Following an energy crisis in 1973 and 1979, there was significant interest of oil supply levels. This brought to light the concern that oil is a limited resource that will eventually run out. Today, about 90 % of vehicular fuel needs are met by oil. Petroleum's worth as a portable, dense energy source powering the vast majority of vehicles and as the base of many industrial chemicals makes it one of the world's most important commodities. Access to it was a major factor in several military conflicts of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, including World War II and the Persian Gulf Wars.

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The world wants enormous new crude oil reserves. No economical, abundant substitute for crude oil is available, or will become available in the next several decades. At a price of more than $120 / barrel, maintaining the supply needed to support the economies of industrial countries and enable them to grow will require the development of significant additional crude oil reserves. Conventional (light and medium) oil reserves as of the end of 2002 will last at most 40 years at the 2002 production rate. The heaviest hydrocarbons (oil sands) account for more than six trillion barrels of the oil in place worldwide, triple the combined world reserves of conventional oil and gas. Crude oil. A heavy crude oil, such as those found in the tar sands, would have originated as a light crude oil with an API between 30 and 40. Oil only becomes heavy after substantial degradation during migration and after entrapment. Heavy oils are typically produced from geologically young reservoirs. Because these reservoirs are shallow, they have less effective seals and are thus exposed to conditions conducive to the formation of heavy oils. The fact that most heavy oil reservoirs are shallow is an indication that many of them were discovered as soon as human beings settled nearby. Mining of heavy oil without the aid of secondary or tertiary drives will allow the fields to yield between 1% and 10% of its capacity. (wow, thats really low). Additional aids in making the oil flow are steam drives, fire flooding, water flooding etc. With this approach the yield from the filed can be as high as 30 to 40% Note the figure below depicting a Petro Canada SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage) production scheme at use in their McKay River Field.

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About 80% of the oil sands in Alberta are buried too deep below the surface for open pit mining. This oil must be recovered by in situ techniques. Using directional drilling technology, underground lines are inserted into the deposit then steam is injected into the top line to heat the oil and sand thereby lowering the viscosity of the bitumen. The hot bitumen migrates toward the bottom line where it is collected and brought to the surface, while the sand is left in place ("in situ" is Latin for "in place"). An estimated one trillion barrels of oil in the Athabasca deposit are potentially recoverable with the present technology. Surface mining is only feasible for recovering up to 20% of the oil sand deposits, making SAGD one of the best known alternatives for recovering the potential 80% of the remaining oil deposits. Crude oil may also be categorized as sweet or sour and is generally classified by the geographic location it is recovered from such as Brent for a north sea crude. It is also categorized by its API gravity, (an oil industry measure of density), and by its sulphur content. Crude oil may be considered light if it has a high API or heavy if it has a low API. It may be referred to as sweet if it contains relatively little sulphur or sour if it contains substantial amounts of sulphur.

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The geographic location is important because it affects transportation costs to the refinery. Light crude oil is more desirable than heavy since it produces a higher yield of gasoline, while sweet oil commands a higher price than sour oil because it has fewer environmental problems and requires less refining to meet sulphur standards imposed on fuels in consuming countries. Each crude oil has unique molecular characteristics which are understood by the use of crude assays. Petroleum is the world's primary energy source and is a key factor in the continued development of world economies. Petroleum reserves are classified as conventional and unconventional based on their viscosities and API gravities. The viscosity of conventional reserves is lower than 100 cP with API gravity of 21 or greater, while unconventional reserves have viscosity greater than 100 cP with API gravity of 20 or less (Figure 1.1). Conventional reserves are typically the highest quality, lightest oil, which flow from underground reservoirs with comparative ease. Unconventional reserves are heavy and often tar like, and include oil shale, tar sands/bitumen, heavy and extraheavy crude oils, and deep-sea oils.

Heavy Oil and Bitumen Classification

Heavy oil and bitumen is a form of crude oil that occurs naturally and are mixtures of petroleum hydrocarbons and other complex organic compounds. The worth or greatest commercial interest of the crude oil is based on the API (American Petroleum Institute) gravity classification. Table (1.1) shows grading of the crude oil based on API gravity. Table Error! No text of specified style in document..1: Crude Oil Classification Crude Oil Classification Light Crude Oil Medium Crude Oil Heavy Crude Oil API Gravity Higher then 31.1 Between 22.3 and 31.1 Below 22.3

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Further classification of crude oil is based on viscosity, under reservoir temperature and pressure conditions and is turned to heavy oil and bitumen. Table (1.2) shows heavy crude oil classification. Table Error! No text of specified style in document..2: Heavy Crude Oil Classification

Oil Type Heavy Oil Extra Heavy Oil or Bitumen

API Gravity Lower than 22.3 Lower than 10

Viscosity Less than 10000 mPa.s Higher than 10000 mPa.s

Based on the same approach the world oil reserves are classified as conventional and unconventional reserves. The conventional oil reserves are typically the highest quality, lightest oil and easily recoverable with API gravity higher than 21o. Unconventional oil reserves are very hard to extract due to their higher viscosities and having API gravity lower than 21o. Some examples are tar, oil shale, bitumen, heavy oil, extra heavy oil and deep sea oils.

Importance of Unconventional Oil reserves

As the conventional crude oil production declines, the importance of unconventional oil reserves (heavy oil and bitumen) has increased due to their much higher in place volumes. An estimate for conventional oil reserves in the world is to be 159 billion m3 as compared with 950 billion m3 in place amount of heavy oil and bitumen. Bitumen is located in several parts of the world. The countries with the highest amount of bitumen in place are Canada, Venezuela, and Russia, (Figure 1.1).

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Figure Error! No text of specified style in document..1: World In Place Bitumen

Canadian Oil Reserves

Canada has huge heavy oil and bitumen resources. Estimated original oil in place (OOIP) is more than 400 billion m3 (2.5 trillion barrels) approximately twice that of the total conventional oil reserves in the Middle East. The hydrocarbon reserves exist in the unconsolidated sand and carbonate sedimentary formations of the Athabasca, Cold Lake, Peace River and Wabasca regions in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Due to depletion of conventional crude oil reserves in the world, heavy oil and bitumen resources in Canada have great potential to meet the future demands for petroleum products. Table (1.3) shows the statistics of Alberta oil industry for bitumen, conventional light medium oil and conventional heavy oil.

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Table Error! No text of specified style in document..3: Alberta Oil Resources Volume in Place and Reserves

Initial Volume In Place

(Billion m3)

Remaining Established Reserves

(Billion m3)

Currently Not Percent Not Recoverable Recoverable with (Billion m3) Commercial Technologies
(Billion m3)

Reserve Index
(Years)

Bitumen Conventional Light Medium Oil Conventional Heavy Oil

269.95 7.86

27.66 0.18

241.55 5.57

89.5% 70.9%

436 436

2.14

0.07

1.76

82.3%

Heavy Oil and Bitumen Recovery Techniques

Heavy oil and bitumen exploration currently incorporates two production methods: conventional and in-situ. Conventional Surface Mining Surface mining is a type of mining used to extract bitumen accumulations that are close to the surface. This process involves digging up the oil sand then transporting it to a treatment facility where it will be subjected to steam or hot water treatment and centrifuging to separate the bitumen from the sand. Four tones of oil sands must be mined and processed to produce one cubic meter of oil. Although 75% of the bitumen in place can be recovered from the sand; the processed sand then has to be returned to the pit and the site reclaimed. To date, the maximum overburden thickness that can be removed economically is about 75 m otherwise it requires the handling and disposal of vast amounts of solids and sludge. The surface mining method also

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leaves a devastated landscape requiring reclamation. The major part of Canadian oil sands resource is too deeply buried for mining to be practical.

In-Situ Methods In-situ methods involve improving the flow of oil by changing the properties of the heavy oil and bitumen, the predominant mechanism of these methods is viscosity reduction. These methods are used for heavy oil and bitumen that are too deep to support cost-effective surface mining operations. There are two types of in-situ enhanced oil recovery method: thermal and nonthermal. Thermal methods are the most widely used and well known for dramatic heavy oil viscosity reduction. In these methods, the viscosity is reduced by increasing the reservoir temperature by the heating the reservoir rock.

Thermal Recovery Methods

In thermal processes, hot water or steam is injected into wells where it contacts the oil. As the steam condenses, latent heat is transferred to the reservoir, decreasing bitumen viscosity until it is able to flow to the production well. Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) and Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) are the most common thermal recovery methods. In the CSS or "huff-and-puff" method, the well is put through cycles of steam injection, soak, and oil production. First, steam is injected into a well, at a temperature of 300 degrees Celsius, for a period of several weeks or months. The well is allowed to sit for several days to let heat enter the oil sands. The hot bitumen is then pumped out of the well, which may take weeks. When the production rate falls, the well is put through several more cycles of injection, soak, and production, until the cost of injecting steam exceeds production costs. Maximum recovery seldom exceeds 20% OOIP. For cyclic steam stimulation three to eight barrels of steam are required to produce one barrel of oil, this relationship known as steam/oil ratio (SOR).

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In a typical SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage) approach steam is injected into the reservoir at high temperature and pressure through a horizontal well located directly above a horizontal producer. Heat is transferred by latent heat of the steam. By injecting steam, a steam chamber forms directly above the production well. At the steam chamber boundary, steam condenses to water as heat is transferred to the oil. The hot oil, that is less viscous, drains by gravity to the production well. SAGD is cheaper than CSS, allows very high oil production rates, and recovers up to 60% of the oil. Typical steam/oil (SOR) values for steam assisted gravity drainage are in the range of three to five. Despite the higher recovery expected from thermal methods especially SAGD process, the huge amount of energy required, higher greenhouse gas emissions and much higher production costs results in major drawbacks. In addition to that any steam injection process becomes more difficult to operate in a thin reservoir where heat losses to the base and the cap rock makes the injected steam/oil produced ratio prohibitively high. Therefore, thermal processes becoming economically non-feasible in reservoirs that have the following properties: low thermal conductivity, bottom water, high water saturation, vertical fractures and/or fissures, low porosity. Consequently, there is a huge amount of unconventional resources present in such reservoirs that can be exploited with new technologies.

Non Thermal Recovery Methods

Demanding far less energy than SAGD, the non thermal methods is the next alternative. The Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand (CHOPS) and the Vapor Extraction Process (Vapex), as non-thermal recovery methods for heavy oil and bitumen have recently gained considerable attention and promise as an alternative to thermal methods for the recovery of heavy oil and bitumen reservoirs that are deemed unsuitable for thermal methods.

Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand (CHOPS) process is a pressure driven process, in which
both heavy oil and sand are pumped out to the surface using a specialized pump called progressive cavity pump. This process has been economically successful in several heavy oil fields in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The extraction of sand creates a wormhole network and a
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foamy oil drive. These two effects are the main influences in enhanced oil recovery. This extraction causes high pressure gradients in the reservoir resulting in the failure of the unconsolidated sand matrix. The simultaneous extraction of oil and sand during the cold production of heavy Oil generates high permeability channels termed wormholes. The development of wormholes causes reservoir pressure decrease to the bubble point and as the pressure falls below the bubble point, the dissolved gases appear as bubbles within the oil. The viscosity and specific gravity of heavy oil restrict the gas bubbles from separating into a single phase resulting in what is known as foamy oil. This process increases the fluid volume within the reservoir, forcing grains apart, and providing pressure to sustain the high production rates. This method only works well in areas where the bitumen is fluid enough to pump. The advantage of this method is good production rates and recovery (around 10%) and the disadvantage that disposing of the produced sand is a problem. Vapor Extraction (Vapex) of Heavy Oil and Bitumen is a promising recovery technology that involves the injection of solvents into the reservoir, vapor dissolves in the high viscosity oil at the interface and diffuses through it; the viscous oil gets diluted and drains to the horizontal production well by gravity. Vapex is a non thermal method where the bitumen is fluidized by molecular diffusion of the light hydrocarbon which acts as a solvent instead of thermal diffusion as in steam processes. Performance of Vapex process is directly related to the amount of solvent dissolving into the bitumen. Therefore, similar to SAGD, two horizontal wells are used in the Vapex process to expose a larger area of the reservoir to the wellbore thereby increasing the productivity and to reduce the drawdown. The higher area of contact between solvent vapor and the crude yield higher rate of mass transfer of the solvent and higher recovery. The predominant mechanism for Vapex process is the diffusion of solvent into the heavy oil and bitumen. Production rates are directly related to viscosity reduction, which in turn depends on the amount of solvent dissolved in the crude. Mixing of the solvent with heavy oil and bitumen is slow because it occurs only when solvent diffuses through the pores. Compared to SAGD, the heating of reservoirs is much faster because heat can be carried through at relatively high thermal conductivity rock as well as in the pores, this thermal diffusion is much faster than the
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molecular diffusion required for solvent mixing. Therefore, it is generally expected that Vapex production rates will be much lower than those in a steam process.

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