JOGMEC-TRC

Reservoir Engineering Course

Lecture 10: Recovery Method (3)

March, 2022

Lecturer: Hisanao Ouchi

Japan Oil Engineering Co., Ltd.3

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 Primary
Natural Drive
Recovery

Artificial Lift

Secondary
Recovery Water Flooding

Gas Immiscible Flooding

Tertiary Thermal Recovery

Recovery
Chemical Flooding
(Enhanced Oil Recovery)
Gas Miscible Flooding
Others

Tertiary Recovery
(Enhanced Oil Recovery)
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 Tertiary Recovery (Enhanced Oil
Recovery)
 Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is the generic term for the recovery
methods trying to achieve higher recovery than secondary recovery
methods by improving physical/chemical properties of oil by injecting
heat/chemical/gas.
Primary Secondary Tertiary Recovery
Recovery Recovery (EOR)
Oil Water Oil Oil

Heat/Chemical
/Gas?

5 - 30 %
5 - 15 %

4 - ?%

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Tertiary Recovery (Enhanced Oil
Recovery)
 Those recovery methods were previously called “Tertiary Recovery”.
 However, since they are directly applied without applying secondary recovery
methods in certain types of reservoirs such as thermal recovery method for heavy
oil reservoir, they are more often called as “Enhanced Oil Recovery” than
“Tertiary Recovery” in recent years.
 Representative enhance oil recoveries are mainly categorized into the following
three types.

 Thermal
 Chemical
 Gas Miscible
In this lecture, overview of these recovery methods is introduced.

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Thermal EOR: Introduction

 Method for lowering oil viscosity to improve oil recovery by

adding heat into the reservoir
 Mainly applied to heavy oil reservoirs (= highly viscous oil
reservoirs) to produce oil by lowering the oil viscosity.
Representative thermal methods are as follows,
 Steam Flooding
 Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS)
 Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD)
 In-Situ Combustion

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 Thermal EOR: Steam Flooding

 Steam is injected from the injector. Production Well

Injection Well
 Heat of the injected steam and condensed water lower the
oil viscosity
 Heated oil is swept by hot water and steam.

Early break through by the gravity override of injected steam is one of the
problems of this recovery method.

Oil and Water

condense Zone Near
Steam Steam and Hot
Original
Condensed Water Water
Reservoir
Oil Temperature
Bank

Oil viscosity is reduced

30-40% of recovery factor is expected.

 Thermal EOR: Cyclic Steam
Stimulation (Huff&Puff Method)
 Huff: injecting steam at high pressure (in some cases, it leads to generation of fracture).
 Soak: lowering the oil viscosity by transfering heat from steam
 Puff: producing oil and condensed steam
 In this method, the same procedure (Huff, Soak, and Puff) is continuously conducted.
Huff Soak Puff
(14 – 60 days) (1 – 7 days) (90 – 180 days)

Viscous
(Thick Oil) Viscous Viscous
Depleted
(Thick Oil) (Thick Oil)
Oil Sand

Heat Heat
Zone Condensed Steam Zone Condensed Steam
(Hot water) (Hot water)

Condensed Steam
Injected Steam Heated Zone
And Thinned Oil

Area Heated by
Convection from
Hot Water

Recovery factor could reach up to 40%

Thermal EOR: Steam Assisted
Gravity Drainage (SAGD)
 In this method, pair of horizontal wells is utilized.
 Steam is injected from the top horizontal well.
 Oil viscosity is lowered by the heat from steam, and oil flows from top to bottom.
(Steam chamber is generated.)
 Oil is produced from the bottom horizontal well.

Source: Reducing the Energy and Steam Consumption of SAGD Through Cyclic Solvent Co-Injection https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/20/3860

Recovery factor of this method could reach 50 to 70%.

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Thermal EOR: In Situ Combustion

Injection Well Production Well

About 8% of oil is consumed as fuel for combustion by oxidization.

③ ④ ⑤ ⑥ ⑦
oxygen (air) ② Steam Heated
Oil
①
Condensed
Water

Depending on the ratio of oxidization

1. Injected Air and Water Zone (Burned Out) 5. Condensing or Hot Water Zone
2. Air and Vaporized Water Zone (50 - 200 Above Initial Temperature)
3. Burning Front and Combustion Zone (600 – 1200 ) 6. Oil Bank (Near Initial Temperature)
4. Steam or Vaporizing Zone (Approx. 400 ) 7. Cold Combustion Gases

If this method is favorably controlled, recovery factor could reach 80%.

 Summary of Thermal EOR
Methods
Type Overview
Steam Flooding Sweeping oil by injecting
steam
Cyclic Steam Stimulation Continuously conducting the
(CSS) cycle of huff, soak, and, puff
Steam Assisted Gravity Using pair of horizontal wells
Drainage (SAGD) (injecting steam from the
upper well and producing
heated oil from the lower
well)
In Situ Combustion Combusting oil by
continuously injecting air
Mechanism of Enhanced
Oil Recovery
• Lowering oil viscosity by
heat convection and
conduction from steam and
condensed water
• Modification of oil property
by lighter component
distillated by steam
Lowering oil viscosity by heat
convection and conduction
from in-situ oil combustion
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Problems
 High cost (consuming
huge amount of energy:
25 – 40% of production oil
is consumed for
generating steam)
 Heat loss to cap rocks
 Early break through of
steam by gravity
segregation (Steam
Flooding)
 Difficulty of the control of
the combustion front
 Bad influence for
environment due to the
generation of flue gas
 Chemical EOR: Introduction
 Chemical EOR is mainly categorized into the following three types (polymer flooding,
micellar polymer flooding, and alkaline flooding) based on the chemical substances
used in chemical EOR.
 These methods are applied for improving the two main factors which keep recovery
factor low in secondary recovery (volumetric sweep efficiency & displacement efficiency).

 Polymer Flooding
 Injecting polymer with water to improve mobility ratio by adding viscosity of injecting
water (= improving volumetric sweep efficiency by avoiding viscous fingering)

 Micellar-Polymer Flooding
 Injecting surfactant to release trapped oil by reducing interfacial tension between oil
and water (= improving displacement efficiency by decreasing residual oil saturation)
 Then, injecting polymer next to generate stabilized a displacement front
(= improving volumetric sweep efficiency)

 Alkaline Flooding
 Injecting alkaline chemical to form surfactant by reacting a certain type of oil
(= improving displacement efficiency)
 Often combined with polymer flooding (= improving volumetric sweep efficiency)
 Chemical EOR: Polymer Flooding
Producer

Oil
Objective of polymer flooding injection is
to improve areal sweep efficiency by
controlling (lowering) mobility ratio (<=1).
Water

Injection Well Production Well Injector

Without Polymer

Producer
Polymer
Oil
Solution For
Mobility Aqueous Polymer Solution
Driving Fluid
Control
(Water)
Additional Oil
Recovery
(Oil Bank)
Fresh Water
Preflush to
Buffer to
Condition Water
Protect
Reservoir
Polymer

As a problem in this method, reduction of the oil With Polymer

production rate at the initial stage of polymer flooding due
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to the reduction of infectivity by polymer is known.
Chemical EOR: Micellar Polymer
Flooding Kind of synthetic detergent

 Objective of this method is to improve displacement

efficiency by injecting micellar fluid in front of polymer
Injection Well
solution (generating emulsion) as well as to improve Production Well
displacement efficiency by injecting polymer.

Polymer Additional Oil

Solution For Recovery
Mobility (Oil Bank)
Driving Fluid
Control
(Water)

Micellar Fluid
For Releasing
Fresh Water Oil Preflush to
Buffer to
Condition
Protect Interfacial tension between oil and water becomes
Reservoir
Polymer less than 1 dyne/cm (ordinary oil-water interfacial
tension: tens of dyne/cm)
⇒leads to the reduction of residual oil saturation
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Chemical EOR: Alkaline Flooding
Caustic soda or Sodium carbonate: generating surfactant (= kind of
synthetic detergent) by reacting organic acid (HA1) of Oil
 Objective of this method is same as micellar polymer method. The primary difference is that
surfactant is generated in the reservoir by reaction between alkaline and oil.

Injection Well Production Well

Polymer Additional Oil

Solution For Recovery
Mobility (Oil Bank)
Driving Fluid
Control
(Water)

Alkaline
Fresh Water Solution Forms Preflush to
Buffer to Surfactant in Condition
Protect Situ For Reservoir
Polymer Releasing Oil

As a problem of this method, scale could be precipitated in the

production well is known. 14
 Summary of Chemical EOR
Methods
Type Overview
Polymer Flooding Injecting polymer solution in
front of water
Micellar Polymer Flooding Injecting micellar and
polymer solution in sequence
Alkaline Flooding Injecting alkaline with
polymer
Mechanism of Enhanced Problems
Oil Recovery
 Reduction of mobility ratio  Reduction of oil production
by decreasing the mobility rate at the initial stage of
of injection fluid polymer flooding (40-60%)
 Reduction of interfacial  Complicated system
tension between oil and  Expensive
water
 Reduction of mobility ratio
by decreasing the mobility
of injection fluid
 Reduction of interfacial  Scale precipitation in
tension between oil and production wells
water by generating
surfactant
 Reduction of mobility ratio
by decreasing the mobility
of injection fluid
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Gas Miscible EOR: Introduction
 Improving oil recovery by injecting high pressure gas into reservoir and
forming miscible condition (or near-miscible condition) in which gas and oil
behave as a single phase. ( improving displacement efficiency)

Injector Producer
Oil and gas behave as an single phase flow.
(= less residual oil)

Miscible
Gas Front

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Gas Miscible EOR: Introduction

 Based on the injection gas, gas miscible methods are categorized into
several methods.

 LPG Slug Process

 Enriched Hydrocarbon Gas Injection
 High Pressure Lean Gas Injection
 Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Injection (CO2 EOR)
 Nitrogen Injection

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Gas Miscible EOR: CO2 EOR

 Can achieve miscible condition by lower pressure than

other gases such as nitrogen and methane
 Relatively higher density than other gasses (Volumetric sweep
efficiency is better than other gasses due to less gravity
override.) click

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CO2 Density Compared with Other
Gases
CO2 density is relatively larger
Example of Gravity Override (N2) than other gases.
Densities of Reservoir and Injection Fluids
Fluid Model B354, Temperature 212 deg-F
70 Reservoir Oil Phase

60 Reservoir Gas Phase

50 Lean Gas

Density (lb/ft3)
40 Rich Gas

30 Carbon Dioxide

20 Nitrogen

10 Water
0
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000
Pressure (psig)

return

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Gas Miscible EOR: CO2 EOR

 Can achieve miscible condition by lower pressure than

other gases such as nitrogen and methane
 Relatively higher density than other gasses (Volumetric sweep
efficiency is better than other gasses due to less gravity
override.) click
CO2 EOR is a good recovery method. But, to conduct it, transportation method of
huge amount of CO2 is required. So, in many cases, it requires a gas pipeline
network to transfer CO2 from the natural CO2 reservoir / industrial source to the
target oil reservoir (=the U.S.)
So, as will be explained in the lecture in Day 5, current CO2 EOR projects
concentrates on the U.S.
(CO2 EOR projects in the U.S. has been being continuously increasing until 2020.)

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 EOR Screening Criteria:
Introduction
Each EOR method has its own favorable applicable range regarding reservoir
characteristics such as viscosity, permeability, and depth.

Gas miscible EOR cannot be applied to shallow

reservoirs due to low pressure.

Viscosity

So, the reservoir characteristics

Depth must be carefully
considered when applying EOR.
Chemical EOR
cannot be applied to
deep reservoirs due
to high temperature.
Permeability
Source: Lake, L. W., Schmidt, R. L., & Venuto,
P. B. (1992). A niche for enhanced oil recovery
in the 1990s. Oilfield Review;(Netherlands), 4(1).

The detail of EOR screening criteria will be

introduced in the lecture in Day 3.
Trend of EOR in the World

 The amount of oil production originated from EOR is still just about 3% of the
total oil production in the world (2015).
 Ratio of the oil production based on EOR is still limited.

EOR Method U.S. Other than Ratio in total

trend U.S. trend EOR
Thermal Decreasing Increasing About 60%
Chemical Scarcely A little Less than 1%
Gas ex. CO2 Constant Constant About 21%
CO2 Increasing A few About 18%
Microbial Negligible Negligible Less than 1%

Made based on the data in Oil & Gas Journal (2015)

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Summary (1)

 Enhance oil recoveries are mainly categorized into

the following three types. (thermal, chemical, and
gas miscible)
 Objective of the thermal methods is to lower oil
viscosity to improve oil recovery.
 Objective of the chemical methods is to improve
the two main factors which keep recovery factor
low in secondary recovery (volumetric sweep
efficiency & displacement efficiency).

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Summary(2)

 Objective of gas miscible method is to improve

displacement efficiency by achieving miscible
condition.
 Although the application of EOR is gradually
increasing, ratio of the oil production based on
EOR is still limited.

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