Thermal Oil Recovery

Dr. Ajay Mandal

• A thermal recovery method involves the application of heat
to the reservoir formation in order to raise the temperature
of the rock significantly there by improving the
displacement of the crude oil.
• This technique improves the recovery of oil by bringing
about a favorable viscosity ratio while at the same time
taking advantage of the steam distillation effect and by
altering the capillary restrictive forces at the displacement
front.
• Steam Stimulation, Steam Flooding and in-situ
combustion are three major types of thermal recovery
methods that are presently being pursued vigorously.
Mechanisms of Thermal Oil recovery

• Change of Viscosity of oil/water

• Change of viscosity of Gas
• Change of relative permeability
• Thermal Expansion
• Thermal Capacity
• Thermal conductivity
Change of Viscosity of crude oil
Exercise 5.2: Draw the plot of viscosity of pentane versus temperature between 20-90oC.

The values of constant A and B for pentane are 0.0191 cP and 722.2/K respectively.

Solution: The Andrade equation may be used to solve the problem.

Temperature 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

(O C)

𝐵 11.76 10.84 10.05 9.36 8.75 8.21 7.74 7.31 6.93

𝑒 𝑇

𝜇𝑃𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑒 = 0.225 0.207 0.192 0.179 0.167 0.157 0.149 0.140 0.132

𝐵
𝐴𝑒 𝑇 (cp)

0.24

0.22

0.20
Viscosity, (cp)

0.18

0.16

0.14

0.12
20 40 60 80 100
o
T ( C)

Figure 5.3: Variation of viscosity of pentane with temperature

Figure: Typical variation of crude oil viscosity with ᵒAPI and temperature.
Change of Relative Permeability
 30
Tap Water

25

20

IFT, mN/m
15

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100
Temperature ,ºC

Figure 5.5: Typical decrease of IFT with temperature for

typical crude oil-water system
 Residual oil saturation and relative permeability
Residual oil saturation and relative permeabilities are two deciding parameters in predicting the
cumulative oil production and the production rate of an oil field. As mentioned already the rise
in temperature will result in a decrease in residual oil saturation (Sor) and an increase in
irreducible water saturation. Various studies reported that the relative permeability to oil at a
particular saturation increases with temperature and that of water decreases with temperature,
which in turn improves the mobility of oil. The changes of residual oil saturation and relative
permeabilities with temperature are because of very complex phenomena and some of these are
(Mollaei and Maini, 2010; Shabani et al., 2014):

a)thermal expansion of reservoir rock and fluids;

b)interactions between the injected fluids and the matrix;

c)chemical changes in the constituents of heated rocks;

d)change of wettability and interfacial tension

Fig. 5.7 shows the typical variation of residual oil saturations and relative permeabilities to oil
and water with respect to temperature.
Figure 5.7: Water-oil relative permeability curves (Xie et al., 2020)
 Hot Water Injection:
From an operational point of view, hot-water injection is the most attractive thermal
recovery process. Relatively simple and inexpensive equipment and facilities are
required for generating and handling hot water (Farouq Ali, 1974) since it only involves
sensible heat.
• It resembles to conventional water flooding, with the difference that injection of hot
offers better oil recovery.
• Improved mobility ratio due to a drop of the oil phase viscosity at higher
temperature is the main reason for enhanced recovery by steam injection compared
to that by simple water injection.
• The other mechanisms of hot water flooding include reduction of interfacial tension
and residual oil saturation which lead to potentially higher recovery factor.
• Obviously, it is less effective in reducing oil viscosity compared with steam due to
absence of latent heat.
• However, for thin heavy oil reservoirs, hot water-flooding has advantages over
steam-flooding.
Figure 5.9: Typical temperature and saturation distribution in a hot-
water drive
 Steam Injection:
• Steam injection is a thermal recovery process similar to hot injection with the

difference that steam is injected into reservoir in place of hot water to improve

fluid mobility within a reservoir.

• It has been proved that the heavy oil reservoirs benefit significantly from steam

injection compared to water injection, as extra heat is injected into the reservoir.

• The heat transferred from injected steam causes reduction in the viscosity of

heavy oil.

• Again, compared to saturated steam, oil recovery further can be improved using

superheated steam which contains more latent heat than the saturated one, under
 Mechanisms

• The oil recovery by steam injection involves a number of mechanisms. These are:

(1) reduction of the oil viscosity and increase in relative permeability to oil results in

improvement of mobility ratio and subsequently sweep efficiency

(2) reduction of the residual oil saturation

(3) increasing the formation volume factor

(4) vaporizing and distilling condensable hydrocarbons from the crude

(5) providing a gas drive mechanism and

(6) Solution gas drive

Figure 5.10: Steam distillation mechanism in steam flooding [Vafaei
et al., 2009]
 Gas Drive Mechanism

• During flooding, steam undergoes various water/oil or water/matrix

chemical reactions [Holladay, 1966], generating a significant amount of

gas. The generated gas volume is high and even may exceed the pore

volume of the affected reservoir. This gas can displace oil from the matrix

as its volume increases. Besides lighter hydrocarbon, these gases include

CO2, H2S. The temperature for gas generation may be as low as 450°F

(232°C).
 Solution Gas Drive
• Reactivation of existing solution gas drive may be considered as a mechanism for

increasing oil recovery during steam injection. Exsolution and expansion of the

dissolved gases in the oil and water provide the maximum driving force in steam

flooding because of increased temperature. However, contribution of a solution gas

drive is considerable only when the reservoir pressure is at or below the bubble point

and there is sufficient amount of gas dissolved in the oil. The free gas present so in the

reservoir, will be expanded upon heating and behave similarly as an active solution

gas drive reservoir.

As per the mechanisms of injection, the steam flooding is
broadly divided into two main categories, viz.
• Cyclic Steam Stimulation and
• Steam Flooding.
• Both are most commonly applied to the oil reservoirs,
which are relatively shallow and contain highly viscous
crude oils at the in-situ temperature.
Quality of Steam:
The term ‘dry steam’ is used for the steam that remains at its saturation

temperature with no or negligible water particles in suspension.

Therefore, in heating applications, dry steam is preferable because of its

better energy exchange capacity but negligible corrosivity. Wet steam

contains more than 5% liquid water in addition to steam, and exists at

the saturation temperature. Superheated steam is generated by further

heating of the wet or saturated steam beyond the saturated point.

Superheated steam has lower density than saturated steam at the same

pressure.
 Steam Stimulation
• Steam stimulation is also known as; cyclic steam injection,
steam soak or huff and puff. In this process steam is injected
into a producing well for a specified period of time
(normally 2-3 weeks).
• Following this, the well is shut-in for few days (to allow
sufficient heat dissipation) and then placed on production.
• Heat from the injected steam increases the reservoir
temperature, resulting in a pronounced increase in mobility
of heavy oils and a corresponding improvement in
producing rates.
 Steam Stimulation
Other positive benefits that may contribute to
production stimulation include:
1) thermal expansion of fluids;
2) compression of solution gas;
3) reduced residual oil saturation;
4) wellbore cleanup effects.
The technique has gained wide acceptance because
quick payout result from successful applications,
but many project failures have been reported
principally due to improper design.
 Steam Distillation
Vapor pressures of chlorobenzene and water are given below:
If steam is blown into the still containing a mixture of these two components and the total
pressure is 130 mm Hg, estimate the temperature of boiling and the composition of the
distillate. The two components are immiscible in the liquid
Calculations:
A mixture consisting of two immiscible components will boil at a temperature, at which the
sum of their vapor pressure equal the total pressure.
i.e., at boiling point,
PA + PB = PT
Let chlorobenzene is taken as A, and water as B.
TA vs PA and TB vs (130 - PB) curves are drawn.
These two curves intersect when, PA = (130 - PB). (that is, when the total pressure is = 130 mm
Hg)
Pressure, mm Hg 100 50 30 26
Temperature oC,
70.4 53.7 42.7 34.5
Chlorobenzene
Temperature oC,
51.7 38.5 29.9 22.5
Water
• From the diagram it could be seen that the intersection point corresponds
to a temperature of 49oC. This is the boiling point of the mixture. The vapor
pressure of A and B at these temperature are obtained from the graph, as

• PA = 40.25 mm Hg

• PB = 130 - 40.25 = 89.75 mm Hg

• Composition of distillate = 100 x (PA/PT)= 100 x (40.25/130) = 31% of

Chlorobenzene

• The distillate composition remains at a constant value of 31%

Chlorobenzene and 69% Water, till the entire chlorobenzene is distilled.
Figure 5.12. Oil rate in 20 years of production in a numerical model

with and without cyclic steam injection (Barillas, et al. 2008).

 Steam Flooding (Including Hot
Water Injection)
• Steam flooding is a process similar to waterflooding.
• A suitable well pattern is chosen and steam is injected into
a number of wells while the oil is produced from adjacent
wells.
• Ideally, the steam forms a saturated zone around the
injection well.
• The temperature of this zone is nearly equal to that of the
injected steam.
• As the steam moves away from the well, its temperature
drops as it continues to expand in response to pressure drop.
 Steam Flooding (Including Hot
Water Injection)
• At some distance from the well, the steam condenses and
form a hot water bank.
• In the steam zone, oil is displaced by steam distillation
and gas (steam) drive.
• In the hot water zone, physical changes in the
characteristics of the oil and reservoir rock take place and
result in oil recovery.
• These changes are thermal expansion of oil, reduction of
viscosity and residual saturation and changes in relative
permeability
 • As the injected steam move forward from the injection well to production well
it has undergone several physicochemical interactions with the reservoir rock
and fluids. Based on the physical state, temperature and oil saturation, the
reservoir is divided into five zones as shown in Fig. 5.13.

Figure 5.13: Typical temperature and saturation profile for steam flooding
Along with the steam, the lighter hydrocarbon vapors also condense and thus form a
hydrocarbon solvent bank (B) and extracts additional oil from the formation to form an
oil-phase miscible drive.
Schematic diagram of steam injection and approximate
distribution of formation temperature
Criteria of Steam flooding Project
For implementing a steam flood project, the below-mentioned criteria
are generally followed (Lyons & Plisga, 2005):
1.Thickness of the pay zone should be minimum 20ft to minimize heat
losses to the adjacent formations. The integrity of cap rock must be
checked.
2.Steam flooding is primarily recommended to recover viscous oil
from large fields with high permeability sandstone or unconsolidated
sands. Carbonate reservoirs are not the right choice for the purpose.
3.High percentage of water sensitive clay content of the formation
may cause problem in steam flood. So, the candidate reservoir should
contain a low percentage of water-sensitive clay to ensure good
injectivity.
4. In addition to the heavy oil, steam flood may be utilized for less
viscous crude oils in case of unsuccessful water flood.
5. In steam flood, maintaining the injected steam quality is a
critical issue. In deeper well, huge heat loss and requirement of high
injection pressure are the main hurdles in using steam flood. Shallow
reservoirs, with viscous and/or heavy oil are so the main target
candidates for steam flood.
6. Steam generation is a costly affair. Approximately one-third of
the revenues obtained from the additional oil recovered is consumed to
generate the required steam. So, it must be ensured that the oil
saturation is high enough to fulfil the economic criterion.
 120000 100

100000
80

Cumulative Oil SC (m3)

Oil rate SC (m3/day)

80000
60

60000

40
40000

20
20000

0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Time (yr)
Cumulative oil without steamflooding Oil rate without steamflooding
Cumulative oil with steamflooding Oil rate with steamflooding

Figure 5.15: Cumulative oil and oil rate versus time with and without
steam injection for an inverted 5-spot pattern [Barillas, et al., 2008].
 Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage
The steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process is one of the

most promising approaches for development of large heavy-oil and

bitumen accumulations. The mechanisms working in this method are

similar to the steam flood, with an additional recovery caused by

gravity. Besides, SAGD process requires the combination of an

injection and production well drilled in the same pay zone. Butler et

al. (1981) were the first ones to derive the classical mathematical

model of SAGD by coupling Darcy’s law and heat transfer theory.

SAGD can be carried out by using different well patterns as follows:

(i) a group of vertical wells for joint production;

(ii)clustered wells / slant horizontal wells for joint production;

(iii)U-shaped wells, vertical wells for injection and horizontal wells

for production; and

(iv)parallel horizontal wells, where steam is injected into the upper

well while hot fluids are produced from the lower well.
 The process has several features (Butler, 1994):

a) High recovery rate;

b) Higher steam to oil ratio compared to the conventional steam

flooding;

c) The process is useful even for heavy bitumen reservoirs without

expensive preheating.
The mechanisms of SAGD can be better understood from the Fig.
5.15a and 5.15b.
• Steam is being injected from a well, either a horizontal or
sometimes one or more vertical wells, above the horizontal
producer.
• A steam saturated zone is formed in which the temperature is
essentially that of the injected steam.
• The steam flows from the perimeter of the steam chamber and
condenses.
• The heat from the steam is transferred by thermal conduction
into the surrounding reservoir.
• The water condensate from the steam and the heated oil flow,
driven by gravity, to the production well below.
• As the oil flows away and is produced, the steam chamber
expands.
Steam and Gas Push (SAGP)
Steam and gas push (SAGP) is very much similar to SAGD, with the difference that a
small amount of non-condensable gas is injected along with steam. The SAGP
concept was first defined and modeled by Butler (1981). For gravity to be an
effective force and displace the oil downward, it is necessary that a lighter fluid (e.g.,
gas) will be allowed to move upwards. The non-condensate gas gradually rises and
gathers at the top of the reservoir, which can effectively decrease heat transfer
between the steam chamber and the cap rock. Thus, the expansion of steam chamber
toward the upper side gradually decreases and steam is mainly utilized to heat oil and
sands on the either side of steam chamber. A comparative picture of SADG and
SAGP is illustrated in Fig. 5.16. The non-condensate gas plays the vital role in the
maintenance of steam chamber pressure, and hence, to reduce the steam consumption.
The fingering of non-condensate gas is also beneficial to increase the mobility of the
steam front.
Figure 5.16: Mechanisms of Steam and Gas Push (Pang et al.,2017)
 Gas assisted steam injection

The major challenges of steam injection process involve the thermal losses to the surrounding

rocks, huge consumption of steam, high water cut and concomitant poor production performance.

Numerous studies have suggested that these problems can be mitigated to some extent by

injecting flue gas or CO2 gas (Wan et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2017). The main components of flue

gas are 80-85% of N2 and 15-20% of CO2. The heat loss of CO2 is much lower than that of steam

and it can penetrate deep into the formation and expand the steam chamber. CO2 is also having

good solubility with the oil and thus reduce the viscosity and IFT, resulting in improvement of

displacement efficiency. N2 has the effect of increasing reservoir energy and heat insulation, and

volume expansion. To inject a flue gas with steam into reservoir not only improves the oil

recovery of steam flooding, but also reduces the greenhouse gas emissions.
 Hybrid Steam Injection:

The process which includes the injection of hot water, solvents and other chemicals like

surfactant/alkali etc. after steam flooding to improve efficiency of steam flooding and

reduce the water consumption and heat loss is termed as hybrid steam injection.

• Steam flooding followed by hot water injection

• Solvent-Steam Hybrid process

• Chemical Steam hybrid process

 In-Situ Combustion
• This method involves the generation of heat within the
reservoir in the form of a hot front moving away from
the injection well.
• In this mode of thermal recovery the energy required to
advance the residual crude oil is produced by the
injection of air or an oxygen bearing gas into the
reservoir and burning a portion of the crude oil within
the formation.
• This recovery process may be considered slowly
moving narrow burning zone advancing towards the
production well, displacing oil ahead of it.
• The performance of in-situ combustion process depends on
(1)proper understanding of the constitutive chemical and physical
processes that determine oil displacement through the swept
area of the reservoir, and
(2)understanding how fluid flow and reservoir characteristics
determine swept volume.

The heat is produced by ignition of the crude oil and the injection
of air or air enriched with oxygen causes the fire to sustain as the
result of chemical reaction between oxygen and the oil.
• In-situ combustion combines several driving mechanisms, that include

(Ahmed and Meehan, 2012).:

a) steam drive,

b) hot and cold-water flood, and

c) miscible and immiscible flood

• The oil which has not been contacted by the actual combustion front is

subjected to:

a) Condensing steam drive

b) Gas drive

c) Miscible drive and

d) Thermal drive
• During the process of forward combustion, several regions of
different temperatures are formed between the injection and production
well. Figure 5.18 demonstrates the oil displacement mechanism and
temperature profile associated with each of these zones. The zones are
distinguished as follows:

A. Burned zone
B. Combustion front zone
C. Coke zone
D. Vaporizing zone
E. Condensing zone
F. Oil bank zone
G. Original reservoir zone
Figure 5.18: Oil displacement mechanism and temperature profile of
in-situ combustion.
 In-Situ Combustion
• Failure to stimulate production using in-situ combustion
may be due to a number of reasons such as
1) inability of the oil to deposit enough fuel to support
combustion,
2) low air injectivity,
3) gross channeling and leaking of the injected air from the
formation,
4) excessive air requirements,
5) low air “saturation, and
6) plugging of porous rock leading to the flow of a limited
supply of air.
Conventional In Situ Combustion (ISC)

Air, Air + H2O,

etc.

Reaction zone
Combustion zone

Oil banking in
the cold region
Cool zone
Swept
zone

( Courtesy of M. Dusseault)
 In-Situ Combustion
Some of the variational aspects of in-situ combustion are as
follows:
• i) Formation of an extended heat wave propelled by gases
of limited oxygen content controlling the rate of advance of
the burning front.

• ii) Halting combustion partway between the injection well

and the production well and propelling the heat wave
towards the production well by cycling the produced gases

• iii) Halting combustion between the injection well and the

production well and reversing the combustion by converting
the original injection well into a production well.
Dry Combustion
• In the dry forward combustion process, much of the heat generated during burning
is stored in the burned sand behind the burning front and is not used for oil
displacement.
• No water is injected into the reservoir in dry combustion. Owing to its low heat
capacity, the injected dry air cannot transfer heat from the sand matrix as fast as it is
generated from combustion.
• The fluid around the production well remains at the original reservoir temperature
and hence very difficult to displace because of its high viscosity.
• So, the efficiency of the dry combustion is poor. The temperature distributions of
dry combustion is shown in Fig. 5.19. It may be found from the figure that the
temperature of the reservoir ahead of the combustion zone drops suddenly and
approaches to the original reservoir temperature.
 DRY COMBUSTION
COMBUSTION ZONE

TEMPERATURE

CONDENSATION
FRONT

DISTANCE

Figure 5.19: Schematic of Temperature Profile for Dry Combustion

 Wet Combustion
• To overcome the limitation of poor heat transfer in dry
combustion, water is injected along with air in wet combustion
process.
• In contrary to dry combustion, wet combustion offers better
recovery as maximum amount heat generated during burning of
oil is carried by injected water and utilized efficiently to heat the
zone ahead of the fire front.
• Injected water absorbs heat from the burn zone, vaporizes into
steam and transports heat forward much more efficiently than dry
air.
• Much of the heat stored in the burned sand thus can be recovered
and transported forward together by water and air.
• Depending on the variations of the water /air ratio in
increasing order in the injection fluids, the process is
categorized as normal wet, incomplete wet, and super wet
combustion. In the case of wet combustion (normal or
incomplete), the water that flows through the combustion
zone is in the gas phase; that is, the peak temperature is
higher than the vaporization temperature of water.
• In the case of normal wet combustion, the water flows through the combustion zone, when
the fuel is completely burned out and absorbs the heat fully from this zone. The process is
called normal wet combustion when the coke deposit is completely burned. All the heat
generated during burning is recovered and quenched by the injected water in this case.
Water is generally injected at higher rate in this process. The temperature profile of normal
wet combustion is shown in Fig. 5.20

COMBUSTION ZONE
TEMPERATURE

CONDENSATION
FRONT

VAPORIZATION
FRONT

DISTANCE
Figure 5.20: Schematic of Temperature Profile for a Normal Wet Combustion
Process Without Convective Heat Front
• Incomplete wet refers to partial burning of the deposited coke. Residence time of
coke in the high temperature zone is insufficient to complete the combustion. Thus,
the heat generated in the combustion reaction fails to raise the water temperature to
the desired level. Because of higher water to air ratio, the cooling effect of the
injected water is greater. Heat carried by the water is less, resulting in lower
recovery of oil.

Figure 5.21: Schematic of Temperature Profile for an incomplete (Partially

Quenched) Wet Combustion Process
 • The super wet combustion results when the amount of heat available in
the burned-out rock is too low to vaporize the water reaching the
combustion front, then the temperature peak disappears and a
vaporization-condensation front moves through the porous media (Fig.
5.22).
Temperature

Condensation
Combustion Zone
Zone

Distance

Figure 5.22 Schematic of Temperature Profile for Super Wet Combustion

Process
Dry Combustion Wet Combustion
• In the dry forward combustion process, much • In wet combustion, water, on the other hand, can
of the heat generated during burning is stored absorb and transport heat many times more
in the burned sand behind the burning front efficiently than can air.
and is not used for oil displacement.

• The heat capacity of dry air is low and, • As water is injected together with air, much of
consequently, the injected air cannot transfer heat stored in the burned sand can be recovered
heat from the sand matrix as fast as it is and transported forward.
generated
• The temperature of the reservoir after the • A higher temperature of the reservoir is retained
combustion zone drops suddenly and after the combustion zone in contrary to the dry
approaches to the original reservoir combustion.
temperature.
• Air volume requirement in dry combustion is • Air volume requirement in wet combustion may
much higher and hence operational cost is high. be reduced up to 63% compared to dry
combustion.
• Injection of water simultaneously or intermittently with air is commonly known as wet, partially
quenched combustion.
• The ratio of the injected water rate to the air rate influences the rate of burning front advance and the oil
displacement behavior.
• The injected water absorbs heat from the burned zone, vaporizes into steam, passes through the
combustion front, and releases the heat as it condenses in the cooler sections of the reservoir.

• The growth of the steam and water banks ahead of the burning front are accelerated, resulting in faster
heat movement and oil displacement.
Reverse Combustion

• In heavy oil, reservoir forward combustion is often plagued with

injectivity problems because the oil has to flow from the heated,
stimulated region to cooler portions of the reservoir.
• Viscous oil becomes less mobile and tends to create barriers to flow.
• This phenomena is especially prevalent in very viscous oils and tar
sands.
• A process called reverse combustion has been proposed and found
technically feasible in laboratory tests.
• The combustion zone is initiated in the production well and moves
toward the injector counter current to fluid flow.
• The injected air has to travel through the reservoir to contact the
combustion zone.
• The basic concept in reverse combustion is that the major portion of
the heat remains between the production well and the oil when it is
Temperature profile of Reverse Combustion
Zone (1) in this zone the porous medium has its initial characteristics. However it is
being swept by the oxygen containing gas so that certain oxidation reactions can take
place, if the temperature of the layer is high enough and the oil is easily oxidizable.

Zone (2) the temperature begins to increase due to conduction from the hot zone. The
beginning of oxidation also causes the temperature to rise. The following phenomena
occur: vaporization of water, distillation of the light oil fractions and oxidizing cracking
of some of the hydrocarbons.

Zone (3) the combustion zone where the temperature reaches its maximum. The oxygen
left over from previous zones is used up in the oxidation and combustion reactions of
the more reactive hydrocarbon molecules.

Zone (4) the unburned coke remains behind in the porous medium. The fluids in their
gaseous or liquid states flow towards the producer.
Schematic of Toe-to-Heel Air Injection

Mobile oil zone Producer well

Injection well Combustion zone Coke zone
(MOZ)

Air
Cold Heavy
Oil

‘Toe’
‘Heel’
• One of the most important features of the THAI process is the creation of a
mobile oil zone (MOZ) ahead of the combustion front as shown in Figure 2.19.
• In a heavy oil reservoir, because of the high oil viscosity in the cold region of
the reservoir, the heavy oil has an extremely low mobility.
• The cold oil provides a natural seal along the horizontal well and preventing
any gas bypassing.
• In addition, the cold heavy oil creates a viscous barrier and resists gas
displacing into the near producer oil region.
• The creation of the MOZ allows the combustion process to be operated
efficiently (Xia et al., 2000; Greaves et al, 2000).
Figure 2.19: Mobilised oil draining from narrow zone into exposed
section of horizontal producer well (Greaves et al, 2000)
 Chemical Reactions Associated with In-Situ Combustion

In-situ combustion is associated with a series of chemical reactions

between the crude oil and the injected air within the reservoir at
different temperature ranges. The reservoir rock minerals and clay
contents of the reservoirs influence the combustion reactions. The
reactions that take place in in-situ combustion can be categorized as:
1. Low temperature oxidation (LTO)
2. Intermediate temperature, fuel formation reactions, and
3. High temperature oxidation (HTO)
• The LTO reactions generally occur at temperature below 400ᵒF. The
reactions are heterogeneous (gas/liquid), and yield water and
partially oxygenated hydrocarbons such as carboxylic acids,
aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, and hydroperoxides.

Intermediate temperature, fuel formation reactions

It involves mostly cracking and pyrolysis of hydrocarbons
which leads to the formation of coke. The pyrolysis of crude
oil in porous media often occurs in three overlapping stages:
distillation, visbreaking, and coking.

High temperature oxidation reactions occur between oxygen of

injected air and deposited coke at temperature above 650ᵒF. The
principal products of these reactions are carbon dioxide (CO2),
carbon monoxide (CO) and water (H2O).
Table 5.5: Screening Criteria of In-situ Combustion (Sarathi, 1999)
Favourable Factors
1. High reservoir temperature
2. Low vertical permeability, except THAI
3. Good lateral continuity
4. Multiple thin sand layers
5. Good overburden competence
6. High dip
7. Uniform permeability profile

Risk Factors
• Extensive fractures;
• Large gas caps;
• Strong water drive;
• Highly heterogeneous reservoir;
• Early breakthrough of the combustion
front;
Operational problems, such as severe
corrosion caused by low-pH hot water, serious
oil-water emulsions, increased sand
production, deposition of carbon or wax, and
pipe failures in the producing wells as a result