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Advanced Research and Techniques on Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "H1: Petroleum Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (5 July 2023) | Viewed by 14369

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Md Motiur Rahman

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Guest Editor

Department of Petroleum Engineering , Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Interests: hydraulic fracturing; acid fracturing; enhanced and improved oil recovery
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Mohamed R. Haroun

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Guest Editor

Department of Petroleum Engineering, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Abu Dhabi 127788, United Arab Emirates
Interests: hybrid EOR; electrokinetic EOR; hybrid nano acid IOR; hybrid smart water flooding with smart nano polymeric systems; nano/surfactant EOR; smart EOR; novel water management technology for O&G

Prof. Dr. Abdulrazag Zekri

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Guest Editor

Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
Interests: enhanced oil recovery; environmental problems associated with oil and gas production; fluid flow in porous media

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is evident that the energy industry has come into the spotlight and greatly influenced the world economy over the past century. As energy demand is projected to increase significantly in the coming years and sustainable practices gain traction across the globe, there has been considerable interest toward renewables to meet this demand. Nevertheless, the role of hydrocarbons in the development of industries, and in particular, the heavy and petrochemical industries along with the economy, will still remain critical. Furthermore, it is reported that many of the conventional reserves are reaching potential maturity, and discoveries with respect to new major reserves have not been increasing comparatively. In other words, the rate of replacement of the produced reserves by new discoveries has been declining steadily over the past few years, while exploitation of unconventional resources has gained momentum in recent years. As a result, there is an increased necessity for cost-effective and sustainable approaches to recover hydrocarbons from the current limited conventional reserves, particularly through enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

Over a decade, there have been continuous R&D activities executed to improve EOR processes and techniques applicable to mature oil reserves. Although EOR processes have significant potential to increment oil recovery, the selection of an optimal strategy for field application is extremely challenging. Understanding the priceless opportunities and key innovations in these fundamental techniques would greatly support the decision-making process for such applications. This includes analyzing operational, technical, economic, and environmental aspects of the challenges to identify tailored strategies that may be case specific.

This Special Issue aims to collate experimental/numerical/field scale investigations with novel solutions and review papers with state-of-the-art findings that can deliver a significant contribution to the EOR community. Even though the Special Issue is open to all contributions related to EOR, potential focus areas are summarized as the following:

Technical challenges
Operational challenges
Environmental impacts/benefits
Economic factors
High viscosity crude
Low salinity/smart water flooding
Carbon capture and utilization
EOR and reservoir characterization
High salinities and high temperatures
Extreme reservoir heterogeneity with fractures
Tight rocks and unconventionals
Offshore/deep water
Injectivity/profile control
Modeling and simulation
Chemical EOR and usage of advanced materials
Hybrid and novel methods for enhanced heavy oil recovery

Dr. Md Motiur Rahman
Dr. Mohamed R. Haroun
Prof. Dr. Abdulrazag Zekri
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)
Miscible/Immiscible Flooding
Chemical Flooding
Low Salinity/Smart Water Flooding
Carbon Capture and Utilization
Thermal EOR and HPHT Applications
Unconventionals
Hybrid and Novel EOR

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Published Papers (8 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 3666 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Initial-Productivity Prediction Method of Oil Wells for Low-Permeability Reservoirs Based on PSO-ELM Algorithm

by Beichen Zhao, Binshan Ju and Chaoxiang Wang

Energies 2023, 16(11), 4489; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16114489 - 2 Jun 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1233

Abstract

Conventional numerical solutions and empirical formulae for predicting the initial productivity of oil wells in low-permeability reservoirs are limited to specific reservoirs and relatively simple scenarios. Moreover, the few influencing factors are less considered and the application model is more ideal. A productivity prediction method based on machine learning algorithms is established to improve the lack of application performance and incomplete coverage of traditional mathematical modelling for productivity prediction. A comprehensive analysis was conducted on the JY extra-low-permeability oilfield, considering its geological structure and various factors that may impact its extraction and production. The study collected 13 factors that influence the initial productivity of 181 wells. The Spearman correlation coefficient, ReliefF feature selection algorithm, and random forest selection algorithm were used in combination to rank the importance of these factors. The screening of seven main controlling factors was completed. The particle swarm optimization–extreme learning machine algorithm was adopted to construct the initial-productivity model. The primary control factors and the known initial productivity of 127 wells were used to train the model, which was then used to verify the initial productivity of the remaining 54 wells. In the particle swarm optimization–extreme learning machine (PSO-ELM) algorithm model, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) is 0.035 and the correlation factor (R²) is 0.905. Therefore, the PSO-ELM algorithm has a high accuracy and a fast computing speed in predicting the initial productivity. This approach will provide new insights into the development of initial-productivity predictions and contribute to the efficient production of low-permeability reservoirs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research and Techniques on Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes)

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13 pages, 6140 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Understanding the Impact of Reservoir Low-Permeability Subdomains in the Steam Injection Process

by Beatriz dos Santos Santana, Lorena Cardoso Batista, Edson de Andrade Araújo, Cláudio Regis dos Santos Lucas, Daniel Nobre Nunes da Silva and Pedro Tupã Pandava Aum

Energies 2023, 16(2), 639; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16020639 - 5 Jan 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1367

Abstract

Optimizing production in the mature fields of heavy oil reservoirs is still challenging. In most cases, conventional recovery techniques are not effective, although they are suitable for applying thermal recovery methods. Steam injection involves injecting steam into the reservoir where the heat exchange with the oil occurs. This promotes a reduction in oil viscosity and thus increases its mobility. One of the challenges of the EOR project is understanding how the presence of regions with contrasting properties, such as fractures, caves, and barriers, could affect the steam flow. This work investigates the impact of low-permeability barriers in the steam injection process. The barriers were created on a semi-synthetic reservoir characteristic of Brazilian onshore mature fields. We used the three-phase pseudo-compositional reservoir simulation STARS (Steam Thermal Advanced Processes Reservoir Simulation) for simulations. Our results show that the shape, number, and arrangement of barriers in a porous medium can affect the amount of oil recovered. They may also be able to anticipate or delay oil production. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research and Techniques on Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes)

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19 pages, 7302 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analyses of Interpolant Ion Effects on Smart Water Core Flooding in Carbonate

by Ladislane dos Santos Bastos, Igor Emanuel da Silva Lins, Gloria Meyberg Nunes Costa and Silvio Alexandre Beisl Vieira de Melo

Energies 2023, 16(1), 446; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16010446 - 30 Dec 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1644

Abstract

Smart water flooding (SWF) is a promising enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technique due to its economic advantages. For this process, wettability alteration is the most accepted controlling effect that leads to increased recovery factors (RFs). The main objective of this work is to investigate how the relative permeability curves’ interpolant affects the SWF mechanisms’ assessment. Wettability alteration is described by shifting these curves in simulations. Numerical simulations of core flooding tests are applied to carbonate at 114.4 °C. A comparison of oil recovery factor (RF), pH and effluent composition is performed for different injection approaches. Mg²⁺ and SO₄²⁻ are the interpolant ions and the salinity levels range from 30 to 1 kppm. A simulation of 24 scenarios, 12 for each type of interpolant, is presented. Results show that RF changes significantly, due to salinity and composition, for each interpolant. This has a relevant influence on the interpolant. The greater the dilution, the smaller the effect of the interpolant and brine composition on the recovery estimates. When considering SO₄²⁻ as an interpolant, the trend is that divalent rich brine (DV) has a higher recovery factor. In contrast, when Mg²⁺ is the interpolant, DV tends to have a lower recovery. The analysis of ionic exchange and pH variation corroborate the wettability alteration behavior. A pH increase was observed in all scenarios, regardless of the salinity, ion composition or interpolant variation. Also, monitoring the CH₃COO-X reduction and SO₄-X₂ increase equivalent fractions indicated the ion exchange mechanism as being well represented in all simulations. In addition, the results emphasize that even at very low concentrations, SO₄²⁻ plays a fundamental role in initiating the ion exchange process that culminates in the wettability alteration as a consequence of smart water injection. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research and Techniques on Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes)

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10 pages, 1539 KiB

Open AccessArticle

HYSCORE Spectroscopy to Resolve Electron–Nuclear Structure of Vanadyl Porphyrins in Asphaltenes from the Athabasca Oil Sands In Situ Conditions

by Margarita A. Sadovnikova, Fadis F. Murzakhanov, Georgy V. Mamin and Marat R. Gafurov

Energies 2022, 15(17), 6204; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15176204 - 26 Aug 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1587

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to analyze the electron–nuclear interactions of the vanadyl-porphyrin (VP) complexes in oil asphaltenes. Asphaltenes from the Athabasca oil sands were studied by HYperfine Sublevel CORrelation Spectroscopy (HYSCORE) electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR). It makes it possible to resolve and interpret complex hyperfine spectra of intrinsic VP with strong and weak hyperfine interactions between the electron magnetic moment and various nuclear spins (¹H, ¹⁴N, ⁵¹V). The main parameters of spin-Hamiltonian for the VP spin system are determined. The axially symmetric structure of the VP complexes is revealed, and the local nuclear environment of the paramagnetic center is investigated. The results can be used for the study of asphaltene electron–nuclear structure and asphaltene aggregates with the aim of elucidating asphaltenes’ transformation(s) under the influence of external treatment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research and Techniques on Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes)

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25 pages, 7506 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Exponential Solvent Chamber Geometry for Modeling the VAPEX Process

by Ali Cheperli, Farshid Torabi, Morteza Sabeti and Aria Rahimbakhsh

Energies 2022, 15(16), 5874; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15165874 - 13 Aug 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1205

Abstract

Accurate simulation of the VAPEX process relies heavily on precise modeling of the solvent chamber propagation. In the previously developed models, the solvent chamber possesses either a linear, circular, or parabolic shape. In this study, an exponential solvent chamber model was considered to represent the propagation of the chamber throughout the spreading and falling stages of the VAPEX process. The tuning parameters of the proposed model include the exponential function coefficient and the transition region thickness. These parameters are altered by employing a MATLAB-based Genetic Algorithm (GA) to minimize the error between determined and measured cumulative produced oil in four experimental case studies presented in the literature. According to the outcomes, the proposed method can accurately adjust the cumulative produced oil to the measured values in both spreading and falling stages. Additionally, the thickness of the transition region obtained by this model is in reasonable agreement with the laboratory measurements. Accordingly, the average relative errors of all four cases for cumulative produced oil and transition region thickness are 7.73% and 5.12%, respectively. Consequently, the model estimates the oil production rate with reasonable precision and the predicted solvent chamber shapes are well-aligned with the experimentally observed chambers. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research and Techniques on Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes)

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25 pages, 5564 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Insights into Nanoparticles, Electrokinetics and Hybrid Techniques on Improving Oil Recovered in Carbonate Reservoirs

by Md Motiur Rahman, Mohammed Haroun, Mohammed Al Kobaisi, Minkyun Kim, Abhijith Suboyin, Bharat Somra, Jassim Abubacker Ponnambathayil and Soham Punjabi

Energies 2022, 15(15), 5502; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15155502 - 29 Jul 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1722

Abstract

Use of nanoparticles as a method for enhancing oil recoveries has become an attractive prospect. Experimental evidence has shown that this technique possesses the ability to improve recoveries via wettability alteration and interfacial tension reduction amongst other strategies. In this study, we analyze the potential of nanoparticles employed in coreflood experiments. Low concentration acid was added to aid in the dispersion of the nanoparticles in the brine by protecting them from being aggregated, while enhancing the stimulation of the tight porous media. Electrokinetics was also implemented following a sequential as well as a simultaneous approach to further stimulate the fluids injected, controlling their mobility, and therefore, increasing the depth of penetration within the porous media. Several coreflood experiments were carried out on highly heterogeneous carbonate samples of Middle Eastern origin with permeabilities of around 0.1 mD. Zeta potential measurements were conducted on the inlet side of the preserved core-plugs after the conclusion of each coreflood. The findings indicated a close connection between the rate of wettability alteration observed over the duration of nano-acid fluid injection and mode of electrokinetic application. The best performing nano-acid fluids correlated with the highest shift in the magnitude of the zeta potential across all tested strategies. Results show that oil recovered via this hybrid technique was mostly 10–15% higher than that derived when only smart brine was employed. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research and Techniques on Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes)

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11 pages, 1378 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Application of EOR Using Water Injection in Carbonate Condensate Reservoirs in the Tarim Basin

by Fuxiao Shen, Shiyin Li, Xingliang Deng, Zhiliang Liu, Ping Guo and Guanghui Wu

Energies 2022, 15(11), 3881; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15113881 - 24 May 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1764

Abstract

The largest carbonate condensate field has been found in the Tarim Basin, NW China. Different from sandstone condensate gas reservoirs, however, the conventional gas injection for pressure maintenance development is not favorable for Ordovician fracture-cave reservoirs. Based on this, in this paper, 21 sets of displacement experiments in full-diameter cores and a pilot test in 11 boreholes were carried out to study enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in complicated carbonate reservoirs. The experimental results show that the seepage channels of the gas condensate reservoirs are fractures, which are quite different from sandstone pore-throat structures. Condensate oil recovery using water injection was up to 57–88% in unfilled fractured caves and at ca. 52–80% in sand-filled fractured caves. These values are much higher than the 14–46% and 17–58% values obtained from the depletion and gas injection experiments, respectively. The water injection in 11 wells showed that the condensate oil recovery increased by 0–17.7% (avg. 3.1%). The effective EOR for residual oil replacement using water injection may be attributed to fractures, as the gas channel leads to an ineffective gas circulation and pipe flow in fracture-cave reservoirs, which is favorable for waterflood development. The complicated fracture network in the deep subsurface may be the key element in the varied and lower oil recovery rates obtained from the wells than from the experiments. This case study provides new insights for the exploitation of similar condensate gas reservoirs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research and Techniques on Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes)

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11 pages, 14410 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Pore-Scale Flow Fields of the Viscosity-Lost Partially Hydrolyzed Polyacrylamide Solution Caused by Sulfide Ion

by Xiaoluan Yu, Hao Niu, Hua Li, Chunan Du, Zhiyong Song, Debin Kong and Weiyao Zhu

Energies 2022, 15(6), 2048; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15062048 - 11 Mar 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2224

Abstract

The rheology of a partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide (HPAM) solution plays an important role in its oil recovery during polymer flooding. However, multiple factors in brine, such as sulfide ions, cause a dramatic loss in the viscosity and oil recovery. To better understand the sulfide-induced viscosity loss and the consequent flow mechanisms in pore networks, the morphology of polymer solutions with and without sulfide ion was observed by scanning electron microscopy; and the variations of the pore scale flow fields were demonstrated by a microscopic visualization seepage experiment combined with Micro-PIV (Microscale Particle Image Velocimetry). The results showed that, with the presence of sulfide ion, the microstructure of the polymer changed from a uniform three-dimensional network structure to loose and uneven floccules, which resulted in viscosity loss (over 70% with 5-mg/L sulfide ion). Moreover, higher concentrations of sulfide ions (5 mg/L and 10 mg/L) resulted in earlier shear thinning characteristics than those with lower sulfide concentrations. Due to viscosity loss, the average flow velocity in the main stream of the microscopic seepage experiment increased more significantly than that without sulfide. However, the viscosity loss alone cannot independently explain the severe viscous fingering during the subsequent post-water flooding, which was about five times greater than that of the primary water flooding in terms of the velocity ratio between the mainstream and margin. A further pore-scale flow field analysis exhibited an eccentric and a bimodal velocity distribution in the throat along the radial and axial directions, respectively. The former distribution indicated that the adsorbed polymer on the pore wall was broken through by hydraulic shear due to the collapsed structure caused by sulfide ion. The latter suggested that another sulfide-induced impact was an earlier-occurring non-Newtonian characteristic with a low shear rate. Therefore, instead of viscosity loss, elastic loss is the dominant mechanism affecting the characteristics of the aggregate flow field under the action of sulfide. Microscopic flooding combined with Micro-PIV is a feasible and essential method to reveal pore scale flow mechanisms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Research and Techniques on Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes)

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