IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v275y2023ics0360544223008265.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Core scale analysis of low viscosity oil injection in enhancing oil recovery of heavy oil reservoirs

Author

Listed:
  • Lyu, Chaohui
  • Zhong, Liguo
  • Wang, Qing
  • Zhang, Wei
  • Han, Xiaodong
  • Chen, Mingqiang
  • Zhu, Yu
  • Yang, Jiawang

Abstract

In this study, static tests and core experiments were carried out to evaluate heavy oil (high viscosity oil) production performance using low viscosity oil as a potential injection, as well as the coupling effects of viscous fingering and viscosity reduction on the displacement efficiency. Results show that 30% was the optimal maximum dilution ratio when considering economy and efficiency. With the low viscosity oil injecting, the displacement front came to breakthrough around 0.3 pore volume (PV), and then the effluents’ viscosity and the viscosity distributions along the core came to a sharp decline, indicating that low viscosity oil has already mixed thoroughly with heavy oil. The low viscosity oil displacements and heavy oil reverse displacements revealed a key instruction for the field application: The final total recovery of heavy oil was up to 65%, while it was almost 100% near the injection port. The injected low viscosity oil could be almost 100% retrieved for recycle, the larger displacement rate facilitated the faster growth of viscous fingering, further assisting low viscosity oil better dissolving into heavy oil and reducing the flow resistance. The study demonstrated a promising and practical strategy of low viscosity oil injection on enhancing heavy oil recovery.

Suggested Citation

  • Lyu, Chaohui & Zhong, Liguo & Wang, Qing & Zhang, Wei & Han, Xiaodong & Chen, Mingqiang & Zhu, Yu & Yang, Jiawang, 2023. "Core scale analysis of low viscosity oil injection in enhancing oil recovery of heavy oil reservoirs," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:275:y:2023:i:c:s0360544223008265
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.127432
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544223008265
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2023.127432?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cheng, Linsong & Liu, Hao & Huang, Shijun & Wu, Keliu & Chen, Xiao & Wang, Daigang & Xiong, Hao, 2018. "Environmental and economic benefits of Solvent-Assisted Steam-Gravity Drainage for bitumen through horizontal well: A comprehensive modeling analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 418-431.
    2. Liu, Yongge & Liu, Xiaoyu & Hou, Jian & Li, Huazhou Andy & Liu, Yueliang & Chen, Zhangxin, 2019. "Technical and economic feasibility of a novel heavy oil recovery method: Geothermal energy assisted heavy oil recovery," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 853-867.
    3. Li, Songyan & Han, Rui & Wang, Peng & Cao, Zijian & Li, Zhaomin & Ren, Guangwei, 2022. "Experimental investigation of innovative superheated vapor extraction technique in heavy oil reservoirs: A two-dimensional visual analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(PC).
    4. Liu, Hao & Cheng, Linsong & Wu, Keliu & Huang, Shijun & Maini, Brij B., 2018. "Assessment of energy efficiency and solvent retention inside steam chamber of steam- and solvent-assisted gravity drainage process," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 287-299.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Zherui & Dai, Sining & Chen, Cong & Lyu, Huangwu & Zhang, Shuheng & Liu, Xuanji & Li, Yanghui, 2024. "Hydrate aggregation in oil-gas pipelines: Unraveling the dual role of asphalt and water," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 290(C).
    2. Yigang Liu & Jianhua Bai & Peipei Guo & Wei Zhang & Liguo Zhong & Chaohui Lyu & Yi Hao & Mengqi Zhang & Xiaodong Han & Peidong Bi, 2024. "Experimental Study on Water-in-Heavy-Oil Droplets Stability and Viscosity Variations in the Dilution Process of Water-in-Heavy-Oil Emulsions by Light Crude Oil," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-18, January.
    3. Yang, Shu & Ji, Bingyu & Wu, Jianxun & He, Yingfu, 2024. "Experimental and simulation insights on the high viscosity of heavy oil I: Low-concentration compounds," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Li, Jing & Zhang, Lisong & Yang, Feiyue & Sun, Luning, 2020. "Positive measure and potential implication for heavy oil recovery of dip reservoir using SAGD based on numerical analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    2. Alade, Olalekan S. & Mahmoud, Mohamed & Al Shehri, Dhafer & Mokheimer, Esmail M.A. & Sasaki, Kyuro & Ohashi, Ryo & Kamal, Muhammad Shahzad & Muhammad, Isah & Al-Nakhli, Ayman, 2022. "Experimental and numerical studies on production scheme to improve energy efficiency of bitumen production through insitu oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 244(PA).
    3. Zhang, Lisong & Li, Jing & Sun, Luning & Yang, Feiyue, 2021. "An influence mechanism of shale barrier on heavy oil recovery using SAGD based on theoretical and numerical analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    4. Zhou, Xiang & Li, Xiuluan & Shen, Dehuang & Shi, Lanxiang & Zhang, Zhien & Sun, Xinge & Jiang, Qi, 2022. "CO2 huff-n-puff process to enhance heavy oil recovery and CO2 storage: An integration study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PB).
    5. Wang, Huaijing, 2023. "Modeling of multiple thermal fluid circulation in horizontal section of wellbores," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    6. Dongsheng Chen & Wei Zheng & Taichao Wang & Fan Liu & Tong Cheng & Hengyuan Chen & Tingting Miao, 2022. "Influence of Temperature on the Adsorption and Diffusion of Heavy Oil in Quartz Nanopore: A Molecular Dynamics Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-17, August.
    7. Yang, Min & Liu, Yishan & Lu, Ning & Chai, Maojie & Wang, Sen & Feng, Qihong & Chen, Zhangxin, 2023. "Integration of ramped temperature oxidation and combustion tube tests for kinetic modeling of heavy oil in-Situ combustion," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 274(C).
    8. Dong, Xiaohu & Liu, Huiqing & Chen, Zhangxin & Wu, Keliu & Lu, Ning & Zhang, Qichen, 2019. "Enhanced oil recovery techniques for heavy oil and oilsands reservoirs after steam injection," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 1190-1211.
    9. Li, Weicheng & Vaziri, Vahid & Aphale, Sumeet S. & Dong, Shimin & Wiercigroch, Marian, 2021. "Energy saving by reducing motor rating of sucker-rod pump systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C).
    10. Zhang, Qitao & Liu, Wenchao & Dahi Taleghani, Arash, 2022. "Numerical study on non-Newtonian Bingham fluid flow in development of heavy oil reservoirs using radiofrequency heating method," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PE).
    11. Xu, Fuqiang & Song, Xianzhi & Song, Guofeng & Ji, Jiayan & Song, Zihao & Shi, Yu & Lv, Zehao, 2023. "Numerical studies on heat extraction evaluation and multi-objective optimization of abandoned oil well patterns in intermittent operation mode," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 269(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:275:y:2023:i:c:s0360544223008265. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.