Course Overview
This comprehensive professional development program is designed for employees in the upstream petroleum sector, investors or potential investors in the petroleum sector, government officials in petroleum regulatory agencies, legal and compliance officers of oil-production companies, petroleum engineers, and environmental health advocates responsible for implementing Enhanced Oil Recovery excellence across CO₂ miscible injection EOR reservoir simulation and minimum miscibility pressure optimization, polymer flooding dual-low-mobility EOR mechanism design for ordinary heavy oil reservoirs, and cyclic steam stimulation thermal EOR huff-and-puff simulation and sensitivity analysis in multi-organizational contexts. The program addresses proven practices in CO₂ miscible injection EOR with MMP-based displacement efficiency optimization, polymer flooding dual-low-mobility profile control and sweep volume expansion for heavy oil reservoirs, and CSS thermal EOR huff-and-puff numerical simulation using CMG STARS for heavy oil recovery where a peer-reviewed study of the Cornea Field investigating the effect of miscible and immiscible CO₂ injection on production recovery using reservoir simulation found the MMP of the reservoir to be 38 bar above which CO₂ mixes fully with reservoir oil causing oil swelling and viscosity reduction that dramatically improves displacement efficiency and that over a 20-year production horizon miscible CO₂ injection delivered a 36.6 percent recovery factor versus 34.5 percent for immiscible injection and far less under natural drive, Fengjiao Wang and He Xu and Yikun Liu and Yingnan Jiang and Chenyu Wu from Northeast Petroleum University and PetroChina Xinjiang Oilfield and Daqing Oilfield publishing in ACS Omega an experimental study on polymer flooding for enhanced oil recovery in ordinary heavy oil reservoirs showing that the dual low mobility characteristics of both the polymer solution and ordinary heavy oil with high viscosity and low mobility effectively enhances profile control and plugging ability of the polymer expanding sweep volume of larger pores and improving displacement efficiency of smaller pores confirming that the dual low mobility characteristic-enhanced profile control and plugging effect is one of the EOR mechanisms of polymer flooding of ordinary heavy oil, and Ohenewaa Kakra Dankwa and Richmond Abelisoh Amoah and Titus Fiifi Appiah and Frank Barimah Appiah-Adjei from the University of Mines and Technology Ghana publishing in the Journal of Petroleum and Chemical Engineering a CSS simulation study demonstrating that cyclic steam stimulation improved oil recovery from 18 percent to 55 percent over a five-year stimulation period with cumulative oil and oil production rate seeing increments of 98 percent and 97 percent respectively and sensitivity analysis confirming that the higher the permeability the higher the oil recovery factor.
The curriculum integrates Introduction to Enhanced Oil Recovery, Enhanced Oil Recovery Methods, Established Models in EOR Operations, Most Suitable Reservoirs for EOR Operations, Formulas Used in EOR Operations, Government Involvement in EOR, Health and Wealth Implications of EOR Operations, Newer and Cleaner Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies, and Legal Implications of Enhanced Oil Recovery to provide comprehensive coverage of EOR principles and methods, established mathematical and black-oil and compositional and numerical models, and reservoir suitability and EOR formulas and government involvement and health and economic implications and legal frameworks integration domains for achieving Enhanced Oil Recovery excellence.
Why This Course Is Required?
CO₂ miscible injection EOR with MMP-based displacement efficiency optimization represents a critical competency where the Cornea Field study confirmed that meeting the MMP threshold is the critical design parameter for CO₂ EOR projects and that CO₂ above the MMP causes oil to swell and viscosity to drop greatly improving displacement efficiency through the reservoir, with miscible CO₂ injection achieving a recovery factor of 36.6 percent over 20 years compared to 34.5 percent for immiscible injection and significantly less under natural drive alone confirming that organizations applying miscible gas injection EOR on mature fields can extract substantially more oil than primary or secondary methods allow. Polymer flooding dual-low-mobility EOR mechanism design for heavy oil reservoirs demands specialized knowledge where Wang et al. confirmed that in the water flooding development process of ordinary heavy oil the fingering phenomenon is obvious with a lot of unswept areas and absolutely very low recovery and that for some shallow and thin ordinary heavy oil reservoirs limited by geological conditions the thermal recovery technology also has serious heat loss and high development cost, with the results showing that the polymer can effectively improve the mobility control effect of the displacing fluid and that as the polymer solution and ordinary heavy oil have characteristics of high viscosity and low mobility there is a minimum mobility ratio in the process of polymer flooding with the dual low mobility characteristics existing in polymer flooding effectively enhancing the profile control and plugging ability of the polymer expanding sweep volume of larger pores and improving displacement efficiency of smaller pores. CSS thermal EOR numerical simulation for heavy oil requires professionals with thermal recovery expertise where Dankwa et al. confirmed that thermal methods of enhancing oil recovery are known to be the most popular EOR techniques which include cyclic steam stimulation and steam flooding and in situ combustion and that these techniques have been tried since the 1950s and are the most advanced among EOR techniques taking into account field experience and technology with the prime objective of introducing heat into the heavy oil reservoir being to lower the viscosity of the reservoir fluid and that these methods are best suited for viscous oils of 10 to 20 degrees API and tar sands at or below 10 degrees API.
EOR professionals must master introduction fundamentals including definition and meaning and history and purpose of EOR and conditions for use of EOR and other types of oil recovery methods including primary recovery and secondary recovery and advantages and disadvantages of each method, understand comprehensive EOR methods and established models and reservoir suitability frameworks including miscible gas injection and chemical injection and thermal oil recovery and benefits of EOR methods and essential chemical types utilized in EOR and their importance and mathematical model and black-oil model and compositional model and non-isothermal compositional model and numerical model and computational model and unified mathematical model and heavy oil reservoirs and unconventional reservoirs and heterogeneous reservoirs, and apply proper EOR formulas and government involvement and health and economic implications and newer cleaner EOR technologies and legal implications methods including factors for determining essential parameters in EOR and oil displacement efficiency and macroscopic oil displacement efficiency and volume sweep and microscopic oil displacement efficiency and pore-scale and concept of incentives in EOR and types and reasons and cases relating to incentives vis-a-vis EOR and health challenges associated with EOR plants and economic benefits and disadvantages and concept of plasma pulsing and origin and development and procedure and technicality and health and economic advantages and legal frameworks and regulatory guidelines and ethical principles including non-disclosure and confidentiality and legal documents required and insurance to ensure organizations achieve superior CO₂ miscible injection EOR and enhanced polymer flooding dual-low-mobility heavy oil recovery and improved CSS thermal EOR simulation and competitive advantage through continuous reservoir model calibration and EOR method screening and MMP-based injection optimization governance protocols.
Research demonstrates training is crucial for success, with the Cornea Field CO₂ EOR study showing that petroleum engineers and reservoir analysts who understand miscibility conditions and MMP and injection rate optimization and the compositional and black-oil modeling approaches used to simulate CO₂ flooding can make well-founded recommendations on EOR method selection for a given reservoir, while the polymer flooding study demonstrating that engineers who master the mobility ratio concept and relative permeability analysis and the interplay of viscosity and pore-scale displacement in heterogeneous reservoirs can identify chemical EOR opportunities that others overlook becoming valuable contributors to production optimization teams, and the CSS thermal EOR study showing that professionals who understand how steam injection reduces heavy oil viscosity and how soaking and production cycles are optimized and how economic parameters such as steam-to-oil ratio affect project viability can make commercially sound decisions on thermal EOR investments in heavy oil fields.
Course Objectives
Upon successful completion, participants will have demonstrated mastery of:
- Prerequisite knowledge on Enhanced Oil Recovery including history and purpose and conditions for use and comparison to primary and secondary recovery methods
- Technical information on other types of oil recovery methods and advantages and disadvantages of each
- Understanding the legal framework for EOR operations including non-disclosure and confidentiality and non-competition clauses and insurance requirements
- A complete understanding of the various mechanisms involved in EOR including MMP-based miscible CO₂ injection displacement efficiency and polymer flooding dual-low-mobility profile control and CSS thermal viscosity reduction
- The different ways in which the government may be involved in EOR operations including types and reasons for incentives and cases relating to incentives
- An overview of the various chemicals used in EOR including essential chemical types utilized in EOR operations and their importance
- Knowledge of the health risks of EOR operations on the land and people and country including air and land and water pollution and erosion and contamination of water resources
- Applying established models including black-oil and compositional and non-isothermal compositional and numerical models to simulate CO₂ flooding and polymer flooding and CSS thermal EOR
- Using EOR formulas including macroscopic oil displacement efficiency and volume sweep and microscopic oil displacement efficiency at pore scale to quantify production improvements
Master Enhanced Oil Recovery excellence and drive CO₂ miscible injection and polymer flooding and thermal EOR success. Enroll today to become a Certified Enhanced Oil Recovery Professional!
Training Methodology
This Enhanced Oil Recovery Training Course comprises the following training methods:
The training framework includes:
- Expert-led sessions taught by professionals with vast experience in specific petroleum engineering fields ensuring proper transfer of knowledge
- Classroom sessions and practical activities with assignments and tasks and projects given to participants divided into groups to foster interaction and a good working relationship
- Role-play assignments where necessary for better assimilation of EOR concepts and methods
- Numerical simulation exercises using CMG STARS-type reservoir modeling tools to simulate CSS huff-and-puff cycles and assess recovery factor sensitivity to permeability and grid thickness
- Case Studies and Functional Exercises including Cornea Field CO₂ miscible injection EOR reservoir simulation and polymer flooding dual-low-mobility Daqing Oilfield core experiments and CSS thermal EOR CMG STARS numerical simulation for heavy oil recovery
This immersive approach fosters practical skill development and real-world application of EOR principles through comprehensive coverage of EOR introduction and methods and established models and reservoir suitability and EOR formulas and government involvement and health and economic implications and newer cleaner technologies and legal implications domains with emphasis on measurable recovery factor improvement and EOR method screening accuracy and legal and regulatory compliance enhancement.
This program follows the Do-Review-Learn-Apply model, creating a structured learning journey that transforms traditional oil production approaches into professional Enhanced Oil Recovery excellence.
Who Should Attend?
This Enhanced Oil Recovery Training Course is designed for:
- Employees in the upstream petroleum sector seeking expertise in EOR methods and reservoir screening
- Investors or potential investors in the petroleum sector evaluating EOR project viability and government incentive frameworks
- Government officials in petroleum regulatory agencies responsible for formulating EOR incentive policies
- Legal and compliance officers of oil-production companies managing EOR legal frameworks and confidentiality requirements
- Petroleum engineers applying EOR method selection, numerical simulation, and displacement efficiency analysis
- Environmental health advocates assessing the health and environmental implications of EOR operations
Organizational Benefits
Organizations implementing Enhanced Oil Recovery training will benefit through:
- Significantly enhanced CO₂ miscible injection EOR performance and MMP-based displacement efficiency through comprehensive training delivering measurable returns where the Cornea Field study confirmed that meeting the MMP threshold is the critical design parameter for CO₂ EOR projects and that CO₂ above the MMP causes oil to swell and viscosity to drop greatly improving displacement efficiency through the reservoir with miscible CO₂ injection achieving a recovery factor of 36.6 percent over 20 years versus 34.5 percent for immiscible injection directly reflecting the course’s coverage of miscible gas injection and EOR mechanisms and established reservoir models and oil displacement efficiency formulas
- Better polymer flooding dual-low-mobility EOR capability for heavy oil reservoirs through Wang et al. confirming that the dual low mobility characteristic-enhanced profile control and plugging effect is one of the EOR mechanisms of polymer flooding of ordinary heavy oil and that in the process of polymer flooding of ordinary heavy oil the polymer will preferentially enter the large pore channels expanding the sweep volume of the large channels and plugging the large pore channel by mechanical trapping with the significant profile control effect and that meanwhile the fluid suction pressure difference and fluid absorption amount of the small pore around are significantly increased driving out remaining oil in small pores and that based on the two factors of dual low mobility the recovery of ordinary heavy oil by polymer flooding is improved validating course content
- Improved CSS thermal EOR simulation capability and steam-to-oil ratio optimization through Dankwa et al. confirming that cyclic steam stimulation improved oil recovery from 18 percent to 55 percent over five years with cumulative oil and oil production rate seeing increments of 98 percent and 97 percent respectively and that the oil steam ratio was between 5.25 and 1 with the ratio decreasing as injection cycles continue because more steam is injected with high chances of some steam condensing which later increases water cut, with sensitivity analysis confirming that the higher the permeability of the reservoir the higher the oil recovery factor and that the greater the grid sizes the higher the cumulative oil production directly supporting the course’s thermal oil recovery and heavy oil reservoir and health and economic implications content
- Strengthened competitive advantage through expertise in the latest technologies in EOR and easy acquisition and storage of chemical components needed for EOR operations and partnership with the government to get incentives to increase productivity and higher knowledge on the legal framework regulating EOR to avoid legal issues and increased revenue from the specialized skills of employees and up-to-date information giving the organization a competitive edge and leverage in the industry
Studies show that organizations implementing comprehensive EOR training achieve significantly enhanced delivery outcomes as research confirms the Cornea Field study providing real-world context for EOR methods and compositional reservoir models and oil displacement efficiency formulas and government incentive discussions around CO₂-EOR and carbon storage with organizations benefiting from trained engineers who can determine MMP thresholds and optimize CO₂ injection rate and simulate recovery using black-oil and compositional models reinforcing the course’s emphasis on EOR methods and established models and government involvement and EOR formulas, better organizational outcomes through Wang et al. evidence demonstrating that polymer flooding is a practical and cost-effective chemical EOR method where thermal recovery is limited by reservoir geometry or heat loss confirming the organizational value of training professionals in chemical injection methods and essential chemicals used in EOR and most-suitable reservoir types and EOR formulas, and improved competitive positioning as Dankwa et al. confirmed that screening and choosing the best enhanced oil recovery method is crucial since it gives efficient and effective results and that viscosity reduction plays an important role in the recovery of oil in heavy oil reservoirs with organizations benefiting from personnel who understand thermal EOR method screening criteria and CMG STARS numerical simulation and CSS injection and soaking and production cycle optimization.
Empower your organization with Enhanced Oil Recovery expertise. Enroll your team today and see the transformation in CO₂ miscible injection and polymer flooding and thermal EOR excellence!
Personal Benefits
Professionals implementing Enhanced Oil Recovery training will benefit through:
- Deeper understanding of CO₂ miscible injection EOR mastery and MMP-based reservoir modeling value-addition through the Cornea Field study showing that petroleum engineers and reservoir analysts who understand miscibility conditions and MMP and injection rate optimization and the compositional and black-oil modeling approaches used to simulate CO₂ flooding can make well-founded recommendations on EOR method selection for a given reservoir, with the course’s modules on EOR methods and established models including black-oil and compositional and numerical and displacement efficiency formulas providing the depth of knowledge to carry out and interpret such analyses
- Enhanced polymer flooding dual-low-mobility EOR mastery and production optimization value-addition through the Wang et al. study demonstrating that engineers who master the mobility ratio concept and relative permeability analysis and the interplay of viscosity and pore-scale displacement in heterogeneous reservoirs can identify chemical EOR opportunities that others overlook becoming valuable contributors to production optimization teams, with by studying chemical injection methods and essential chemicals used in EOR and most-suitable reservoir types and EOR formulas professionals being prepared to evaluate and implement polymer flooding in appropriate field settings
- Stronger CSS thermal EOR simulation mastery and steam-to-oil ratio commercial value-addition through the Dankwa et al. study showing that professionals who understand how steam injection reduces heavy oil viscosity and how soaking and production cycles are optimized and how economic parameters such as steam-to-oil ratio affect project viability can make commercially sound decisions on thermal EOR investments in heavy oil fields, with the course’s coverage of thermal oil recovery and health and economic implications of EOR and newer cleaner EOR technologies building that combined technical and commercial competence
- Advanced expertise in EOR principles and methods, established mathematical and compositional and numerical models, and reservoir suitability and EOR formulas and government involvement and health and economic implications and legal framework integration domains
- Enhanced career prospects and marketability in EOR engineering, upstream petroleum production, reservoir simulation, heavy oil development, petroleum regulatory compliance, and environmental health assessment sectors with professionals gaining skills in CO₂ MMP calculation, polymer flooding mobility ratio analysis, CSS huff-and-puff cycle optimization, CMG STARS numerical simulation, and EOR legal document preparation
- Current and world-class knowledge on EOR processes and specialization in oil recovery including primary and secondary and enhanced or tertiary methods and knowledge of chemical components utilized and appropriate quantities at each production stage
- Insight into current trends in petrology and production of oil including factors affecting such changes and the skillsets to understand the interconnectedness of extraction of oil and the environment and health of people and economic implications
- Vast knowledge on the types of reservoirs best suitable for EOR operations and an understanding of the different models that can be used to get the best of enhanced oil recovery
Course Outline
Module 1: Introduction to Enhanced Oil Recovery
- Definition and Meaning of Enhanced Oil Recovery
- History and Purpose of Enhanced Oil Recovery
- Conditions for the use of EORs
- Other types of Oil Recovery methods
- Primary Recovery
- Secondary Recovery
- Advantages and Disadvantages of each method
- EOR screening criteria for reservoir and fluid properties
- Global EOR field application trends and recovery statistics
Module 2: Enhanced Oil Recovery Methods
- Miscible gas injection
- Chemical injection
- Thermal oil recovery
- Benefits of the Methods of Enhanced Oil Recovery
- Essential Chemical types Utilised in EOR Operations and their Importance
- Minimum miscibility pressure and CO₂ injection design
- Method selection based on reservoir type and fluid properties
Module 3: Established Models in EOR Operations
- Mathematical model
- Black-oil model
- Compositional Model
- Non-isothermal Compositional Model
- Numerical Model
- Computational Model
- Unified Mathematical Model
- Model selection criteria for gas and thermal EOR simulation
- History matching and uncertainty in EOR reservoir models
Module 4: Most Suitable Reservoirs for EOR Operations
- Heavy oil reservoirs
- Unconventional reservoirs
- Heterogeneous reservoirs
- Polymer flooding suitability in high-permeability heterogeneous reservoirs
- Thermal EOR applicability in shallow thin heavy oil reservoirs
Module 5: Formulas Used in EOR Operations
- Factors for Determining Essential Parameters in EOR
- Oil Displacement Efficiency
- Macroscopic Oil Displacement Efficiency/Volume sweep
- Microscopic Oil Displacement Efficiency/Pore-scale
- Mobility ratio and its effect on sweep efficiency
- Recovery factor calculation and incremental EOR uplift
Module 6: Government Involvement in EOR
- Concept of Incentives in Enhanced Oil Recovery
- Types of Incentives
- Reasons for Incentives
- Cases Relating to Incentives Vis a Vis Enhanced Oil Recovery Operations
- CO₂-EOR carbon storage incentives and policy frameworks
- Public-private partnership models for EOR development
Module 7: Health and Wealth Implications of EOR Operations
- Health Challenges Associated With Enhanced Oil Recovery Plants
- Economic Benefits of Enhanced Oil Recovery
- Economic Disadvantages and Downsides of Enhanced Oil Recovery
- Steam-to-oil ratio and thermal EOR economic viability
- Environmental pollution and remediation obligations
Module 8: Newer and Cleaner Enhanced Oil Recovery Technologies
- Concept of Plasma Pulsing
- Origin and Development
- Procedure and Technicality Involved in Plasma Pulsing
- Health and Economic Advantages of Plasma Pulsing
- Low-salinity waterflooding and microbial EOR emerging methods
- Comparison of cleaner EOR technologies with conventional steam
Module 9: Legal Implications of Enhanced Oil Recovery
- Legal Frameworks and Regulatory Guidelines for Enhanced Oil Recovery
- Ethical Principles: Non-disclosure and Confidentiality
- Legal Documents Required for EOR Operations
- Insurance
- Liability and indemnity provisions in EOR joint ventures
- Environmental compliance obligations for EOR operators
Real World Examples
CO₂ miscible injection EOR – Cornea Field reservoir study
Implementation: A peer-reviewed study of the Cornea Field investigated the effect of miscible and immiscible CO₂ injection on production recovery using reservoir simulation, finding that the MMP of the reservoir is 38 bar above which CO₂ mixes fully with reservoir oil causing oil swelling and viscosity reduction that dramatically improves displacement efficiency, with the study applying both black-oil and compositional modeling approaches to simulate CO₂ flooding behavior under varying injection conditions and comparing recovery outcomes across natural drive, immiscible injection below MMP, and miscible injection above MMP scenarios. The study confirmed that when reservoir pressure exceeds the MMP the CO₂ achieves first-contact or multi-contact miscibility with reservoir oil creating a transition zone where interfacial tension approaches zero and capillary trapping is effectively eliminated enabling the displacing fluid to mobilize residual oil that water flooding and immiscible gas injection cannot recover, with the compositional model capturing phase behavior changes including oil swelling and viscosity reduction and molecular diffusion that the simpler black-oil model cannot represent directly connecting to the course’s coverage of miscible gas injection and EOR mechanisms and established reservoir models including mathematical and black-oil and compositional and numerical models. The research demonstrated that the critical design parameter for CO₂ EOR projects is meeting the MMP threshold with injection pressure management being the primary engineering control available to operators, and that government incentive frameworks including CO₂-EOR carbon storage credits directly improve the economics of CO₂ miscible injection projects illustrating the course’s Module 6 content on government involvement and types and reasons for incentives and cases relating to incentives vis-à-vis EOR operations.
Results: Over a 20-year production horizon miscible CO₂ injection delivered a 36.6 percent recovery factor versus 34.5 percent for immiscible injection and far less under natural drive confirming that meeting the MMP threshold is the critical design parameter for CO₂ EOR projects, with the study providing real-world context for the course’s EOR methods and compositional reservoir models and oil displacement efficiency formulas including macroscopic oil displacement efficiency and volume sweep and microscopic oil displacement efficiency at pore scale and government incentive discussions around CO₂-EOR and carbon storage. Results confirmed that organizations applying miscible gas injection EOR on mature fields can extract substantially more oil than primary or secondary methods allow with trained engineers who can determine MMP thresholds and optimize CO₂ injection rate and simulate recovery using black-oil and compositional models delivering measurable auditable recovery improvements that are valued by senior management and investors and regulators alike.
Polymer flooding EOR – Ordinary heavy oil reservoir laboratory and field study
Implementation: Fengjiao Wang and He Xu and Yikun Liu and Yingnan Jiang and Chenyu Wu from the Laboratory of Enhanced Oil Recovery of the Ministry of Education at Northeast Petroleum University and the Luliang Operation Area of PetroChina Xinjiang Oilfield and the Daqing Oilfield Production Engineering Research Institute investigated polymer flooding for EOR in a high-porosity and high-permeability terrestrial ordinary heavy oil reservoir where water flooding suffers from severe fingering and incomplete sweep, using rock core samples from the Daqing Oilfield where eleven cores of L-1 through L-11 with permeability of approximately 1500 × 10⁻³ μm² and six synthetic quartz sand epoxy resin-cemented homogenized cores of B-1 through B-6 with dimensions of 20 cm × 5.5 cm × 5.5 cm. The experimental methods included a Polymer Injection Capacity Test confirming that polymer concentrations of 500 to 2000 mg/L passed through cores without clogging while 2500 mg/L clogged the core, and steady-state method relative permeability curve measurement where the mobility ratio was calculated confirming that as polymer solution and ordinary heavy oil both have characteristics of high viscosity and low mobility there is a minimum mobility ratio in the process of polymer flooding with dual low mobility characteristics existing in polymer flooding of ordinary heavy oil. Oil displacement efficiency evaluation experiments on the six homogenized cores confirmed that initial oil saturation of approximately 74 percent during water flooding recovered approximately 27 percent in the water flooding stage with an additional 8.81 to 14.69 percent recovery in the polymer flooding stage depending on polymer concentration, with microscopic seepage analysis using laser confocal experiments confirming that the polymer preferentially enters large pore channels expanding sweep volume and plugging large pores by mechanical trapping while simultaneously increasing fluid suction pressure difference of small pores driving out remaining oil from smaller pore channels directly illustrating the chemical injection and reservoir suitability and EOR formula content the course covers.
Results: Wang et al. concluded that the dual low mobility characteristic-enhanced profile control and plugging effect is one of the EOR mechanisms of polymer flooding of ordinary heavy oil and that the polymer can effectively improve the mobility control effect of the displacing fluid and that the dual low mobility characteristics can improve the recovery of ordinary heavy oil by polymer flooding, with the study demonstrating that where thermal recovery is constrained by shallow thin reservoir geology and high heat loss polymer flooding is a cost-effective chemical EOR alternative that organizations can apply to improve production from heterogeneous and heavy oil reservoirs. Results confirmed that polymer flooding is a practical and cost-effective chemical EOR method for ordinary heavy oil reservoirs with the Pelican Lake field in northern Alberta Canada representing the first successful application of polymer flooding in much higher viscosity oil of 1000 to 2500 cp opening a new avenue for development of heavy oil resources not accessible to thermal methods, illustrating the chemical injection methods and essential chemicals used in EOR and most-suitable reservoir types and EOR formula content this course covers.
Cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) – Thermal EOR for heavy oil reservoirs
Implementation: Dankwa and Amoah and Appiah and Appiah-Adjei from the Department of Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering at the University of Mines and Technology Ghana described the cyclic steam stimulation huff-and-puff process as involving three stages: first the steam injection stage where steam is injected into the reservoir at a bottom hole pressure of 450 psi and steam temperature of 450°F and steam quality of 0.7 for 10 days to increase temperature, second the soaking stage where the well is shut in for approximately one month to let steam diffuse and increase temperature in the reservoir and decrease oil viscosity from 878 cp and increase mobility of the crude oil, and third the production stage where the well is opened for production close to one year until production rate drops to an economic rate limit after which the cycle is repeated. The model was built using the Computer Modelling Group CMG STARS reservoir simulator with reservoir input data including grid top and thickness of five layers from 2000 ft to 2080 ft at 20 ft intervals and porosity of 0.28 and permeability of 250 and 250 and 80 mD and oil viscosity of 878 cp and oil gravity below 20 degrees API and temperature of 180°F and depth of 2080 ft with screening criteria confirming that steam CSS is applicable for gravity of 8 to 30 degrees API and viscosity of 50 to 50000 cp and temperature of 45 to 290°F and porosity of 15 to 65 percent and permeability of 100 to 10000 mD and oil saturation of 44 to 90 percent and sandstone lithology and depth of 200 to 3600 ft. The oil production rate was validated by comparing CMG STARS simulation results to the analytical pressure drop model and inflow equation.
Results: Dankwa et al. concluded that cyclic steam stimulation improved oil recovery from 18 percent to 55 percent over five years of stimulation with cumulative oil and oil production rate seeing increments of 98 percent and 97 percent respectively with the oil production rate increasing from 7 barrels per day using natural energy to 25 barrels per day with steam representing an increment of 97 percent and with the oil steam ratio between 5.25 and 1 indicating efficient steam utilization in early cycles, with sensitivity analysis confirming that the higher the permeability of the reservoir the higher the oil recovery factor and that bigger grid sizes improve oil recovery. Results confirmed that viscosity reduction plays an important role in the recovery of oil in heavy oil reservoirs and that the lighter the oil the higher the oil recovery from the reservoir and that screening and choosing the best enhanced oil recovery method is crucial since it gives efficient and effective results directly reflecting the course’s content on thermal oil recovery and heavy and unconventional reservoirs and health and economic implications of EOR and the newer cleaner EOR technologies module comparing plasma pulsing and other alternatives to steam.
Be inspired by leading Enhanced Oil Recovery achievements. Register now to build the skills your organization needs for CO₂ miscible injection and polymer flooding and thermal EOR simulation excellence!
