Miscible Gas Injection Application for Enhanced Oil Recovery: Data Analysis

Abstract

One of the most common techniques used to increase oil recovery is gas injection. The gas injection can be either miscible or immiscible depending on the injection pressure. Miscibility can be reached when the pressure exceeds the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP). Temperature and pressure are important factors that usually affect the MMP. Oil properties play an important role in the success of miscible injection, with the miscible gas injection working optimally when oil is light. Here, we performed data analysis based on more than 1500 experiments, simulation and field tests from more than 170 researchers to show the conditions at which miscible injection can be applied. We investigated various gases, including carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N2), and hydrocarbon gases. Different statistical analysis tools, including histograms, boxplots, and cross-plots, are used in this study. The data demonstrate that CO2 is the most commonly used gas during miscible injection. The majority of studies performed their experiments at temperatures between 40 to 100 °C using oil with a viscosity of 0.25 to 1.5 cp, and an API gravity between 35.1 to 45 °API. Since a variety of gases have been investigated in this research, a variety of MMP has been reported.

Meeting Name

54th U.S. Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics Symposium (2020: Jun. 28-Jul. 1, Virtual)

Department(s)

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2020 American Rock Mechanics Association (ARMA), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jul 2020

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