Enhanced Oil Recovery –

Thermal Recovery Processes

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Introduction
▪ Thermal Recovery processes
► Use of thermal energy to increase reservoir temperature, thereby reducing oil
viscosity
► Cyclic steam stimulation; Steam drive and Forward in-situ combustion

▪ Motivation
► Production from reservoirs containing billions of barrels of heavy oil and tar sands
was too low
► Oil viscosity was so high that primary recovery is in the order of a few percent of
OOIP; even negligible in some reservoirs

▪ Table 8.1 summarizes the criteria for thermal recovery processes

► These criteria may be used as a guide in selecting candidates type of thermal
recovery process
► Exceptions may be found in specific reservoirs

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▪ Criteria where there are significant differences are depth, reservoir pressure
and average reservoir permeability

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▪ Depth
► For steam processes, depth is limited to the order of 3000 ft because wellbore heat
losses can become excessive.
► However, insulated injection tubing can be used to reduce heat losses and increase
this depth.
► For in-situ combustion, depth is limited to 11500 ft; but, if air can be injected at the
reservoir pressure and crude oil deposits sufficient fuel to sustain the combustion front.

▪ Reservoir Pressure
► The temperature of steam increases with pressure, as does heat loss to the
surroundings.
► Consequently, under the same conditions, the volume of the reservoir that can be
contacted by steam decreases with injection pressure – in steam drive projects.
► Most successful steam injection projects operate at pressures in the order of 1500 psi
or lower.
► Reservoir pressure is not limited by similar mechanism in in-situ combustion.

▪ Permeability
► Air injection rates are sufficient to sustain the combustion front
► In low-permeability reservoirs, it is not possible to inject steam at sufficient rates to
propagate a steam zone appreciable distances into the reservoir. © 2015 UPES

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Cyclic steam stimulation
▪ Cyclic steam stimulation was discovered accidentally in 1959
▪ In cyclic steam stimulation
► Steam is injected into production well for 2 to 4 weeks
► Well is shut in and allowed to soak before returning to production

▪ Initial oil rate is high because of reduced oil viscosities at increased

reservoir temperatures
▪ With time, the heated-zone temperature declines as a result of heat
removed with the produced fluids and conduction losses to over- and
underlying formations.
▪ Oil rates decline as the heated-zone temperature and oil viscosity
increase.
▪ When the production declines to a predetermined level, another cycle
of steam injection is initiated (upto 20 cycles). © 2015 UPES

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▪ Cyclic steam stimulation is preferred when the natural reservoir
energy has not been depleted.
► Oil rate is primarily controlled by the flow resistance in the immediate vicinity of
the wellbore.

▪ Steam drive is used when the reservoir energy is depleted.

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▪ The oil production rate when the wellbore pressure is maintained at pw
is given by

▪ Initial oil rate is computed as 116.6 stb/d.

▪ When effective reservoir pressure is 50 psi
and BHP in production well is 10 psi, the
Production rate = 11.68 stb/d
▪ After steam injection, the impact of increasing
the temperature to Ts for the radius rh can be determined.

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▪ The model discussed does not account
for the decline in the temperature of the
heated zone with time, which occurs
because of heat losses and removal of
heat with the produced fluids.
▪ Boberg and Lantz model accounts for
heat losses.
▪ Another significant factor is the removal
of wellbore damage.
▪ Fig 8.14 contains a damaged zone of
radius rd with permeability kd < k

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▪ Defining the skin factor for the heated reservoir, sh

▪ The oil rate can be calculated by using

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 Reservoir heating by steam injection using
Marx – Langenheim model
▪ Assumptions
► Steam is uniformly distributed in the vertical cross section throughout the heated
region so that temperature is uniform through the vertical cross section.
► The reservoir thickness is uniform.
► The fluid and rock properties are uniform.
► Consider no gravity segregation.
► No heat is lost ahead of heated area.

▪ The model is derived from energy

balance

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▪ Hs = energy content of the injected steam relative to the reservoir
temperature, Btu/lbm
▪ 𝑚ሶ 𝑠 = steam injection rate, lbm/hr
▪ MR = Volumetric heat capacity of heated region, Btu/(ft3-0F)
▪ Ah = heated area, ft2
▪ h = thickness of heated zone, ft
▪ t = time since start of injection, hr
▪ α = thermal diffusivity, ft2/h
▪ Ms = volumetric heat capacity of over and under-burden, Btu/(ft3-0F)
▪ tD = dimensionless time for heat transfer

▪ G(tD) and G1(tD) are functions of tD, tabulated in table 8.8 © 2015 UPES

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Determination of radius of steam zone for constant injection
rate
▪ Example 8.4 – The steam with the quality of 80% at pressure 500 psig
is injected to the reservoir at a rate of 500 BWPD CWE. The reservoir
has 25% porosity. The initial saturations of oil and water are 0.2 and
0.8 respectively. The volume occupied by the steam is 40% of PV.
Reservoir thickness is 20 ft. The thermal conductivity of the
overburden, kh = 1.5 Btu/(hr.ft.0F) and the thermal diffusivity of the
overburden, α = 0.0482 ft2/hr. Find the radius of the heated area after
14 days of continuous injection, assuming the area is in cylindrical
shape. (Reservoir temperature = 800F)

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In-situ combustion
▪ Oxygen containing gas is injected into a reservoir that reacts with
crude oil to create a high temperature combustion front that is
propagated through the reservoir.
► Possible if crude oil/rock combustion produces enough fuel to sustain the
combustion front

▪ Two types, based on respective directions of front propagation and air

flow
► Forward combustion – Dry combustion & Wet combustion
► Reverse combustion – Unsuccessful economically

▪ In wet combustion, water is injected simultaneously with the injected

gas or alternated in slugs.
▪ In-situ combustion is potentially useful for deep, high pressure
reservoirs.
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Dry combustion - Mechanism
▪ In-situ combustion occurs when oxygen reacts with the coke
contained within the pore space of a porous rock to create a self-
sustaining combustion front.
▪ Ignition may be induced through electrical or gas igniters or may be
spontaneous.
▪ When the reservoir is relatively thin, the displacement process
behaves like a frontal-advance process.

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▪ A narrow combustion zone forms where temperatures may be very high.
▪ The injected air is preheated to combustion temperature (650 to
1,2000F) as it flows through the rock behind the combustion zone.
▪ Combustion products, primarily water (as water vapor), CO2, and CO,
flow ahead of the slowly moving front.
▪ In a fully developed front, hot combustion gases strip light ends from the
crude oil flowing ahead of the front.
▪ Hydrocarbons stripped by the hot combustion gases and water vapor
condense to form a small steam plateau of hot water and light
hydrocarbon banks
▪ The oil saturation that remains after steam stripping is subjected to
thermal cracking as the combustion front approaches, leaving a residual
deposit on the sand grains that is rich in carbon. © 2015 UPES

▪ This residuum becomes the fuel for the process.

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▪ In general, 5% to 10% of the oil is consumed.
▪ Hydrocarbon products and other compounds released by the cracking
process (SO2, CO, CH4 and H2) join the combustion gases and are
either absorbed by crude oil ahead of the front or are produced in the
effluent.
▪ When the reservoir is thick and has good vertical permeability, gravity
segregation occurs.
▪ The combustion front migrates to the top of the reservoir where it
stretches out across the reservoir as shown.

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▪ The combustion front expands horizontally and vertically in a
complicated manner.
▪ The same process mechanisms are present when gravity segregation
occurs, but front movement is influenced by the complex multiphase
flow pattern inherent in a combustion front that expands both vertically
and horizontally.
▪ The reservoir under the combustion front is heated by conduction.
▪ Factors that control the in-situ combustion process
► Fuel availability
► Air requirement
► Air flux

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Fuel availability
▪ Amount of the fuel laid down by the advancing combustion front
▪ Fuel availability can be expressed as
► lbm fuel (hydrocarbon)/100 lbm rock
► lbm fuel (hydrocarbon)/ft3 rock
► lbm carbon/ft3 rock

▪ Two distinct combustion regimes exist

► High temperature oxidation (HTO) – Combustion temperature exceeds 6500F and
combustion products are CO2, CO and water.
► Low temperature oxidation (LTO) – Combustion temperature is under 6500F and
water and oxygenated hydrocarbons are formed.

▪ Fuel availability under the conditions of HTO is usually determined

from analysis of laboratory combustion experiments.
► Several other techniques were developed that are less complicated than running
a combustion tube – Flood pot technique
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► Empirical correlations have been developed between fuel availability and process
variables
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▪ Though scattered, the trend shows that fuel availability decreases with
oil gravity.
▪ Fuel availability for a 100API oil is three times the fuel availability for a
300API oil.

▪ Fuel availability depends on the porous matrix and the amounts of

clay and metallic minerals present in it. © 2015 UPES

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Air requirement
▪ Combustion front can advance only by consuming fuel.
▪ Thus, the air required will be directly proportional to the fuel availability.
▪ The air requirement for dry forward combustion is defined as the
standard volume of air required to burn a unit volume of reservoir.
▪ aR = scf/ft3 reservoir volume burnt
▪ The air requirement is calculated from combustion stoichiometry from
the apparent H/C ratio of the fuel.

▪ EO2 = combustion efficiency of oxygen, fraction

▪ yiO2 = mole fraction oxygen in the injected gas
▪ mR = fuel availability; FHC = H/C ratio of the fuel © 2015 UPES

▪ m = moles CO2 produced/moles CO produced

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▪ Some of the injected air doesn’t contribute to the combustion
efficiency, as it is stored in the burned volume.

▪ The air requirement can be experimentally determined during steady

state combustion by measuring the injected air rate and the
combustion front velocity.

▪ ua = injected air flux, scf/ft2-hr

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Air flux
▪ The minimum frontal advance rate to sustain combustion is normally
expressed in terms of a minimum air flux.
▪ The air flux, uam, is the volumetric rate of air required per unit cross
sectional area of the burning front and is defined by,

▪ vfm = minimum burning front velocity

▪ uam = minimum air flux at the combustion front

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References

▪ Willhite, G. P. and Green, D. W., Introduction to

EOR processes, SPE Textbook series, Texas,
1998.

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