Heavy Crude Oil Recovery

Within the last 10 years the world has come to a point where the easily explorable oil deposits have now been found, and it is anticipated that such deposits will be depleted by the beginning of the Twenty-first Century. However, the increasing demand of man kind for energy has caused technologists to look into ways of find ing new sources or to reevaluat:e unconventional sources which, in the past, have not been economical. In this respect, heavy crude and tar sand oils are becoming important in fulfilling the world's energy requirements. What are heavy crude and tar sand oils? There is still some confusion as to their definitions, inasmuch as they vary among organizations and countries. In an effort to set agreed meanings, UNITAR, in a meeting in February 1982 in Venezuela, proposed the following definitions (see also Table 1): 1. Heavy crude oil and tar sand oil are petroleum or petroleum like liquids or semi-solids naturally occurring in porous media. The porous media are sands, sandstone, and carbonate rocks. 2. These oils will be characterized by viscosity and density. Viscosity will be used to define heavy crude oil and tar sand oil, and density (oAPI) will be used when viscosity measurements are not available. 3. Heavy crude oil has a gas-free viscosity of 100-10000 mPa.s (cp) 3 o at reservoir temperatures, or a density of 943 kg/m (20 API) 3 o o to 1000 kg/m (10 API) at 15.6 C and at atmospheric oressure.

Heavy Oil Recovery and Upgrading covers properties, factors, methods and all current and upcoming processes, giving engineers, new and experienced, the full spectrum of recovery choices, including SAGD, horizontal well technology, and hybrid approaches. Moving on to the upgrading and refining of the product, the book also includes information on in situ upgrading, refining options, and hydrogen production. Rounding out with environmental effects, management methods on refinery waste, and the possible future configurations within the refinery, this book provides engineers with a single source to make decisions and manage the full range of challenges. Presents the properties, mechanisms, screening criteria and field applications for heavy oil enhanced recovery projects Includes current upgrading options and future methods for refining heavy oil development Fills in the gaps between literature and practical application for everyday industry reference

Describes the recovery of heavy oils and bitumen by in situ thermal methods and discusses the technical factors and problems involved. The book summarizes, in a quantitative manner, techniques used in current petroleum industry practice.

Cold production is a solution-gas drive process in which a reservoir saturated with live heavy oil reservoir is depleted as quickly as possible to generate relatively stable gas bubbles leading to higher oil recoveries (5–10% original oil in place (OOIP)) than for light oils (2–5% OOIP). More specifically, these bubbles increase the oil/gas mixture compressibility, which maintains the reservoir pressures for longer times than for light oils.

Hybrid Enhanced Oil Recovery Processes for Heavy Oil Reservoirs, Volume 73 systematically introduces these technologies. As the development of heavy oil reservoirs is emphasized, the petroleum industry is faced with the challenges of selecting cost-effective and environmentally friendly recovery processes. This book tackles these challenges with the introduction and investigation of a variety of hybrid EOR processes. In addition, it addresses the application of these hybrid EOR processes in onshore and offshore heavy oil reservoirs, including theoretical, experimental and simulation approaches. This book will be very useful for petroleum engineers, technicians, academics and students who need to study the hybrid EOR processes, In addition, it will provide an excellent reference for field operations by the petroleum industry. Introduces emerging hybrid EOR processes and their technical details Includes case studies to help readers understand the application potential of hybrid EOR processes from different points-of-view Features theoretical, experimental and simulation studies to help readers understand the advantages and challenges of each process