Direct Current Stimulation-New Approach to Enhancing Heavy Oil Production
North America has more than 2500 oil fields containing heavy oil in the United States and more than 1.5 to 1.8 trillion barrels of oil reserves in oil shale. Canadian sources report more than 5910 million cubic meters of heavy oil reserves. The shallowest reservoirs may be mined while Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) may work well for deeper formation. The maximum depth for steam extraction has been increasing but the practical limit still appears to be between 2000 and 2500ft. Deeper heavy oil reserves require alternative technologies. These deep heavy oil reserves could be recovered using electrical stimulation. The advantages of electrical stimulation may not be obvious given the perception that electricity is an expensive energy source. It is time that the advantages of direct current electrical stimulation, which we call Electro-Enhanced Oil Recovery (EEOR), are discussed In this presentation, advantages of EEOR will be outlined, including data produced from field demonstrations and the results of recent laboratory studies. Field studies in California have demonstrated up to a tenfold increase in oil production from a field containing 8° API gravity oil. Recent research has demonstrated that the EEOR process is also capable of cold cracking of heavy oil in-situ, resuhing in lighter oil and increased reservoir pressures. EEOR can function at depths below 10000 feet, well below the 2500 ft. practical limit for steam flooding. Observed changes in the produced fluids include: Increased oil production, produced oil viscosity reduction, water cut reduction, H<,2>S reduction, Increased gas production, produced gas energy (heavy gas) increase and PAH reduction.
J. K. WITTLE D. G. HILL
Electro-Petroleum, Inc. Consulting Petrophysicist University of Southern California
国际会议
首届世界重油大会(The Technical Sessions of the First World Heavy Oil Conference)
北京
英文
756-768
2006-11-12（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）