UNIVERSITY OF KARBALA

COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

PETROLEUM ENG. DEP

Immiscible and miscible gases injection to

improve oil recovery in oil reservoirs

A Report

Submitted to petroleum engineering department of university of karbala

By:--

Ali Mahmoud Ayal

Supervisor:

Dr. Dheiaa Alfarge

Date
1 28/6/2020
Introduction

Miscible gas injection is an efficient EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) technique which can be used
to increase the recovery from oil reservoirs. Injection gases (e.g. N2, C1, CO2, C2) can become
miscible with the oil only if they mix and form one homogeneous phase in all proportions.. In
fact, achieving miscibility between the injected gas and the reservoir oil provides a very high
displacement efficiency where the residual oil can be less than 5%. Miscible gas injection must
be performed at a high enough pressure to ensure miscibility between the injected gas and in situ
oil. Miscibility is achieved when interfacial tension (IFT) between the aqueous and oleic phases
is significantly reduced. The desired IFT reduction is typically from around 1 dyne/cm to 0.001
dyne/cm or less. Any reduction in IFT can improve displacement efficiency, and a near miscible
process can yield much of the incremental oil that might be obtained from a miscible process. If
reservoir pressure is not maintained above the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) of the
.system, the gasflood will be an immiscible gas injection process

The fluid most commonly used for miscible displacement is carbon dioxide because it reduces
the oil viscosity and is less expensive than liquefied petroleum gas. Miscible displacement is also
.called miscible gasdrive, miscible drive or miscible flood

Gases can become miscible with the oil either statically or dynamically. Static miscibility from
its name does not require movement or multiple contacts to achieve miscibility. That is to say
that the gas can become miscible with the oil at first contact. This process is described as First
Contact Miscibility (FCM). Dynamic miscibility from its name requires movement or multiple
contacts to achieve miscibility. That is to say that the gas can become miscible with the oil after
.multiple contacts. This process is described as Multi Contact Miscibility (MCM)

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Theory

There are two major types of gas injection, miscible gas injection and immiscible gas injection. In
miscible gas injection, the gas is injected at or above minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) which causes
the gas to be miscible in the oil. On the other hand in immiscible gas injection, flooding by the gas is
conducted below MMP. This low pressure injection of gas is used to maintain reservoir pressure to
prevent production cut-off and thereby increase the rate of production. Gas injection processes can be
-: broken down into the following techniques

Carbon Dioxide Process

Oil displacement may be initiated by a number of mechanisms due to injection of CO2 into oil reservoirs.  
Carbon dioxide is not usually miscible with reservoir oil upon initial contact, however it may create a
miscible front like the lean gas process. So, there are two major types of CO2 floods; miscible flood in
which the gas is injected at or above the MMP, and immiscible flood in which flooding by the gas is
conducted below the MMP. Miscibility is initiated by the extraction of large amounts of heavier
.hydrocarbons (C5 to C30) by CO2

.High Pressure Lean Gas Miscible Process

This process involves the continuous injection of high pressure methane, ethane, nitrogen, or flue gas  
into the reservoir. The lean gas process, similar to enriched gas, involves multiple contacts between
reservoir oil and lean gas before forming a miscible bank. But, there is a difference in the enriched gas
process where light components condense out of the injected gas and into the oil, then intermediate
.hydrocarbon fractions (C2 to C6) are stripped from the oil into the lean gas phase

Liquefied Petroleum Gas Miscible Slug

Displacement by miscible slug usually refers to the injection of some liquid solvent that is miscible upon .
first contact with the resident crude oil. In particular, this process uses a slug of propane or other liquefied
petroleum gas (2 to 5% PV [pore volume]) tailed by natural gas, inert gas, and/or water. Thus, the solvent
.will bank oil and water ahead of it and fully displace all contacted oil

Enriched Gas Miscible Process

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In the enriched gas process, a slug of methane enriched with ethane, propane, or butane (10 to 20% PV)  
and tailed by lean gas and/or water is injected into the reservoir. When the injected gas contacts virgin
.reservoir oil, the enriching components are slaked from the injected gas and absorbed into the oil
Immiscible gas injection techniques

Immiscible gas injection is usually classified as either crestal or pattern, depending on the
location of the gas injection wells {3}. The same physical principles of oil displacement apply to
either type of operation; however, the overall objectives, type of field selected, and analytical
procedures for predicting reservoir performance vary considerably by gas injection method. This
.pages discusses the general technical features of the various immiscible gas injection projects

Crestal gas injection

Crestal gas injection, sometimes called external or gas-cap injection, uses injection wells in
higher structural positions, usually in the primary or secondary gas cap. This manner of injection
is generally used in reservoirs with significant structural relief or thick oil columns with good
vertical permeability. Injection wells are positioned to provide good areal distribution and to
obtain maximum benefit of gravity drainage. The number of injection wells required for a
specific reservoir depends on the injectivity of individual wells and the distribution needed to
maximize the volume of the oil column contacted. Crestal injection, when applicable, is superior
.to pattern injection because of the benefits of gravity drainage

Pattern gas injection

Pattern gas injection, sometimes called dispersed or internal gas injection, consists of a
geometric arrangement of injection wells for the purpose of uniformly distributing the injected
gas throughout the oil-productive portions of the reservoir. In practice, injection-well/production-
well arrays often vary from the conventional regular pattern configurations—e.g., five-spot,
seven-spot, nine-spot to irregular injection-well spacing. The selection of an injection
arrangement is a function of reservoir structure, sand continuity, permeability and porosity levels
.and variations, and the number and relative locations of existing wells

This method of injection has been applied to reservoirs having low structural relief, relatively
homogeneous reservoirs with low permeabilities, and reservoirs with low vertical permeability.
Many early immiscible gas-injection projects were of this type. The greater injection-well
density results in pattern gas injection, rapid pressure and production response, and shortened
.reservoir depletion times

There are several limitations to pattern-type gas injection. Little or no improvement in recovery
is derived from structural position or gravity drainage because both injection and production
wells are located in all areas of the reservoir. Low areal sweep efficiency results from gas

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override in thin stringers and by viscous fingering of gas caused by high flow velocities and
adverse mobility ratios. High injection-well density increases installation and operating costs.
Typical results of applying pattern injection in low-dip reservoirs are
 Rapid gas breakthrough -1

High producing GORs-2

Significant gas compression costs to reinject the gas into the reservoir-3

An improved recovery of < 10% of original oil in place (OOIP)-4

GAS MISCIBLE RECOVERY

Miscible Recovery

Carbon Dioxide Flooding

Cyclic Carbon Dioxide Stimulation

Nitrogen Flooding

Nitrogen CO2 Flooding

Hydrocarbone

Nitrogen Injection

As previously discussed one of the enhanced oil recovery methods is gas injection. In miscible
gas injection, the gas is injected at or above the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) which
causes the gas to be miscible in oil. Primary conditions affecting miscibility are: composition,
.fluid characteristics, pressure, and temperature

Nitrogen has long been successfully used as the injection fluid for EOR and widely used in oil
field operations for gas cycling, reservoir pressure maintenance, and gas lift. The costs and
limitations on the availability of natural gas and CO2 have made nitrogen an economic
alternative for oil recovery by miscible gas displacement. Nitrogen is usually cheaper than CO2
or a hydrocarbon derived gas for displacement in EOR applications and has the added benefit of
.being non-corrosive

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There are few known correlations to determine the MMP of nitrogen since the available literature
data on the MMP of nitrogen with crude oils and synthetic oil are scarce. Nitrogen MMP of
different oils is a function of the temperature, reservoir fluid composition, and pressure on
.miscibility
Figure () Nitrogen Injection displacment N2 by water

-: Carbon Dioxide Flooding

Carbon dioxide (CO2) flooding is a process whereby carbon dioxide is injected into an oil
reservoir in order to increase output when extracting oil{1} . Carbon dioxide flooding  one of the
most promising enhanced oil recovery method. To overcome the tendency of CO2 to bypass the
smaller pores containing residual oil, one approach is to plug the larger pores by chemical
precipitation. Several, relatively inexpensive, water-soluble salts of alkaline earth metals react
with CO2 to form a precipitate. carbon dioxide flooding can be an ideal tertiary recovery method.
It is particularly effective in reservoirs deeper than 2,500 ft. after considering the safety and
economics that achieving miscible phases is one of big challenge in fields with extremely high
minimum miscible pressure (MMP). Compared with CO2 miscible flooding, immisible flooding

6.of CO2 demonstrates the great potential under varying reservoir/fluid conditions
Figure (1) C02 Flood Injection process

Nitrogen-CO2 flooding

is actually a variation of CO2 flooding that is applied to reduce the cost of using CO2, which
must be brought in by pipeline or tank truck, a relatively expensive operation. Because nitrogen
can be manufactured on site at a greatly reduced cost, it is an attractive alternative. Nitrogen can
be extracted from air by cryogenic separation, the source is unlimited, and it is an inert,
noncorrosive gas. In applying the process, nitrogen is injected into the reservoir to displace the
.CO2 slug and its associated oil bank

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Figure (2) Nitrogen-CO2 flooding process

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Cyclic Carbon Dioxide Stimulation
The cyclic or huff-n-puff carbon dioxide process as described and practiced in the prior art is a
immiscible process due to the reservoir conditions in which it is applied and because it is
considered undesirable to push the hydrocarbons further away from the well on which the cyclic
process is being applied. The process invariably is applied to pressure depleted reservoirs as a
tertiary recovery step after the reservoir has been waterflooded out. These are pressure depleted
reservoirs.{2}

The typical cyclic carbon dioxide application relies on the injection of carbon dioxide in an
immiscible condition to the hydrocarbons. Injection displaces a large proportion of the water
phase within the wellbore vicinity, while bypassing the residual oil-in-place. Although the
carbon dioxide absorbs into both the oil and remaining water, absorption into oil is a much
slower process than absorption into water. For this reason the well is shut-in for what is termed a
soak period. During the soak period, the oil will experience swelling, viscosity and interfacial
tension reduction, and an increase in its relative mobility. When the well is returned to
production, a portion of the mobilized oil is swept to the wellbore and produced. The prior art
has considered it undesirable to perform a cyclic carbon dioxide process under miscible
conditions since injection would push the hydrocarbons farther away from the wellbore, and
.render the hydrocarbons less likely to be recovered during the production phase

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Figure ( 3) Cyclic Carbon Dioxide show huff- puff proceses

CONCLUSION

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Immiscible gas/oil viscous displacement is an inefficient oil displacement process when gas is a -1
.highly mobile fluid

Gas-oil capillary pressure data indicate that in many situations the residual oil saturation to gas -2
.displacement is significantly lower than the residual oil saturation to water displacement
The immiscible gas/oil process becomes efficient and desirable when gravity works to keep -3
the very-low-density gas on top of the higher-density oil and/or there is significant mass transfer
.of components from the oil to the gas

The most successful immiscible gas/oil injection projects are the vertical gravity drainage -4
projects in which gas is injected into the crestal primary or secondary gas cap, with the oil wells
producing from as far downdip as possible to maximize this distance from the gas cap both
vertically and laterally. To maximize the efficiency of this approach, the overall oil production
.rate has to be restricted to the critical displacement rate

One gas/oil compositional mass-transfer effect is oil swelling. If an oil field contains a very -5
undersaturated oil, then oil swelling by contact with the injected gas can be a very significant
.effect

The other gas/oil compositional mass-transfer effect is stripping or vaporization of intermediate -6

hydrocarbon components from the oil by the lean injected gas. The importance of this effect increases
as the producing gas-oil ratio (GOR) rises. Toward the end of the life of an immiscible gas injection
project, the stripping effect can contribute many of the liquid hydrocarbons produced in the surface
facilities and associated gas plants. This effect occurs with all types of oils but is more significant for
.lighter, or higher American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity, oils

A few immiscible gas injection field projects have been undertaken that are not vertical gas/oil -7
.gravity drainage projects but in which compositional effects have led to project success

Gas coning into producing wellbores’ perforated intervals occurs with thin oil columns or as the -8
gas/oil interface moves downward. Horizontal wells are a method of further reducing the height of the
.remaining oil column by lowering pressure drawdown and thus minimizing the effects of gas coning

Numerical reservoir simulators are the best tool to evaluate all the technical aspects of an -9
immiscible gas injection project, either historical performance and/or projections of future
performance. Simple mathematical techniques have been developed to analyze some types of
.immiscible gas/oil displacements

Refereances

Carlson, L.O. 1988. Performance of Hawkins Field Unit Under Gas Drive-Pressure Maintenance -1

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Operations and Development of an Enhanced Oil Recovery Project. Presented at the SPE Enhanced Oil
.Recovery Symposium, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 16–21 April. SPE-17324-MS

Shehabi, J.A.N. 1979. Effective Displacement of Oil by Gas Injection in a Preferentially Oil-Wet, -2
.Low-Dip Reservoir. J Pet Technol 31 (12): 1605-1613. SPE-7652-PA
Awan, A.R., R. Teigland and J. Kleppe, 2008. A survey of North Sea enhanced-oil-recovery projects -3
.initiated during the years 1975 to 2005. SPE Reserv. Eval. Eng., 11: 497-512

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