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Essay on Enhanced Oil Recovery

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INTRODUCTION

Oil and Gas refers to the naturally occurring liquid and natural gas specifically made up of long chain hydrocarbons and various organic compounds found beneath the surface of the earth in entrapments called reservoirs; the presence of oil and gas in these reservoirs is the reason humans survive everyday and carry out their daily activities effectively. Different activities are usually carried out to ensure that the oil and gas present in the reservoirs continue to support humans through their day-to-day activities; such activities include exploration, development, production and finally, abandonment and reclamation. This process is what is referred to as “the oil and gas process”. On completion of this process, numerous …show more content…

The minimum miscibility pressure of nitrogen depends largely on the pressure, temperate and the composition of the reservoir fluid. According to Schlumberger, “above the MMP, nitrogen injection is a miscible vaporizing drive. Miscibility of nitrogen can be achieved only with light oils that are at high pressures; therefore, the miscible method is suitable only in deep reservoirs” (2011). Both methods of miscible injection from past experiences have proved very effective. When oil has been effectively recovered from these reservoirs using the miscible gas, the gas that has mixed with the recovered oil is separated from the oil and re-injected into the reservoir to enhance the oil recovery once again. This process can be repeated until the reservoir is completely depleted and cannot produce any more oil. Note that nitrogen gas injection is used when dealing with reservoir containing light oils and also very economical allowing a recovery of up to 40%. A practical example of nitrogen gas injection is in the Cantarell oil field in Mexico. Upon application of this enhanced oil recovery methods, there was a noticeable increase in the oil production from 1.9 million bpd to 2.1 million bpd.

Fig 1: Typical illustration of the miscible gas process using CO2 and water (University of Kansas, 1999)

CHEMICAL FLOODING

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