Recent Progress of High-Pressure Air Injection (HPAI) Process in Light Oil Reservoir: Laboratory Investigation and Field Application

摘要

High-Pressure Air Injection (HPAI) in light oil reservoirs has been proven to be a valuable IOR (Improved Oil Recovery) process and caused more attention worldwide. In this paper, we give an overview of the recent progress of HPAI technique, based on a review of some representative HPAI projects including completed and ongoing projects. Some most important aspects for HPAI field application are discussed in depth, including reservoir screening criterion, recognition of recovery mechanism, laboratory study, numerical simulation, gas breakthrough control, tubing corrosion consideration and safety monitoring. With the successful HPAI application in Zhong Yuan Oil Field in China, it is estimated that foam or polymer gel assisted air injection should continue to grow in the next decade as a derived technology of HPAI for application in high-temperature high-heterogeneity reservoirs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ranges of some key parameters, new understanding based on laboratory test and successful field application, thus to provide lessons learnt and best practices for the guideline to achieve high-performance HPAI project.