Effect Of Foaminess On The Performance Of Solution Gas Drive In Heavy Oil Reservoirs

摘要

Some heavy oil reservoirs under solution gas drive show abnormally high final recoveries. One of the mechanisms to explain these phenomena is the foamy oil flow effect which occurs under certain operating conditions. It has been studied extensively, yet remains poorly understood and difficult to model. The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of oil foaminess on the performance of solution gas drive in heavy oil reservoirs.rnIn this research, the first step was to find a foaming agent that will have a measurable effect on foam stability of a viscous mineral oil. A simple experimental procedure was developed to quantify the oil foaminess in the presence of an added foaming agent. Several depletion tests were conducted with the added foaming agent at different depletion rates using a two metre long sand-pack. The experimental results showed that the increased foaminess of oil did not have a significant effect on the solution gas drive performance when the depletion rate was high. However, in a slow depletion test, the effect of oil foaminess was significant.