Foamy Oil Tests on Sand-Pack Systems
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The term ì foamy oil î was coined to describe a certain kind of heavy oil discovered in some reservoirs in the Lloydminster area of Canada and in the Orinoco Belt of Venezuela. This oil is characterized by its foamy-like appearance, its reduced apparent viscosity and its high primary-production indices. Many theories have been given about the origin of these features, but the questions remain largely unanswered.A laboratory apparatus was built to obtain data on foamy oil flow regimes, and on variation with oil properties and production rates. For this purpose, a sand pack system, mineral oil, and a visualization cell were used. The system was connected to a digital pressure transducer. A positive displacement pump controlled the production rate. The visualization cell at the core outlet provided images of the development of bubbles in the system. A digital camera was used to record these images. Two types of experiments were made: 'open valve' tests, in which the sand pack had a constant pressure source from a pressurized oil bomb and depletion tests in which the energy for production came only from gas liberation within the pore space of the sand pack system.The pressure-time data indicates that the process follows a pattern of sharp pressure drop in the first stages of the depletion, and then a small pressure build-up that tended to stabilize to about half of the initial pressure. The oil recovery obtained for the experiments varies from 18 to 21%.The visual results obtained indicate the presence of small bubbles at the outlet of the core holder, and coalesced sections of gas at the outlet of the visualization cell. These bubbles were of a volume between 0.3 and 0.9% of the pore volume (0.05 to 0.15 cm^3).The results of these experiments lead us to believe that oil viscosity leads an important role in the heavy-oil solution gas drive processes and that there is a high recovery factor linked to slow depletion processes.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | June 2000 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Vega Martin, Bolivia |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Kovscek, Anthony R. |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Petroleum Engineering |
Subjects
| Subject | School of Earth Energy & Environmental Sciences |
|---|---|
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Vega Martin, Bolivia. (2000). Foamy Oil Tests on Sand-Pack Systems. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/dr445vb3882
Collection
Master's Theses, Doerr School of Sustainability
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