An Experimental Investigation of the Vapor Extraction Process
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- There are extensive heavy-oil resources in the world in, for example, the U. S., Venezuela, and Canada. Gravity drainage methods are effective for producing such heavy oil and bitumen. In a typical steam-assisted-gravity-drainage process, steam is injected into a horizontal well located directly above a horizontal producer to form a steam chamber. Oil is heated, viscosity reduced, and subsequently oil is displaced. However, thermal processes especially steam injection suffer from many disadvantages. They are not effective where permafrost exists or in reservoirs with thin oil zones. On the other hand, solvent enhanced gravity drainage processes, such as vapor extraction (VAPEX) do not suffer from those shortcomings. In VAPEX, the idea is to inject solvent into the reservoir instead of steam thereby forming a vapor chamber. Vapor dissolves in the oil around the chamber. The solvent reduces oil viscosity and swells the oil phase. The resulting solution drains by gravity and is produced by a horizontal well located near the bottom of the reservoir. Instead of thermal conduction (diffusion) dispersion takes place, and, thus, the VAPEX process may be suitable for thin heavy-oil reservoirs as well as reservoirs overlain by permafrost. In this study, experiments were conducted in a scaled packed model. A viscous white mineral oil, Kaydol, is used as a model fluid. It is extracted by injecting CO2 into the system. The oil production with respect to time as well as produced gas oil ratio was studied. Experiments were conducted by employing both constant rate solvent injection and constant pressure drop between the injector and producer. Results are encouraging but illustrate the need for carefully controlled injection to prevent premature gas breakthrough and excessive producing GOR.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | August 2003 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Suicmez, Vural Sander |
|---|---|
| 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
- Suicmez, Vural Sander. (2003). An Experimental Investigation of the Vapor Extraction Process. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/fm392np1292
Collection
Master's Theses, Doerr School of Sustainability
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