Foam as an Agent to Reduce Gravity Override Effect During Gas Injection in Oil Reservoirs
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- A two-dimensional, vertical plexiglas model holding a 45 1/2 in. x 11 3/8 in. x 1/4 in. sandpack was used to investigate gravity override of injected gases in gas drive processes. Saturation of the sandpack by a surfactant solution instead of pure water sharply increased liquid recovery and breakthrough time in nitrogen flooding process. The improvement in production was shown to be due to a reduction of gravity override caused by in-situ generation of foam at the gas-liquid interface. Solutions of two different surfactants (Suntech IX and IV) of various concentrations with different amounts of alcohols have been studied as to their effectiveness as foamers. Surface tension and rate of drainage of the foamers as functions of surfactant concentration were measured. In-situ foaming in the model increased generally with surfactant concentration until an "optimum" concentration was reached; above this concentration, additional amounts of surfactant had very little effect on the phenomenon. Alcohols seem to improve low molecular weight surfactants and have a negative effect on the others. Similar increase of recovery and delay in breakthrough time was observed in oil flooding process. A slug of surfactant solution was injected into the pack saturated with oil and water at irreducible water saturation and then nitrogen was injected. Gravity override was much less than in the case when no surfactant was present.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | September 1979 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Chiang, Jin Choon |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Sanyal, Subir K. |
| 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
- Chiang, Jin Choon. (1979). Foam as an Agent to Reduce Gravity Override Effect During Gas Injection in Oil Reservoirs. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/hc325zj5890
Collection
Master's Theses, Doerr School of Sustainability
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