Predictability of Crude Oil In-Situ Combustion by the Isoconversional Kinetic Approach Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Summary One method to access unconventional heavy-crude-oil resources as well as residual oil after conventional recovery operations is to apply in-situ combustion (ISC) enhanced oil recovery. ISC oxidizes in place a small fraction of the hydrocarbon, thereby providing heat to reduce oil viscosity and increase reservoir pressure. Both effects serve to enhance recovery. The complex nature of petroleum as a multicomponent mixture and the multistep character of combustion reactions substantially complicate analysis of crude-oil oxidation and the identification of settings where ISC could be successful. In this study, isoconversional analysis of ramped temperature-oxidation (RTO) kinetic data was applied to eight different crude-oil samples. In addition, combustion-tube runs that explore ignition and combustion-front propagation were carried out. By using experimentally determined combustion kinetics of eight crude-oil samples along with combustion-tube results, we show that isoconversional analysis of RTO data is useful to predict combustion-front propagation. Isoconversional analysis also provides new insight into the nature of the reactions occurring during ISC. Additionally, five of the 10 crude-oil/rock systems studied employed a carbonate rock. No system displayed excessive oxygen consumption resulting from carbonate decomposition at combustion temperatures. This result is encouraging as it contributes to widening of the applicability of ISC.

published proceedings

  • SPE JOURNAL

author list (cited authors)

  • Cinar, M., Hascakir, B., Castanier, L. M., & Kovscek, A. R.

citation count

  • 47

complete list of authors

  • Cinar, Murat||Hascakir, Berna||Castanier, Louis M||Kovscek, Anthony R

publication date

  • September 2011