Welcome

Introduction

As conventional-oil resources are depleted worldwide, vast heavy oil reserves available in various parts of the world become increasingly important as a secure future energy source. Traditional heavy oil recovery efforts include thermal methods (steam floods, cyclic steam stimulation, SAGD) as well as non-thermal methods (cold flow with sand production, cyclic solvent process, VAPEX). Significant improvements to the effectiveness of these methods can be achieved by developing a basic understanding of the complex displacement mechanisms and by developing new techniques for in situ characterization of fluid and reservoir characteristics. Development of optimal strategies for recovering these reserves requires the development of state-of-the-art reservoir flow simulator(s) that incorporate techniques for coupling geomechanics and fluid flow besides accurately representing thermal, phase equilibria and mass transfer effects. Improved recovery efficiency can also be achieved by various combinations of thermal and non-thermal processes. In addition, recent advances in drilling and production from unconsolidated sands allow us to develop heavy oil recovery strategies that may not have been possible a decade ago.

The Improved Heavy Oil Research Project is a comprehensive research program that investigates these issues pertaining to heavy oil production. The program's focus is on investigating fundamental concepts such as grain-fluid interactions, mass transfer associated with chemical processes at elevated temperatures and scale up of recovery processes that involve chemical reactions, physical dispersion and convective transport. Results from these basic studies will be utilized to develop practical tools that will assist in the planning and implementation of field scale heavy oil recovery processes. The development of constitutive relations that will accurately describe the reservoir deformations associated with heavy oil production, numerical simulators that incorporate these constitutive relations, scale up procedures that will help translate laboratory measurements to field scale predictions and optimal strategies for enhanced heavy oil production using a combination of steam and chemicals will be the immediate deliverables of the research program. The research program capitalizes on the excellent research infrastructure prevalent at the University of Texas at Austin. The selection of research projects is based on the rankings provided by the participants of a workshop on improved heavy oil recovery conducted at UT each year.

Program organization and funding level

The research program is directed by Dr. Sanjay Srinivasan and brings together several faculty members, research associates, laboratory technicians and graduate students in the Center for Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering.

In order to ensure adequate progress on the selected projects a funding level of $60,000 per company per year is solicited. The center has negotiated a deal with the university under which industrial affiliate projects established within the center are allowed to collect funds on a non-overhead basis. The above-mentioned funding level is based on that non-overhead basis. Funding is distributed to the research groups constituting the research program based on the scope of the research proposed and the requirements for laboratory research. A workshop will be organized at the conclusion of each year's research to present research results to the industrial affiliates and to solicit feedback. A bound compilation of research reports and papers will also be made available to the workshop participants.

The proposed projects build on a substantial body of previous and ongoing research. Current projects that are directly related include two students funded by US Department of Agriculture to examine transport of particles in porous media at the grain scale; one student funded by DOE to compute a priori fluid configurations at the grain scale; one student funded by DOE to compute fluid flow at the grain scale as the geometry of pore space is altered by biological processes; one self-funded student developing a grain-scale simulation of immiscible fluid displacement controlled by viscous forces; one student funded by an industrial consortium to compute grain-scale mechanics of fracture initiation and propagation. Every attempt will also be made to leverage the support extended by industrial participants for obtaining additional support from DOE.