On Mechanisms of Water Flooding in Heavy Oil Systems

Water flooding is the most widely applied enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process in both light and heavy oil reservoirs. In this process, water is injected into the reservoir through an injection well to displace oil in front of it towards the production well. As discussed in the attached proposal, it is generally accepted that theories explaining water flooding performance in light oil reservoirs are not applicable to heavy oil reservoirs; nonetheless, there is a lack of detailed studies investigating the underlying mechanisms of water flooding in heavy oil systems. The goal of this visit research is to validate the mechanisms speculated based on the observations made in the core flood experiments, already done in this ongoing PhD research. The physics of two-phase flow during heavy oil water flooding at pore scale will be investigated using a lab-on-chip microfluidics. The results of this research may provide us with a better understanding of the physics and mechanisms responsible for heavy oil entrapment in pores at different wetting conditions during injection of water, as the cheapest and most available EOR fluid, into heavy oil reservoirs.

Faculty Supervisor:

Apostolos Kantzas;Steven Bryant

Student:

Partner:

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Calgary

Program: