The use of ionic liquids (ILs) in enhanced oil recovery is considered a new and promising technology as it has never been tested in any pilot plant or reservoir field. ILs are very similar to surfactants as they help reduce the interfacial tension, change the wettability of the reservoir, and some have strong viscous effect, […]

Carbon capture and storage is a feasible, reliable and economic approach to reduce CO2 emission. Llydiminster area on the boarder of the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta is an area with significant heavy oil production and a large amount of CO2 resources from thermal operated heavy oil production facilities and oil upgraders. Deploying CCU technology […]

This project aims to provide Canadian petroleum companies a comprehensive big-data-analytics tool that concludes the essential controlling parameters which enable successful experimental and numerical studies on CO2-based solvent injection processes in post-CHOPS reservoirs. The proposed database includes relevant experimental research work that expand through multiple experimentation scales, as well as relevant numerical research work that […]

Deliberate massive sand influx used to increase oil recovery from shallow heavy oil resources ultimately results in low oil recovery. This means 85-95% of oil would remain unrecovered during the co-production of oil and sand process, which is referred to as Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand (CHOPS). In this project, we looked at the […]

This research work will establish a systematic workflow for analyzing transient equilibrium foamy oil phase behavior by coupling the CCEC tests, depletion rate and presence of water-in-oil emulsion which are seldom performed for heavy oil. It will provide a strong connection and comparison with previously studies which was conducted in the absence of water-in-oil emulsion. […]

With the current challenges with depleted reservoirs and problems associated with heavy oil production, the implementation of the most cost-effective and feasible enhanced oil recovery method is inevitable. There are a wide range of EOR methods available and developed, which are in most cases expensive and complicated to carry out. Therefore, an extensive preliminary screening […]

Western Canada has vast heavy oil deposits in many thin heavy oil reservoirs with less than 10-m main pay zones. The cold heavy oil production with sand (CHOPS) is the primary production process for the heavy oil reservoirs. However, a typical CHOPS process can recover only 5?15% of the initial oil-in-place and waterflooding has had […]

Canada possesses vast resources of heavy oil, which is oil that is too thick to flow through porous sandstone reservoirs and into production wells at economic rates when conventional operating practices are used. Since the mid 1980’s, heavy oil operators have demonstrated their ability to increase heavy oil production rates by encouraging the creation of […]

This project is to perform systematic studies to better understand key recovery mechanisms of mixture solvent CSI process and provide fundamental parameters for field-scaled prediction. For mass transfer, a methodology of measuring diffusion coefficients for multiple components simultaneously dissolving into heavy oil systems under bulk volume and porous medium conditions will be established. For foamy […]

The continuing rise in demand, the decline in conventional domestic production, and the belated development of alternatives to petroleum combine to increase the importance of seeking new resources and methods for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The amount, cost, and timing of the EOR contribution are highly uncertain. Additionally, due to the current economical constraints that […]

This project is aimed for an accurate and highly convenient methodology to visually investigate the multiphase flow behavior, foamy oil stability and solvent mass transfer in solvent injection processes. Therefore, a novel real-time direct visualization methodology, focusing on the study of foamy oil equilibrium and non-equilibrium PVT phase behavior and stability in bulk and porous […]

Western Canada has vast heavy oil deposits in many thin heavy oil reservoirs with less than 10-m main pay zones. The cold heavy oil production with sand (CHOPS) is the primary production process in the heavy oil reservoirs. However, a typical CHOPS process can recover only 5?15% of the initial oil-in-place. As a secondary heavy […]