Summary

Considering the possibility of implementing projects of air injecting in Colombian reservoirs to increase the recovery factor in heavy oil assets, it was of interest to assess the effects that this process would have in the mechanical behavior of the rock and thereby to identify potential associated problems. To perform this evaluation rock mechanics, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction laboratories carried out a series of tests on samples from reservoir and seal rocks, some of the samples were tested at normal conditions of temperature in order to establish the baseline for rock mechanics behavior on the rocks, after these tests other group of samples was heated up to 500 ° C for a period of 15 days, with the intention of simulating the temperature conditions expected during the combustion in situ process and in order to assess the effect on the reservoir rock and evaluate the possible effect on the seal rock integrity each type sample was characterized in laboratory. At the end of the tests, a significant change in the strength, elastic properties, mineralogy and structure of the porous medium in the samples that were subjected to heating process. This paper presents the results and the associated analysis.

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