... and evaporation index for the heavy oil produced by different reservoirs. The process starts by obtaining a shrinkage factor based on the crude quality, designed specifically for the heavy oil. This triggers a recursive calculation process to provide the mass, viscosity, and API of the heavy oil blend...

... Abstract In June 2018 the team embarked on an ambitious project to address the slow development pace of Alaska's 20+ billion barrels heavy oil resource via the first ever polymer flood pilot. Following the successful commencement of the pilot in August 2018, the field demonstration, supporting...

... Abstract Activating naturally occurring nanoparticles in the reservoir (clays) to generate Pickering emulsions results in low-cost heavy oil recovery. In this study, we test the stability of emulsions generated using different types of clays and perform a parametric analysis on salinity, pH...

... Abstract The development pace of Alaska's vast, 20-25 billion barrels, heavy oil resources has been very slow due to high development costs and low oil recovery using conventional waterflood, and the impracticality of deploying thermal methods due to the presence of continuous permafrost...

... Abstract Steam flooding is the most widely used thermal enhance oil recovery (EOR) process to recover bitumen and heavy oil. This process has been proven to be reliable, thus, establishing itself as a favorite among other thermal EORs. However, the excessive water usage to generate steam causes...

... through porous media) conditions. In the static test, foam is generated by the shaking method, and foam texture (bubble size and shape) and the decay of foam height with time are indicators of foam stability. To test static stability in presence of oil, heavy oil is injected into the foam-liquid interface...

... Abstract Air injection assisted cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) is an innovative and effective process for enhancing ultra heavy oil recovery and increasing the efficiency of steam injection, which has been successfully applied in over 200 wells in Liaohe oilfield (Northeast China) in recent...

... Abstract Heavy oil is a promising substitute to conventional light oil due to its abundant reserves, but its high viscosity restricts mobility and results in low recovery rate. To enhance heavy oil recovery, thermal method with metal-ligand compounds was developed, which reduced oil viscosity...

... Abstract Heavy oil extraction via thermal enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods is a challenging task due to low mobility of oil at reservoir conditions and high petroleum processing cost due to high impurity content of heavy oils. This task becomes more difficult with the decrease in oil prices...

... Abstract Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) is widely used in Alberta for recovering bitumen from oil (tar) sands. A variation of the same has had some success in heavy oils as well. It is a high-risk recovery method and requires careful planning and design. This paper outlines the success...

... Abstract A viable method to produce a deep extra heavy oil reservoir with an in-situ viscosity in excess of 1000 cp is viscosity reduction with dilution, and where steam flooding may be an unlikely option. The objective of this study is to determine viscosity reduction of an extra heavy oil...

... Abstract One of the challenges in heavy and extra heavy oil production is to improve the recovery and reduce the water cut. A major part of the world's oil reserves is found in heavy and extra heavy oil reservoirs. One of the problems in heavy oil field with water drive or Steam Assisted...

...%. In all of the LS flooding cases, the effluent experienced a jump in pH over just the use of HS water. The LS effluent pH jump in light oil was high, but not as high as that in heavy oil at 120°C, meaning that the heavy oil resulted in more ion exchange. Core3 was allocated for surface reactivity test...

... Abstract The in-situ formation of foamy oil has been found to be a crucial mechanism accounting for the better-than-expected production performance in heavy oil reservoirs under solution gas drive. To date, the physical laws dominating gas exsolution in foamy oil have not yet been well...

... Abstract The objective of this paper is to provide reservoir engineers fresh insight and a new approach to the description of heavy oil and water relative permeability functions in reservoir simulation. This paper proposes a plausible mechanism of heavy oil flow in porous media influenced...

... within heavy oils is the originating factor in channelized reservoir flows because commercial injection rates cause altered porosity distributions that initiate the preferential path flow. The appreciation of the empirical realities permits improvement of commercial depletion planning and enables...

... has numerous applications in the industry, including heavy oil reservoirs, which are a significant part of the future energy supply. Steam-foam applications have been used to prevent steam channeling and steam override, thus improving overall sweep efficiency, in both continuous steam and cyclic steam...

... Abstract Steam injection (including cyclic steam and SAGD) has long been recognized as the favored recovery method for heavy oil, with applications in many fields around the world in particular in California and Canada. More recently, polymer flooding has also become a relatively well accepted...

... The first commercial test of solvents took place in California in 1960 where solvent stimulation was used to increase production of heavy oil. Currently, successful performance of steam injection in horizontal wells suggests the idea of using hot solvent alone or in conjunction with steam to reduce bitumen...

... Abstract Considerable proportions of the hydrocarbon resources in the world are in the shape of heavy oil and bitumen. In an environment of low economic returns for heavy oil operations, Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) process appears very promising from a technical point of view...