Enhanced heavy and extra heavy oil recovery: Current status and new trends

作     者：Sayed Gomaa Khalaf G.Salem A.N.El-hoshoudy 

作者机构：Mining and Petroleum Engineering Department Faculty of Engineering Al-Azhar University Department of Reservoir Engineering South Valley Egyptian Petroleum Holding Company (GANOPE) PVT Lab-Production Department Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute (EPRI) PVT-Service Center Egyptian Petroleum Research Institute (EPRI) 

出 版 物：《Petroleum》 (油气(英文))

年 卷 期：2024年第3期

页      面：399-410页

核心收录：

学科分类：0820[工学-石油与天然气工程] 08[工学] 082002[工学-油气田开发工程] 

摘      要：Due to the increased demand for energy resources these days, especially due to the Russian-Ukrainian war, the focus of the major countries is turning strongly towards improving oil production, especially heavy and extra heavy oil, which represents 40% of the world oil reserve. Steam-based and thermal(EOR)procedures are promising techniques for recovering heavy oil reservoirs, but they suffer from a sequence of problems and complications that arise after long-term application. These complications comprise steam breakthrough, steam overlap, and steam/rock interactions. This research presents the currently applied techniques to maximize the productivity of heavy oil, such as steam injection, cyclic steam stimulation, in-situ combustion, and steam-assisted gravity drainage. Thermal technologies face numerous obstacles, as they are energy and water-intensive processes that are not environmentally friendly. The research also presents future trends in energy-saving and environmentally friendly techniques that enhance heavy oil recovery through vapor extraction(VAPEX) steam-solvent hybrid techniques, electromagnetic energy, sonication, and nanotechnology. The findings of this review reported that all the presented techniques focus on how to reduce the oil viscosity and in-situ upgrade the crude oil properties. In turn, these enhance both the productivity rate and oil recovery and minimize the production cost. This article can be considered a comprehensive review of thermal recovery methods in heavy and extra-heavy oil, in addition to screening criteria used for each method.