Pressure Behaviour and Fracture Development during Polymer Injection in a Heavy Oil Saturated Unconsolidated Sand

Polymer flooding is an important EOR method in heavy oil reservoirs, where field studies showed a recovery up to 59%. However, accurate assessment of injectivity of viscous polymer solutions can give major challenges. Little research has been devoted to pressure build-up phenomena with polymer injection in porous media. Therefore, the objective...

Economic and CO2 Emission Benefits of a Solar Powered Electric Vehicle Charging Station for Workplaces in the Netherlands

The paper analyses the economic and environmental benefits of charging electric vehicles (EV) at workplaces in the Netherlands using photovoltaic panels (PV). A 10kW EV-PV charging system is used to charge the electric cars directly from photovoltaic panels. The cost of using a gasoline vehicle is compared with that of an electric vehicle that...

Stochastic Nodal Analysis: EnKF and PF applied to petroleum production systems

A petroleum production system is generally modelled based on the concept of nodal analysis, where the entire system is broken down into discrete elements such as near-well bore, tubing, surface choke and flow line. Operating flow rates and pressures can be estimated with a nodal analysis procedure by calculation of the intersection of...

A New Definition of Capillary Numbers In Microfluidic Devices

The mobilization of the trapped residual oil is an important part of Enhanced Oil Recovery. The desaturation of nonwetting fluids from porous media is often described using capillary numbers which are a ratio of viscous forces over the capillary forces between the wetting and the nonwetting fluids. Twodimensional microfluidic devices ...

In-depth water simulation strategies

In-depth water diversion is a chemical EOR method that has been winning acceptance over the last years because of several reasons. One of them is the fact that sodium silicate, active component, is considered a green chemical. Moreover, this component has shown the ability to generate thermally activated plugs at far away distances from the...

Geological history and fracture network characterization in unconventional reservoirs of the McArthur Basin (NT Australia)

The geological history of the McArthur Basin (NT Australia) is poorly understood. It consists of five onshore Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic packages with mainly siliciclastic and carbonate rocks, with cumulative thicknesses up to 15km. The basin contains the world’s oldest hydrocarbons, principally hosted in unconventional...

Optimization of in-depth divergence strategies

This study discusses the potential of the in-depth water diversion (IDD) process to enhance oil recovery from subsurface reservoirs and investigates IDD strategies through an ensemble optimization approach. Pilot studies in the North Sea performed in recent years have shown that Sodium Silicate can be applied as blocking agent, diverting water...

Early observability of EOR process effectiveness

This dissertation focuses on polymer flooding, as an example of an EOR process. Chemical floods such as polymer floods are EOR techniques intended to increase sweep and/or displacement efficiency. Even though the compatibility and the efficiency of the injected chemicals are thoroughly tested and validated in the laboratory, uncertainty still...