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West Hackberry Tertiary Project [electronic resource].

Published
Washington, D.C. : United States. Dept. of Energy, 1999.
Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy.
Additional Creators
United States. Department of Energy and United States. Department of Energy. Office of Scientific and Technical Information
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Summary
The West Hackberry Tertiary Project is a field test of the concept that air injection can be combined with the Double Displacement Process to produce a tertiary recovery process that is both low cost and economic at current oil prices. The Double Displacement Process is the gas displacement of a water invaded oil column for the purpose of recovering tertiary oil by gravity drainage. In reservoirs with pronounced bed dip such as those found in West Hackberry and other Gulf Coast salt dome fields, reservoir performance has shown that gravity drainage recoveries average 80% to 90% of the original oil in place while waterdrive recoveries average 50% to 60% of the original oil in place. The target for tertiary oil recovery in the Double Displacement Process is the incremental oil between the 50% to 60% waterdrive recoveries and the 80% to 90% gravity drainage recoveries. In previous field tests, the Double Displacement Process has proven successful in generating tertiary oil recovery. The use of air injection in this process combines the benefits of air's low cost and universal accessibility with the potential for accelerated oil recovery from the combustion process. If successful, this project will demonstrate that utilizing air injection in the Double Displacement Process will result in an economically viable tertiary process in reservoirs (such as Gulf Coast salt dome reservoirs) where any other tertiary process is presently uneconomic. Air injection on the West Hank began in November of 1994. Although West Flank air injection has increased reservoir pressure by 500 pounds per square inch (psi), production response has not yet occurred. The gas cap on the West Flank has not expanded sufficiently to push the oil rim down to the nearest down structure well. Cumulative injection to date is 1.6 BCF, only approximately 50% of the projected volume required to establish oil production response. Additional air injection is required to further expand the gas cap and thereby bring about oil production. Air injection rates have been restricted due to iron oxide plugging in the injectors. To spread risk among multiple reservoirs, the project was expanded in 1996 to include air injection in low pressure reservoirs on the North Flank of the field. The project reservoirs on the West Flank are much higher pressure (2500-3300 psi) than the project reservoirs on the North Flank (300-600 psi). Air injection began on the North Rank in July of 1996. While West Flank air injection has not yet yielded oil production, air injection has increased oil production in all three low pressure North Hank reservoirs. Production increased in the North Rank after only two months of air injection, much quicker than anticipated. Between July of 1996 and July of 1999, cumulative air injection of 0.9 BCF increased North Flank oil production by 224,000 barrels above the normal decline. As of July, 1999, air injection was generating 270 barrels of oil per day (BOPD) of incremental oil production from the three low pressure reservoirs on the North Flank of the field.
Report Numbers
E 1.99:1001226
Subject(s)
Other Subject(s)
Note
Published through SciTech Connect.
03/31/1999.
Kenneth Haley; Travis Gillham; Demetrios Yannimaras.
Amoco Production Company
Type of Report and Period Covered Note
Final;
Funding Information
FC22-93BC14963
View MARC record | catkey: 14704262