Page 125 - Primer on Enhanced Oil Recovery

Gas flooding 115

10.2.3 Implemented projects

The use of gas methods in the United States has two significant increases of interest
in methods of enhanced oil recovery, including the injection of hydrocarbon gases
(see Fig. 10.20). The first jump occurred in 1980, due to rising oil prices and con-
tinued until 1992. During this period, the number of hydrocarbon gas injection pro-
jects increased from 9 (1980) to 25 (1992). The oil production has risen to 113
thousand barrels per day. The second acceleration in the method implementation
occurred after 2002, when oil prices soared and exceeded $ 100 per barrel. The
high price generated a significant profit from gas methods of enhanced oil recovery.
During this period, the number of hydrocarbon gas injection projects increased
from 7 (2002) to 14 (2014), and oil production increased from 95.3 to 127.5 thou-
sand barrels per day. It should be noted that this is significantly lower than oil pro-
duction from the use of carbon dioxide injections, which on the same date (2014)
amounted to 335.53 thousand barrels per day.
Fig. 10.21 shows the implementation of the method of hydrocarbon gases injec-
tion around the world. As can be seen from the figure, in addition to the United
States, the specified method since 1969 has been implemented in Canada, Norway,
Venezuela and the United Kingdom.

10.2.4 Implementation technology
During the implementation of the hydrocarbon injection project, first it is necessary
to calculate the gas demand (dry or enriched) for the production of a unit of an

Figure 10.20 Hydrocarbon flooding EOR projects operating in USA between 1980 and 2014.