Sayavur I. Bakhtiyarov, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
A new promising enhanced oil recovery technology has developed. The technology involves in-situ generation of carbon dioxide to recover trapped residual oil from reservoirs. This technology has two at least unique features that set it apart from existing technologies. First, CO2 is injected as part of a dense liquid phase (not simply compressed CO2). Because the injected fluid is a dense liquid at ambient conditions, there is no need for the expensive compression costs that are associated with convention CO2 injection processes. The gravity head associated with the fluid column allows CO2 to be injected in a more cost-effective manner. This proprietary technology allows CO2 to be released in-situ after injection into the reservoir. A second unique feature of this new technology is that a proprietary surfactant formulation forms foam when the CO2 is generated in situ. The slim tube and core experimental results demonstrated advantages of the new technology. The technology also was tested in Russian and Chinese oil fields.