Insight into heavy oil recovery of cyclic solvent injection (CSI) utilizing C3H8/CH4 and C3H8/CH4/CO2

Arash Ahadi Farshid Torabi

In this study, a sandpack model with porosity and permeability of 32.3% and 9.4 D, and a heavy crude oil with viscosity of 6430 mPa.s were used to represent a typical thin heavy oil formation. First, different ratios of C3H8 to CH4 stream were prepared and their performance on Cyclic Solvent Injection (CSI) method was examined to quantify the optimum solvent concentration. Second, CO2 was introduced to the optimum quantified CH4-C3H8 mixture to investigate the extent to which CSI behavior changes by partially replacement of CH4 with CO2.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petlm.2018.04.001