Description:
Currently, the standard practice to produce a conventional (high-permeability) gas condensate, is to inject gas and/or water to flood the gas condensate while maintaining the lower bottom-hole flowing pressure above the dew point pressure. However, keeping the flowing pressure above the dew point results in a lower pressure difference between the reservoir and the flowing pressure which negatively impacts oil recovery. Additionally, since formation permeability is low in shale and tight reservoirs, a flooding technique is not feasible because the pressure drop from an injector to a producer is large.
Reference Number: D-1068
Market Applications:
- Oil industry
- Operating/drilling companies
Features, Benefits, & Advantages:
This technology has created a solution to these problems that involves a ‘Huff-n-Puff’ gas injection mode while maintaining flowing bottom-hole pressure lower than the dew point pressure. This ensures a maximum liquid oil offtake and production while ensuring that the phenomenon of retrograde condensate does not occur through huff-n-puff gas injection.
• Maximum oil production rate
• Maximum liquid oil offtake
• Alternative to the gas or water flooding methods that are not feasible for the low permeability shale reservoirs
Intellectual Property:
A U.S. provisional patent application, 62/011,340 was filed on 06/12/204. A PCT application was filed on 06/11/2015.
Development Stage:
Detailed simulations have been conducted to prove that this injection process works.
Researchers:
James J. Sheng, Department of Petroleum Engineering, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
Keywords:
Huff-n-puff, shale injection, oil recovery, methane injection, oil extraction, shale condensate