Читать книгу Acoustic and Vibrational Enhanced Oil Recovery - George V. Chilingar - Страница 21

Field experiments were conducted using vibrators located at the Earth’s surface in the vicinity of oil-producing wells. Vibro-energy generated by vibrators traveled down as elastic waves to the oil-bearing formation. The goal of the experiments was to study the effect of elastic waves on the relative permeability to oil and to water, water saturation, oil production rate, and the rate of oil displacement by water. Generally, it was found that the presence of elastic waves increased the relative permeability to oil, decreased the relative permeability to water, the decreased the water cut, and enhanced the oil production. In terms of industry application, the use of vibroenergy for enhancement of oil recovery is acceptable only if the amount of generated vibro-energy is smaller than the amount of energy contained in the additionally recovered oil.

The authors studied the energy balance between the generated vibro-energy and energy contained in the additional oil produced by using vibrators. Calculations show that the amount of vibro-energy applied to one unit of rock volume does not exceed 1.5% of the energy contained in the oil present in this unit volume calculations were based on the fact that the energy content of 1 kg of oil is 4.2 = 107 J. Therefore, for this process to be economically feasible, it is necessary to increase the oil production by a minimum of 1.5% (Vahitov and Simkin, 1985 [36]). To study feasibility of enhanced oil recovery based on the use of vibro-energy, field experiments were conducted in several old oil field in Russia, Uzbekistan, and Kirgizstan.