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Epic has worked on many hydrocarbon miscible floods (tertiary recovery). Usually implemented towards the end of a waterflood (secondary recovery), injection of intermediate hydrocarbons (ethanes - butanes) results in a miscible flood which is capable of reducing the residual oil saturation (typically about 40% at the end of a waterflood) to 10-15% along areas contacted by the solvent.
One of the issues with tertiary recovery schemes is the gravity override of the injected solvent, whereby the solvent segregates to the top of the reservoir due to density differences. Gravity override occurs within 100-150 meters of the wellbore for thick reservoirs, leaving a large unswept oil target. Epic's solution to the override problem was the the implementation of a horizontal solvent injector. The improved sweep also resulted in a significant increase of oil rate.
See Epic Written Papers on EOR |
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Solvent overrides to top of reservoir leaving bypassed oil
Using horizontal injectors improved sweep and significant increase in oil rate
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