Secondary Recovery - A Field Test of the Gas-Driven Liquid Propane Method of Oil Recovery

Conventional methods of producing crude oil generally leave in the depleted reservoir 1 to 3 bbl of oil for every barrel brought to the surface. This paper describes a field test which explores the possibility of using gas-driven liquid propane to improve oil recovery efficiency. Laboratory theoretical and experimental studies leading to the field test indicated that low residual oil values could be obtained using limited amounts of propane driven by gas. The field test involved (I) repressuring the reservoir to the vapor pressure of liquid propane, (2) injecting the liquid propane, and (3) injecting dry natural gas to drive the propane and oil to the producing wells. Considerable preliminary work, including new drilling, work-overs, and a pressure survey was necessary. During the test, oil production rates have averaged about nine times the final primary rates. The field average GOR is still below the pre-test value. Oil recovery to date is 112,000 STB. About one-third of the 143,-000 bbl of propane injected has been produced to date. Results of the C-2 block test are encouraging and larger, more definitive field projects ore indicated. INTRODUCTION The cost of finding new crude oil reservoirs continues to increase. Today the oil industry is drilling more and deeper wells and making fewer big discoveries. Nevertheless, the demand for oil and oil products increases each year. It is natural that oil companies, faced with this situation, concentrate on recovering more of the oil existing in our known crude oil reservoirs. There is room for much improvement. For every barrel of oil brought to the surface by present day methods of producing crude oil, generally 1 to 3 bbl are left behind in the depleted reservoirs. The "unrecoverable" oil in petroleum reservoirs is largely "trapped" by capillarity. Since flushing with a solvent is exceedingly effective in combatting oil loss due to capillarity, much effort in this direction has been made in recent years1,2,3,4,5. Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) has been suggested as a relatively inexpensive. abundant, easily recoverable solvent for crude. Some operators have observed striking responses in oil recovery at production wells offsetting input wells in LPG storage reservoirs6,7,8. In spite of the low unit cost of LPG, however, it is uneconomic in general to inject a volume of LPG into a reservoir to remove a like volume of oil. A modification of solvent flushing in which a limited quantity of liquid propane is gas driven through a reservoir appears capable of recovering much more than 1 bbl of oil per barrel of propane injected. Also, most of the propane injected should be recoverable for sale or re-use. Since such a process could well have widespread and profitable application, The Carter Oil Co. is making an extensive evaluation of the technique's possibilities. Laboratory development of the gas-driven propane recovery technique was sufficiently encouraging to justify testing in the field. Since 1952, the Production and Research Departments of The Carter Oil Co. have cooperated in a field test in the C-2 Block leases of the