Hpai

SPE 156974
Recent Progress of High-Pressure Air Injection (HPAI) Process in Light Oil
Reservoir: Laboratory Investigation and Field Application
Hu Jia, Cheng-Dong Yuan, Yu-Chuan Zhang, Huan Peng, Dong Zhong, Jin-Zhou Zhao, SPE, State Key
Laboratory of Oil and Gas Reservoir Geology and Exploitation, Southwest Petroleum University, China

Copyright 2012, Society of Petroleum Engineers
Thispaper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Heavy Oil Conference Canada held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 12 –14 June 2012.
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Abstract
High-Pressure Air Injection (HPAI) in light oil reservoirs has been proven to be a valuable IOR (Improved Oil Recovery) process an d
caused more attention worldwide. In this paper, we give an overview of the recent progress of HPAI technique, based on a re view of some
representative HPAI projectsincluding completed and ongoing projects. Some most important aspects for HPAI field application are
discussed in depth, including reservoir screening criterion, recognition of recovery mechanism, laboratory study, numerical simulation, gas
breakthrough control, tubing corrosion consideration and safety monitoring. With the successful HPAI application in Zhong Yua n Oil Field
in China, it isestimated that foam or polymer gel assisted air injection should continue to grow in the next decade as a derived technology
of HPAI for application in high-temperature high-heterogeneity reservoirs. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ranges of some
key parameters, new understanding based on laboratory test and successful field application, thus to provide lessons learnt and bestpractices for the guideline to achieve high-performance HPAI project.

Introduction
Most of the current world oil production comes from mature fields. Increasing oil recovery from the aging resources is a major concern for
oil companies. Thermal methods have been tested since 1950‘s, and they are the most advanced among EOR methods, as far as fie ld
experience and technology are concerned(Thomas, 2008). The thermal method can be split into steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD)
(Sasaki et al., 2001), steam flooding (Stokes and Doscher, 1974), cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) (Denbina et al., 1991), and in-situ
combustion (Bagcı and Kök, 2004; Abuhesa and Hughes, 2009). Air injection in light oil reservoirs (HPAI, referred to as High- Pressure
Air Injection) has gained greaterattention during the last decade. HPAI has been successfully applied in the Williston Basin , West
Hackberry in the U.S for more than twenty years and is currently being considered by many operators for application in their assets (Fraim
et al., 1997; Alvarado and Manrique, 2010).
HPAI technique has also gained greater attention in China. Gui et al (2010) investigated the LTO reactions of a light crudeoil from the
Daqing oil field. The representative successfully HPAI project has been applied in Hu-12 block (3.9 mPa.s oil, 90℃ reservoir temperature)
of ZhongYuan oilfield (Henan Province, China). The field‘s results showed that no O2/N2 breakthrough was observed and up to now, 3-4 %
oil production has been achieved by air injection in the pilot region during 3 years of air injection (Yu et...