SPE 70053
Evaluation of Displacement Efficiency in Volatile Oil Reservoirs under Nitrogen
Injection
Juan E. Rivera de la Ossa/Ecopetrol-ICP, Juan C. Correa Castro/Universidad Industrial de Santander, Cesar A. Mantilla
Uribe/Universidad Industrial de Santander, Cesar Augusto Duarte Prada/E.O.S. Ltda
Copyright 2001, Society of Petroleum Engineers Inc.
This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Permian Basin Oil and Gas Recovery
Conference held in Midland, Texas, 15–16 May 2001.
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ABSTRACT
It nitrogen injection has been proven as a competitive
alternative for volatile oil reservoirs lately found in
Piedemonte area of Colombia, taking into account the
reservoir fluid nature and the reservoir conditions. A
laboratory study was carried out by the authors in the
Enhanced Oil Recovery Laboratory of Colombian Petroleum
Institute.
Three corefloods were carried out using Berea sandstone
and volatile oil samples from the Piedemonte area and
nitrogen as displacing agent. One of these corefloods was
conducted in a long Coreflooding apparatus, and the other
ones, in a short Coreflooding apparatus connected with a slim
tube in a order to achieve miscibility conditions. The main
variable studied was the flow rate, which represents three
different flow regimes. The scaling criteria taken was a
dimensionless group, which relates viscous and gravity forces,
called gravity number.
Displacement efficiencies determined were around 50%,
65% and 80% for each one the tests. The results of these
corefloods were compared to determine the best scheme of
nitrogen injection. Results have successfully confirmed the
effectiveness of nitrogen as displacing agent for this kind of
oils and the better swept efficiency given by the equilibrium
between the governing forces.
INTRODUCTION
The volatile oil reservoirs lately found in the Piedemonte
area of Colombia are quite complex not only in geology but in
the fluids composition also. That is why, several analyses have
been done to select the best explotation, production and
commercialization strategy.
Reservoirs in Piedemonte area are more than 15000 ft
deep, with pressures and temperatures greater than 5500 psi
and 250 °F. Thermodynamic and phases behavior of this
reservoirs are also unique in the world.
Fluids behavior have a great importance in the
hydrocarbons volume estimation and therefore in the field
development. There is gas reinjection in the field to keep the
initial reservoir pressure, in an effurt to maintain a single
phase fluid and to improve the recovery. Reinjection gas come
from a first stage separator with high methane content.
When observing different studies, made by investigators of
world-wide recognition in the area of volatile oil deposits, that
propose the nitrogen injection like an alternative able to
compete with the gas reinjection in this type of deposits, since
the characteristics that favor the reinjection of the gas are also
propitious for the nitrogen injection, the investigation group
decided to orient its efforts in the investigation with nitrogen
as a new form of profitable operation.
The replacement of the natural gas by nitrogen as injection
gas brings advantages that are according to the plans of
economic development of the country.
A series of displacements were doneto investigate and to
quantify the effect of phases behavior and porous media on the
efficiency of sweeping with nitrogen. An overhaul about
experiences of operation with nitrogen in different oil fields
including the facilities required for a project of nitrogen
injection, was initially done.
The equipment used for the development of the tests, the
followed procedure is described to obtain the
2 JUAN RIVERA, JUAN CORREA, CESAR MANTILLA, CESAR DUARTE
presented/displayed results. Results are analyzed and
interpreted by using tables and graphs for their better
understanding and a set of conclusions and recommendations
is also given.
APPLICATIONS OF THE NITROGEN IN IMPROVED
RECOVERY
Nitrogen, like injection gas, has several applications such
as maintenance of pressure, inmiscible displacement, catched
oil production and miscible displacement, among others. The
propose application in this work is the miscible volatile oil
displacement by nitrogen injection. Depending on a the
pressure, amount and location, nitrogen can get to cost from
one fourth part to half of the price that is paid by the natural
gas.
A great number of methods of oil recovery and gas that
uses nitrogen, which go from pressure maintenance to ones, as
it is the miscible displacement. In Literature are six methods
that use nitrogen, these are shown in table 1.
SOURCES OF NITROGEN FOR THE OIL INDUSTRY
IN OPERATIONS OF IMPROVED RECOVERY
Between the advantages of nitrogen on other injection gases,
like dioxide of carbon and the natural gas, it is its abundance.
This advantage is due to the fact that nitrogen is in the air, and
additionally it can become an economic resource, if appropiate
technology is used to extract it. The operator has two options,
(1) to buy the equipment of nitrogen generation so that it is
part of the facilities of the field, or (2) to directly buy nitrogen
to a supplier. Historically the second option has been more
economic because it does not require initial investment of
capital, and the suppliers have personnel to operate nitrogen
plants. In each project the operator must evaluate both
alternatives.
At the moment three processes of nitrogen generation are used
in the the industry, that turn great air volumes into nitrogen (or
at least in a consistent gas of 88% N2 and something of CO2,
call chimney gas).
Nitrogen production by cryogenic separation of the
components of the air has been used since the beginning of the
century, and is the most economic method to produce pure
nitrogen. The pioneers in this technology were the
petrochemical steel industries in which the wished product
was oxygen. The fundamental concept in cryogenic generation
is to cool the air until its liquefaction and then to distill it. In
order to reach low temperatures, a cycle of refrigeration is
used that consists of an air compressor, a column of
distillation and a section of compression.
SPE 70053
PHASES BEHAVIOR AND MISCIBILITY
The final objective of the processes of miscible displacement
is to recover the greater volume of hydrocarbons by natural or
by artificial mechanisms, which are limited in effectiveness by
the influence of capillary and interface forces. Exist few
processes of miscible displacement in which reliable liquids
are used and they are known as miscible displacements, in
addition there are processes like miscible displacements gas-
condensed gas. In the operations of gas reinjection, which
have been used in gas condensed reservoirs for many years,
the second case is had. This process also falls within the
classification of miscible displacement, because the injected
gas is completely miscible with the fluid of the reservoir. The
recovery, in these cases, is not affected by capillary forces,
and in theory the displacement efficiency is of the one
hundred percent, that is hydrocarbons which are contacted by
the miscible pocket are moved totally. The gas recovery of
condensed gas in channels of low permeability is difficult to
obtain in operations of reinjection of the gas.
The miscible displacement of the type vaporizing gas was
physically simulated in this research, the use of nitrogen as
displacement fluid has been studied by several researchers, in
which the effects of temperature, reservoir fluid composition,
injection fluid composition, on the minimum miscible pressure
are considered. The miscibility can be explained like the
physical condition between two fluids that allows them to be
mixed in all the proportions without an interface between the
materials forms. If both fluids are not mixed in any proportion,
then they are not miscible.
SCALED PHYSICS MODELS
Three dimensionless groups exist which are used to define the
regions of flow, these are: group of relation between viscous
and capillary forces; and shape factor. The analysis shows that
the relative magnitudes of the forces involved in the system
combined with the properties of the deposit determine the
region of flow and distribution of the fluids in the media. The
dimensionless numbers are:
Ngv = ∆ρLkavg v / Hqµo ................................................(1)
Ncv = Lpc*k avg v / H2qµo .............................................(2)
M = λw / λo .................................................................(3)
Ngv and Ncv are the relations of characteristic time so that the
fluid flows in the transverse direction due to the forces of
gravity or capillary, with respect to the time of flow in
horizontal direction due to the viscous forces.
SPE 70053 EVALUATION OF DISPLACEMENT EFFICIENCY IN VOLATILE OIL RESERVOIRS UNDER NITROGEN INJECTION
These numbers of gravity and capillary are dimensionless and
defer from the work presented/displayed by other authors like
Pozzi15 and others. Whereas authors like Peter, Zhou and
Blunt 14 propose it like advantageous for cases in which the
mobility relation is unfavorable. The advantage to use Ngv
and Ncv is that they represent the magnitude of the gravity and
capillarity forces in the transverse direction with respect to the
viscous forces in the lenghtwise direction, including the
influence of the shape factor.
The term miscible displacement refers to displacements with
effects of negligible capillarity (Ncv=0), which also can
include two phases, since the interface voltage is very low or
almost zero. When the capillary forces are despised, single
viscous and gravitational forces contribute to the flow. The
mechanisms of transferences of masses as dispersions and
diffusion influence, since they affect the mixture and the
differences of viscosity and density. Nevertheless, the
dispersion usually, is the only factor that contributes in
displacements in where the hair forces and gravity are small
and the rates of injection are relatively small. After an
extensive recopilacion of works done on miscibles
displacements, Zhou constructed figure 4 with data of
different investigations, among them Fayers22, Araktingi,
Ingsoy, Christie and Pozzi15.
EXPERIMENTAL EQUIPMENT AND PROCEDURES
OF TEST
In the laboratories of the Colombian Petroleum Institute three
miscibles representative volatile oil displacements were
carried out using nitrogen to determine the recovery
efficiency, at typical conditions of deposit of this area, that is
pressure of 5700 psi and temperature of 244 °F (39,3 Mpa and
118°C). One of these displacements was made in the
coreflooding equipment on an adjustment of nuclei of Berea,
which contained initially saturations of crude recombined and
synthetic salt. The other two displacements were made in the
equipment coreflooding for steam, connected in series with
slim tube with a length sufficiently long to guaranteeing that
the multiple contacts between the fluids take place there, and
thus to have a miscible displacement in the nucleus contained
in the steam equipment. Three different rates from injection
were used, each one of which represents a region of flow in
the balance between the gravitational and viscous forces. In all
the cases, the displacement equipment was in horizontal
position.
This way, the main factor of displacement studied was the
effect of the rate of injection on the recovery efficiency. The
scheme of the equipment is in figure 1 and 2. As much for
coreflooding, as for the steam equipment connected to the
Slim tube.
3
.
RESULTS OF THE TESTS
Because the tests can represent of the best way the
reservoir conditions, the pressure was defined according to
some values of present pressure of deposit in the area of
Piedemonte. Therefore, the back pressure system was loaded
to 5700 psi (39,3 Mpa), since this it represents the pressure of
production of the deposit. The temperature of the test is of 244
°F (117.8°C), and also obeys to the temperature of present
deposit. These two conditions help to promote the mechanism
of displacement by multiple contacts between the fluids.
The main suppositions to initiate the tests are: homogenous
porous media, only are two phases in flow (oil and nitrogen),
consider the effects of the gravity forces, viscoses and the
mixture mechanisms, the law of Darcy is applicable, the flow
occurs in a single dimension, and the porous media constituted
by the nuclei this water wet.
The variable that is going away to analyze is the number
dimensionless (Ng) that describes the balance between the
viscous and gravitational forces. The obtained results agree
with the behavior registered in the different articles that make
reference on this subject. Figure 5 compares the recovery
factors obtained for each value of number of gravity.
As it is possible to be observed in figure 5, the best results
were obtained in a regime that balances the two forces that
govern the displacement. In the study made by Peters12 a
graph with similar behavior appears, although this graph is
single qualitative but nonquantitative, it express what it is
possible to be appreciated in this work. The best recoveries are
when the Ng is in the middle of the regions where the
gravitational force and the viscous force act with greater
intensity. As the Ng depends on the rate, also we can assume
that when being the Ng in a balance between the two regions
before described, is going to be, also, in the middle of two
problems that desmega the recovery, which are the digitation,
and the gravitational segregation.
The digitation happens by the high speed of the fluid injector
and discharge relation of mobilities, that when finding a
channel of high permeability begins to flow that way
preferential, causing an early irruption with the consequent
diminution in the recovery.
The gravitational segregation appears due to the low rate of
injection of nitrogen and to the smaller density of this with
respect to the oil, causing that nitrogen mounts on the oil
causing that the gas flows preferedly by above and leaves
without sweeping the part of down, producing a decrease in
the recovery.
4 JUAN RIVERA, JUAN CORREA, CESAR MANTILLA, CESAR DUARTE
CONCLUSIONS
1. The displacements were miscibles or they were very near
to miscibility. This is deduced with base in the
correlations found in the literature and the results of the
project evaluation of the mechanism of miscibility in
volatile oil reservoirs submissive the nitrogen injection.
The average of the minimum pressure of miscibility
between the fluids for the temperature of test is of 5850
psi. In addition, the high obtained factors of recovery
make be conceited that the sweeping of the displacement
front is miscible by multiple contacts.
2. The process of nitrogen injection loses all yield after the
irruption of the front. As I am observed in the tests, the oil
production after the irruption is insignificant with respect
to the amount that recovers before the irruption.
3. The nitrogen injection has demonstrated to be an
alternative that is due to consider to improve the recovery
of volatile oil deposits in the obtained area recovery in the
carried out displacements in this study were of 50,05%,
65,6% and 79,26% for three different rates from injection.
4. The assembly made connected to the Slim tube in line
with the Berea nucleus it turn out quite favorable to
promote the contacts within slim tube, and to increase the
efficiency of the displacement. Of to have connected this
system, the results of the displacement in a short nucleus
would have been masked, because the space is not the
sufficient one to guarantee that the multiple contacts take
place in the cores.
5. The best form to consider the associate gas produced, is
by means of the volumetric factor, which considers the
conditions of deposit and the volume of oil produced to
conditions standard. Other proposed methods, like
balance of mass from the injection gas, are not
recommendable to evaluate the displacement efficiency
because they start from suppositions not absolutely
certain.
6. As shown when comparing the three displacements, as the
irruption of the gas front is delayed, the efficiency of the
displacement is greater. This indicates that the best
sweeping delays but the arrival of the front until the
production point, and this directly related to the regime of
flow that predominates and the mixture of fluids.
7. The best obtained result was in the second displacement,
which indicates a behavior similar to the one found in the
literature. It is possible to said that the best result is
between the regions of the viscous forces and gravity.
Also a graph is had, although this is quantitative but
nonqualitative.
SPE 70053
8. The transition zone, as a fraction of the distance run by
the sweep front, was 5% in coreflooding, in the slim tube
system and in the steam equipment was 1%. There is a
higher sweep efficiency when the transition zone is lower.
REFERENCIAS
1. Ahmed, T., Menzie, D., and Crichlow, H.: “Preliminary
experimental results of high pressure nitrogen injection for EOR
systems”. SPE Journal 339 – 348, (April 1983).
2. Buchanan, R.D, and Donohoe, C.W.: “Economic evaluation of
cycling gas condensate reservoir with nitrogen”. Journal of
Petroleum Technology, 263 – 270, (February 1981).
3. Clancy, J.P., Gilchrist, R.E., Cheng, L., and Bywater, D.R.:
“Analysis of nitrogen injection projects to develop screening
guides and offshore design criteria”. SPE 11902, (September
1983)
4. Clark, N.J., Scultz, W.F., Garmz, K., and Moore, J.L.: “Miscible
drive its theory and application”. Journal of Petroleum
Technology 11 – 20, (June 1958)
5. Dindoruk, B., Orr, F.M., and Johns, R.T.: “Theory of multicontact
miscible displacement with nitrogen”. SPE 30771, (1995)
6. Evison, B., and Gilchrist, R.E.: “New developments in nitrogen in
the oil industry”. SPE 24313, (1992)
7. Glaso, O.S.: “Miscible displacement: Recovery tests with
nitrogen”. SPE 17378, (1988)
8. Hudgins, R.J. Llave, F.M., and Chung, F.T-H.: “Nitrogen miscible
displacement of light crude oil: A laboratory study”. SPE 17372,
(1988)
9. Huygens, R.J., Ronde, H., and Hagoort, J.: “Interfacial tension of
nitrogen/volatile oil systems”. SPE 26643, (1993)
10. Lee, S.T., Gomez, P.A., and Toczylkin, L.: An integrated
approach to interpret and quantify Cusiana hydrocarbon
system”. SPE 27029, (1994)
11. Perkins, T.K., and Johnston, O.C.: “A review of diffusion and
dispersion in porous media”. SPE Journal 70 – 84, (March 1963)
12. Peters, B.M., Zhou, D., and Blunt, M.J.: “Experimental
investigation of scaling factor that describe miscible floods in
layered systems”, SPE 39624, (June 1998)
13. Plata, E., and Perez, E.: “Evaluacion del comportamiento de fases
en yacimientos de condensados de gas y aceite volatil sometidos
a la inyeccion de gas. Universidad Industrial de Santander. 1984
14. Pozzi, A.L., and Blackwell, R.J.: “Design of laboratory models for
study of miscible displacement”. Soc. Pet. Eng. Journal 73 – 80,
(March 1966)
15. Rojas, G.: “Scaled model studies of inmiscible carbon dioxide
displacement of heavy oil”. The University of Alberta. 1985
16. Sayegh, S.G., Wang, S.T., and Fosti, J.E.: “Recovery of crude oil
using nitrogen. Part 2. Laboratory displacement data”.
Petroleum Recovery Institute, Report 1986-3. Mayo 1986
17. Sebastian, H.M., and Lawrence, D.D.: “Nitrogen minimum
miscibility pressures”. SPE 24134, (1992)
18. Stalkup, F.I.: “Miscible displacement”. Society of petroleum
Engineers Monograph V8, 1992
19. Warren, J.E., and Skiba, F.F.: “Macroscopic dispersion”. SPE
Journal 215 – 230, (September 1994)
20. Ypma, J.G.: “Compositional effects in gravity – dominated
nitrogen displacements. SPE Reservoir Engineering, (august
1988)
SPE 70053 EVALUATION OF DISPLACEMENT EFFICIENCY IN VOLATILE OIL RESERVOIRS UNDER NITROGEN INJECTION 5

21. Zhou, D., Fayers, F.J., and Orr, F.M.: Scaling of multiphase flow
∂φ j
in simple heterogeneous porous media”. SPE 27833, (1994) U j = − k h ( X , Y )λ j ......................( A − 7)
22. Jefri rotating coreholder and stand operating and maintenance ∂X
manual, DB Robinson design & manufacturing Ltd. May 1993
23. Jefri back pressure regulator operating and maintenance manual, 2
 H  k avgh ∂φ
DB Robinson design & manufacturing Ltd. May 1993
  v j = −k v ( X , Y )λ j j .......( A − 8)
 L  k avgv ∂Y
Appendix-Scale

The nature of the flow in the porous media is determined by
the interaction of the physics properties of the fluids and
porous media, and by the forces involved in the displacement
process. Several regions of flow in agreement with the forces
are identified that dominate the process. Three dimensionless
groups exist that are used to define these regions of flow: these
are relation between gravitational and viscous forces, relation
between capillary and viscous forces shape factor.
Where H and Ls are the thickness and the length of means,
kav and kah are the permeabilities averages of means in the
horizontal and vertical direction, and q is the speed of total
flow in the horizontal and vertical direction, and q is the speed
of total flow in the horizontal direction. Notice that the flow
potentials Φj are dimensionless and it is expressed with
relation to the oil viscosity, and that dimensionless mobilities
also contain the viscosity of the oil like factor.

∂S w ∂U w ∂Vw The four dimensionless equations converge in equations

φ + + = 0.............................( A − 1) 14, leaving to this like a scale group. Can be regrouped like:
∂T ∂X ∂Y
In agreement with the analysis, the equations of balance of k avgv ∆φ
materials for incompressible flow are: 2
 H  k avgv L Hµ L qv Th
  = = = .........( A − 9)
∂ ∂ k
 L  k avgh H avgh ∆φ H qh Tv
(U w + U o ) + (Vw + Vo ) = 0.................( A − 2)
∂X ∂Y Lµ

And the speeds of Darcy flow for two phases are given by: This scale group relates the time that the fluid throughout a L
distance in the horizontal direction takes, and the time that
k rj ∂ψ j takes the flow from the same fluid to cross a distance H in the
U j = −k h ( X , Y ) ............................( A − 3) vertical direction, to the same difference of potential
µ j ∂X throughout the distance. Rt also is called the effective shape
factor, and represents the relative capacity of flow within
means in the horizontal and vertical directions.
k rj ∂ψ j
V j = −kv ( X , Y ) ..............................( A − 4)
µ j ∂Y Considering that the position of the cores is horizontal, the
viscous forces are in the direction of longitudinal flow,
whereas the gravitational and capillary forces, it is in the cross
Where ψ is the potential of flow in j phase, Uj and Vj are the flow direction. With the purpose of identifying the flow
speeds of flow of phase j in the horizontal and vertical regions, in where each force dominates the movement of the
directions, kv and kh are the permeabilities in the horizontal fluid in the transverse direction, the equations of Darcy for
and vertical directions, respectively. each phase are combined.

Defining the dimensionless variables: x=X/L, y=Y/H, 1

(vw + vo ) = −kv (x, y ) λo ∂Φ o + λw ∂Φ w ...( A − 10)
t=Tq/L, uj=Uj/q, vj=(LVj)/(qH), kv= k avgKv(x,y), kh= k avg
λj=(krj.µ0)/(µj), Φ=(ψj.kavg)/(Lqµo); y. The
(Rt )2
 ∂y ∂y 
hKH(x,y),
dimensionless equations are obtained.
In order to define the relation between Φo and Φw, the
definition of capillary pressure is used to obtain:
∂S w ∂U w ∂Vw
φ + + = 0.....................( A − 5)
∂T ∂X ∂Y ∆ρgHk avgh 1 Pc * k avgh
Φ w = Φo + y− J (S w )....( A − 11)
Lqµ o K v Lqµ o
∂ ∂
(U w + U o ) + (Vw + Vo ) = 0............( A − 6)
∂X ∂Y
 6 JUAN RIVERA, JUAN CORREA, CESAR MANTILLA, CESAR DUARTE SPE 70053

If it is replaced formulates A-11 in formulates A-10, it gives Ngv and Ncv are the relations times characteristic so that the
like result: fluid flows in the transverse direction due to the gravity or
capillary forces, with respect to the time of flow in horizontal
∂Φ o − (vo + vw ) M 
 N gv − N cv 1 ∂J  direction due to the viscous forces.
= −
2
Rt
∂y λo kv (x, y )(1 + M ) 1 + M 
 K v ∂y 

................................................................................(A-12)

Where:

∆ρLk avgv
N gv = ......................................( A − 13)
Hqµ o

Lpc * k avgv
N cv = ...................................( A − 14)
H 2 qµ o

λw
M= ............................................( A − 15)
λo

TABLE 1 – NITROGEN APPLICATION IN E.O.R.

APPLICATION ° API DEW BUBBLE P (psi) T (F) DEPTH

POINT POINT
Pressure Maintenance
Injection on the ≥ 30 Above Above NR NR NR
gas cap
Inmiscible gas ≥ 30 - - NR NR NR
drive
Gravitational ≥ 25 - - NR NR NR
drainage
Trapped oil ≥ 25 - - NR NR NR
recovered
Miscible
Nitrogen ≥ 41 - - > 4500 NR > 7000
CO2 and N2 ≥ 27 - - > 1300 < 250 > 2300
driven force

NR: No restrictions
SPE 70053 EVALUATION OF DISPLACEMENT EFFICIENCY IN VOLATILE OIL RESERVOIRS UNDER NITROGEN INJECTION 7

Fig. 1-Coreflooding system diagram.

Fig. 2-Coreflooding system diagram.

8 JUAN RIVERA, JUAN CORREA, CESAR MANTILLA, CESAR DUARTE SPE 70053

Fig. 3-Slim tube and Coreflooding system diagram.

Fig. 4 Flow regions.

SPE 70053 EVALUATION OF DISPLACEMENT EFFICIENCY IN VOLATILE OIL RESERVOIRS UNDER NITROGEN INJECTION 9

Fig.5-Gravity number Vs. Recovery factor.