Effects of Temperature on Foamy Oil Flowin Solution Gas-Drive in Cold Lake Field
Authors: Greaves M. , Maini B.B. , Chakma A. 
Published: March 2010

The roles of foamy oil flow in cold production of heavy oils under solution gas-drive have been extensively studied in recent years. However, the mechanisms of foamy oil flow in porous media are still not fully understood. The viscosities of heavy oils and bitumen are often so high that the solution gas drive should yield very little oil production. However, several heavy oil reservoirs in Canada and Venezuela have displayed very high solution gas drive recovery factors and foamy oil flow is believed to be the cause. The recovery factor projected for steam stimulation operation in Cold Lake is also very high, up to 30﹪ of OOIP. Since the primary drive energy in Cold Lake comes from solution gas drive, it has been suggested that foamy oil flow may be responsible for this high recovery factor.

The objective of this work was to examine the effects of temperature on foamy oil flow in a clean sand with Cold Lake oil and methane gas. Solution gas drive experiments were carried out in a sand-pack at several different temperatures and depletion rates. The results show that, in isothermal depletion tests, the highest recovery factor does not occur at the highest temperature used. Instead, a much lower optimum temperature exists which provides the highest recovery. The reasons for this appear to be the diminished gas solubility and reduced foamy behaviour at higher temperatures, which counteract the positive influence of reduced viscosity.

Introduction

It has been found that oil continuous foam is produced during primary, production of heavy oil in several heavy oil reservoirs. Essentially the foam is formed by release of solution gas in the continuous oil phase. These foamy oils, because of their veryomplex structure, exhibit complicated and unusual flow behaviour. he formation of dispersed gas bubbles in the heavy oil has been suggested to be an important factor contributing to the success in primary production of several heavy oil reservoirs(1-4).

The foamy nature of the oil keeps the released solution gas dispersed in the oil, which is very different from the conventional oil behaviour. Several investigators have reported the results of pressure depletion experiments. These results indicate that the beneficial effects of foamy oil diminish as the rate of pressure change becomes small. However, most previous work on foamy oil flow has been aimed at cold production, so that the temperature factor is not considered. Although some useful insights into the foamy oil flow mechanisms were developed, foamy oil flow in conjunction with thermal recovery methods has not been adequately studied.

The presence or absence of foamy oil behaviour depends on the rheological and surface properties of the oil. While the oil viscosity can be measured directly, it is difficult to characterize the relevant surface properties of the system. The foam stability may be a useful measure of the surface properties of the oil-gas system in relation to the foamy oil behaviour. Sheng(5) reported that foam stability decreases with the reduction of oil viscosity.