Patent ID: 8272449

Claim:
A method to increase petroleum production from an oil well drilled into a petroleum reservoir having an oil well drilled into a petroleum reservoir having an oil layer and an aqueous layer having one or more of Ca 2+ and Mg 2+ ions present, comprising: delivering an acid into the aqueous layer through one or more injection wells drilled into the aqueous layer; delivering one or more of an alkali carbonate or an alkaline earth carbonate into the aqueous layer through one or more injection wells drilled into the aqueous layer to generate CO 2 gas; sealing the oil well in a manner to substantially confine an increase in pressure within the petroleum reservoir; recovering CO 2 gas from recovered petroleum using one or more gas-liquid separators; and recycling the recovered CO 2 gas by injecting at least a portion of the recovered CO 2 gas back into the oil well, wherein the mole amount of the one or more of the alkali carbonate and the alkaline earth carbonate is less than half the mole amount of the acid delivered in the aqueous layer such that the aqueous layer is acidic.