Wells – Processes – Electric current or electrical wave energy through earth for...
Patent
1987-07-08
1989-12-05
Kisliuk, Bruce M.
Wells
Processes
Electric current or electrical wave energy through earth for...
166249, E21B 4325
Patent
active
048846341
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a process for increasing the degree of extraction for oil or other volatile liquids in oil reservoirs on land or at sea by the aid of vibrations and heat by the aid of electrical high-frequency pulses.
In connection with recovery of oil from any oil field only part of the oil present can be recovered. The degree of recovery can vary from approximately 17% and up to approximately 50%. The degree of recovery from the EKOFISK field is, e.g. estimated at approximately 20%.
The cause of the fact that it is not possible to recover all oil from a field, or at least a larger portion of such oil, is involved with the manner in which oil is bound in the formations. Oil in the pores of the formations is bound to said formations by capillary forces, surface tensions, polar forces, and adhesive forces. At the beginning of oil production said binding energy will be overcome by the natural pressure prevailing in said oil reservoirs, but as this pressure gradually decreases said forces will exceed the expelling pressure, resulting in a decreased oil production even though most of the oil is left in the formations.
Considerable effort was made over the years and is still made to increase the degree of recovery, and the best known approach is to inject water into the reservoirs. Additionally, a series of chemicals was developed, all of them more or less intended for breaking up the adhesion forces between oil and formations. Besides being very expensive the known methods only contribute very little to increase the degree of recovery. E.g., the above mentioned degree of recovery is calculated after injection of water into the reservoir. Without such injection the degree of recovery is calculated to be approximately 17%.
Apart from the fact that a relatively small increase of the degree of recovery is achieved, water injection requires extensive control of injection wells. This is associated with the so called "finger problem" arising when water penetrates. The water front moving in the oil field will not appear as a sharp front, but rather like a front with extended "fingers", due to the fact that water will always seek to find the line of least resistance in the formation. This may be compared with observations made when water is spurted onto a mound of gravel. You will soon observe that the water digs depressions where water can pass. The hazard of water injection is that such a "finger" reaches the production well. In that case only water will be produced from the injection. In order to overcome these problems much work is done to develop very sofisticated computer models of these so called front movements in order to permit control of both volume and pressure of water to prevent break-through to production wells.
A natural manner of increasing the degree of recovery would be to overcome the above mentioned binding forces with an increase of the pressure within the formations, and not with a pressure front of water or another expelling medium.
It is an object of the present invention to disclose a process for achieving this aim on the basis of comprehension of the binding forces acting in a typical oil reservoir.
The process should state the necessary elements for achieving the intended effect and the technique used to this end.
From physics it is known that the frictional force between bodies will decrease dramatically if one body is rapidly moved normally to the direction of movement of the other body. This fact is, inter alia, used when certain instruments are supported, i.e. a marker of an instrument for detecting some physical change is mounted on a slide bearing on a round rod. When said rod is rotated the frictional force between said bearing and rod will be approximately 0. The same effect may, indeed, be observed when we hit the cover of, e.g. an oil drum, if there is a little sand and water on said cover. Both sand and water will "float" on the cover like small drops, and there is only a minimum force needed to blow the drops away.
The first part of the process has the object of
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Industrikontakt Ing. O. Ellingsen & Co.
Kisliuk Bruce M.
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