A Simulation Study of the Effect of Injecting Carbon Dioxide with Nitrogen or Lean Gas on the Minimum Miscibility Pressure

Abstract

The objective of this study is to determine the effects of the concentration of injected gases on recovery factors. CO2 has been used for flooding because it requires low injection pressures to achieve miscibility. However, the availability of CO2 is an issue. CO2 required for the process is not sufficient for the reservoir under consideration. Moreover, its benefit-cost ratio (b/c) represents another issue; higher volumes of CO2 increases the economic expenditures. An alternative is to inject lean gas or nitrogen along with CO2 to achieve better recoveries at optimum costs and suitable pressure. Slim tube simulation using a commercial simulator is utilized to measure the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) of an injected gas mixture. The mixture contains CO2/N2 or CO2/lean gas. Using different concentrations in the injected mixture, an effect on the recovery factor is studied. The first 30 runs have 100% concentration of each individual gases i.e. N2, CO2 and lean gas. Based on these runs, the simulation model is validated using the co-relations present in the literature. Gas mixtures of CO2/N2 and CO2/lean gas were then simulated using the compositional model to test the effect on MMP by varying the concentration of each gas in the mixture. By changing the volumes of the gas in the injected mixture, we can find the optimum concentration of each component in the mixture in terms of MMP. From the results obtained through simulation, it can be deduced that higher percentages of CO2 in the mixture would result in reduced minimum miscibility pressure. The addition of a secondary slug to the injected CO2 fluid increases the pressure required to achieve miscibility. Of N2 and Lean gas, Lean gas provided better results as it showed low miscibility pressure responses compared to the same amount of N2 gas. For example, for a case, 50% CO2 and 50 %N2 or lean gas mixture, the MMP for the lean gas mixture is 3500 Psi, while for N2 mixture it was 4667 Psi. However, lean gas is expensive as compared to N2 and N2 is easily available. N2, if used in optimum concentration along with CO2 can produce greater recoveries keeping the process cost-effective while satisfying other constraints. CO2 is widely used for miscible injection, but it presents problems like costs, corrosion, and asphaltene deposition etc. The study can give an idea of the success of carrying out EOR through gas flooding by using N2 and CO2 to enhance recovery at low cost. N2 is easily available from air and it is cheap.