Graduate Seminar

Friday, November 06, 2009 from 03:30 PM to 04:30 PM

Chemical EOR for Fractured Carbonates

Kishore K. Mohanty, The University of Texas at Austin

 

Abstract

World-wide energy demand is expected to triple in this century. This energy challenge must be met by the fossil fuel resources in the next 50 years. Enhanced oil recovery and unconventional oil recovery have to play a significant role in meeting this challenge. This presentation would summarize the latest developments in surfactant flooding. An application of surfactant–aided gravity drainage to highly fractured oil-wet carbonate reservoirs would be demonstrated. Waterflooding is not successful in highly fractured oil-wet reservoirs. However, more than 50% OOIP (original oil in place) can be recovered from fractured carbonates by the use of a dilute (<0.1 wt%) surfactant solution. Anionic, cationic and nonionic surfactants can be used. Effect of surfactants on wettability / interfacial tension and the resulting spontaneous imbibition into fracture blocks would be described. Sensitivity of the process to temperature and fracture spacing would be discussed. Mechanistic numerical simulations that match laboratory experiments and identify field conditions for successful surfactant-aided gravity drainage would be outlined.  

Speaker Bio

Dr. Kishore Mohanty earned his BS from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1976 and Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 1981. He worked in ARCO R&D from 1981-1991. He was a Professor at the University of Houston from 1991-2008. He joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin in January, 2009. Dr. Mohanty's research focuses on transport of simple and complex fluids in complex microstructured materials for applications in energy, environment and biotechnology.

Contact:
Petroleum Engineering Dept.
918-631-2533