(356a) Experimental Investigation of Enhancing Oil Recovery for Umm Niqa Heavy Oil

Oil and gas resources are considered as the main income source for many countries, especially in the Middle East. Moreover, oil consumption is growing rapidly due to the high rise in the global demand for energy, which encourages oil producing countries to optimize their production. In general, most of the conventional oil resources have already been extracted, leaving a vast economic quantity of the non-conventional crudes trapped in the reservoirs. Extracting these amounts is challenging and requires the usage of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques. The development method and expected recovery gain depend on economic, environmental, and technical considerations. Therefore, prior to any field development, operating companies perform comprehensive studies to select the most suitable producing method. This thesis focuses on the development of the Umm Niqa oil field located in the north of the State of Kuwait. A reservoir screening study for the target formation was conducted to evaluate the different EOR techniques followed by experimental core flooding, which was the main methodology utilized to achieve the target of this study. Water flooding tests and steam injection were conducted using real core plugs of unconsolidated sandstone. However, the repeatability of the tests using the filed core plugs failed and therefore, the study was completed using synthetic core plugs. The heavy oil samples were provided by the operating company. Water flooding runs were conducted at 33, 66, and 93 ℃, while steam injection was performed at 160 and 315 ℃. The five runs were conducted using five corresponding core plugs. Based on the obtained results and economic evaluation, the study revealed that water injection at 33 ℃ is the most applicable and optimal method for the studied reservoir.