In Russia, the share of hard-to-recover oil reserves is growing, which are mainly represented by high-viscosity hydrocarbons or reserves in low-permeability reservoirs. As a rule, to extract oil in this way, specialists use thermal and chemical methods, most often combining them. However, as temperatures rise, there is a high risk of damage to the formation from which the oil is produced. Researchers from Russia and Saudi Arabia have proposed a new technology that allows the production of high-viscosity oil without damaging the formation. The work of scientists was published in the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering. The research was carried out by representatives of the Samara State Technical University, who, together with their Russian and Saudi colleagues, developed the technology of a well with a dual borehole system. “Through one borehole of this well, the formation will be heated, and through the other, oil will be produced. Our technology will significantly speed up the extraction of “difficult” oil and reduce the financial costs of the construction of conventional wells “, – noted one of the authors of the work, graduate student of SamSTU Sergei Gubanov. He also explained that the economic benefit of the new technique is due to the fact that, to warm up and liquefy oil, not steam is pumped into the formation along the wellbore, as with traditional technology, but organic compounds that interact with each other and, as a result of an exothermic reaction, can be heated to 110-130 ° C. To implement the development, a large amount of specialized equipment is also not needed, scientists say, which means that its implementation will not require large expenses. The text is based on the materials of the publication Indicator.
