American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2015 - 25

TECHCONNECTIONS
TORP Conference
Brings IOR Technology
To Mid-Continent
Even during these uncertain times, improved oil recovery is
an important issue for many independent operators. For more than
40 years, the University of Kansas Tertiary Oil Recovery Program
has been providing operators and service companies with access
to emerging technology and best practices aimed at the industry's
continued success in the Mid-Continent region.
TORP's 21st biennial event, held in April in Wichita, Ks., featured some of the industry's most cutting edge research as well as
new perspectives on old technologies. Events began with keynote
speaker Rodney Schulz, an independent oil and gas producer and
graduate from the KU petroleum engineering department, who is
an expert in the area of oil and gas economics. Schulz discussed
identifying and addressing uncertainty in today's market.
This year's IOR event also featured Stan McCool and Mark
Ballard discussing chemical flooding in the Trembley oil field in
Reno County, Ks. McCool and Ballard discussed how chemical
flooding could recover a significant amount of the oil left after
waterflooding. A slug containing surfactants and polymer is injected and displaced through the reservoir by a polymer drive. The
chemical slug mobilizes trapped oil, forming an oil bank that is
pushed to the production wells.
For their project, a chemical slug was formulated specifically through laboratory work and a field test was designed for the
Trembley Field. They reviewed the chemical formulation, injection
equipment design, and field implementation plan.
In another presentation, TORP's Jyun-Syung Tsau and Ballard
discussed Tsau's work on near-miscible carbon dioxide in the Arbuckle reservoir. Many reservoirs are not considered for CO2 miscible flooding because the maximum reservoir pressure that can
be attained is less than the minimum miscibility pressure (MMP).
Near-miscible displacement refers to a process occurring at a pressure slightly below MMP, but between immiscible and miscible.
Significant oil recovery was observed within that pressure range
in slim-tube experiments, and to a lesser extent in the core tests.
Tsau discussed how KU TORP set out to determine the feasibility of using CO2 displacement at near-miscible conditions to
improve oil recovery with an injection pressure below minimum
miscibility pressure. Additionally, he and Ballard highlighted how
they developed and implemented a field test with the goal of showing that significant oil could be recovered by the CO2 process operating at near-miscible conditions.
Next, Karen Peltier from TORP discussed her work on treating produced water. Peltier's presentation showcased how produced water was a significant waste stream containing high concentrations of salts and organic components that severely limited options for reuse (because of scaling) or safe disposal. Practices for dealing with produced water include reinjecting it into
the reservoir for additional recovery, discharging it into evaporation ponds, injecting it into disposal wells, or off-site commercial
disposal.
Changes in disposal practices-made necessary by a rapidly
changing regulatory environment-mean that treating produced water is a new area of concern for oil and gas producers. Peltier re-

"The 2015 improved oil recovery

conference continued KU's history of
providing industry access to

technology and best practices.

"

viewed technologies currently in use and introduced new technologies being developed at TORP.
Lynn Watney with the Kansas Geological Survey discussed
CO2-enhanced oil recovery in the Wellington Field in south-central Kansas. His presentation focused on the Paleozoic-age
Ozark Plateau Aquifer System in southern Kansas. OPAS is composed of the thick and deeply buried Arbuckle Group saline aquifer
and the overlying Mississippian carbonates that contain large oil
and gas reservoirs. The study was a collaboration among the KGS,
the geology departments at Kansas State University and the University of Kansas, Berexco LLC, Bittersweet Energy Inc., Hedke-Saenger Geoscience Ltd., Improved Hydrocarbon Recovery,
Anadarko Petroleum, Cimarex Energy, Merit Energy, Glori Energy, and Cisco Systems.
Watney provided an update on the progress of the three main
areas of focus:
* A field-scale study at the Wellington Field in Sumner County;
* A 25,000-square-mile regional study of a 33-county area
in southern Kansas; and
* Selecting and modeling a depleting oil field in the
Chester/Morrow sandstone play in southwestern Kansas to
evaluate the feasibility for CO2 EOR and sequestration capacity in the underlying Arbuckle saline aquifer.
Finally, Reza Berati from the KU chemical and petroleum engineering department discussed his work with nanoparticle-stabilized CO2 foam for EOR and hydraulic fracturing applications.
KU researchers have designed a more stable foam system in the
presence of crude oil. The improved foam stability and rheological
properties observed are the result of modifying current CO2 foam
systems using nanoparticles. This system has the potential to improve CO2 EOR recoveries from the heterogeneous carbonate
reservoirs of Kansas.
KU's improved oil recovery conference has a long history of
providing industry access to technology and best practices, and the
2015 program continued this tradition in these uncertain times. Ì

JEREMY VISCOMI is director

of technology transfer for the
University of Kansas Tertiary
Oil Recovery Program and is
Mid-Continent regional director for PTTC. He has more
than a decade of experience in
developing and organizing
technical conferences and special events.
MAY 2015 25



American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Oil and Gas Reporter - May 2015

Contents
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