Ikelic - Alliance Digital Repository

OIL SANDS
As compared to SI, ISC requires a more exten
sive engineering effort, more difficult technical,
operating and control problems, more complex
monitoring, more people, more equipment and
hence more money; but all these could be com
pensated for by a higher recovery.
The authors believe the basic reason for the cur
rent lack of attraction of ISC is to be found in:
the low current oil price, the discouragement of
operators after the failure of some projects
carried out on improperly selected reservoirs,
and the higher overall effort necessary.
Suplacu de Barcau
Suplacu de Barcau oil field was discovered in
1958 and commercial production started in 1961.
The predicted production calculations showed
that under primary depletion the ultimate
recovery could amount to at most 9.2 percent
during a very long time interval, with reduced
daily production rates and involving high costs.
Steam Drive (SD) and ISC were concurrently
tested in the period between 1963 and 1970. The
response of the reservoir was more favorable in
the case of ISC:
- The
Total oil production from the pattern was
14,812 tons during 696 days by SD and
20,000 tons, during 670 days by ISC.
The average daily production of the en
tire pattern was 21.3 tons by SD and
29.9 tons by ISC.
average daily oil rate per well was
5.3 tons by SD and 7.5 tons by ISC.
semi-
The better performance of ISC during the
commercial stage led to the decision, in 1970, to
design the entire reservoir exploitation using this
method. The "pattern"
concept was replaced by
a "linear front"
or "continuous front"
concept.
The production increase as a result of switching
from patterns to continuous front was obvious
3-30
during the interval 1975-1976. By the end of
1993:
- Length
- Total
- There
- Oil
- Average
- Oil
- Incremental
of the combustion front was
8,900 meters
air injection rate was
106,650,280 standard cubic feet per day
were 457 producers in the combus
tion affected area
production rate from the combustion
affected area was 9,074 barrels per day
air/oil ratio was 1 1 ,620 standard
cubic feet per barrel
recovery
reached 33 percent
for the entire reservoir
production obtained by ISC
was 64,241 ,241 barrels
An ultimate recovery of at least 50 percent is ex
pected.
Balaria Field
The Balaria structure was discovered in 1960 and
put into production in 1963. In 1975 an ISC ex
periment started at West Balaria, in a direct five-
spot pattern, surrounded by four inverted five-
spot patterns. In 1979, two other patterns were
added. The experiment lasted until 1982. The
final evaluation, in 1983, led to the decision to
design a full-scale project for this reservoir.
Commercial production at West Balaria started in
1984 by extension of the area of the previous ex
periment to adjacent blocks. Twenty-two ISC in
verted patterns were designed and earned out on
three tectonic blocks.
By the end of 1993 the production in this area
reached its final stage; four patterns are still
operating, yielding 21 1 barrels per day through
36 wells. On the same date the recovery was
31.8 percent.
THE SYNTHETIC FUELS REPORT, JANUARY 1995