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98-538: The Honor Rancho Oil Field (also Honor Rancho Natural Gas Storage Field , Honor Rancho Underground Storage Facility ) is an approximately 600-acre oil field and natural gas storage facility in Los Angeles County, California , on the northern border of the Valencia neighborhood of Santa Clarita , near the junction of Interstate 5 and westbound California State Route 126 . Discovered in 1950 and quickly developed,

196-445: A cap rock) is a fundamental part of the trap that prevents hydrocarbons from further upward migration. A capillary seal is formed when the capillary pressure across the pore throats is greater than or equal to the buoyancy pressure of the migrating hydrocarbons. They do not allow fluids to migrate across them until their integrity is disrupted, causing them to leak. There are two types of capillary seal whose classifications are based on

294-434: A consequence of improving the water/oil mobility ratio. Surfactants may be used in conjunction with polymers and hyperbranched polyglycerols ; they decrease the interfacial tension between the oil and water. This reduces the residual oil saturation and improves the macroscopic efficiency of the process. Primary surfactants usually have co-surfactants, activity boosters, and co-solvents added to them to improve stability of

392-406: A consequence, oil and natural gas are often found together. In common usage, deposits rich in oil are known as oil fields, and deposits rich in natural gas are called natural gas fields. In general, organic sediments buried in depths of 1,000 m to 6,000 m (at temperatures of 60 ° C to 150 °C) generate oil, while sediments buried deeper and at higher temperatures generate natural gas. The deeper

490-407: A few, very large offshore drilling rigs, due to the cost and logistical difficulties in working over water. Rising gas prices in the early 21st century encouraged drillers to revisit fields that previously were not considered economically viable. For example, in 2008 McMoran Exploration passed a drilling depth of over 32,000 feet (9754 m) (the deepest test well in the history of gas production) at

588-538: A former minimum-security prison founded in 1938, where inmates were rehabilitated in an outdoor, ranch and farming environment. Honor Rancho was a small oil field found after most of the large oil fields in the vicinity had already been developed. Southeast of Honor Rancho, across Interstate 5, is the Newhall Oil Field, site of the first commercially successful oil well in the western United States, Pico No. 4 . But fields such as Honor Rancho were harder to find because

686-419: A gravity higher than 45 API. Gas cycling is the process where dry gas is injected and produced along with condensed liquid. Enhanced oil recovery Enhanced oil recovery (abbreviated EOR ), also called tertiary recovery , is the extraction of crude oil from an oil field that cannot be extracted otherwise. Whereas primary and secondary recovery techniques rely on the pressure differential between

784-452: A long history of oil and gas production. Overall, the structure of the oil field is a plunging anticline oriented northwest to southeast, dipping to the southeast; most of the hydrocarbon accumulation is along the southwest flank of this structure,(1959) which resembles a southwest-dipping homocline. One stratigraphic unit, the Miocene -age Modelo Formation , contains oil and gas accumulations. To

882-523: A lower salinity allows for greater oil removal, and greater geochemical interactions. In this approach, various methods are used to heat the crude oil in the formation to reduce its viscosity and/or vaporize part of the oil and thus decrease the mobility ratio. The increased heat reduces the surface tension and increases the permeability of the oil. The heated oil may also vaporize and then condense forming improved oil. Methods include cyclic steam injection , steam flooding and combustion. These methods improve

980-468: A means of boosting domestic oil production, the US federal tax code began to include incentives for EOR in 1979. Crude oil development and production can include up to three distinct phases: primary, secondary, and tertiary (or enhanced) recovery. During primary recovery, the natural pressure of the reservoir or gravity drive oil into the wellbore, combined with artificial lift techniques (such as pumps) which bring

1078-421: A reduction in the surface tension with the reservoir rock. In the case of low pressure reservoirs or heavy oils, CO 2 will form an immiscible fluid, or will only partially mix with the oil. Some oil swelling may occur, and oil viscosity can still be significantly reduced. In these applications, between one-half and two-thirds of the injected CO 2 returns with the produced oil and is usually re-injected into

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1176-471: A result of changes in the structure of the subsurface from processes such as folding and faulting , leading to the formation of domes , anticlines , and folds. Examples of this kind of trap are an anticline trap, a fault trap, and a salt dome trap. They are more easily delineated and more prospective than their stratigraphic counterparts, with the majority of the world's petroleum reserves being found in structural traps. Stratigraphic traps are formed as

1274-435: A result of lateral and vertical variations in the thickness, texture, porosity, or lithology of the reservoir rock. Examples of this type of trap are an unconformity trap, a lens trap and a reef trap. Hydrodynamic traps are a far less common type of trap. They are caused by the differences in water pressure, that are associated with water flow, creating a tilt of the hydrocarbon-water contact. The seal (also referred to as

1372-502: A significantly higher displacement pressure such that the pressure required for tension fracturing is actually lower than the pressure required for fluid displacement—for example, in evaporites or very tight shales. The rock will fracture when the pore pressure is greater than both its minimum stress and its tensile strength then reseal when the pressure reduces and the fractures close. Unconventional (oil & gas) reservoirs are accumulations where oil and gas phases are tightly bound to

1470-476: Is a general term for injection processes that introduce miscible gases into the reservoir. A miscible displacement process maintains reservoir pressure and improves oil displacement because the interfacial tension between oil and gas is reduced. This refers to removing the interface between the two interacting fluids. This allows for total displacement efficiency. Gases used include CO 2 , natural gas or nitrogen. The fluid most commonly used for miscible displacement

1568-405: Is an area of accumulated liquid petroleum underground in multiple (potentially linked) reservoirs, trapped as it rises to impermeable rock formations. In industrial terms, an oil field implies that there is an economic benefit worthy of commercial attention. Oil fields may extend up to several hundred kilometers across the surface, meaning that extraction efforts can be large and spread out across

1666-402: Is analogous to saying that the oil which can be extracted forms within the source rock itself, as opposed to accumulating under a cap rock. Oil sands are an example of an unconventional oil reservoir. Unconventional reservoirs and their associated unconventional oil encompass a broad spectrum of petroleum extraction and refinement techniques, as well as many different sources. Since the oil

1764-403: Is being pursued at a higher rate because of the scarcity of conventional reservoirs around the world. After the discovery of a reservoir, a petroleum engineer will seek to build a better picture of the accumulation. In a simple textbook example of a uniform reservoir, the first stage is to conduct a seismic survey to determine the possible size of the trap. Appraisal wells can be used to determine

1862-452: Is best to manage the gas cap effectively, that is, placing the oil wells such that the gas cap will not reach them until the maximum amount of oil is produced. Also a high production rate may cause the gas to migrate downward into the production interval. In this case, over time the reservoir pressure depletion is not as steep as in the case of solution-based gas drive. In this case, the oil rate will not decline as steeply but will depend also on

1960-426: Is called the stock tank oil initially in place . As a result of studying factors such as the permeability of the rock (how easily fluids can flow through the rock) and possible drive mechanisms, it is possible to estimate the recovery factor, or what proportion of oil in place can be reasonably expected to be produced. The recovery factor is commonly 30–35%, giving a value for the recoverable resources. The difficulty

2058-414: Is captured from industrial facilities such as natural gas processing plants , using carbon capture technology. CO 2 is particularly effective in reservoirs deeper than 2,000 ft., where CO 2 will be in a supercritical state. In high pressure applications with lighter oils, CO 2 is miscible with the oil, with resultant swelling of the oil, and reduction in viscosity, and possibly also with

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2156-421: Is carbon dioxide because it reduces the oil viscosity and is less expensive than liquefied petroleum gas . Oil displacement by carbon dioxide injection relies on the phase behavior of the mixtures of that gas and the crude, which are strongly dependent on reservoir temperature, pressure and crude oil composition. Using CO 2 for enhanced oil recovery was first investigated and patented in 1952. The process

2254-490: Is contained within the source rock, unconventional reservoirs require that the extracting entity function as a mining operation rather than drilling and pumping like a conventional reservoir. This has tradeoffs, with higher post-production costs associated with complete and clean extraction of oil being a factor of consideration for a company interested in pursuing a reservoir. Tailings are also left behind, increasing cleanup costs. Despite these tradeoffs, unconventional oil

2352-462: Is controversy over whether the overall process is beneficial for the climate. EOR operations are energy-intensive, which leads to more emissions, and further emissions are produced when the oil is burned. EOR adds to the cost of producing oil but can be economically attractive if the price of oil is high. The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 20 billion tons of captured CO 2 could produce 67 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil. As

2450-563: Is either to Castaic Creek on the west, or towards the Santa Clara River to the south. Access to the natural gas storage facility from the southeast is from Rye Canyon Road, and access to Vintage Petroleum's operations on the north and west is from Hasley Canyon Road, which also provides access to the prison. The oil field is located in the northeastern extreme of the Ventura Basin Province, a petroleum-rich sedimentary basin with

2548-601: Is provided for regional CCS hubs that focus on the broader capture, transport, and either storage or use of captured CO 2 . Hundreds of millions more are dedicated annually to loan guarantees supporting CO 2 transport infrastructure. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) updates tax credit law to encourage the use of carbon capture and storage. Tax incentives under the law provide up to $ 85/tonne for CO 2 capture and storage in saline geologic formations or up to $ 60/tonne for CO 2 used for enhanced oil recovery. The Internal Revenue Service relies on documentation from

2646-630: Is shared between Iran and Qatar . The second largest natural gas field is the Urengoy gas field , and the third largest is the Yamburg gas field , both in Russia . Like oil, natural gas is often found underwater in offshore gas fields such as the North Sea , Corrib Gas Field off Ireland , and near Sable Island . The technology to extract and transport offshore natural gas is different from land-based fields. It uses

2744-413: Is that reservoirs are not uniform. They have variable porosities and permeabilities and may be compartmentalized, with fractures and faults breaking them up and complicating fluid flow. For this reason, computer modeling of economically viable reservoirs is often carried out. Geologists, geophysicists, and reservoir engineers work together to build a model that allows simulation of the flow of fluids in

2842-438: Is the most common method. In this method, CO2 is injected into a depleted oil field and is mostly left underground. CO 2 -EOR is usually performed using CO 2 from naturally-occurring underground deposits. It is also sometimes performed using CO 2 captured from the flue gas of industrial facilities. When EOR is done using CO 2 captured from flue gas, the process can prevent some emissions from escaping. However, there

2940-635: Is used to address the problem of paraffin wax components of the crude oil, which tend to precipitate as the crude flows to the surface, since the Earth's surface is considerably cooler than the petroleum deposits (a temperature drop of 9–10–14 °C per thousand feet of depth is usual). In 2013, a technique called plasma-pulse technology was introduced into the United States from Russia. This technique can result in another 50 percent of improvement in existing well production. Adding oil recovery methods adds to

3038-474: Is usually found to increase overall emissions compared to not using carbon capture at all. If the emissions from burning extracted oil are excluded from calculations, carbon capture with EOR is found to decrease emissions. In arguments for excluding these emissions, it is assumed that oil produced by EOR displaces conventionally-produced oil instead of adding to the global consumption of oil. A 2020 review found that scientific papers were roughly evenly split on

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3136-440: Is usually limited by the cost of the chemicals and their adsorption and loss onto the rock of the oil containing formation. In all of these methods the chemicals are injected into several wells and the production occurs in other nearby wells. Polymer flooding consists in mixing long chain polymer molecules with the injected water in order to increase the water viscosity. This method improves the vertical and areal sweep efficiency as

3234-869: Is usually necessary to drill into the Earth's crust, although surface oil seeps exist in some parts of the world, such as the La Brea Tar Pits in California and numerous seeps in Trinidad . Factors that affect the quantity of recoverable hydrocarbons in a reservoir include the fluid distribution in the reservoir, initial volumes of fluids in place, reservoir pressure, fluid and rock properties, reservoir geometry, well type, well count, well placement, development concept, and operating philosophy. Modern production includes thermal , gas injection , and chemical methods of extraction to enhance oil recovery. A virgin reservoir may be under sufficient pressure to push hydrocarbons to

3332-571: The Clean Air Act , which dictates reporting guidelines for any Carbon Dioxide sequestration operations. Beyond the atmospheric concerns, most of these federal guidelines are to ensure that the Carbon Dioxide injection causes no major damage to America's waterways. Overall, the locality of EOR regulation can make EOR projects more difficult, as different standards in different regions can slow down construction and force separate approaches to utilize

3430-461: The Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center , which includes a maximum-security prison. The only operators on the field as of 2016 were SoCalGas and Vintage Production California, LLC, a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum . The field produced approximately 50,000 barrels of oil in 2014, and the capacity of the gas storage reservoir is about 26 billion cubic feet of natural gas. Forty gas injection wells tap into

3528-546: The aquatic ecosystem , which is usually a sea but might also be a river, lake, coral reef, or algal mat , the formation of an oil or gas reservoir also requires a sedimentary basin that passes through four steps: Timing is also an important consideration; it is suggested that the Ohio River Valley could have had as much oil as the Middle East at one time, but that it escaped due to a lack of traps. The North Sea , on

3626-407: The buoyancy forces driving the upward migration of hydrocarbons through a permeable rock cannot overcome the capillary forces of a sealing medium. The timing of trap formation relative to that of petroleum generation and migration is crucial to ensuring a reservoir can form. Petroleum geologists broadly classify traps into three categories that are based on their geological characteristics:

3724-518: The "Gabriel," "Wayside", and "Rancho" zones, from top to bottom; they have average depths below ground surface of 3,800, 5,300, and 6,500 feet, respectively. The Southeast Area of the field, the portion used since 1975 as a gas storage reservoir, contains one large pool – the Wayside 13 – at a depth of 9,000 to 11,000 feet below ground surface. The field takes its name from the Wayside Honor Rancho,

3822-657: The Blackbeard site in the Gulf of Mexico. ExxonMobil 's drill rig there had reached 30,000 feet by 2006, without finding gas, before it abandoned the site. Crude oil is found in all oil reservoirs formed in the Earth's crust from the remains of once-living things. Evidence indicates that millions of years of heat and pressure changed the remains of microscopic plants and animals into oil and natural gas. Roy Nurmi, an interpretation adviser for Schlumberger oil field services company, described

3920-438: The US federal tax code began to include incentives for EOR in 1979, when crude oil was still under federal price controls. A 15 percent tax credit was codified with the U.S. Federal EOR Tax Incentive in 1986, and oil production from EOR using CO 2 subsequently grew rapidly. In the U.S., the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act designates over $ 3 billion for a variety of CCS demonstration projects. A similar amount

4018-410: The actual capacity. Laboratory testing can determine the characteristics of the reservoir fluids, particularly the expansion factor of the oil, or how much the oil expands when brought from the high pressure and high temperature of the reservoir to a "stock tank" at the surface. With such information, it is possible to estimate how many "stock tank" barrels of oil are located in the reservoir. Such oil

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4116-547: The amount of oil recovered in some formations. Dilute solutions of surfactants such as petroleum sulfonates or biosurfactants such as rhamnolipids may be injected to lower the interfacial tension or capillary pressure that impedes oil droplets from moving through a reservoir, this is analyzed in terms of the bond number , relating capillary forces to gravitational ones. Special formulations of oil, water and surfactant, microemulsions , can be particularly effective in reducing interfacial tension. Application of these methods

4214-786: The application to the State Public Utilities Commission in 2009, and received the go-ahead in April 2010. Among the project aims was the removal of highly saline water from the bottom of the storage reservoir, which would allow an increase in total storage capacity by five billion cubic feet. In the current gas field, wells are connected to processing, storage, and transmission facilities by about 12 miles (19 km) of pipelines, both above and below ground. The design allows withdrawal of up to one billion cubic feet of gas per day. In January 2016, Santa Clarita City Manager Ken Striplin met with representatives of SoCalGas to determine whether

4312-449: The area. In addition to extraction equipment, there may be exploratory wells probing the edges to find more reservoir area, pipelines to transport the oil elsewhere, and support facilities. Oil fields can occur anywhere that the geology of the underlying rock allows, meaning that certain fields can be far away from civilization, including at sea. Creating an operation at an oil field can be a logistically complex undertaking, as it involves

4410-470: The climate. The EOR process is energy-intensive because of the need to separate and re-inject CO 2 multiple times to minimize losses. If CO 2 losses are kept at 1%, the energy required for EOR operations results in around 0.23 tonnes of CO 2 emissions per tonne of CO 2 sequestered. Furthermore, when the oil that is extracted using EOR is subsequently burned, CO 2 is released. If these emissions are included in calculations, carbon capture with EOR

4508-498: The corporation to substantiate claims on how much CO 2 is being sequestered, and does not perform independent investigations. In 2020, a federal investigation found that claimants for the 45Q tax credit failed to document successful geological storage for nearly $ 900 million of the $ 1 billion they had claimed. One of the primary regulations governing EOR is the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 (SDWA), which gives most of

4606-400: The cost of oil—in the case of CO 2 typically between 0.5–8.0 US$ per tonne of CO 2 . The increased extraction of oil on the other hand, is an economic benefit with the revenue depending on prevailing oil prices . Onshore EOR has paid in the range of a net 10–16 US$ per tonne of CO 2 injected for oil prices of 15–20 US$ / barrel . Prevailing prices depend on many factors but can determine

4704-415: The economic suitability of any procedure, with more procedures and more expensive procedures being economically viable at higher prices. Example: With oil prices at around 90 US$ /barrel, the economic benefit is about 70 US$ per tonne CO 2 . The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 20 billion tons of captured CO 2 could produce 67 billion barrels of economically recoverable oil. From 1986 to 2008,

4802-430: The equipment associated with extraction and transportation, as well as infrastructure such as roads and housing for workers. This infrastructure has to be designed with the lifespan of the oil field in mind, as production can last many years. Several companies, such as Hill International , Bechtel , Esso , Weatherford International , Schlumberger , Baker Hughes and Halliburton , have organizations that specialize in

4900-621: The field had any of the same problems that led to the methane gas leak at the similar, but four times larger gas storage facility ten miles south. He determined the risk level was low. Similarly, Steve Knight , the congressional representative for California's 25th District , toured the facility, and told his constituents that the field "is checked constantly." 34°26′49″N 118°35′14″W  /  34.4469°N 118.5873°W  / 34.4469; -118.5873 Oil field Reservoirs are broadly classified as conventional and unconventional reservoirs. In conventional reservoirs,

4998-521: The field's history. In 1954, operators began gas injection into the Wayside pool, discontinuing it in 1961. After the 1957 peak, operators began a waterflood operation in the Wayside pool, and in 1959 in the Rancho pool. In this method, water is pumped back into the reservoir to replace fluid previously removed, increasing reservoir pressure and driving remaining oil to recovery wells. In the Southeast Area of

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5096-474: The field's oil production peaked in the 1950s, but remains productive in 2016. In 1975 Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas), the gas utility serving Southern California, began using one of its depleted oil producing zones, the Wayside 13 zone, as a gas storage reservoir, and it became the second-largest in their inventory after the Aliso Canyon gas storage facility . The field shares part of its extent with

5194-529: The field, gas injection was used from 1960 to 1966, and waterflood from 1972 to 1975, the year the Wayside 13 reservoir was converted to gas storage. In 1975, SoCalGas acquired the Wayside 13 reservoir for use as a gas storage facility. It was the fourth such facility for the utility, after La Goleta near Santa Barbara, Playa del Rey in Los Angeles, and Aliso Canyon north of the San Fernando Valley, and

5292-416: The first approach, bacterial cultures mixed with a food source (a carbohydrate such as molasses is commonly used) are injected into the oil field. In the second approach, used since 1985, nutrients are injected into the ground to nurture existing microbial bodies; these nutrients cause the bacteria to increase production of the natural surfactants they normally use to metabolize crude oil underground. After

5390-439: The flame front. As the fire burns, it moves through the reservoir toward production wells. Heat from the fire reduces oil viscosity and helps vaporize reservoir water to steam. The steam, hot water, combustion gas and a bank of distilled solvent all act to drive oil in front of the fire toward production wells. There are three methods of combustion: Dry forward, reverse and wet combustion. Dry forward uses an igniter to set fire to

5488-830: The formulation. Caustic flooding is the addition of sodium hydroxide to injection water. It does this by lowering the surface tension, reversing the rock wettability, emulsification of the oil, mobilization of the oil and helps in drawing the oil out of the rock. EOR processes can be enhanced with nanoparticles in three ways: nanocatalysts, nanofluids , and nanoemulsions. Nanofluids are base fluids that contain nanoparticles in colloidal suspensions. Nanofluids perform many functions in EOR of oil fields, including pore disjoining pressure, channel plugging, interfacial tension reduction, mobility ratio, wettability alteration, and asphaltene precipitation prevention. Nanofluids facilitates disjoining pressure to remove sediment entrapped oil via aggregation at

5586-402: The gas bubbles drive the oil to the surface. The bubbles then reach critical saturation and flow together as a single gas phase. Beyond this point and below this pressure, the gas phase flows out more rapidly than the oil because of its lowered viscosity. More free gas is produced, and eventually the energy source is depleted. In some cases depending on the geology the gas may migrate to the top of

5684-662: The globe, on land and offshore. The largest are the Ghawar Field in Saudi Arabia and the Burgan Field in Kuwait , with more than 66 to 104 billion barrels (9.5×10 m ) estimated in each. In the modern age, the location of oil fields with proven oil reserves is a key underlying factor in many geopolitical conflicts. Natural gas originates by the same geological thermal cracking process that converts kerogen to petroleum. As

5782-618: The injected nutrients are consumed, the microbes go into near-shutdown mode, their exteriors become hydrophilic , and they migrate to the oil-water interface area, where they cause oil droplets to form from the larger oil mass, making the droplets more likely to migrate to the wellhead. This approach has been used in oilfields near the Four Corners and in the Beverly Hills Oil Field in Beverly Hills, California . The third approach

5880-628: The interface. Alternatively, wettability alteration and interfacial surface tension reduction are other alternative mechanism of EOR. Microbial injection is part of microbial enhanced oil recovery and is rarely used because of its higher cost and because the development is not widely accepted. These microbes function either by partially digesting long hydrocarbon molecules, by generating biosurfactants , or by emitting carbon dioxide (which then functions as described in Gas injection above). Three approaches have been used to achieve microbial injection. In

5978-575: The large-scale construction of the infrastructure to support oil field exploitation. The term "oilfield" can be used as a shorthand to refer to the entire petroleum industry . However, it is more accurate to divide the oil industry into three sectors: upstream ( crude oil production from wells and separation of water from oil ), midstream (pipeline and tanker transport of crude oil) and downstream ( refining of crude oil to products, marketing of refined products, and transportation to oil stations). More than 65,000 oil fields are scattered around

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6076-434: The liquid sections applying extra pressure. This is present in the reservoir if there is more gas than can be dissolved in the reservoir. The gas will often migrate to the crest of the structure. It is compressed on top of the oil reserve, as the oil is produced the cap helps to push the oil out. Over time the gas cap moves down and infiltrates the oil, and the well will produce more and more gas until it produces only gas. It

6174-438: The location of oil-water contact and with it the height of the oil bearing sands. Often coupled with seismic data, it is possible to estimate the volume of an oil-bearing reservoir. The next step is to use information from appraisal wells to estimate the porosity of the rock. The porosity of an oil field, or the percentage of the total volume that contains fluids rather than solid rock, is 20–35% or less. It can give information on

6272-403: The naturally occurring hydrocarbons, such as crude oil ( petroleum ) or natural gas , are trapped by overlying rock formations with lower permeability , while in unconventional reservoirs the rocks have high porosity and low permeability, which keeps the hydrocarbons trapped in place, therefore not requiring a cap rock . Reservoirs are found using hydrocarbon exploration methods. An oil field

6370-556: The northeast, the San Gabriel Fault closes the structure, trapping hydrocarbons with an approximate 500-foot offset, placing impermeable rock units adjacent to the petroleum-bearing Modelo formation. The other sides of the field are sealed stratrigraphically, specifically by permeability changes in the rock preventing hydrocarbon movement. The Main Area of the oil field – the first discovered – contains six separate pools of oil, grouped into

6468-438: The oil and form a secondary gas cap. Some energy may be supplied by water, gas in water, or compressed rock. These are usually minor contributions with respect to hydrocarbon expansion. By properly managing the production rates, greater benefits can be had from solution-gas drives. Secondary recovery involves the injection of gas or water to maintain reservoir pressure. The gas/oil ratio and the oil production rate are stable until

6566-532: The oil to the surface. But only about 10 percent of a reservoir's original oil in place is typically produced during primary recovery. Secondary recovery techniques extend a field's productive life generally by injecting water or gas to displace oil and drive it to a production wellbore, resulting in the recovery of 20 to 40 percent of the original oil in place. Producers have attempted several tertiary, or enhanced oil recovery (EOR), techniques that offer prospects for ultimately producing 30 to 60 percent, or more, of

6664-585: The oil traps had no surface expression, like the prominent anticline of the Santa Susana Mountains in which the county's earliest oil wells were drilled. Texaco spudded the Honor Rancho discovery well in August 1950, finding oil at 6,000 feet below ground surface. Production grew for the next several years, with oil output peaking in 1957, and gas in 1965. Several enhanced recovery methods were used during

6762-421: The oil well for larger recovery, as they typically have low miscibility with oil. Use of both water and carbon dioxide also lowers the mobility of carbon dioxide, making the gas more effective at displacing the oil in the well. According to a study done by Kovscek, using small slugs of both carbon dioxide and water allows for quick recovery of the oil. Additionally, in a study done by Dang in 2014, using water with

6860-429: The oil. As the fire progresses the oil is pushed away from the fire toward the producing well. In reverse the air injection and the ignition occur from opposite directions. In wet combustion water is injected just behind the front and turned into steam by the hot rock. This quenches the fire and spreads the heat more evenly. The injection of various chemicals, usually as dilute solutions, have been used to aid mobility and

6958-724: The other hand, endured millions of years of sea level changes that successfully resulted in the formation of more than 150 oil fields. Although the process is generally the same, various environmental factors lead to the creation of a wide variety of reservoirs. Reservoirs exist anywhere from the land surface to 30,000 ft (9,000 m) below the surface and are a variety of shapes, sizes, and ages. In recent years, igneous reservoirs have become an important new field of oil exploration, especially in trachyte and basalt formations. These two types of reservoirs differ in oil content and physical properties like fracture connectivity, pore connectivity, and rock porosity . A trap forms when

7056-406: The placement of the well with respect to the gas cap. As with other drive mechanisms, water or gas injection can be used to maintain reservoir pressure. When a gas cap is coupled with water influx, the recovery mechanism can be highly efficient. Water (usually salty) may be present below the hydrocarbons. Water, as with all liquids, is compressible to a small degree. As the hydrocarbons are depleted,

7154-431: The preferential mechanism of leaking: the hydraulic seal and the membrane seal. A membrane seal will leak whenever the pressure differential across the seal exceeds the threshold displacement pressure, allowing fluids to migrate through the pore spaces in the seal. It will leak just enough to bring the pressure differential below that of the displacement pressure and will reseal. A hydraulic seal occurs in rocks that have

7252-429: The pressure. As the reservoir depletes, the pressure falls below the bubble point , and the gas comes out of solution to form a gas cap at the top. This gas cap pushes down on the liquid helping to maintain pressure. This occurs when the natural gas is in a cap below the oil. When the well is drilled the lowered pressure above means that the oil expands. As the pressure is reduced it reaches bubble point, and subsequently

7350-485: The process as follows: Plankton and algae, proteins and the life that's floating in the sea, as it dies, falls to the bottom, and these organisms are going to be the source of our oil and gas. When they're buried with the accumulating sediment and reach an adequate temperature, something above 50 to 70 °C they start to cook. This transformation, this change, changes them into the liquid hydrocarbons that move and migrate, will become our oil and gas reservoir. In addition to

7448-413: The produced water deep underground. Carbon dioxide can be captured from the flue gas of an industrial facility such as natural gas processing plant or a coal power plant. If captured CO2 is used for EOR, the process is known as carbon capture-EOR (CC-EOR) and is a form of carbon capture and storage . There is controversy over whether carbon capture followed by enhanced oil recovery is beneficial for

7546-475: The question of whether carbon capture with EOR increased or decreased emissions. When the CO 2 used in EOR is sourced from underground CO 2 deposits, which is usually the case, EOR provides no climate benefit. In the US, regulations can both assist and slow down the development of EOR for use in carbon capture & utilization, as well as general oil production. As a means of boosting domestic oil production,

7644-539: The quote oil production deriving from EOR has increased from 0.3% to 5%, thanks to an increasing oil demand and a reduction of oil supply. Enhanced oil recovery wells typically pump large quantities of produced water to the surface. This water contains brine and may also contain toxic heavy metals and radioactive substances . This can be very damaging to drinking water sources and the environment generally if not properly controlled. Disposal wells are used to prevent surface contamination of soil and water by injecting

7742-400: The reduction in surface tension . Injection of alkaline or caustic solutions into reservoirs with oil that have organic acids naturally occurring in the oil will result in the production of soap that may lower the interfacial tension enough to increase production. Injection of a dilute solution of a water-soluble polymer to increase the viscosity of the injected water can increase

7840-491: The reduction in pressure in the reservoir allows the water to expand slightly. Although this unit expansion is minute, if the aquifer is large enough this will translate into a large increase in volume, which will push up on the hydrocarbons, maintaining pressure. With a water-drive reservoir, the decline in reservoir pressure is very slight; in some cases, the reservoir pressure may remain unchanged. The gas/oil ratio also remains stable. The oil rate will remain fairly stable until

7938-591: The regulatory power over EOR and similar oil recovery operations to the EPA . The agency in turn delegated some of this power to its own Underground Injection Control Program, and much of the rest of this regulatory authority to state and tribal governments, making much of EOR regulation a localized affair under the minimum requirements of the SDWA. The EPA then collects information from these local governments and individual wells to ensure they follow overall federal regulation, such as

8036-408: The reservoir pressure drops below the bubble point when critical gas saturation is reached. When the gas is exhausted, the gas/oil ratio and the oil rate drops, the reservoir pressure has been reduced, and the reservoir energy is exhausted. In reservoirs already having a gas cap (the virgin pressure is already below bubble point), the gas cap expands with the depletion of the reservoir, pushing down on

8134-507: The reservoir to minimize operating costs. The remainder is trapped in the oil reservoir by various means. Carbon dioxide as a solvent has the benefit of being more economical than other similarly miscible fluids such as propane and butane . Water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection is another technique employed in EOR. Water is used in addition to carbon dioxide. A saline solution is used here so that carbonate formations in oil wells are not disturbed. Water and carbon dioxide are injected into

8232-401: The reservoir's original oil in place. The main classes of EOR technologies are: In 2017, there were 374 EOR projects worldwide. Of these, 44% were CO 2 -EOR, 12% were other gas injection EOR, 32% were thermal EOR, 9% were chemical EOR, and 2% were other EOR methods. Gas injection or miscible flooding is presently the most-commonly used approach in enhanced oil recovery. Miscible flooding

8330-409: The reservoir, leading to an improved estimate of the recoverable resources. Reserves are only the part of those recoverable resources that will be developed through identified and approved development projects. Because the evaluation of reserves has a direct impact on the company or the asset value, it usually follows a strict set of rules or guidelines. To obtain the contents of the oil reservoir, it

8428-492: The reservoir. Honor Rancho is in the foothills north of the junction if Interstate 5 and westbound California State Route 126, north-northeast of the confluence of Castaic Creek and the Santa Clara River, in the Santa Clarita Valley . The town of Castaic is to the northwest, and the city of Santa Clarita is immediately to the south. Elevation on the oil field ranges from around 1050 to 1450 feet above sea level. Runoff

8526-410: The rock fabric by strong capillary forces, requiring specialised measures for evaluation and extraction. Unconventional reservoirs form in completely different ways to conventional reservoirs, the main difference being that they do not have "traps". This type of reservoir can be driven in a unique way as well, as buoyancy might not be the driving force for oil and gas accumulation in such reservoirs. This

8624-410: The source, the "drier" the gas (that is, the smaller the proportion of condensates in the gas). Because both oil and natural gas are lighter than water, they tend to rise from their sources until they either seep to the surface or are trapped by a non-permeable stratigraphic trap. They can be extracted from the trap by drilling. The largest natural gas field is South Pars/Asalouyeh gas field, which

8722-497: The steam zone the oil evaporates, and in the hot water zone the oil expands. As a result, the oil expands, the viscosity drops, and the permeability increases. To ensure success the process has to be cyclical. This is the principal enhanced oil recovery program in use today. Fire flooding works best when the oil saturation and porosity are high. Combustion generates the heat within the reservoir itself. Continuous injection of air or other gas mixture with high oxygen content will maintain

8820-454: The structural trap, the stratigraphic trap, and the far less common hydrodynamic trap . The trapping mechanisms for many petroleum reservoirs have characteristics from several categories and can be known as a combination trap. Traps are described as structural traps (in deformed strata such as folds and faults) or stratigraphic traps (in areas where rock types change, such as unconformities, pinch-outs and reefs). Structural traps are formed as

8918-588: The surface and the underground well, enhanced oil recovery functions by altering the physical or chemical properties of the oil itself in order to make it easier to extract. When EOR is used, 30% to 60% or more of a reservoir's oil can be extracted, compared to 20% to 40% using only primary and secondary recovery . There are four main EOR techniques: carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) injection, other gas injection, thermal EOR, and chemical EOR. More advanced, speculative EOR techniques are sometimes called quaternary recovery . Carbon dioxide injection, known as CO 2 -EOR,

9016-452: The surface. As the fluids are produced, the pressure will often decline, and production will falter. The reservoir may respond to the withdrawal of fluid in a way that tends to maintain the pressure. Artificial drive methods may be necessary. This mechanism (also known as depletion drive) depends on the associated gas of the oil. The virgin reservoir may be entirely semi-liquid but will be expected to have gaseous hydrocarbons in solution due to

9114-487: The sweep efficiency and the displacement efficiency. Steam injection has been used commercially since the 1960s in California fields. In solar thermal enhanced oil recovery , a solar array is used to produce the steam. Steam flooding (see sketch) is one means of introducing heat to the reservoir by pumping steam into the well with a pattern similar to that of water injection. Eventually the steam condenses to hot water; in

9212-457: The third which had been an oil field. The Honor Rancho field was the first storage facility acquired by SoCalGas where they also owned the rights to the oil produced. Techniques used to produce gas and maintain the reservoir contributed to oil recovery, which SoCalGas was able to do itself. Sale of the oil produced helped offset other costs. A 2010 upgrade of the field approximately doubled the gas injection and withdrawal capacity. SoCalGas prepared

9310-407: The water begins to be produced along with the oil, the recovery rate may become uneconomical owing to the higher lifting and water disposal costs. If the natural drives are insufficient, as they very often are, then the pressure can be artificially maintained by injecting water into the aquifer or gas into the gas cap. The force of gravity will cause the oil to move downward of the gas and upward of

9408-431: The water reaches the well. In time, the water cut will increase, and the well will be watered out. The water may be present in an aquifer (but rarely one replenished with surface water ). This water gradually replaces the volume of oil and gas that is produced out of the well, given that the production rate is equivalent to the aquifer activity. That is, the aquifer is being replenished from some natural water influx. If

9506-442: The water. If vertical permeability exists then recovery rates may be even better. These occur if the reservoir conditions allow the hydrocarbons to exist as a gas. Retrieval is a matter of gas expansion. Recovery from a closed reservoir (i.e., no water drive) is very good, especially if bottom hole pressure is reduced to a minimum (usually done with compressors at the wellhead). Any produced liquids are light-colored to colorless, with

9604-606: Was first commercially attempted in 1977 in Scurry County , Texas . Since then, the process has become extensively used in the Permian basin region of the US and is now more recently is being pursued in many different states. It is now being more actively pursued in China and throughout the rest of the world. Most CO 2 injected in CO 2 -EOR projects comes from naturally occurring underground CO 2 deposits. Some CO 2 used in EOR

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