Evaluation of Cyclic Gas Injection in Enhanced Recovery from Unconventional Light Oil Reservoirs: Effect of Gas Type and Fracture Spacing
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Production from ultra-low permeability shale plays requires advanced technologies such as horizontal wells with multistage hydraulic fracturing treatment. In this study, a cyclic gas injection method with two pumping schedules is introduced as an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method. Fracture spacing and type of injection gas in a horizontal well from the Bakken formation are analyzed through numerical simulations. The economic profitability and reservoir performance are also investigated. Rate transient analysis is used to anticipate hydraulic fracture and effective fracture permeability. Different fracture spacings are selected as the major determinant factor in generating an effective reservoir contact area. Compositional simulations are conducted to model incremental oil recovery after cyclic injection of three gases (ethane, CO2, and natural gas). Economic indicators of net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR) and oil recovery factor are compared to determine the best alternative among the proposed investment scenarios. Current market and a certain time-frame (2015–2035) are used to assess the investment viability of unconventional oil plays. Cyclical injection of ethane and CO2, remarkably improved oil recovery from the Bakken example. Natural gas injection however, led to inferior results and in terms of investment, may not guarantee the long-term success. Some scenarios are identified as profitable for high oil-API but do not achieve positive outcomes from lower oil specific gravities. The results from this study highlight the impact of fracture spacing in incremental oil recovery. Producing a majority of the cumulative oil during the first years makes most of the scenarios viable only for short terms. To maintain the long-term cost-effectiveness, performing cyclic gas injection through hydraulic fractures is recommended. Cycle sizes directly impact the propagation of injectant and the extent of the drainage area. Increasing the number of fracking stages can be an alternative strategy to gas injection in reservoirs with lower oil-API.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".