The Karazhanbas Field (KBM) is a giant shallow heavy oil field in western Kazakhstan, less than 460 m depth. It contains heavy oil (μ ~400 cP) in seven reservoir zones from several to 40 m thick in unconsolidated sands with porosities 28-32%, permeabilities of ~0.5 D, and an arkosic lithology with angular grains. There is no free gas cap, and the structure is divided into fault-controlled block...

In this work, the dispersion of butane in heavy oil and bitumen is experimentally determined during the Vapex process with varying drainage heights. The experiments were performed at room temperature (22 o C) using butane as solvent at the dew point pressure. We used cylindrical models with different heights varying from 15 to 45 cm, packed with uniform mixture of heavy oil and glass beads. Fro...

Conventional crude oil, as the current dominant energy source, is an unrenewable resource. Despite the improvement of alternative energy technology such as wind and solar, there is still a large gap between the capability of these systems for supplying energy and global energy requirements. Therefore, until technological innovations facilitate sufficient energy generation through alternative fu...

From the mid-1980s until 1994, U.S. oil and gas exploration and production steadily declined, forcing a significant increase in U.S. imports of crude oil. For example, in 1994, the United States imported more than 50 percent of the nation's total demand, which was the highest level since 1990. To economically develop U.S. oil production in deep-water locations, the industry needed strong, light...

A new absorption vapor compression distillation was proposed in present research. An open absorption heat transformer has a coupled thermally evaporator and absorber. Distillation of waste water with high content of SiO 2 from heavy oil production. The waste heat of 70 C can be elevated up to 125 C and generate steam of 120 C. The waste heat is able to drive four-effect distillation to produce ...

Many microorganisms, especially bacteria, produce biosurfactants when grown on water-immiscible substrates. Biosurfactants are more effective, selective, environmentally friendly, and stable than many synthetic surfactants. Most common biosurfactants are glycolipids in which carbohydrates are attached to a long-chain aliphatic acid, while others, like lipopeptides, lipoproteins, and heteropolys...

Oil-reservoir management using measurements and control techniques have been in use by oil and gas industries to improve the production and maintenance of the existing oil reservoirs. In the course of this project the applications of UWB radar systems and techniques to acquire near real-time information about the oil reservoir conditions are studied. Various oil reservoir structures such as oil...