In-situ combustion laboratory studies of Turkish heavy oil reservoirs

The purpose of this research was to perform dry and wet forward combustion experiments for Turkish heavy oil reservoirs (Raman, Adiyaman and Camurlu a nd Bati Kozluca) under different experimental conditions. In the experiment s, a vertical tube was packed with crushed limestone and saturated with cru de oil and water. It was observed that peak temperatures were higher when s tabilized combustion was achieved and decreased as the combustion front app roached the outlet end of the tube. In wet combustion experiments, the rate of combustion reaction and therefore rate of heat generation were reduced with the resultant drop in peak temperatures. In dry and wet combustion exp eriments, excess carbon-dioxide productions were observed due to the decomp osition of carbonate minerals. Atomic H/C ratio of the fuel consumed decrea sed as the average peak temperature increased. Fuel consumption rate was hi gher for dry combustion experiments as the degrees API gravity of the crude oils increased, A decrease is also observed in fuel consumption rate after the water-air ratio value is reached to optimum value. For high water-air ratio in wet combustion experiments, a general decrease was observed as the degrees API gravity of the crude oils increased. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.