West Hackberry Tertiary Project. Annual report, September 3, 1997--September 2, 1998

The following report is the Project Management Plan for the fifth year of the West Hackberry Tertiary Project. The West Hackberry Tertiary Project is one of four mid-term projects selected by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the DOE`s Class 1 Program for the development of advance recovery technologies in fluvial dominated deltaic reservoirs. The West Hackberry Tertiary Project is a field test of the idea that air injection can be combined with the Double Displacement Process to produce a low cost tertiary recovery process which is economic at current oil prices. The Double Displacement Process is the gas displacement of a water invaded oil column for the purpose of recovering tertiary oil by gravity drainage. The Double Displacement Process is based upon the concept that in fields such as West Hackberry waterdrive recoveries are typically 50%-60% of the original oil in place while gravity drainage recoveries average 80%-90% of the original oil in place. Therefore, by injecting a gas into a watered out reservoir, a gas cap will form an additional oil can be recovered due to gravity drainage. Although the Double Displacement Process has been shown to be successful in recovering tertiary oil in other fields, this project will be the first to utilize air injection in the Double Displacement Process. The use of air injection in this process combines the benefits of air`s low cost and universal accessibility with the potential for accelerated oil recovery due to the combustion process. If successful, this project will demonstrate that the use of air injection in the Double Displacement Process will result in an economically viable tertiary process in reservoirs where tertiary oil recovery is presently uneconomical