West Hackberry Tertiary Project, Class I

The West Hackberry Tertiary Project is a field test of the concept that air injection can generate tertiary oil recovery through the Double Displacement Process. The Double Displacement Process is the gas displacement of a water invaded oil column for the purpose of recovering tertiary oil through gravity drainage. The novel aspect of this project is the use of air as the injection fluid. In Gulf Coast oil reservoirs with pronounced bed dip, reservoir performance has shown that gravity drainage recoveries average 80% to 90% of the original oil in place while water drive recoveries average 50% to 60% of the original oil in place. The target for tertiary oil recovery with the Double Displacement Process is the incremental oil between the 50% to 60% water drive recoveries and the 80% to 90% gravity drainage recoveries