Search

Some of the most promising areas for the extraction of heavy oil, maltha and asphalt in the eastern part of the Siberian platform are the southern and southeastern slopes of the Anabar anteclise. Using solvents for mining heavy oil and natural bitumen in a permafrost zone is the only option to steam injection, which is obviously cost ineffective there. Advantages of the solvents include convenience of transportation to field and storage stability. Moreover, the solvents have sufficiently high solubility with respect to heavy oil and natural bitumen, they facilitate oil transportation and don't require sophisticated equipment for their separation from the oil. The authors proposed criteria for selection of effective hydrocarbon solvent to be used in fractured porous reservoirs located in permafrost conditions. In accordance with the criteria, a solvent is designed for heavy oil and natural bitumen extraction. Its composition contains aromatic hydrocarbons, surfactants, thickeners and diesel. In a laboratory, physicochemical characteristics of the solvent were defined, as well as investigated its interaction with a sample of bitumen and with drilling mud. To find the solvent's capacity to displace oil, an experimental work was carried out at the facility UIPK-02M on samples of Middle-Upper Cambrian deposits from the southern and southeastern slopes of the Anabar anteclise. The method to determine the displacing capacity of the solvent consists in its filtration through the sample and substituting the fluids located in the pores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]