<Understanding the oil patch The Oil Drum Open Thread>

36 comments on Gas fields also deplete, but faster

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Fire Temple on November 19, 2005 - 10:17am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
My understanding is that the gas used to pressurize the oil-bearing sands (or any low pressure reservoir) is not lost. It can be re-injected back as part of the recovery process and is there after all liquids have been produced.  

So using natural gas this way is not a bad idea since it is used twice: once for extracting liquid hydrocarbons and finally as a fuel after all liquids are gone.  

Is this correct?

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tommy on November 19, 2005 - 11:22am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
why use NG for this? it would be more economical to use any other gas.
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sampo on November 19, 2005 - 4:06pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
no you are incorrect.

To get oil from tar sands requires steam and heat to melt the tar and loosen it fron the source rock. The natural gas is used to create this steam.

You are thinking of other types of oil fields where gas (usually CO2 if i'm not mistaken) is injected in much the same way water is to push the flowing oil toward a recovery well. But this doesn't work for oil sand because the oil trapped in the sand is too thick to flow at all.

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36 comments on Gas fields also deplete, but faster

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