Alberta Research Council Incorporated

Alberta Innovates-technology Futures

Shrivastava, Vijay

Singhal, Ashok

Turta, Alex

Wassmuth, Fred

Ashok Singhal

Alex Turta

Gary L Bunio

Fred Wassmuth

Steve Sim

Blaine F Hawkins

Vijay Shrivastava

A method for recovering natural gas from a group of subterranean zones containing natural gas, including injecting an amount of a displacing gas into a first subterranean zone, producing a first produced gas from the first subterranean zone, collecting an amount of the first produced gas wherein the quality of the collected first produced gas is higher than or equal to a threshold production quality for the first produced gas, injecting an amount of the first produced gas into a second subterranean zone wherein the quality of the injected first produced gas is higher than or equal to a threshold injection quality for the first produced gas, producing a second produced gas from the second subterranean zone, and collecting an amount of the second produced gas wherein the quality of the collected second produced gas is higher than or equal to a threshold production quality for the second produced gas.

Method for recovery of natural gas from a group of subterranean zones

A modified toe-to-heel waterflooding (TTHW) process is provided for recovering oil from a reservoir in an underground formation. After establishing the conventional TTHW waterflood, the process includes placing a chemical blocking agent at the watered out producing toe portion of the horizontal leg of the production well to create a blockage in the producing toe portion and to create a new producing toe portion in an open portion of the horizontal leg adjacent the blockage through which most of the production takes place. Production is then continued through the new producing toe portion and the open portion of the horizontal leg of the production well. These blocking and producing steps can be continued to progressively block producing toe portions in a direction toward the vertical pilot portion of the production well.

Toe-to-heel waterflooding with progressive blockage of the toe region

Growing community of inventors

Calgary, Canada

Ashok Singhal