Conoco Inc.

Continental Oil Company

Burton M Casad

Edward Francis McBride

Donald H Oertle

Charles R Clark

Lisa A Cantu

R Leroy Grimsley

Fred J Radd

Preston L Gant

John N Dew

Olaf M Stokke

Joseph A Kleinpeter

Howard H Ferrell

Eugene A Harlacher

Jeff J Jurinak

Dell Conley

D Philip Cords

Richard M Vennett

Yogendra Soni

Parviz Mehdizadeh

A melted polymer of hydroxyacetic acid with itself or with other hydroxy-, carboxylic acid-, or hydroxycarboxylic acid-containing moieties is subjected to high shear and injected into an organic liquid which is inert to the polymer to form an organic liquid dispersion of very fine polymer particles. In one aspect the melted polymer is combined with the organic liquid and the combination is thereafter subjected to high shear to form the fine particle polymer dispersion. A dispersion agent may also be used to aid in dispersing the particles. The dispersion is used for fluid loss control and gel breaking in subterranean formations.

Process for the preparation of fluid loss additive and gel breaker

Reservoir information for determining residual oil saturation is obtained by injection of a partitioning tracer and a non-partitioning material through an injection well and periodically logging a second well spaced from the injection well to determine time of passage and amount of said injected materials. A preferred partitioning tracer is iodoethanol containing iodine 131, and the second material may be a radioactive tracer having a gamma ray emission spectrum different from the partitioning tracer or it may be a brine having a salinity different from that of formation water in the reservoir.

Reservoir evaluation using partitioning tracer

The addition of vaporized solvent to injected steam in a fracture-assisted steamflood process provides surprisingly significant enhancement of the process as compared to both the basic fracture-assisted steamflood process of the Britton et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,310 patent and to a conventional matrix drive type steamflood process utilizing solvent. Much lower solvent losses to the formation are observed than are generally provided by conventinal matrix drive type steamflood processes utilizing solvent. Dramatically different effects of the addition of heat-scavenging water follow-up after the steam injection phase are observed as compared to a conventional process utilizing solvent. Directly opposite effects are observed from changes in solvent composition as compared to conventional matrix drive type steamflood processes utilizing steam; for the present invention SOR is decreased by going to lighter solvents, whereas with a conventional process, lighter solvents increase the SOR. Furthermore, the solvent enhanced fracture-assisted steamflood process provides significantly lower overall SOR and significantly higher percentages of recovery of original oil in place, as compared to a conventional steamflood process utilizing solvent.

Solvent enhanced fracture-assisted steamflood process

A coalescer is provided which separates dispersed liquid hydrocarbon phases from continuous liquid aqueous phases by increasing the size of the dispersed phase droplets using a variety of coalescing media, preferably in granular form. The coalescer must contain at least three sides; however any number of sides up to a circle can be used, and a circular cross-section is preferred. Untreated aqueous phase is drawn through the coalescer media, where the dispersed droplets increase in size. The dispersed droplets are coalesced to a sufficiently large degree to rise to the top of the coalescer against the downward flow of the continuous phase, said continuous phase being withdrawn from the bottom portion of the coalescer and the separated, previously dispersed phase withdrawn from the top of the coalescer.

Radial design submerged coalescer for separation of liquids

Filterability of aqueous solutions of polymers employed to thicken waterfloods such as biopolymers (e.g. heteropolysaccharides) is improved by addition of a surfactant (e.g. a sulfated alkoxylated alcohol). Filterability is further enhanced by addition of an ethoxylated alcohol surfactant and/or an alcohol.

Polymer flood filtration improvement

An insertion-type hydrogen probe with a defined active length is described. The probe is formed of a thin-walled, hydrogen-permeable material, and a hydrogen-impermeable liner inside the probe blocks out all but the defined active section of the probe. The interior of the probe is subjected to high vacuum, and the hydrogen permeation through the active portion of the probe is determined, for example, by the current output of an ion pump used with the probe. To prevent bimetallic cell interface effects, the probe is constructed so that only a single metal is exposed to the primary environment being studied.

Hydrogen probe with limited active area

A method for obtaining logging data for use in the determination of the amount of residual oil in a subterranean oil bearing formation, the method comprising the steps of logging the formation, injecting into the formation an aqueous solution of a water soluble radioactive tracer compound, logging the formation, injecting into the formation a second aqueous solution of a radioactive tracer compound which is soluble in both water and oil, and thereafter logging the formation.

Determination of residual oil in a subterranean formation

A cyclically stressed, hollow hydrogen sensor probe for evaluating the corrosion fatigue performance of corrosion inhibitors. A portion of the probe is contained in a jacket having an inlet and outlet for circulating a corrosive fluid containing an inhibitor over the outer surface of the probe. Corrosion at the outer surface of the probe produces hydrogen which permeates to the evacuated inner portion of the probe and produces a current reading in an ion pump in communication with the probe interior, which current reading is indicative of inhibitor performance.

Apparatus and method for determining corrosion fatigue inhibitor

An improved method for removing sulfur compounds during coal gas methanation comprising removing essentially all carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide from synthesis gas, then adding carbon dioxide containing lower levels of sulfur back to the gas stream before feeding the mixture to a desulfurization reactor. Carbon dioxide, at levels above about 12 percent, will prevent high temperature methanation runaways in the hydrodesulfurization reactor, where a stream consisting essentially of hydrogen sulfide and methanation materials is produced, the lower level of hydrogen sulfide produced being removed by conventional methods before proceeding to methanation units. The carbon dioxide can be supplied either from an outside source or can be obtained from the synthetic natural gas after methanation.

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Ponca City, OK, United States of America

Burton M Casad