The Steam Oil Production Company has entered into a cooperation agreement with FluidOil, an independent heavy oil technology company, to explore the potential of integrating FluidOil’s Viscositor Heavy-to-Light (VHTL) oil upgrading technology into an offshore steam flooding project.
Steam Oil is working on plans to launch the world’s first major offshore steam flooding project, in the UK North Sea. Steam Oil has under license or award a number of heavy oil reservoirs in the UK, in an area known as the Western Platform, 140km east of Aberdeen, totalling nearly 650 MMbbl in place.
As a first step to developing this resource base, and to learn how best to steam flood offshore, Steam Oil plans to construct a steam flood demonstration project on part of the Pilot field.
"The subsequent steam flood development of the remainder of the Pilot field, and the other Western Platform heavy oil fields, has the potential to produce in excess of 300 MMbbl," says the company. "Further exploration success could increase the potential recoverable resource base from the Western Platform to more than 500 MMbbl."
FluidOil’s VHTL technology generates volumes of high pressure steam, and its integration into the process design for the follow-on Western Platform Steam Flood project could reduce separation, steam generation and associated fuel requirements, says Steam Oil. As part of the cooperation agreement, FluidOil and Steam Oil intend to explore this potential and to determine the plant configuration which maximizes process synergies, delivers the highest value of product from the Western Platform reservoirs, and minimises fuel costs.
Steve Brown, CEO of Steam Oil, said: “We are very taken with the obvious synergies of integrating FluidOil’s upgrading technology into a steam flooding project. Steam flooding is the most effective recovery mechanism for heavy oil and we expect to see recovery factors of between 50% and 80% when we steam flood these reservoirs. To do that we will need a lot of steam and the steam produced as a by-product of FluidOil’s upgrading process will significantly reduce our fuel costs. In addition, the VHTL process does not demand a stringent water-in-oil content specification so we can simplify our process requirements. Finally, the VHTL process consumes heavy metals and naphthenic acid and other contaminants which refiners do not like and which would otherwise affect the value of our crude.”
Charles Parker, CEO of FluidOil, said: “We are pleased to be playing a part in what could potentially be the first project of its kind. At a time when the industry is looking to maximize value, we believe that our patented technology could help play an important role in enabling offshore heavy oil producers realise greater returns from their output. Our proposition was developed to help reduce the financial and environmental costs for heavy oil producers around the world. We are thrilled to be teaming up with Steam Oil to deploy an integrated thermal production and upgrading proposition for UK heavy oil.”
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