New Tool Unlocking More Oil from Old Fields

40000 tpd, and soon 50,000 tpd, of liquid nitrogen are injected into the Cantarell field, Mexico's mammoth oil field, to prop up its yields. There are also several 5000 tpd nitrogen plants supplying Pemex for other similar projects, as well as liquid CO2 being used for oil field stimulation.

Hi Raknruin, what's the logistics involved in getting the gases to final location, and who supplies them...,those are big numbers!

How is this injected, liquid/gas??

Hi there. I am not an expert. The gas company has Air Separation Units which separate the liquid nitrogen and it is then pumped 85 km to the oil fields. I have no idea how it is injected. Probably liquid, but that is just a guess on my part.

Incidentally the nitrogen comes from the air, and the CO2 very often is exhaust CO2 from other petrochemical processes. So it is either available or already a waste product.

Steam & gas injection continue to be quite useful and the Athabascan oil sands proves how useful this technology is, but tertiary oil recovery using surfactants will bring another quantum in oil production as the cost rises...

Just another way to prove the stupidity of engineers. Figure out how to further deplete the worlds oil instead of trying to figure out a way to do without so much. The same thing is going on in other fields also, Figure out how to build a worse weapon instead of trying to figure out how to save lives and make life better for everyone. What is going to happpen when, (and I don't mean if) The carbon dioxide and or nitrogen escape from underground. Sooner or later they will and it won't be just a slow leak it will be catistrophic. We had all better learn to breathe those and other foul gasses.

Since 80% of our atmosphere is nitrogen I don't think that will be a issue, and last time I check steam is just hot water. And getting more oil out of one field I think better on the environment. you should thank those engineers, What is you problem?

"Just another way to prove the stupidity of engineers. Figure out how to further deplete the worlds oil instead of trying to figure out a way to do without so much."

The sooner we deplete the world's supply the sooner we will develop viable alternative supplies of fuels, etc.

"The same thing is going on in other fields also, Figure out how to build a worse weapon instead of trying to figure out how to save lives and make life better for everyone."

Drop a few super Hydrogen Bombs in world's densest population centers and eliminate another source of CO2.

"What is going to happpen when, (and I don't mean if) The carbon dioxide and or nitrogen escape from underground. Sooner or later they will and it won't be just a slow leak it will be catistrophic. We had all better learn to breathe those and other foul gasses."

Further reduce the world's population and attendent generation of auto exhausts etc. etc. ans eliminate posts by an anonymous "Guest"

SS w/TIC!

OLD NEWS!

They have been doing this for over 30 years. In California!

Basically longer than the people who wrote the article have been alive.

Every day brings more headlines about some NEW! , GREAT!, FANTASTIC! FABULOUS! Discovery that has been around for decades.

WHAT'S OLD IS NEW AND WHAT'S NEW IS OLD! ?????

Old hat, nothing new. What HAS changed is selling price of the produced oil.