Study on potentials of Light Oil Air Injection (LOAI) in Malaysia Oil Fields

Air injection has been used as one of the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques
especially to extract the heavy oil. In light oil reservoirs, the thermal EOR method is
known as light oil air injection (LOAI). The present research work has been carried out to
assess the potentials of LOAI in Malaysian light oil reservoirs. The research project
begins with the development of reservoir screening criteria by evaluating the worldwide
successful LOAI projects and consultation with the industry experts. In principle, the
reservoir screening criteria embeds major reservoir properties such as the reservoir
temperature, reservoir pressure, oil viscosity, formation depth and reservoir permeability.
Based on the developed screening criteria, Dulang El2/13 and Dulang E14 reservoirs
were screened out for further study. Selection of these reservoirs was further verified
using PRIze screening software. PRIze screening indicated incremental recovery at the
cost of high gas production. Black oil simulations were carried out using eight different
configurations of injection and production wells to further investigate the potential of
LOAI for Dulang El2/13 and El4 reservoirs.