Primary Recovery
What Is Primary Recovery?
Primary recovery, otherwise called "primary production," is the initial stage in the extraction cycle for oil and gas. In crude oil production, different methods of primary recovery can be utilized.
Regularly, the primary recovery process includes putting increased pressure on the oil inside wells to force oil to the surface. Mechanical systems, for example, rod pumps, are additionally once in a while utilized.
How Primary Recovery Works
The key to primary recovery is the way that the hollow well shaft penetrated to access the oil is designed to have a lower pressure than the oil that is deep in the ground. This difference in pressure can be additionally increased by different methods, for example, pumping water into the well. This method, known as a "water drive," prevails by dislodging the oil further into the ground, expanding its pressure.
Another well known method is the purported "gas drive," in which the energy of extending underground gas is utilized to force oil to the surface. Eventually, oil pressure can arrive at a point where the oil quickly flows upwards through the well and out of the surface, making an oil spring.
Utilizing Gravity
Now and again, for example, when the oil fields are particularly shallow and steep, oil can drain to the surface through the sheer force of gravity.
As oil is step by step extricated from the well, the pressure underground will slowly diminish, making the volume of oil production decline. To relieve against this, oil-extraction companies can utilize artificial lifting systems, for example, the rod pump to proceed with production. This method, known for its unmistakable swaying horse head design, utilizes a shaft and-wrench assembly to make a responding movement that utilizes vertical lift to pump oil out of the well utilizing a series of uncloggers and valves. Eventually, the pressure underground will turn out to be low to such an extent that primary recovery will at this point not be plausible, even with the utilization of artificial lifting systems.
Primary versus Secondary and Tertiary Recovery
When this point has been reached, secondary recovery techniques must be utilized, for example, extra water infusions which look to force oil to the surface by straightforwardly applying pressure. Such a model is steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), which is a secondary recovery technique used to remove heavy crude oil that is covered too deep or generally too troublesome to access with primary methods. Otherwise called the steam flooding process, SAGD utilizes steam generators to produce profoundly pressured steam that movements through pipelines into the wells. As the fume gathers into liquid hot water, it warms the oil to make it less gooey, allowing it to flow by gravity to the lower part of the well. The oil then transfers through a pipe from the producing great at the base to a plant for treatment.
The last and third stage is alluded to as tertiary recovery in the oil-extraction process, otherwise called enhanced oil recovery (EOR). This stage includes changing the properties of the oil to aid its extraction. There are three primary methods of tertiary recovery, including the utilization of intensity, gas, and substance infusions, separately. Albeit primary and secondary recovery techniques depend on the pressure differential between the surface and the underground well, enhanced oil recovery capabilities by changing the synthetic piece of the oil itself to make it more straightforward to remove.
Since primary recovery methods utilize the existing disparity in pressure between the surface and the underground supply to drive oil to the surface, it's a good idea that the primary recovery stage is more practical than the secondary or enhanced stages. Consequently, oil and gas companies must compute the estimated ultimate recovery (EUR) of a given field to decide if it is beneficial to remove the resources from that supply utilizing a specific recovery method.
Features
- Primary recovery is the principal stage associated with extricating oil and gas.
- It depends on the natural difference in pressure between the surface and the underground supply, hence requiring somewhat limited capital investment.
- Subsequent stages in the extraction cycle, like secondary and tertiary recovery, are more costly and might be uneconomical, contingent upon the price of oil and gas.
