The experimental study on H2S generation during thermal recovery process for heavy oil from the Eastern Venezuela Basin

Abstract

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is toxic, corrosive and environmentally damaging. It is not only found in oil and gas development, but is also often found in heavy oil exploitation. In this study, three heavy oils were selected from the Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt in the southern part of the Eastern Venezuela Basin. Thermal cracking experiments in gold sealed tubes were then conducted using the heavy oils. The objective of the experiment is to unravel the H2S generation mechanism and utility in establishing a development program for heavy oil thermal recovery. The results of the oil isothermal cracking experiments show that the H2S yield increases with the increasing cracking temperature and holding time at 150 °C and 250 °C. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the main component in gaseous products and its concentration is more than 80% in our experiments. The yields of CO2, H2S and total hydrocarbon gas present similar varying trend that increases with increasing isothermal time. The sulfur contents in group compositions of the original oil from the CJS-48 well and that of the residual oils with different cracking time at 250 °C were then measured. The analytical results show that most sulfur (>75%) exists in aromatics both in original oil and in the residual oils cracked at 250 °C, not to mention, no sulfur was measured in saturates. Although the decrease of sulfur in aromatics with the increased cracking time is low, it has great significance to the H2S generation during thermal recovery of heavy oil for more than 75% sulfur existed in aromatics. The decrease of sulfur content in resin and asphaltene of cracking residues with increased cracking time indicates that the sulfur existed in resin and asphaltene has some contribution to H2S generation during the thermal recovery process of heavy oil. Keywords: Venezuela, Heavy oil, Thermal recovery, H2S, Gold tube experiments