Typically, a well will produce at its highest production rate at the beginning of the production
cycle; and then production will wane. In an effort to increase production from both oil and natural
gas wells, secondary production methods are employed. A type of Enhanced Oil Recovery
(EOR), secondary production includes water flooding and gas injection.
A form of secondary production, gas injection is used on a well to enhance waning pressure
within the formation. Systematically spread throughout the field, gas-injection wells are used to
inject gas and effectively sweep the formation for remaining petroleum, boosting production.
Somewhat similar to water injection, or water flooding, gas injection is a pressure maintenance
program that can be employed on a reservoir at the start of the production process or
introduced after production has already started to lessen. Here, gas is injected into the gas cap
of the formation, whereas in water injection, the water is injected directly into the production
zone.
Sometimes known as cycling, gas injection can entail re-injection of produced natural gas. In
this instance, as the pressure drops in a natural gas field, the condensate separates from the
dry gas in the reservoir. The condensate liquids block the pores within the reservoir, making
extraction practically impossible.
Cycling is used to prevent the condensate from separating from the natural gas in the reservoir.
In this process, the natural gas liquids (condensate) are stripped from the gas on the surface
after it has been produced from the reservoir, and the dry gas is then re-injected into the
reservoir through injection wells. Again, this helps to maintain pressure in the reservoir while
also preventing the separation within the hydrocarbon.
Flaring
Now, the low levels of natural gas that are produced from prolific oil fields are re-injected into the
formation as form of disposal, as well as pressure maintenance. Here, produced wet gas from
oil fields are stripped of their natural gas liquids, compressed and pumped into an injection well.
If the oil field is highly saturated, the natural gas is injected in the free gas cap; but if the oil field
is under-saturated, the gas is injected directly into the oil reservoir.
While gas injection is achieved by injecting gas through its own injection well, gas lift occurs
through the production wells. In gas lift, compressed gas is injected down the casing tubing
annulus of a production well, entering the well at numerous entry points called gas-lift valves. As
the gas enters the tubing at these different stages, it forms bubbles, lightens the fluids and
lowers the pressure, thus increasing the production rate of the well.
Furthermore, a type of EOR employed on a well in the tertiary production process, a gas
miscible process can be used to increase production. The difference in this recovery method is
that the gases introduced into the reservoir are not naturally occurring. In a gas miscible
process, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and LPG are injected into the reservoir.