Optimizing the pressure decline rate on the cyclic solvent injection process for enhanced heavy oil recovery

Another important finding in this study is the minimum production pressure, which is defined as the pressure less than which the instantaneous oil production decreased to almost zero. The production well could shut down when the pressure declined to the minimum production pressure to recover the oil economically. Due to the different driving mechanisms involved in the CSI process, the minimum production pressure will vary with different pressure decline rates. Final residual oil saturation was also measured to map the residual oil distribution and solvent chamber shape which were also significantly affected by the pressure decline rate.