Safety risk analysis of air flooding oil combustible gas explosion

Objective  At present, the safety issue is still the primary reason limiting the large-scale application of air flooding. Therefore, the calculation method of the explosion limit of air flooding was used in this study.

Methods  Through the combination of the component calculation method of six kinds of combustible gases, literature value of single component gases and two kinds of multi-component calculation method, fourteen kinds of calculation combinations have been obtained. The calculation results of various combinations have been subsequently compared with the explosion-measured values of three wells in a domestic oilfield to determine which combination has the best adaptability.

Results  The overall error of the calculation results obtained by combining the carbon atom single component method and checking the figure-Le Chatlier method was relatively good, which was more consistent with the measured value of explosion limit.

Conclusion  This study provides a reference for selecting theoretical calculation methods for the well fluid gas explosion limit with the volume fraction of C₁-C₃ light hydrocarbon content of more than 90%.