1. n. [Enhanced Oil Recovery, Heavy Oil]

A type of in situ combustion in which the burning front moves in the same direction as the injected air. As air is continuously supplied at the injection well, the fire ignited at this location moves toward the production wells. During forward combustion, the temperature behind the burning front is high, indicating a great amount of heat stored in the formation matrix. The injected gas heats on contact with the matrix and recovers only a small amount of the heat, with considerable losses to the surrounding formations. Another drawback of dry forward combustion is the presence of a highly viscous oil zone surrounding the production well. The fluid in this zone remains at the original reservoir temperature and its forward displacement by the heated oil is normally difficult.

See related terms: dry combustion,  enhanced oil recovery,  liquid blocking,  reverse combustion,  thermal recovery,  wet combustion