Assessment of hot-water and steam flooding in lower fars reservoir
Abstract
Thermal oil recovery processes are contributors to the world’s oil daily production. The input of thermal energy into hydrocarbon reservoirs reduces oil viscosity and improves mobilization and production of heavy oils. Thermal energy might be introduced to subsurface formations through heat carrying agents such as hot water or steam. These mechanisms are important thermal recovery techniques which are currently implemented in many oil fields to increase oil recovery efficiency.
Evaluating the degree of heat involvement in improving oil recovery from high viscosity oil reservoirs is a crucial issue to optimize the economics of thermal injection projects. Therefore, the performance of thermal recovery processes should be investigated under various reservoir and/or surface conditions prior to field application.
In this work, the effects of several reservoir/operational parameters on the performance of hot water and steam flooding in a high viscosity Middle Eastern reservoir are investigated by numerical means. The objective of this study is to highlight the relationships between heat injection and oil recovery factor under various reservoir/operational conditions. These conditions include the arrangement of injection and production wells, reservoir lateral dimensions, injection rate, temperature and oil viscosity relationship, and reservoir thickness. The results are presented in terms of oil recovery factor versus cumulative heat injected per unit reservoir volume. The results indicate that the investigated parameters have various degrees of influence on hot water and steam flooding performance.
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