STEAM INJECTION NUMERICAL ANALYSES IN HEAVY OIL RESERVOIRS

Abstract

Thermal recovery methods aim to reduce oil viscosity, thus, increasing its mobility and enhancing its recovery. Reservoir numerical simulation is a powerful tool for predicting reservoir production performance under different operational parameters. One critical point is understanding the relationship between flow rate and recovery factor. This study aims to analyze steam injection into the porous medium in heavy oil reservoirs by numerical simulation using a commercial multiphase flow simulator to simulate the continuous steam injection process. The homogeneous reservoir was built with 14,375 cells. The fluid model has characteristics of onshore Northeastern Brazilian fields. Simulations were performed over a period of 16 years, and results indicate that the steam injection promotes oil production anticipation but reaches a limit as the flow rate increases. The results presented can contribute to improve the understanding of the effects of flow rate in a heavy oil reservoir.