Recovery in Thin Multi-Layered, Medium Heavy Oil Reservoir: A Simulation Study

Abstract

Recovery of heavy oil from thin multi-layered reservoir is a challenging task in places such as China, Thailand and Oman. Thin layers with average thickness of 2.5 m (8.2 ft) and lower contribute to an inefficient steamflooding was reported by Liu et al. [1] as one of the factors resulting in non-commercialization for steamflooding in B92, Taobao field. This project aims to develop a 3D-model with compositional oil components that can handle thermal option. From there, the model is developed further to investigate five reservoir properties and improve recovery of a Base Case. “Schlumberger ECLIPSE 300” was used to investigate all cases and scenarios in this project. Base Case constructed has one injector completed only at permeable layers and one producer. It has a 20 × 20 × 20 Cartesian grid size representing 600 ft × 600 ft × 100 ft reservoir. An example of such a field in this region is Bokor field, Malaysia. It has a range of viscosity between 10 cP to 230 cP, porosity range of 15% to 30%, and permeability values between 50 mD to 4000 mD. These parameters with frequency and thickness of sand and shale layers were investigated. In comparison of recovery factor, porosity variation proved to be the most sensitive parameter in both water flooding and steam flooding. In the second part of this project, recovery of Base Case generated was improved by 7% through decreasing injection rate by 67% and steam viscosity to 0.5 cP. This yielded a reduction of steam-oil mobility ratio by 98%. In this case, water cut at the end of five years was reduced by 4%, and field heat loss total was reduced by 45%

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