Designing the Thermal Enhanced Oil Recovery as a Key Technology of High Viscosity Oil Production

Abstract

Abstract Due to the decrease in "easy" oil reserves, oil companies are focusing on "hard-to-recover" reserves, in particular, high-viscosity oil reservoirs. Shallow oil reservoirs are mainly concentrated in the Cretaceous horizons, in the western region of the country, along the Caspian coast. One of them is a high-viscosity oil reservoir, consisting of three Cretaceous horizons. The average viscosity of oil in reservoir conditions is around 746.7 cP. The current achieved oil production is only 5% of the initial recoverable reserves, and designed oil recovery factor is 38% and implies the full-scale application of thermal methods of EOR. The objective of this work was to choose the most suitable thermal method of EOR and to assess the prospects of applicability with the calculation of economic feasibility. Considering the geological features of the reservoir, the cyclic steam stimulation was chosen as the optimal method to increase oil recovery. In order to assess the expediency of this technology, was initiated project on thermal modeling the technology based on the current geological and hydrodynamic model of the field, using the results of laboratory studies, calculations were performed on imagined horizontal wells, and carried out the analysis of technical and economic efficiency. According to the results of calculations on the hydrodynamic model, the production rates using the technology of cyclic steam stimulation in horizontal wells are 30% higher than the production rates of "cold production", and the difference in accumulated oil production over 5 years will be 20–30%.