Abstract
The analytical review has shown that the scientific inquiry for effective technologies for high-viscosity oil field development is a critical task of the present-day oil industry. The paper presents a technique for determining the expediency and effectiveness of deploying the near-wellbore cyclic steam stimulation technology for oil recovery enhancement. The method involves the calculation of process parameters of the technology cycle and the comparative analysis of cumulative oil production before the treatment (base case) and after its deployment. Separately, the work focuses on studying the impact of dynamic oil viscosity over the entire temperature range on the technology effectiveness and expediency. The laboratory studies showed dynamic viscosity correlation dependencies for six different oils of the Nozhovskaya group of oil fields (Russian Federation) characterized as viscous and highly viscous. As a case study of the proposed method application, a numerical simulation of the technology deployment was carried out for six oil samples. The calculations determined inexpediency of cyclic steam stimulation for one of the samples since oil well downtime for workover operation prevailed over the time of near-wellbore cooling.
Highlights
In recent years, the share of unconventional oil resources brought into development by oil producing companies has been growing
The cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) technology is worth a special focus in comprehensive studies since the capital and operational costs of its implementation and deployment are several times lower compared to other thermal technologies for enhanced oil recovery in the case of high-viscosity oil
For comparative calculations of the near-wellbore CSS technology effectiveness in the oil viscosity range under study as shown in Figure 1, the required input data for the reservoir and heat carrier properties were set to the same values, as given in Tables 1 and
Summary
The share of unconventional oil resources brought into development by oil producing companies has been growing. Given the fact that most of the low-viscosity oil fields tend to enter the last stages of development, for the Russian and global oil industry the viscous and high-viscosity oil resources are viewed as a production reserve and as the mainstream of the fuel and energy development for the upcoming years [1,2,3] This oil industry development trend outlines the problem of increasing the effectiveness of oil recovery enhancement technologies as a very critical matter. Many papers identify thermal treatment that heats formation fluids and causes reduction in oil viscosity as the most efficient physical method These methods involve the following technologies: injection of hot water into the formation to displace hydrocarbons, thermal steam formation treatment, in situ combustion and cyclic steam stimulation of the near-wellbore area [4,5]. The cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) technology is worth a special focus in comprehensive studies since the capital and operational costs of its implementation and deployment are several times lower compared to other thermal technologies for enhanced oil recovery in the case of high-viscosity oil
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