The influence of steam stimulation on compression coefficient of heavy oil reservoirs

Yan Chuanliang,Yuan Zhongchao,Liu Yuwen,Deng Fucheng,Zhu Guojin,Cheng Yuanfang,Tian Ji

doi:10.1007/s13202-017-0404-5

Abstract

The diminishing oil resources make the exploration and development of heavy oil reservoirs more and more important. Heavy oil reservoirs need steam stimulation or other thermal development methods; temperature increasing during the thermal recovery process will inevitably affect the reservoir compressive characteristics. In order to study the variation of the compression coefficient of heavy oil reservoirs in the multi-round steam stimulation process, the compression coefficients of the reservoirs after different temperature and pore pressure cycles were tested. The results show that the compression coefficient of heavy oil reservoir decreases with the increase in effective confining pressure and increases with the increase in test temperature; After the temperature and pore pressure cycle, the compression coefficient of the rock is greatly reduced; the decrease in range of compression coefficient of the reservoir after the temperature and pore pressure cycle increases with the increase in the test temperature, and increases with the increase in maximum effective confining pressure. The dynamic variation of the reservoir compression coefficient must be taken into account in the prediction of the production capacity of multi-round steam stimulation.

Highlights

With the increasing demands for energy resources and the declining of oil resources, more and more attentions are paid to the exploration and development of heavy oil reservoirs
In order to study the variation of the compression coefficient of heavy oil reservoirs in the multi-round steam stimulation process, the compression coefficients of the reservoirs after different temperature and pore pressure cycles were tested
The results show that the compression coefficient of heavy oil reservoir decreases with the increase in effective confining pressure and increases with the increase in test temperature; After the temperature and pore pressure cycle, the compression coefficient of the rock is greatly reduced; the decrease in range of compression coefficient of the reservoir after the temperature and pore pressure cycle increases with the increase in the test temperature, and increases with the increase in maximum effective confining pressure

Summary

Introduction

With the increasing demands for energy resources and the declining of oil resources, more and more attentions are paid to the exploration and development of heavy oil reservoirs. In order to study the variation of the compression coefficient of heavy oil reservoirs in the multi-round steam stimulation process, the compression coefficients of the reservoirs after different temperature and pore pressure cycles were tested. In order to study the change laws of compression coefficient of heavy oil reservoirs in the late stage of multi-cycle steam stimulation, the authors carried out experiments on the influences of temperature, especially temperature and pore pressure cyclic changes in rock compression coefficient.

Results

Conclusion