Saturation Distribution Research Articles

Reservoir characterization and production history matching of Lower Cretaceous, Muddy Formation in Ranch Creek area, Bell Creek oil field, Southeastern Montana, USA

A detailed reservoir description of the Lower Cretaceous, Muddy Formation is an essential step for developing an enhanced oil recovery project in the Bell Creek field. The applied workflow highlighted the role of key uncertainties that were not well addressed during early field development. Several challenges including: stratigraphic subdivision of the reservoir units, rock type complexity due to diagenesis, petrophysical data inconsistencies and fluid contacts have historically led to hurdles in reservoir development. The study outlines a workflow used to refine some of these uncertainties and generate better inputs for the geologic model. The Ranch Creek area at Bell Creek field in southeastern Montana is characterized by a clastic sequence of mixed rock types from argillaceous mudstone, bioturbated tightly cemented to clean sandstone lithofacies. Delta front to fluvial-dominated depositional settings as well as diagenesis played an important role in controlling reservoir quality and geometry. The facies complexity is reflected in rock properties controlling fluid migration through the reservoir intervals. The lithofacies types are clustered into three groups, each with characteristic porosity and permeability cutoffs based on core plugs measurements. The rock types are linked to depositional facies obtained from the petrographic description and calibrated to the clusters derived from the capillary pressure measurements. Porosity distribution within the reservoir is biased to the diagenetic complexity and rock type distribution. Three different transforms were used to calculate the corresponding permeability to the modeled porosity parameter. Modeling water saturation for the three different capillary pressure groups using the J-function approach improves the spatial distribution of water saturation and leads to a better match of historical oil and water production rates.Reservoir simulation is crucial to improve our understanding of rock and fluid properties. Integrating dynamic data such as pressure, production and injection rates helps to reduce the uncertainty of the model parameters. The history match process highlights the need to tune the output of the static model. Iterations on the static model, focused on changing the ranges of key parameters such as facies volume fractions and water saturation that contain the most uncertainties. Applying these changes results in an improved geological model that provides a better data to the simulation model. The tuned static model was able to reproduce the observed results. Matching the pressure data supports a valid oil-in-place which is consistence with historical volumetric calculation.

Combined geophysical and rock physics workflow for quantitative CO2 monitoring

Safe CO2 storage requires conformance verification, i.e. confirmation that the pressure and CO2 accumulation are consistent with modelling forecasts within a given uncertainty range. Quantitative estimates of relevant reservoir parameters (e.g. pore pressure and fluid saturations) are usually derived from geophysical monitoring data (e.g. seismic, electromagnetic and/or gravity data) and potential prior knowledge of the storage reservoir. We describe a two-step strategy combining geophysical and rock physics inversions for quantitative CO2 monitoring. A Bayesian formulation is used to propagate and account for uncertainties in both steps. We demonstrate our workflow using datasets from the Sleipner CO2 storage project (Norwegian North Sea) and combining seismic Full Waveform Inversion and rock physics inversion. We derive rock frame properties from baseline data and use them as input to obtain 2D spatial distribution of CO2 saturation with uncertainty assessment from monitor data. We also discuss the need for advanced rock physics models, considering the way fluid phases are mixed (uniform to patchy mixing) and the trade-off effects of pore pressure and fluid saturation on geophysical measurements. We consequently recommend a joint rock physics inversion approach, where multi-physics, and multi-parameter inversion can be used for better discrimination of pressure, saturation, and fluid mixing effects towards more quantitative conformance verification.

Core-scale investigation of the effect of heterogeneity on the dynamics of residual and dissolution trapping of carbon dioxide

Geologic heterogeneity, which commonly exists in target reservoirs for CO2 sequestration, has a significant effect on CO2 trapping. In this study, we performed Darcy-scale multiphase flow experiments on a heterogeneous rock with in-situ imaging techniques to obtain X-ray images of CO2 saturation during both drainage and imbibition. Residual trapping was assessed using the initial-residual characteristic curve. The distribution of residual CO2 saturation widened as the initial saturation increased, implying that the capillary heterogeneity becomes increasingly important with higher initial CO2 saturation. During dissolution, we discovered new flow regimes in heterogeneous media and proposed a quantitative scaling relationship for their temporal evolution. The high-porosity layers showed a descending slope of ~0.4 during the early stage of dissolution, whereas it decreased by an order of magnitude (slope ~ 0.04) during the later stage. The high-capillarity layers, however, showed a single descending trend during dissolution. The highly time-resolved images of CO2 saturation provide a detailed understanding of the dynamic processes of both residual and dissolution trapping in heterogeneous media, which contributes to a wide range of applications, including environmental remediation, CO2 sequestration, and the enhancement of energy resources from hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Continuous Gas Displacement for EOR in Hydraulically Fractured Shale Reservoirs

SummaryThe main objective of this study is to analyze and describe quantitatively the effectiveness of continuous gas displacement as an enhanced oil recovery (EOR) process to increase production from multifractured shale oil reservoirs. The study uses CH4 continuously injected through horizontal wells parallel to the production wells as the displacement agent and investigates the effects of various attributes of the matrix and of the induced and natural fracture systems.This numerical simulation study focuses on the analysis of the 3D minimum repeatable element (stencil/domain) that can describe a hydraulically fractured shale reservoir under production. The stencil is discretized using a very fine (millimeter-scale) grid. We compare the solutions to a reference case that involves simple depressurization-induced production (i.e., without a gas drive). We monitor continuously (a) the rate and composition of the production stream and (b) the spatial distributions of pressure, temperature, phase saturations, and relative permeabilities.The results of the study indicate that a continuous CH4-based displacement that begins at the onset of production does not appear to be an effective EOR method for hydraulically fractured shale oil reservoirs over a 5-year period in reservoirs in which natural or induced fractures in the undisturbed reservoir and/or in the stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) can be adequately described by a single-medium porosity and permeability. Under these conditions in a system with typical Bakken or Eagle Ford matrix and fracture attributes, continuous CH4 injection by means of a horizontal well parallel to the production well causes a reduction in water production and an (expected) increase in gas production but does not lead to any significant increase in oil production. This is attributed to (a) the limited penetration of the injected gas into the ultralow-k formation, (b) the dissolution of the injected gas into the oil, and (c) its early arrival at the hydraulic fracture (HF; thus, short circuiting the EOR process by bypassing the bulk of the matrix), in addition to (d) the increase in the pressure of the HF and the consequent reduction in the driving force of production and the resulting flow. Under the conditions of this study, these observations hold true for domains with and without an SRV over a wide range of matrix permeabilities and for different lengths and positions (relative to the HF) of the gas injection wells.

Reliable intermittent extended dissipative control for uncertain fuzzy flexible spacecraft systems with Bernoulli stochastic distribution

This paper addresses the problem of uncertain fuzzy intermittent extended dissipative control to stabilize the flexible spacecraft (FS). However, to the systems with actuator random failures, input saturation and Bernoulli stochastic distribution by utilizing a novel switching Lyapunov function method. Compared with the existing common Lyapuonv function, the proposed approach is convenient for us to exploit more information of switching interval. Especially, the condition that control length and control period must be a certain proportion in the previous works of intermittent control strategy is removed in this work, which promotes the obtained criterion to be less conservative. Numerical simulations are finally given to demonstrate the validity and superiority of the theoretical results.

Effects of water saturation and distribution on small-strain stiffness

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of the degree of saturation and water distribution patterns on small strain soil properties. First, we measure P- and S-wave velocities of fine sands mixed with varying degrees of water saturation Sw = 0, 5, 30, 60, and 100% during the vertical loading under zero-lateral strain conditions. Next, we use a simple geometry analysis combined together with soil index properties to provide the first-order approximation of capillary pressure. Then, we consider the effect of capillarity on soil skeleton stiffness to analyze the data in the context of Gassmann's framework. Finally, we investigate the effect of water distribution patterns on small strain soil properties. Results show that water distribution pattern is a critical factor to control the low perturbation soil properties. Furthermore, a specific surface appears to be a good indicator to predict the effective stress- and pore size-dependent capillary pressure in the determination of small strain geophysical properties.

Effect of the Flow Rate on the Relative Permeability Curve in the CO2 and Brine System for CO2 Sequestration

The relative permeabilities of CO2 and brine are important parameters that account for two-phase flow behavior, CO2 saturation distribution, and injectivity. CO2/brine relative permeability curves from the literature show low endpoint CO2 permeability values and high residual brine saturation values. These are the most distinguishing aspects of the CO2/brine relative permeability from oil/water and gas/oil. In this study, this aspect is investigated experimentally by employing a wide range of CO2 injection flow rates. As a result, all the measurements align with previous studies, having low endpoint relative permeability and high residual brine saturation values. They have obvious relationships with the changes in CO2 flow rates. As the CO2 flow rate increases, the endpoint relative permeability increases, the residual brine saturation decreases, and they converge to specific values. These imply that a high CO2 injection flow rate results in high displacement efficiency, but the improvement in efficiency decreases as the flow rate increases. The reasons are identified with the concept of the viscous and capillary forces, and their significance in the CO2 injection into a reservoir is analyzed.

Comparison of geological models for the simulation of CO2 migration: a case study in Ordos, China

AbstractAt the deep saline‐aquifer level, geological storage of CO2 is considered to be one of the most effective geological methods for reducing greenhouse gas concentrations and emissions. The objective of this study is to compare the performance of different geological models in simulating CO2 storage as part of the Ordos Shenhua project, which is the first and the largest demonstration project in China. The project has injected 300 000 t of CO2 into low‐permeability saline aquifers at a depth of 1600 m. The injection procedure began in May 2011 and ended in April 2015. We studied the impact of different models on the predicted gas saturation distribution of the CO2 plume 50 years after well shutoff, using the CO2STORE module in the Eclipse E300 simulator. In our simulation comparisons, four 3D geological models are established, including the flat constant model, flat sequential Gaussian model, seismic constant model, and seismic sequential Gaussian model. The seismic sequential Gaussian model is the most precise model, which is established through the sequential Gaussian co‐simulation method under the constraints of the seismic profile. Actual monitoring data were applied for historical pressure fitting in the four different geological models. Through the comparison of the four models, it can be concluded that the seismic sequential Gaussian model simulated CO2 migration more effectively. The results of this project can provide support for safety assessments in the later stages of deep monitoring programs. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Influence of reservoir-scale heterogeneities on the growth, evolution and migration of a CO2 plume at the Sleipner Field, Norwegian North Sea

New analysis of the baseline (pre-injection) seismic data at Sleipner has revealed large-scale, roughly north-trending, channelled ‘fairways’ at a range of stratigraphical levels in the Utsira Sand. The baseline data also reveal localised stratigraphical ‘point discontinuities’ within the reservoir, some of which show evidence of having provided vertical conduits for earlier natural gas flow. The repeat time-lapse seismic datasets, where finer details of reservoir geology are illuminated by the reflective CO2, show smaller-scale, north-trending and sometimes sinuous channels within the larger channel fairways. They also show a number of vertical CO2 pathways within the CO2 plume, corresponding to the point discontinuities seen on the baseline data.Reservoir flow models were set up with flow properties constrained only by the observed levels of CO2 accumulation in the reservoir and the arrival time of CO2 at the reservoir top just prior to the first repeat seismic survey in 1999. The initial model with laterally homogeneous sand units separated by thin semi-permeable mudstones achieved only a moderate match to the observed time-lapse seismic data. Subsequent flow models, progressively incorporating higher permeability vertical CO2 pathways through the mudstones and large-scale channel fairways within the reservoir sands, yielded a progressive and marked improvement in the history-match of key CO2 layers within the plume. Crucially, no layer-specific model calibration was employed to achieve this improvement.New geophysical measurements from Utsira Sand core have recently become available. These measurements provide important constraints on rock physics models of CO2 and brine mixtures in the Utsira Sand. An empirical Brie fluid mixing law for intermediate fluid saturations provides a good fit to the new laboratory data, allowing measurements of CO2 saturation to be converted into seismic velocity. This rock physics model was used to convert CO2 saturation distributions predicted by the most realistic reservoir model into a seismic velocity model of the CO2 plume. Synthetic seismic reflectivity profiles generated using this velocity model show a striking resemblance to the observed time-lapse seismic data, both in terms of plume layer reflectivity and also of time-shifts within and beneath the CO2 plume. This provides confidence in the fidelity of the preferred reservoir model solution.These results represent a significant breakthrough in the understanding and modelling of CO2 plume development at Sleipner. We emphasise that the improvements were brought about not by fine tuning reservoir properties to fit the observed time-lapse data, but simply by incorporating geological permeability features that can reasonably be inferred from the baseline seismic data.

Analytical Prediction of Torque of Switched Reluctance Machines Considering Nonlinear Characteristics

In this paper, an analytical method (AM) based on the air-gap magnetomotive force (MMF) permeance model is proposed to predict the nonlinear instantaneous torque of switched reluctance machines (SRMs). The analytical expression of the air-gap MMF is first obtained from the winding function and current profile, while the air-gap magnetic permeance considering the double-sided slotting effects is also derived. Then, the nonsaturated field distribution along the air-gap circumference is presented based on which the instantaneous torque can be calculated from the Lorentz force law. Furthermore, the model is enhanced with a saturation distribution factor to include the nonlinear characteristics. The proposed method is free from preliminary data or empirical coefficient and benefits from the simplified model and solution. The AM will be validated by the two-dimensional finite-element method based on four SRMs with different structures. Moreover, an SRM prototype is manufactured for experimental verification.

Three-dimensional numerical simulation of full-scale proton exchange membrane fuel cells at high current densities

Improving the maximum power density of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) requires very high current density and downsizing. Challenging targets, such as 0.66 V at 3.8 A/cm2, have been proposed to achieve a power density of 6.0 kW/L. The internal distributions of PEMFCs are not well understood at such densities; they must be analyzed because cell performance and durability relate to distributions such as temperature, the water content of a proton exchange membrane (PEM), and water saturation in gas diffusion layers. We conducted three-dimensional numerical simulations of a full-scale PEMFC and its short stack at high current densities. Model parameters in the simulations were fitted to reproduce experimental results of common PEMFCs. The material properties of the PEM, cathode catalyst layer, and gas diffusion layers (GDLs) were numerically modified to achieve the target power density. Modifying the GDL markedly improved the cell performance. The simulations estimated in- and through-plane distributions at high current densities; results indicate that gas diffusivity and thermal conductivity of GDLs considerably affect the distributions of PEM temperature and water saturation in the GDL, which relate to cell performance and durability.

Assessing the impact of water infiltration on LNAPL mobilization in sand column using simplified image analysis method

Laboratory-scale column experiments were carried out to assess the influence of water infiltration on pooled light non-aqueous phase liquid (LNAPL) redistribution in porous media. A simplified image analysis method (SIAM) was used to evaluate the saturation distributions of the LNAPL and water in the entire domain under dynamic conditions. The experiments were conducted for high/low LNAPL volumes LNAPL volumes differentiated as low and high volumes. High resolution SIAM images of the soil column during LNAPL migration and water infiltration events were captured and analyzed. Results indicated that the capillary fringe is about 6–7 cm which was consistent with the capillary height derived from empirical equations. Moreover, SIAM provided an estimate of the field capacity (30%) of the sand. Once the LNAPL infiltration stage was started, the LNAPL was observed to rapidly migrate through the vadose zone. For the case of large LNAPL volume, the LNAPL penetrated further into capillary fringe zone. Analysis of SIAM images showed that the LNAPL redistribution was observed to vary significantly with the rate of infiltration. For higher water infiltration intensity, the injected water exerted a larger hydrodynamic force on the entrapped LNAPL forcing it move further downward into the capillary zone and the saturated zone. Overall, this study demonstrated that the SIAM technique is an accurate and cost-effective tool for the visualization of the time-dependent NAPL/water movement in laboratory-scale experiments and dynamic changes in fluid saturation in porous media.

Haze Scene Detection based on Hue, Saturation, and Dark Channel Distributions

Dehazing significantly improves image quality by restoring the loss of contrast and color saturation for images taken in the presence. However, when applied to images not taken according to the prior information, dehazing can cause unintended degradation of image quality. To avoid unintended degradations, we present a hazy scene detection algorithm using a single image based on the distributions of hue, saturation, and dark channel. Through a heuristic approach, we find out statistical characteristics of the distribution of hue, saturation, and dark channels in the hazy scene and make a detection model using them. The proposed method can precede the dehazing to prevent unintended degradation. The detection performance evaluated with a set of test images shows a high hit rate with a low false alarm ratio. Ultimately the proposed method can be used to control the effect of dehazing so that the dehazing can be applied to wide variety of images without unintended degradation of image quality.

Simulation of Time-Lapse Resistivity Logging During Two-Phase Well Testing in Petroleum Reservoirs

Well testing methods are widely used in petroleum industry to identify reservoir parameters in-situ, at real reservoir flow conditions. Two-phase tests with water injection extend capabilities of well testing to evaluation of oil-water flow characteristics through the solution of an inverse problem based on well measurements during the test. Near-wellbore water saturation is used as one of the informative measured parameters. However, water saturation is actually not directly measured on wells. Instead, it is interpreted from time-lapse well logging data, with resistivity logging being one of the options. This means that forward and inverse problems are to be extended to incorporate direct simulations of resistivity logging. In this paper we address the forward problem. It is formulated and solved for different types of logging tools, both for open hole and through the casing. A numerical algorithm and software implementation have been developed for repeated solution of an axisymmetric forward problem of resistivity logging – a 2D elliptical partial differential equation for electrical potential. Distributions of formation resistivity at the moments of logging are calculated from distributions of water saturation and salinity. The latter are computed through numerical solution of the forward problem of well testing – a two-phase oil-water flow in the reservoir with changing salinity of the water phase, with full account for real fluid and reservoir properties. The software implementation of the resistivity logging problem has been tested in comparison with the known theoretical solutions. Examples are presented to show how time-lapse changes in resistivity logging data reflect the specifics of the two-phase flow with changing water salinity during the well test.

Robust Texture-Aware Computer-Generated Image Forensic: Benchmark and Algorithm

With advances in rendering techniques and generative adversarial networks, computer-generated (CG) images tend to be indistinguishable from photographic (PG) images. Revisiting previous works towards CG image forensic, we observed that existing datasets are constructed years ago and limited in both quantity and diversity. Besides, current algorithms only consider the global visual features for forensic, ignoring finer differences between CG and PG images. To mitigate these problems, we first contribute a Large-Scale CG images Benchmark (LSCGB), and then propose a simple yet strong baseline model to address the forensic task. On the one hand, the introduced benchmark has three superior properties, 1) large-scale: the benchmark contains 71168 CG and 71168 PG images with the corresponding expert-annotated labels. It is orders of magnitude bigger than previous datasets. 2) high diversity: we collect CG images from 4 different scenes generated by various rendering techniques. The PG images are varied in terms of image content, camera models, and photographer styles. 3) small bias: we carefully filter the collected images to ensure that the distributions of color, brightness, tone and saturation between CG and PG images are close. Furthermore, inspired by an empirical study on texture difference between CG and PG images, an effective texture-aware network is proposed to improve forensic accuracy. Concretely, we first strengthen texture information of multilevel features extracted from a backbone. Then, the relations among feature channels are explored by learning its gram matrix. Each feature channel represents a specific texture pattern. The gram matrix is thus able to embed the finer texture differences. Experimental results demonstrate that this baseline surpasses the existing methods. The benchmark is publically available at https://github.com/wmbai/LSCGB .

Joint analysis of seismic and well log data applied for prediction of oil presence in Maykop deposits in Naftalan area

<abstract> <p>The paper is devoted to joint application of 3D seismic survey and well logging techniques to study oil and gas presence in Maykop deposits in Naftalan oil field. The field is located in Naftalan-Northern Naftalan area of Ganja oil and gas province, Azerbaijan. The paper brings data about Naftalan field, the ancient brachianticline type of field in Azerbaijan. The paper also considers the history of study of the field by use of geological and geophysical techniques. Despite the studies cover the area since 1873, the oil and gas presence in Maykop has not been studied sufficiently due to sparse network of wells and insufficient amount of core samples. To avoid this gap the results of previous studies have been revised. Joint interpretation of well logging data acquired from 22 wells and data of 3D seismic survey covering the area has been done. On the basis of oil-saturation cube, we have designed the map (the area between the top and the foot of I horizon of Maykop) and 3D model of target interval. It has been defined that uneven distribution of oil saturation and poor oil recovery depends also on sedimentation environment, characterized by rapid subsidence of the basin and increasing amount of clay in the process of sedimentation. Our studies revealed that the average value of oil saturation varies as 0.5–0.6 and increases towards the North-East of the study area. In the final stage of the study we have presented the oil saturation cube and the map drawn on the basis of this cube.</p> </abstract>

Impact of Sub‐core‐scale Heterogeneity on Meter‐Scale Flow and Brine Displacement in Drainage by CO2

AbstractStudies of CO2‐brine two‐phase flow are predominantly carried out on core samples or reservoir‐scale domains. In this work we investigate intermediate‐scale flow considering a cubic rock with 1 m3 volume incorporating sub‐core (mm)‐scale heterogeneity. First, a coreflooding experiment is analyzed to estimate subcore permeability spatial distribution and the results are used as input into the meter‐scale model without any upscaling required. High‐resolution numerical simulations are conducted to model CO2 injection into a brine saturated rock. We find significant differences between the meter‐scale rock simulation and core experiment saturation distributions resulting from highly influential boundary effects on the core scale and pronounced gravity impact on the meter scale. A detailed analysis of flow and brine trapping in rock simulations is presented considering different flow models and permeability structures. It is shown that gravity and capillary heterogeneity have substantial impact on the saturation in the deeper regions, which exhibit sufficiently low capillary pressure, and these regions also show increased trapping of brine. Two trapping mechanisms are discussed: Type I which is a result of entry pressure considerations and Type II, which occurs due to lack of CO2 connectivity. The two types of trapping are found to be correlated to the permeability structure. A formula is presented relating between trapping and permeability statistical parameters, that is, variance of log‐permeability and correlation length scale, as well as to the Bond number characterizing the ratio between gravity and capillary effects.

Numerical simulation of remaining oil distribution in tight sandstone reservoirs: a case study of the upper Triassic Yanchang formation in the Ordos Basin, China

In order to improve the recovery of tight oil and extend the life cycle of the oilfield, in this paper, we have conducted a systematic study on the fine characterization of remaining oil distribution. A three-dimensional numerical simulation method was used to study remaining oil distribution of tight sandstones with the constraints of structure, sedimentary facies, and petrophysical properties. The results show that the distribution of remaining oil in the Chang 2 Member was affected by the structural location, sand body thickness, and petrophysical properties. The remaining oil saturation is higher in the axial parts of nose-like uplifts, the edge parts of thick sand bodies, and the positions where the monoclinic and sand bodies intersect; however, in the flanks of the nose-like uplifts, when the monoclinics are distributed nearly parallel the sand bodies, and in low-lying areas, a low oil saturation distribution often occurs. When two parameters in structure, sand body thickness, and petrophysical properties satisfy favorable conditions, this area is likely to become a favorable remaining oil enrichment area. Numerical simulation results show that improving the injection and production well pattern and increasing the number of oil production wells are important measures to improve oil recovery. The density of the well pattern can be considered as 30–50 wells per square kilometer.

Investigation on moisture migration of unsaturated clay using cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography technique

Cross-borehole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) is an effective groundwater detection tool in geophysical investigations. In this paper, an artificial water injection test was conducted on a small clay sample, where the high-resolution cross-borehole ERT was used to investigate the moisture migration law over time. The moisture migration path can be two-dimensionally imaged based on the relationship between resistivity and saturation. The hydraulic conductivity was estimated, and the magnitude ranged from 10-11 m/s to 10-9 m/s according to the comparison between the simulation flow and the saturation distribution inferred from ERT. The results indicate that cross-borehole ERT could help determine the resistivity distribution of small size clay samples. Finally, the cross-borehole ERT technique has been applied to investigate the self-sealing characteristics of clay.

Heat loss effect on oil bank formation during steam flood

Heavy oil deposits are unconventional resources that are complex and challenging to produce. These unconventional resources usually require thermal recovery techniques to lower the oil viscosity and improve the mobility of it. Steam flood is a popular thermal recovery method. Understanding the mechanism of steam injection and heat utilization improves the efficiency of heavy oil recovery. In this work, the steam flood is applied to a synthetic unconsolidated sandstone core sample to mimic the Lower Fars heavy oil formation located in northern Kuwait. Experimental work was done to conduct the steam flood to this unconsolidated core sample saturated with heavy oil. The steam propagation and oil bank formation were investigated. X-ray computed tomography (CT) scanner was used during the experiment. The experimental data and X-ray CT measurements were analyzed to quantify the changes in the in-situ oil saturation during the steam flood. The growth of the steam zone was quantified and tracked by the CT images. The CT imaging reconstructions showed the formation of an oil bank and its location from the injection inlet side. The experimental observation indicated that the location of the oil bank was stationary and did not advance further at some point during the steam injection due to the heat loss effect. The analysis of the CT images showed that due to the heat loss, the oil bank size was thin. It was also observed that the steam sweep efficiency was high at the injection end. This study provides valuable information on the in-situ heavy oil saturation distribution during the steam flood for the development of heavy oil fields in Kuwait. The work is the first steam flood under CT imaging scanner facility in Kuwait and among the very few done in the world.