Steam Injection Research Articles

Thermomechanical behaviour of well cement in different geological formations under the coupled effects of temperature and pressure

It is crucial to ensure that the cement sheaths remain intact in all types of deep well applications subject to high temperatures and high pressures underground. It should be noted, however, that the behaviour of annulus cement sheath is not self-controlled and is governed by the response of steel casing and the surrounding rock formation in such extreme underground conditions. In this study, we investigate the thermomechanical response of wellbore materials in a typical oil well consisting of steel casing, annulus cement sheaths and surrounding rock formations subjected to continuous steam injection. A section of an oil well was simulated by using the COMSOL Multiphysics, a finite element method, using Class G Portland cement as the annulus cement. In two formation scenarios, stiff (carbonate) and compliant (sandstone), temperature and pressure were coupled to evaluate wellbore material behaviour. It was found that wellbore materials in carbonate were more susceptible to stress than those in sandstone. Despite the fact that all materials reached their highest temperatures in both formations, the retention time of the maximum temperature in the cement sheath in sandstone was shorter than in carbonate. Regardless of the thickness of the cement sheath, the highest strains were located at the casing-cement interface in carbonates. As a result of the temperature and pressure ramp, the cement sheath in sandstone failed by generating tensile radial cracks along the lowest layer thickness of the cement sheath. In compliant formations such as sandstone, the cement sheath would likely fail due to tensile cracking along its lowest thickness.

Modeling of horizontal steam injection in a water pool

A comprehensive understanding of the direct contact condensation (DCC) phenomena of steam discharged into a subcooled water pool is essential for the nuclear engineering field. DCC is the most rapid and efficient way to condense high-pressure and high-temperature steam with simple engineering systems. However, the pressure oscillation due to the rapid condensation and small length and time scales of turbulent two-phase flow make the investigation of DCC phenomena challenging either by experiments or with numerical simulations.This paper presents the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of the small-scale separate effect test facility (SEF-POOL) experiment of Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology (LUT University). In the SEF-POOL test, the steam was injected using the orifice of a diameter of 16 mm. All simulations were performed by employing the compressible two-phase solver of OpenFOAM which was based on the Eulerian–Eulerian two-fluid approach. The interfacial heat transfer between steam and water was modeled by using the Nusselt number formulation of Coste (2004). The Rayleigh–Taylor interfacial (RTI) area model of Pellegrini et al. (2015) was applied for the interfacial area modeling. In this work, the formation and collapse of the steam bubbles are studied using the extended pattern recognition based image analysis algorithm. The pattern recognition (PR) algorithm is based on the video material recorded during the SEF-INF2 experiment of the SEF-POOL test facility.The presented study show that if the two-phase interface is rough and smear into the subgrid scale, the interfacial area density calculation solely with the volume fraction gradient is inadequate for predicting rapid condensation rates. Results indicate that rapid and high interfacial accelerations in DCC trigger interfacial instabilities which increased the interface roughness and total interfacial area consequently. Thus, interfacial area modeling with the RTI increased the total interfacial heat transfer rate in the simulations. The achieved results exhibit that the selected modeling approach captured the rapid bubbling condensation oscillation mode of the SEF-POOL test. Presented results demonstrate that image analysis and pattern recognition have great potential in thermal-hydraulic research that can be beneficial for direct contact condensation and phase-interface dynamics model development.

Crude Oil Pyrolysis Studies: Application to In Situ Superheat Steam Enhanced Oil Recovery

This work focuses on the occurrence and composition of flammable pyrolysis gases which can be expected from stimulation of heavy oil with superheat steam. These gases can have commodity value or be used to fire a conventional boiler to generate steam vapor for superheater feed. Seven oil samples taken from different US locations were tested via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) with off-gas analysis of light hydrocarbons via mass spectrometry (MS). The samples were heated up to 500 °C at 5 °C/min in a gas flow of moist carbon dioxide and held at 500 °C until no further mass loss was noted. Then, carbonaceous residue was exposed to air at 500 °C to determine enthalpy of combustion by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). To demonstrate that pyrolysis was indeed occurring and not simple de-volatilization, a high-molecular-weight reagent-grade organic molecule, lactose, was first demonstrated to produce components of interest. After treatment under moist CO2 at 500 °C, all samples were found to lose around 90% of mass, and the follow-up combustion process with air further reduced the residual mass to between 2% and 12%, which is presumed to be mineral matter and char. The light hydrocarbons methane, ethane, and propane, as well as hydrogen, were detected through MS during pyrolysis of each oil sample. Heavier hydrocarbons were not monitored but are assumed to have evolved, especially during periods where additional mass loss was occurring in the isothermal process, with minimal light hydrocarbon evolution. These results correspond to a possible concept of subsequent in situ combustion drive with or without heat scavenging following high-temperature pyrolysis from in situ superheat steam injection.

Combustion behaviors of pulverized coal MILD-oxy combustion under different steam injection parameters

MILD-oxy combustion under the wet flue gas recirculation mode is of potential in achieving a synergetic control of C/N emissions, whereas its practical realization is restricted by how to efficiently form an in-furnace H2O-rich atmosphere under MILD regime. Towards this issue, this work numerically evaluates the feasibility of applying the direct steam injection method by arranging the individual steam nozzles with different diameters (Dste) on both sides of the primary stream nozzle (i.e., the inner- and outer-steam injections). The effects of incident position and velocity on combustion behaviors are studied. Results show that compared with the advanced confluence of primary and secondary streams in the inner injection cases, outer-steam injection delays the confluence of inlet jets to enhance the in-furnace dilution level. Inner-steam injection is better in inhibiting temperature rise and fluctuation, which facilitates a more uniform distribution of temperature. MILD combustion with diffusion/kinetics-controlled regime is better maintained in the inner injection cases under a small Damkӧhler number. The share of gasification reaction on char consumption in the inner injection cases is higher than that in the outer injection cases, and the burnout time of char is also increased. The increased Dste further enhances the contribution of gasification reaction and prolongs char burnout. Inner-steam injection inhibits the oxidation of fuel-N and enhances NO-reburning in a large low-O2 region as Dste increases, which leads to the lower NO emission concentration. Meanwhile, interaction between NO and fuel-N intermediates is found to play an inevitable role in reducing the overall NO emission.

Transient Modeling and Performance Analysis of Hydrogen-Fueled Aero Engines

With the combustor burning hydrogen, as well as the strongly coupled fuel and cooling system, the configuration of a hydrogen-fueled aero engine is more complex than that of a conventional aero engine. The performance, and especially the dynamic behavior of a hydrogen-fueled aero engine, need to be fully understood for engine system design and optimization. In this paper, both the transient modeling and performance analysis of hydrogen-fueled engines are presented. Firstly, the models specific to the hydrogen-fueled engine components and systems, including the hydrogen-fueled combustor, the steam injection system, a simplified model for a quick NOx emission assessment, and the heat exchangers, are developed and then integrated to a conventional engine models. The simulations with both Simulink and Speedgoat-based hardware in the loop system are carried out. Secondly, the performance analysis is performed for a typical turbofan engine configuration, CF6, and for the two hydrogen-fueled engine configurations, ENABLEH2 and HySIITE, which are currently under research and development by the European Union and Pratt & Whitney, respectively. At last, the simulation results demonstrate that the developed transient models can effectively reflect the characteristics of hydrogen burning, heat exchanging, and NOx emission for hydrogen-fueled engines. In most cases, the hydrogen-fueled engines show lower specific fuel consumption, lower turbine entry temperature, and less NOx emissions compared with conventional engines. For example, at max thrust state, the advanced hydrogen-fueled engine can reduce the parameters mentioned above by about 68.5%, 3.7%, and 12.7%, respectively (a mean value of two configurations).

Study on the Lower Limits of Physical Parameters for Heavy Oil Reservoirs during the In Situ Combustion Process.

As an effective enhanced oil recovery (EOR) method in the late stage of the steam injection process, in situ combustion (ISC) has been verified by more and more researchers owing to its high recovery efficiency and low operation cost. However, the ISC process is prone to bringing about an unfavorable result with a low sweep efficiency and even an extinction process due to the complexity and uncertainty in oil and water distribution as well as the heterogeneity of the actual reservoir. In this work, combustion tube experiments combined with numerical simulations by CMG-STARS were conducted to study the influence of a reservoir's physical parameters on the stability of ISC. It was found that the sustainability of the combustion process is sensitive to permeability and oil saturation, the lower limits of which are determined as 0.2 μm2 and 0.2, respectively. Then, a formula was preliminarily proposed as 0.25 ≤ So/K ≤ 0.8, which could be used as a reference of screening criteria in designing the ISC process.

Experimental and numerical investigation of mining assisted heavy oil production for the Bati Raman field, Turkey

This research aims to investigate possible ultimate recovery from the largest oil reserve (Bati Raman) in Turkey using a new method called mining-assisted heavy oil production (MAHOP) where declines (tunnels) are excavated from the surface to the reservoir. A series of excavations (galleries) continue along the bottom of the reservoir and proceed along the reservoir's bottom. Fan-shaped steam injection holes that are drilled in the reservoir from the top and sides of the galleries are then used to inject steam similar to conventional steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). A scaled experimental model and a numerical model have been designed and developed to assess the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed method. MAHOP experiments conducted at different wettability conditions showed that ultimate oil recovery varies between 49.56% and 71.73%. These promising results are then verified using a numerical model. It is argued that the temperature increase may alter the wettability of oil-wet rock to more water-wet, which contributes to incremental oil recovery. The conceptual economic study of the MAHOP recovery results show that the process can be economical in terms of both initial investment and operating costs. Thus, MAHOP is strongly recommended for the exploitation of the Bati Raman field.

Molecular Dynamics Investigation of Wettability Alteration of Quartz Surface under Thermal Recovery Processes.

One of the primary methods for bitumen and heavy oil recovery is a steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process. However, the mechanisms related to wettability alteration under the SAGD process still need to be fully understood. In this study, we used MD simulation to evaluate the wettability alteration under a steam injection process for bitumen and heavy oil recovery. Various oil droplets with different asphaltene contents were considered to determine the effect of an asphaltene content on the adsorption of the oil droplets onto quartz surfaces and wettability alteration. Based on the MD simulation outputs, the higher the asphaltene content, the higher the adsorption energy between the bitumen/heavy oil and quartz surfaces due to coulombic interactions. Additionally, the quartz surfaces became more oil-wet at temperatures well beyond the water boiling temperature; however, they were extremely water-wet at ambient conditions. The results of this work provide in-depth information regarding wettability alteration during in situ thermal processes for bitumen and heavy oil recovery. Furthermore, they provide helpful information for optimizing the in situ thermal processes for successful operations.

Reduction of water droplets effects in steam turbine blade using Multi-objective optimization of hot steam injection

As one of the most important equipment for energy conversion, steam turbine plays an irreplaceable role in industry. Due to the high velocity, the non-equilibrium condensation will take place in the steam turbine, emerging lots of tiny droplets. The tiny drops will not only deteriorate the efficiency but also endanger the safety of the steam turbine. The control of droplets size and liquid mass fraction is essential issue in steam turbine blade. One of the techniques that reduce the effects of the liquid phase on steam turbine blades is to inject hot steam. This study investigates hot steam injection in steam turbine blades for dehumidification by considering friction and thermal entropy generation. First, the injection parameters (injection location, slot width, pressure and temperature) are examined parametrically, and their impacts on the generated friction and thermal entropies, condensation loss, erosion rate, hot steam injection rate, and blade inlet flow rate are investigated. The optimization is carried out by the genetic algorithm. The results show the generated friction and thermal entropies increase through the hot steam injection, which, in an optimum state, can reduce the condensation loss, erosion rate, and blade inlet flow rate by 21%, 89%, and 4.9%, and raise the generated entropy by 22%. Moreover, the rate of the hot steam injection equals 4.3% in this condition.

Change Characteristics of Heavy Oil Composition and Rock Properties after Steam Flooding in Heavy Oil Reservoirs

The thermal recovery method of steam flooding is one of the most common development methods for heavy oil reservoirs. However, after multiple rounds of steam injection development, the composition of crude oil and reservoir rock properties have changed greatly, which is unfavorable for the subsequent enhanced oil recovery. It is necessary to study the distribution of the remaining oil after the thermal recovery of heavy oil reservoirs, and clarify the change characteristics of the components of the crude oil under different steam injection conditions. At the same time, the change of porosity and the permeability of the rocks after steam flooding, and its influence on oil recovery, are investigated. In this paper, the composition changes of heavy oil before and after steam flooding are studied through experiments and numerical simulation methods. A numerical model is established to study the retention characteristics of heavy components in heavy oil reservoirs by the CMG software. The effects of different steam injection conditions, and heavy oil with different components on the residual retention of heavy components, are compared and studied. The changes of rock physical properties in heavy oil reservoirs after steam flooding is clarified. The results show that after steam flooding, the heavy components (resin and asphaltenes) of the recovered oil decrease, and the heavy components in the formation increase in varying degrees. With the increase of heavy components in the crude oil, the remaining oil in the formation increases after steam flooding, and the retention of heavy components increases; after steam flooding, the stronger the rock cementation strength, the higher the degree of reserve recovery, and it is difficult to form breakthrough channels; the greater the steam injection intensity, the earlier to see steam breakthrough in the production well, and the lower the degree of reserve recovery. The research reveals the changes of heavy oil components and rock properties after steam flooding, providing support for the subsequent enhanced oil recovery.

Integrating Physical and Numerical Simulation of Horizontal Well Steam Flooding in a Heavy Oil Reservoir

Abstract LD-N extra-heavy oil reservoir in Bohai Sea is characterized with deep burial and large bottom water. Horizontal-well steam huff “n” puff has been applied, yet due to water coning and serious heat losses, the oil recovery after three cycles turned out to be rather low (1.58%). To find an appropriate follow-up process, this study proposed and analyzed three different flooding schemes: steam flooding, multiple-thermal-fluid flooding, and foam flooding. Scaled 3D physical experiments and corresponding numerical simulation have been conducted to investigate the heating chamber development and fluid production. History match and parametric analyses have been carried out to optimize the well performance and operating conditions. The optimized results include 360 m3/d instantaneous steam injection rate, 1.3–1.4 production-injection ratio, and 13–16 m water avoidance height. In addition, the production well is recommended to be placed above the injection well. These findings provide a useful guidance for the design of thermal recovery schemes and the optimization of production processes for heavy oil reservoirs with bottom water.

Feasibility of implementation of solar thermal energy in steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) in extra-heavy oil field in Colombia

The feasibility of implementing solar thermal energy in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) projects in Colombia has been practically avoided mainly owing to its high operating cost. However, Solar thermal energy can enable generating steam to be used for the EOR process with SAGD. Based on the amount of steam needed for an extra-heavy oil project, a solar thermal parabolic trough heat plant of 76.6 MWt for field application was designed to produce up to 261 MMBTU/h from computer simulated studies. This plant can generate injection steam during day hours and can be complemented with a steam conventional generation system for operating during night hours and on highly cloudy days. The obtained results showed the generated solar steam can contribute an average of 37.5% total daily steam requirement. By applying System Advisor Model (SAM), the produced solar steam can generate a saving of US$ 27602/day, which is signification saving of US$ 10.07 MM in one year. Therefore, the solar thermal parabolic trough heat technology can be a suitable option to implement in the Colombian Eastern Llanos Basin for thermal EOR.

Experimental investigation on pressure oscillation induced by steam injection into subcooled water through an opposite nozzle

The pressure oscillation characteristics induced by steam jet condensation through an opposite nozzle were experimentally studied. Four condensation regimes, namely Chugging-I (Chug-I), Chugging-II (Chug-II), Condensation Oscillation-I (CO-I), and Condensation Oscillation-II (CO-II), were identified based on interfacial behaviors and corresponding pressure signals in the pipe and the water tank. In the Chug-I and Chug-II regimes, the probability density function (PDF) of the pressure signals in the pipe was highly asymmetric, while the PDF in the water tank was sharp unimodal distribution. The PDF in the CO-I regime was sharp unimodal distribution, symmetrical to 0 kPa. The PDF in the CO-II regime was asymmetrical dumpy distribution. In addition, the variations of pressure oscillation intensity in the pipe and the water tank were investigated. Finally, a modified correlation was proposed for predicting the dominant frequency of pressure oscillation, with the maximum deviation of ± 10 %.

Thermal Magnetic Properties Variation of Rock During In-Situ Combustion Process

Summary In-situ combustion (ISC) has been proven as a promising technique for the extraction of heavy oils. It has been used in oil fields since the 1920s; however, it is still not as widely used as steam injection. One of the difficulties limiting its wide application is monitoring and controlling the movement of the combustion front. This work is aimed at studying the change in the properties of rock during the ISC process, which is expected to be used for developing an effective monitoring method of the combustion front movement. Rock samples before and after the ISC process were obtained from the Xinjiang Oil field (China) where an ISC industrial pilot has been implemented. In the temperature range of lower than 500℃, the minerals may only alter slightly. Therefore, it is difficult to determine whether the rock was heated or not during the ISC processes using general mineralogical or geochemical methods, for example, X-ray diffraction. This work takes a comprehensive approach to study the variation of rock properties. Magnetic analysis was chosen as the primary method since a very tiny change in the mineral composition during heating leads to profound changes in the magnetic properties. We analyzed magnetic susceptibility (MS), natural remanent magnetization (NRM), hysteresis parameters and thermomagnetic data. In addition, we performed differential thermomagnetic analysis (DTMA) for tracing magnetic minerals based on their Curie temperatures as well as for monitoring transformations in magnetic minerals during heating. Simultaneously, X-ray diffractometer (XRD), optical microscope for thin-sections, and organic content measurements were used as assistive methods to get a comprehensive evaluation on the variation of rock. We found that there is a big difference in magnetic minerals between the initial samples (not subjected to the ISC process) and burned samples from different wells and depths in the ISC pilot. Several magnetic clusters with different coercive force and domain structure were found in these samples. Based on the difference in magnetic properties, we found that the burned samples were heated to different temperatures during the ISC process. In addition, for some rock samples, the heating temperature during the ISC process was determined, and an analysis was made of the propagation of the combustion front. The thermal magnetic properties variation of rock during the ISC process is obvious, which makes it promising to be used for monitoring the propagation direction of the combustion front. Theoretical calculations of magnetic anomalies that occur due to changes in the magnetic properties of rocks during the ISC process indicate the possibility of the detection of such anomalies from the Earth’s surface through high-precision magnetic surveys. The findings in this work provide a theoretical base and direction for developing combustion front monitoring technologies.

Enhanced CO2 Capture Durability and Mechanical Properties Using Cellulose-Templated CaO-Based Pellets with Steam Injection during Calcination

Cellulose-templated CaO-based pellets were prepared via an extrusion–spheronization method. However, the CO2 capture capacity of the modified sorbents still deteriorated rapidly after multiple cycles, and the mechanical properties were also reduced. Steam injection during calcination was conducted to enhance the CO2 capture performance of the sorbents. The modified pellets with 10 vol % steam injection present a faster carbonation rate compared to sorbents calcined under higher steam concentrations. A CO2 uptake of 0.32 g/g was obtained after 20 cycles, 133 and 60% higher than the raw sorbent and modified sorbent without steam reactivation. Moreover, the simultaneous thermal and atmosphere-induced sintering resulted in a nearly 4 times enhancement of the mechanical strength of the sorbents from 3.9 to 14.7 N. Under the harsh environment (calcined at 950 °C), the presence of steam further aggravated the sintering of the sorbent, resulting in a dramatic decrease in CO2 uptake.

Experimental study on heat transfer characteristics of steam underwater direct-contact condensation

Introduction: The direct-contact condensation (DCC) of steam under water injection is the basic thermodynamic process of the bubble deaerator. In order to understand the complex coupling behavior of strong turbulence and fast phase-change heat transfer involved in the process.Methods: This study uses a visualized method and convective heat transfer model.Results: Since the contact area is affected by steam injection flow and sub-cooled degree is affected simultaneously, the trend of the condensation heat-transfer coefficient depends on the degree of their respective effects under each condition, and the maximum variation of the coefficient exceeds 104 W/m2.°C. Moreover, they still effect the period of steam plume, and the maximum variation of the period was beyond 80 ms.Discussion: Calculated the average condensation heat transfer coefficient and then produces the variation law of heat transfer coefficient under various conditions in one steam plume evolution period.

Modeling and Simulation of an Industrial-Scale 525 MWth Petcoke Chemical Looping Combustion Power Plant

This paper presents the modeling and simulation of an industrial-scale chemical looping combustion (CLC) power plant, including all process units (reactors, flue gas treatment units, heat integration, steam cycle, and CO2 compression train). A model of a 525 MWth CLC power plant was built using a rigorous representation of the solid fuel and oxygen carrier. Petcoke was considered the main fuel of interest in this study, and it is compared with other solid fuels. The flue gas compositions obtained with the model show that cleanup units are mandatory to comply with CO2 quality requirements. High levels of flue gas treatment, including 97.1% deNOx and 99.4% deSOx, are needed to achieve typical specifications for captured CO2. This is mainly due to the high level of contaminants in the fuel, but also to the absence of nitrogen in the CLC flue gas, thus resulting in higher concentrations for all substances. The high level of flue gas treatment is thus one of the important challenges for solid fuel combustion in CLC. The overall CO2 capture efficiency of the plant is estimated to be as high as 94%. Regarding the energy balance, a process net efficiency of 38% is obtained. Comparing the results with other available technologies shows that CLC exhibits one of the highest net plant efficiencies and carbon capture rates. CLC is thus a promising technology to produce clean energy from solid fuels. Finally, based on a sensitivity analysis, it is shown that process efficiency is mainly affected by the design and performance of the CLC furnace, the steam injection rate in the fuel reactor, the char separation efficiency, and the excess oxygen in the air reactor.

Enhanced Oil Recovery by In-Reservoir Hydrogenation of Carbon Dioxide Using Na-Fe3O4

In-situ conversion of carbon dioxide into value-added products is an essential process in terms of heavy oil upgrading and utilization of the main anthropogenic greenhouse gas. In this paper, we discuss a synthesis of sodium-coated magnetite (Fe3O4) particles for in-reservoir hydrogenation of CO2. The performance of the obtained catalyst was tested in upgrading of heavy oil in a High Pressure/High Temperature (HPHT) reactor imitating the reservoir conditions during steam injection techniques. The experiments were conducted for 48 h in a CO2 environment under the steam temperature and pressure of 250 °C and 90 bar, respectively. The results showed irreversible viscosity reduction of oil from 3931 mPa.s to 2432 mPa.s after the degassing of unreacted carbon dioxide. The content of resins in the composition of upgraded oil was significantly altered from 32.1 wt% to 19.01 wt%, while the content of aromatics rose from 32.5 wt% to 48.85 wt%. The GC-MS results show the presence of alkyl benzenes and phenanthrenes, which were initially concentrated in resins and asphaltenes, in the aromatics fraction of upgraded crude oil. Thus, Na-Fe3O4 exhibits promising results for in-situ heavy oil upgrading through the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide, which contributes not only to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but also enhances heavy oil recovery.

Second law evaluation and environmental analysis of biomass-fired power plant hybridized with geothermal energy

Two novel configurations for hybridization of geothermal and biomass energies are proposed and analyzed in this paper. In the first system (named Configuration 1) geothermal heat is employed for feed water heating, while in second one (named Configuration 2) the geothermal energy is employed for steam generation to be entered into the low pressure steam turbine stage. The method of hybridization of geothermal and biomass resources in this paper is quite different than the schemes proposed in previous researches. Another unique feature of the proposed hybrid configurations is the ability of utilizing geothermal resources with various temperature level. In order to assess the feasibility of proposed systems and to compare their performance, detailed simulation models are made based on the first and second laws. Also, the systems’ performances are evaluated from the environmental perspective using three exergo-environmental factors. In addition, the optimal operating conditions of the systems are determined with respect to the maximum exergy efficiency. For a wide range of practical operating conditions it is found that, the proposed Configuration 2 outperforms the Configuration 1 due to the direct steam injection into the law-pressure turbine in the former. Under the optimal operation, it yields 8.65 % higher exergy efficiency as well as 12.5% lower environmental damage effectiveness compared to Configuration 1. Also it is concluded that, the gasification and combustion processes own more than 55% of overall exergy destruction in both systems.

Understanding the Impact of Reservoir Low-Permeability Subdomains in the Steam Injection Process

Optimizing production in the mature fields of heavy oil reservoirs is still challenging. In most cases, conventional recovery techniques are not effective, although they are suitable for applying thermal recovery methods. Steam injection involves injecting steam into the reservoir where the heat exchange with the oil occurs. This promotes a reduction in oil viscosity and thus increases its mobility. One of the challenges of the EOR project is understanding how the presence of regions with contrasting properties, such as fractures, caves, and barriers, could affect the steam flow. This work investigates the impact of low-permeability barriers in the steam injection process. The barriers were created on a semi-synthetic reservoir characteristic of Brazilian onshore mature fields. We used the three-phase pseudo-compositional reservoir simulation STARS (Steam Thermal Advanced Processes Reservoir Simulation) for simulations. Our results show that the shape, number, and arrangement of barriers in a porous medium can affect the amount of oil recovered. They may also be able to anticipate or delay oil production.