Title: Numerical simulation of the reservoir and operational parameters to optimise steam flooding performance

Authors: Arshad Raza; Farzain Ud Din Kirmani

Addresses: Department of Petroleum Engineering, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran 31261, Saudi Arabia ' Department of Petroleum & Gas Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology (UET), G.T. Road, Lahore 54890, Pakistan

Abstract: A comprehensive sensitivity analysis among various parameters is conducted to understand steam flooding in the oil reservoir. The result obtained for the scenario of crude oil's quality and reservoir wettability indicated that light crude oils (Oil-D, Oil-F, Oil-H) are a better choice than heavy crude oils (Oil-A and Oil-B) for steam flooding in the oil-wet and water-wet reservoirs due to improved oil mobility. In addition, it was also found that a water-wet reservoir offers more oil recovery than an oil-wet reservoir regardless of the crude oil grade due to effective displacement efficiency. Furthermore, the effect of wettability becomes more pronounced for heavy crude oils. The results for the scenario of steam quality and injection rate in the water-wet system indicated that high-quality steam with an intermediate rate of injection or medium quality steam with a high injection rate is the best option to enhance the recovery from light, medium and heavy oils reservoirs. [Received: February 21, 2022; Accepted: May 15, 2022]

Keywords: steam flooding; wettability; oil grade; steam quality; injection rate; numerical simulation; operational parameters.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2023.127336

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2023 Vol.32 No.1, pp.24 - 47

Received: 18 Feb 2022
Accepted: 15 May 2022
Published online: 30 Nov 2022 *