SPE Reservoir Evaluation & Engineering
Volume 16, Number 1, February 2013, pp. 60-71

Summary

Techniques have been developed to experimentally and numerically evaluate performance of water-alternating-CO₂ processes in thin heavy-oil reservoirs for pressure maintenance and improving oil recovery. Experimentally, a 3D physical model consisting of three horizontal wells and five vertical wells is used to evaluate the performance of water-alternating-CO₂ processes. Two well configurations have been designed to examine their effects on heavy-oil recovery. The corresponding initial oil saturation, oil production rate, water cut, oil recovery, and residual-oil-saturation (ROS) distribution are examined under various operating conditions. Subsequently, numerical simulation is performed to match the experimental measurements and optimize the operating parameters (e.g., slug size and water/CO₂ ratio). The incremental oil recoveries of 12.4 and 8.9% through three water-alternating-CO₂ cycles are experimentally achieved for the aforementioned two well configurations, respectively. The excellent agreement between the measured and simulated cumulative oil production indicates that the displacement mechanisms governing water alternating-CO₂ processes have been numerically simulated and matched. It has been shown that water-alternating-CO₂ processes implemented with horizontal wells can be optimized to significantly improve performance of pressure maintenance and oil recovery in thin heavy-oil reservoirs. Although well configuration imposes a dominant impact on oil recovery, the water-alternating gas (WAG) ratios of 0.75 and 1.00 are found to be the optimum values for Scenarios 1 and 2, respectively.

© 2013. Society of Petroleum Engineers

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History

• Original manuscript received: 7 April 2012
• Meeting paper published: 12 June 2012
• Revised manuscript received: 25 September 2012
• Manuscript approved: 14 November 2012
• Published online: 15 January 2013
• Version of record: 27 February 2013