EOR development screening of a heterogeneous heavy-oil field with steam injection

In this research, a numerical feasibility study has been carried on the thermal oil recovery using steam injection at a field located in southern Oman, where the reservoir nature characterized by a heterogeneous rock properties and heavy oil. The several technical challenges have been tried for designing production system and EOR operation due to heterogeneous nature of these rocks. The steam injection has been investigated by numerical simulations in order to optimize heat transfer in the reservoir to reduce the oil viscosity with more efficient. The CMG STARSTM was used for the simulations on steam-injection operations with the valve control of steam trap subcool in this field. Those simulation results show that the temperature distribution after injecting steam transmits widely and faster in the reservoir with the valve control. It was expected that the oil is produced more and its rate is kept steadily using lower steam injection temperature by using steam trap operation. Furthermore, it was also suggested that steam injection could be saved and the SOR (Steam Oil Ratio) and RF (Oil Recovery Factor) is better by setting subcool temperature 20 °C to 30 °C using with the valve control.