Oil recovery by hot-water and steam injection

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1971 · 8. World Petrol Congr. preprint; (United States)

OSTI ID:5493245

Harmsen, G J

Since the early fifties, hot-fluid injection methods to improve the production from heavy oil reservoirs have received considerable attention. Hot-water and steam drive were field-tested first, but development of these processes has been considerably delayed in favor of cyclic injection of steam. The latter is mainly a stimulation method limited to undepleted reservoirs. It is nevertheless responsible for most of the thermal oil produced today. Its attractiveness lies in the low risk factor, the low investment and the rapid pay-out in cases of success. However, careful engineering is necessary for successful operation. Simplified theoretical models have recently been published that may assist the selection of optimum operating conditions. In areas where cyclic steam injection has been fully developed, thermal drives are regaining attention for higher ultimate recoveries. A hot-water drive is cheaper to operate than a steam drive, but it is essentially an unstable process. Steam can, however, stably displace oil of several hundreds of centipoises (cp). Both processes can be studied in scaled laboratory experiments, while numerical simulators are under development. This will facilitiate the determination of optimum project design as more and more cyclic steam injection projects are converted to drives. (81 refs.)

• Research Organization: Shell Internat Res Mij NV
• OSTI ID: 5493245
• Report Number(s): CONF-710677-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: 8. World Petrol Congr. preprint; (United States) Journal Volume: PD9(1)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
ENERGY SOURCES
ENHANCED RECOVERY
FLUID INJECTION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
HOT WATER
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
OIL WELLS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PERFORMANCE
PETROLEUM
RECOVERY
STEAM INJECTION
STIMULATION
THERMAL RECOVERY
WATER
WATERFLOODING
WELL STIMULATION
WELLS