Oil recovery by a steamflood: preliminary considerations

Journal Article · Wed Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1966 · Prod. Mon.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6485140

Farouq Ali, S M

Certain preliminary considerations are noted which are basic to calculations of oil recovery by continuous steam injection. When steam is injected into an oil-bearing formation, oil is expelled by 3 mechanisms. The most important of these is steam distillation, the others being viscosity reduction and thermal expansion effects. The quantity which is important to know in a steamflood is residual oil saturation in that portion of the reservoir which has been invaded by steam. Perhaps the simplest way of estimating oil recovery by steamflood is to base the calculation on the steamflood residual oil saturation alone, ignoring oil recovery by the hot and cold waterflood ahead of the steam zone. This approach should be fairly satisfactory in the case of oil reservoirs which have already been waterflooded to the economic limit. It is only necessary to compute or graphically determine the positions of the steam front for a series of times, and then calculate the boiler recovery on the basis of the assumption that the oil saturation in the steam-swept zone is reduced from the initial oil saturation to the residual saturation.

• Research Organization: Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park
• OSTI ID: 6485140
• Journal Information: Prod. Mon.; (United States), Journal Name: Prod. Mon.; (United States) Vol. 30:6; ISSN PROMA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
DISTILLATION
ENERGY SOURCES
ENGINEERING
ENHANCED RECOVERY
FLUID INJECTION
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
MATHEMATICS
OIL SATURATION
OIL WELLS
PETROLEUM
RECOVERY
RESERVOIR ENGINEERING
SATURATION
SEPARATION PROCESSES
STEAM INJECTION
THERMAL RECOVERY
VISCOSITY
WELLS