A theoretical and experimental study of the steam slug process
A theoretical and experimental study of the steam slug process was conducted. The process consists in injecting a limited amount of steam into an oil-bearing formation, followed by cold-water injection. This process represents a new thermal method of recovering oil from both light and heavy oil reservoirs. The experimental model used consisted of a linear porous medium with appropriate simulation of the overlying and the underlying formations. Several slug type runs were conducted in order to investigate the effects of slug, size, type of oil, and stream temperature on the temperature distribution in the formations involved, and oil recovery. The mathematical model developed consisted of 2 coupled partial differential equations and a heat balance, to obtain the temperature distribution in the porous medium and in the adjacent formations. A combination implicit- explicit finite difference scheme was used for the solution of the equations. A special scheme was devised to calculate the oil recovery using the calculated temperature distribution. The theoretical was used to extend and confirm the experimentally obtained results.
- OSTI ID:
- 6687933
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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