Physical and Mathematical Modeling of Steam-Assisted-Gravity-Drainage of Heavy Oil Fields Based on Material Balance Method

About the authors:

Alexander Ya. Gilmanov, Cand. Sci. (Phys.-Math.), Senior Lecturer, Department of Modeling of Physical Processes and Systems, School of Natural Sciences, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; a.y.gilmanov@utmn.ru; ORCID: 0000-0002-7115-1629

Alexander P. Shevelev, Cand. Sci. (Phys.-Math.), Associate Professor, Professor, Department of Modeling of Physical Processes and Systems, School of Natural Sciences, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; a.p.shevelev@utmn.ru; ORCID: 0000-0003-0017-4871

Abstract:

Hard-to-recover oil reserves are widely used to maintain the rate of production of hydrocarbons. A significant part of such fields is high-viscosity oil, present in West Siberia, including reserves in the Russian oil-field. Thermal methods are widely used for their effective production, e. g., steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), which, as the analysis of literature sources showed, is used more and more often in the world. For an optimization of the process of heavy oil recovery using SAGD, it is necessary to conduct physical and mathematical modeling of this process with the assistance of high-performance software and numerical schemes. The most of the modern techniques are based on using the fundamental system of equations of mechanics of multiphase systems. This calculation requires a lot of time and does not allow tracking the process in real time. The application of models using material balance method helps to simplify a solvable problem.

The authors of the article suggest an adaptation of Butler’s model for horizontal wells based on material balance method. The physical consistency of this model is verified using model problem and subsequent qualitative comparison of the correctness of the obtained data with production data. On the basis of calculations there is a conclusion that the considered model is applicable for qualitative and quantitative prediction of the production of the real field with heavy oil in West Siberia, e. g., the Russian field.

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