SWEEP EFFICIENCY IN STEAMFLOODING A.C. RINCON J. DIAZ-MUNOZ S.M.

FAROUQ ALI

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JCPT70-03-03 Sweep Efficiency in Steamflooding ADAFEL C. RINCON Ministry of MiT(,s, 1enczitela JOSE DIAZ-MUNOZ 7'ex(, PetTolcitm Company, Venezuela S. M. FAROUQ ALI 7,1?c Pennsylvania State Unive)-sity, University Pa?Ic, Pa. ABSTRACT The chief objectives of this investigation were to study, theoretically and experimentally, the sweep efficiency and oil recovery for steam injection into a five-spot pattern. Experimental runs and mathematical simulations were conducted for this purpose. The experimental models used consisted of glass bead packs simulating a quadrant of a five-spot pattern, over- lain and underlain by heat-conducting formations, and fitted with thermocouples to determine the temperature distribution during the steamflood. Effects of oil viscosity, saturation, injection rate, and heat losses on oil recovery and sweep efficiency were studied. The mathematical model developed was a combination of the concept of flow in channels and a formation heating model, allowing for a variable injection rate, differences in the properties of the overburden and the underburden, and variations of relative permeabilities with temperature. The mathematical model was used to simulate the ex- perimental runs. Good agreement was observed. It was found that, for the oils tested, sweep efficiency in steam floods was 40 to 50 per cent, depending chiefly on th; viscosity of the oil used. The oil recovery, however, was large, being of the order of 80 per cent, because of the hot waterflood ahead of the steam zone. The sweep effr ciency was relatively insensitive to initial saturations and the steam injection rate. Formation thickness and steam quality were found to have an appreciable effect on oil recovery. For low-quality steam, the ,-steamflood degener- ates rapidly into a hot waterflood. ADAFEL C. RINCON is ebief of the reservoir studies group in the Ministry of Mines and Hydrocarbons of Ve- nezuela and also a Professor in the Department of Petro- leuni Engineering of the Universidad del Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela. He received a B.S. in petroleum engineering from the Universidad del Zulia in 1961, and worked with Mobil Oil Co. of Venezuela until 19(;Q', when he joined The Pennsylvania State University, ieceiving his Ph.D. in petroleum and natural gas engineering in 1969. His duties include reservoir studies, an(i teaching at under- graduate and graduate levels. JOSE DIAZ-MUNOZ is a senior petroleum engineer with Texaco in Venezuela. He received a B.S. in petroleum ep- gineering from Universidad de Oriente, Venezuela, in 1966, and a M.S. in petroleum and natural gas engineer- ing from The Pennsylvania State University in 1969. His work with Texaco includes reservoir performance analysis and supervision of production operations. S. M. FAROUQ-ALI is an Associate Professor, of petroleum and natural gas engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, where he has been since 1960. He holds a B.S. in elec- trical engineent)g, a B.Se. in petro- leun-i engineering from Birmingham University, atid M.S. and Ph.D. degrees froni fleyin State. His main interests are thermal recovery and reservon- imulation. PAPER PRESENTED: at the 21st Annual Technical Meeting of The Petroleum Society of CIM, Calgary, May, 1970. Technology, July-September, 1970, Montreal INTRODLJCTION DURIN(. TIIE PAST FEW YEARS, pattern steamflooding has gaine(I considerable popularity as a secondary or tertiary oil recovery method for both viscous and lowviscosity crudes. Currently, however, few methods for calentating- oil recovery by a steamflood are available. Marx and Lagenheim and Willman et al. 1 2 1 did pio- neering work in this area by proposing mathematical models for calculating the volume of the formation heate(i an(i the oil recovery from a radial steamflood. Davies, Silberberg tnd Caudle proposed a method for I)redicting oil recovery from a five-spot steam- flood, bastd on the approximation of the streamlines by straiglit lines radiating from the injection well, and then (converging to the production well. The I)res- ent Nx-ork ])roposes an improved method for predicting the ])erformance of a steamflood in a five-spot pat- trn, Lisin,, a combination of Higgins and Leighton's"', Marx and. Langenheim's Willman et al.'s"', and Ramey's techniques adapted for a steamflood in a five-slot pattern. Also, extensive experimental results are liserited, designed to test the model, and also to obtain data on pattern steamflooding, with regard to oil viscosrLy, distillability, injection rate, ete. Fair to good agreement was obtained between the model pre- (nctit)ns and the experimental results. On the whole, it wis found that the sweep efficiency in a five-spot steamflood is considerably lower than that in a cor- respondinl), waterflood. However, the oil recovery may not I)e correspondingly low, due to the beneficial ef- fects ()f the hot waterflood preceding the advancing ,teani zone. STEAMFLOOD MECHANISM Willman et al.") have presented a complete descrip- tion of the mechanism of a radial (or linear) steam- f lood, sho,,ving that basically there are three zones: a steam zone in the vicinity of the injection well, essen- tiall-,' containing steamflood residual oil saturation, Ind t h(t waterflood (condensate) zone farther ahead, passing ijito a cold waterflood zone. In a five-spot ,;learn oo( , a simi ar situation wou prevai, excep that ni this case the flow resistances in different flow channels Aill varv widely, the flow resistance being mlieli low(,r in the channel along the shortest path be- tween the injection and the production wells. In fact, once stearn breakthrough occurs, nearly all of the in- Jecte(i ste:tm flows through this channel, with little or no oil production thereafter. However, the hot water- flood the.Ld of the steam zone may lead to a high oil recoNery notwithstanding, if the crude oil involved iesponds favorably to a hot waterflood; i.e., if the visec)sity reduction plays the major role in oil dis- placement efficiency. 175