Comparison between Analytical and Numerical Modeling for Steam Flooding Oil Recovery

Abstract

Steam flooding as an enhanced oil recovery method of oil from heavy oil reservoir has been of interest in recent years. Analytical models are very helpfulfor predict oil recovery by steam flooding for preliminary forecasting purposes and sensitivity studies. Though different models are available with different presumptions;the most common analytical technique used for prediction of steam flooding performance is Jeff Jones model which in turn does not give a satisfactory prediction of the oil production under steam flooding specially the peak oil production rate. In this study, a production performance of 1/8 symmetry element of 5-spot pattern steamflood has been simulated and the results compared against those based on the Jeff Jones model. Four different steam injection rates (125,156.25, 187.5 and 250 m^3/day) each with two different steam qualities (60 and 70%) to check sensitivity of both models. The study showed that’s Jeff Jones model gives lower maximum predicted oil production rate compare with numerical model. As steam injection rate increase Jeff Jones model gives higher oil production rate while the numerical one gives lower maximum production. At lower steam injection rates Jeff Jones model was more sensitive to change in peak production rate accordingly to change in steam quality compare with numerical model which is more sensitive to the higher one.