A New Tertiary Steam Flood Strategy Case Study for an Extra-Heavy Iranian Oil Reservoir

steam injection in naturally fractured formations has been drawing considerable interest for more than three decades. It is believed that the steam heats the rock , which then undergoes a thermally induced wettability reversal. Hot water can then spontaneously imbibe in to the water wet rock matrix , resulting in favorable oil recoveries. in this study the applicability of steam injection in an oil wet undeveloped iranian extra -heavy oil factured carbonate reservoir is discussed. a geological model calibrated with results of a handmade model was used to study optimum operating conditions under continuous steam injection. it was observed that underthis operating strategy in which the min oil production mechanism is heat transfer steam injection rate and existence of layers which are open to flow , injection and production pattern are directly related to success of the process and because of high viscosity of oil at the reservoir temperature its influences ion final recovery is negligible.

Keywords:

fractured reservoir , heat transfer , injection pattern , new strategy for steam flood , wettability