Temperature profile estimation: A study on the Boberg and Lantz steam stimulation model

Abstract

Cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) is widely used for production from heavy oil reservoirs where oil viscosity is manipulated by heat. Many analytical models have been developed to predict the temperature evolution in the reservoir and estimate the oil recovery. However, they often suffer from a number of assumptions which ultimately reduce their efficiency in providing a realistic prediction. In this study, a numerical solution was proposed for two-dimensional heat conduction in heavy oil reservoirs to obtain the temperature evolution during the soaking period. For a better comparison, an industry widely accepted analytical model, knows as the Boberg and Lantz steam stimulation model, together with its modified version later proposed by Bensten and Donohue were considered to examine temperature changes in a synthetic case study. The results obtained indicated that the analytical solutions overestimate the average temperature of the reservoir by 42% after 300 days of injection while the numerical formulation can provide a close prediction. This numerical approach could be a useful tool to estimate the temperature and oil production from heavy oil reservoirs. Keywords: Thermal EOR, Steam stimulation, Finite element, Boberg and Lantz model, Temperature prediction