Recuperação avançada não-isotérmica de óleos pesados em reservatórios de petróleo via simulação numérica.

Abstract

The recovery of heavy oil by injection of water is one of the techniques most used by the oil industry. The injection of hot water in the reservoir changes the viscosity and mobility of the fluids, which helps to increase the oil recovery factor. Thus, this work aims to study numerically the process of recovering heavy oil from petroleum reservoir by water injection. Using the commercial package ANSYS CFX 11, the three-dimensional transient numerical simulations were performed. The effects of the variable mass flow rate of water injected and the position of the water injection section (inside and on the surface) in the reservoir, considering isothermal and non-isothermal process, were evaluated. Results of the volume fraction distributions and the reservoir phases’ temperatures, as well as pressure, cumulative oil volume and oil recovery factor during the process are presented and evaluated. Porosity and permeability throughout the reservoir were considered as constant and according to the “Five spots” scheme a mesh of six injection and two producer wells was used. It was found that the oil recovery factor varied with the temperature, the flow rate of water injected and the location of water injection section. The numerical simulation results showed that the oil recovery factor increased by 29% (in a non-isothermal case) and by 18% (in a isothermal case) when water was injected on the surface of the reservoir compared to that of the internal injection of the reservoir.