The Development of Forecasting Technique for Cyclic Steam Stimulation Technology Effectiveness in Near‐Wellbore Area

Abstract

The analytical review has shown that the scientific inquiry for effective technologies for high‐viscosity oil field development is a critical task of the present‐day oil industry. The paper presents a technique for determining the expediency and effectiveness of deploying the near‐wellbore cyclic steam stimulation technology for oil recovery enhancement. The method involves the calculation of process parameters of the technology cycle and the comparative analysis of cumulative oil production before the treatment (base case) and after its deployment. Separately, the work focuses on studying the impact of dynamic oil viscosity over the entire temperature range on the technology effectiveness and expediency. The laboratory studies showed dynamic viscosity correlation dependencies for six different oils of the Nozhovskaya group of oil fields (Russian Federation) characterized as viscous and highly viscous. As a case study of the proposed method application, a numerical simulation of the technology deployment was carried out for six oil samples. The calculations determined inexpediency of cyclic steam stimulation for one of the samples since oil well downtime for workover operation prevailed over the time of near‐wellbore cooling.