Combining Cyclic Steam Stimulation and Solvent Injection for Increasing Heat Efficiency

Abstract

In petroleum industry, types of oils based on their density can be grouped into heavy, medium, and light oils. The physical property that stands out, besides density is the viscosity of the oil. Generally, oil with a small density will have a small viscosity, while oil with a large density will have a large viscosity. Indonesia's oil reserves that have been exploited on a large scale are light oil because the extraction technique is much easier than heavy oil. Generally, to reduce high oil viscosity using steam injection. But steam injection also requires energy, so the high efficiency of steam injection is the main target in heavy oil exploitation. In steam injection, there are several methods, namely, cyclic steam stimulation, steam flooding, and also steam assisted gravity drainage. The cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) method has been widely applied throughout the world, but research on increasing the efficiency of this method has never stopped. In this study, mathematical models will be carried out so that alternative operating conditions can be evaluated to obtain the highest efficiency. To study such an injection, a synthetic reservoir model was created using real-field data. Combining the novel technique from previous research to combination of cyclic steam stimulation and solvent injection shows the result significantly for oil production 3 times higher and CSOR reduction approximately 48.3 % than conventional CSS processes because the heat efficiency increased.