Abstract
In the design phase of a pilot project for Enhanced Oil Recovery, more commonly referred as EOR, is important the prediction of the results by either numerical simulation or analytical modeling. Those tools are useful for the determination of the minimum conditions necessary for the implementation of the recovery method as well as to determine the feasibility of the project.
The more complexity degree of the process the more accurate the fluid model require. For example, to represent the steam injection process, any viscosity curve representing the behavior of known relative permeability curves with temperature is enough. Moreover, Enhanced Oil Recovery-EOR methods as in situ combustion, gas injection or miscible solvent injection (alone or assisted vapor) fluid require a more complex model representing all consistently appropriate physical-chemical changes that occur in the crude blend with a foreign agent.
The development of a numerical model of fluid to represent of injection processes of steam assisted with solvent. This model requires a previous experimental evaluation, which should include PVT characterization of solvent and oil, viscosity curves and miscibility conditions. Once they are developed in the lab tests, it should load the information obtained in a fluid modeling software, where the dead oil, live oil, blend live oil and solvent must be adjusted using equations of state. In this case, the equation of state that best represents the behavior of heavy oil and solvent is Peng Robinson. The most important matching parameters are: critical temperature and critical pressure, although it should be given special treatment with the binary interaction coefficients. Finally be obtain the equilibrium constants and viscosity tables, maintaining minimum allowable error of less than 5% compared to the laboratory data, which is important to reduce the uncertainty associated with the behavior of fluids.
This paper presents a detailed methodology to represent numerically the behavior of fluids in a steam injection process enhanced with solvent in heavy oil reservoirs, applied to a Colombian field.
