The primary recovery of a medium-heavy oil reservoir with a strong bottom aquifer is generally poor. The introduction of horizontal wells that are drilled at the top of the oil column has improved the oil recovery. However, even horizontal wells suffer from fast water breakthrough that leads to oil production at a high water cut. Given the low primary recoveries, such fields are attractive EOR targets.

In situ combustion (ISC) is a displacement process generally applied to medium-heavy oil reservoirs in order to increase oil production by reducing the oil viscosity. In thick reservoirs (thicker than 10 meters), oil recovery could be severely challenged by gravity override of the injected gasses. In reservoirs without active aquifers, a significant part of the incremental oil is produced by gravity drainage after breakthrough.

We propose an ISC strategy where an infill producer is drilled close to the oil-water contact so that a significant amount of heat can be rapidly deployed in the middle and upper sections of the reservoir. Subsequently, the aquifer is used to sweep the warm oil through the heated zone towards the producers. The ISC process is compared with steam injection that also employs an additional infill producer. ISC and steam injection are used to deploy heat in the reservoir.

Numerical simulations show that the oil is produced at much lower water cut compared to the cold case (50-60 % versus 95%). Simulated oil recoveries increase significantly for both ISC and steam injection. A detailed comparison of these two processes is presented in this paper.

You can access this article if you purchase or spend a download.