An isothermal reservoir simulator may be used to investigate the field-wide application of the steam-soak process. Thermal effects, which are confined to regions close to the soaked wells, are introduced using a semianalytical procedure for calculating fluid production rates. This takes account of saturation and temperature changes in the vicinity of the soaked wells.
In this paper we describe a semianalytical model of the steam-soak process (a steam-soak well model) that extends the use of a conventional isothermal reservoir simulator to cover steam-soak operations. With the availability of satisfactory thermal reservoir simulators, the need for a steam-soak well mode perhaps requires some explanation. Using perhaps requires some explanation. Using current computational facilities, the number of steam-soaked wells that can be included in a thermal simulation is severely limited. The impact of soaking operations on the general reservoir performance (e.g., reservoir pressure changes, oil migration from nonsoaked areas) is therefore not easily ascertained. This situation is similar to a water-coning situation. The detailed behavior of one or a few wells where significant water coning occurs may be investigated using a simulator capable of elucidating the fine flow details around a well. However, a field-wide simulation require a different approach, e.g., the use of a coning well model.
