When the in-situ combustion process is used in heavy oil and oil sand reservoirs the frontal displacement is not propagated in a uniform manner due to channeling. To improve the performance, the operating strategies have to be modified in order to control or use the channeling as an advantage. The operational procedures used in these strategies include pressure cycling, injection rate control, the use of oxygen, fracturing and production well stimulations. These procedures can, however, serve different purposes in heavy oil and oil sand reservoirs. In this paper, the procedures are reviewed and the recovery mechanisms are discussed. Field and laboratory results are presented to explain the recovery mechanisms associated with each procedure.

Keywords:
injector, in-situ combustion, pressure cycling, reservoir, carbon dioxide, gas drive, injection, interwell communication, sagd, combustion
Subjects:
Reservoir Characterization, Improved and Enhanced Recovery, Unconventional and Complex Reservoirs, Thermal methods, Oil sand, oil shale, bitumen
Copyright 1991, Society of Petroleum Engineers
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