The poster presentation on ‘Heavy Oil Reservoir Management’ will focus on the technical and practical aspects of improved recovery techniques. The goal of reservoir management including total optimized design will be discussed. The beneficial impact of teamwork on reservoir management will be illustrated. (1) What the science of reservoir management can and is doing to improve heavy oil recovery projects; (2) Application of water-and-steam process (WASP) technology; and (3) Thermal modeling for heat management.
Real-life case studies showing value added through effective reservoir management techniques in actual heavy oil applications will also be discussed.
New technologies, e.g. fiber optic sensors for downhole temperature and pressure measurements, 4D seismic, and steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process will be presented. Finally, a picture of ‘Reservoir Management for Heavy Oil in the Year 2000’ will be highlighted.
The poster will highlight the following topics: I N T R O D U CT I O N Good prices and continued cost reduction are helping production from heavy oil reservoirs worldwide. Some estimates expect Alberta, Canada's heavy oil sands production to exceed 1.2 million b/d in the near future. Recoverable bitumen reserves in Alberta are estimated at 300 billion bbl. In Venezuela, the government companies are forming partnerships to enhance recovery in the Orinoco tar sands. It could be producing 600000 b/d by 2000, and it contains about 300 billion bbl of recoverable heavy oil and EOR reserves. In China, CNPC (China National Petroleum Corp.) produces about 150 O00 b/d of heavy crude from some 7000 wells, and it has about 8 billion bbl of heavy oil reserves. Heavy oil resource base in the world may exceed 4 trillion barrels. Thus, it is of great importance to pay attention to heavy oil reservoir management.
Sound reservoir management relies on the use of financial, technological, and human resources, while minimizing capital investments and operating expenses to maximize economic recovery of oil and gas from a reservoir. The purpose of reservoir management is to control operations to obtain the maximum possible economic recovery from a reservoir on the basis of facts, information, and knowledge. When used for heavy oil, the term Heavy Oil Reservoir Management applies. Heavy oil reservoir management has now matured to the point where great emphasis is placed on working as a crossfunctional team, involving all technical areas, management, economics, legal, and environmental groups. This type of reservoir management model has proved to be quite successful.
The following questions address heavy oil reservoir management philosophies: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
A When should reservoir management start? What, how, and when to collect data? What kinds of questions should be asked if we want t
