JournalofPetroleumScienceResearch(JPSR)Volume3Issue3,July2014www.jpsr.

org
doi:10.14355/jpsr.2014.0303.01

AnOverviewofSteamInjectionProjectsin
FracturedCarbonateReservoirsinthe
MiddleEast
ZuhairAlYousef1,HussainAlDaif2,andMohammedAlOtaibi3
13

HaroldVanceDepartmentofPetroleumEngineering,TexasA&MUniversity,Texas

zuhair.alyousef@pe.tamu.edu;2hussain.aldaif@pe.tamu.edu;3m.alotaibi@pe.tamu.edu

Received21November2013;Revised11February2014;Accepted14March2014;Published19June2014
2014ScienceandEngineeringPublishingCompany

Abstract
Steam injection is one of the most common and widely
spreadthermalrecoverymethods.Itismainlyusedinheavy
oil reservoirs. In this paper, the use of steam injection in
heavy and light oil fractured carbonate reservoirs in the
MiddleEastregionwillbediscussed.Heavyoilcontainedin
fracturedreservoirsrepresentsalargeportionofthetotaloil
inplaceintheMiddleEast.Besidethestatusandtheresults
of the commercial and pilot steam injection projects that
have been conducted in the Middle East, this paper will
review the results of some simulation studies that were
conducted on heavy and light oil fractured carbonate
reservoirs in that region. The paper will also include some
descriptions and discussions of the mechanism of steam
injection, steamflooding screening guide, steamflooding
design and steamflooding operational problems. Although
the paper will focus on the Middle East steam injection
projects, it still can serve as a guide for other regions that
havesimilarreservoirandoilproperties.
Keywords
SteamInjection;FracturedCarbonateReservoirs;MiddleEast

Introduction
The recent increase in oil prices as well as the
continuous growth in the global oil consumption has
made the investment in heavy oil resources more
attractive to oil companies. In fact, bitumen and tar
sand, extra heavy oil, and heavy oil account for 30%,
25%, and 15%, respectively of the world oil in place
while conventional oil accounts for 30% only
(Alikhlalov and Dindoruk 2011). In heavy oil
reservoirs, 60% or more of oil in place will not be
producibleduetothehighoilviscosity(Dietz1975).In
addition, according to Alshmakhy and Maini in 2012,
cold heavy oil production with sand (CHOPS), a

recoverymethodusedinheavyoilreservoirs,usually
yield in very low recovery factors (510%). Therefore,
thermal recovery methods can be applied in order to
enhance the heavy oil recovery. Steam flooding is
proven to be successful in light, heavy, and extra
heavyoilreservoirs.
Since 1930s, interest in the injection of hot fluid
including hot water and steam in order to recover
more oil has appeared. Laboratory and field trials of
steam injection were described by Stovall in 1934
(Henry and Ramey 1967). As a pilot, steam injection
was first implemented in California in 1952 in Yorba
Lindafield(Blevins1990).Overtime,differenttypesof
steaminjectionwereintroduced.
There are three main types of steam injection
techniques. The first one is Cyclic Steam Stimulation
(CSS) which was first implemented in eastern
Venezuelain1959(Trebolleetal.1993).Inthismethod
steamisinjectedforsomeperiodoftimefollowedbya
soaking period and finally a production period. The
second method is the circulation of steam above a
packer (KEPLINGER 1965). In this method, steam is
injectedabovethepackerandperforationsareopened
below the packer to produce the well. A modified
version of this method is Steam Assisted Gravity
Drainage (SAGD). In SAGD, a horizontal steam
injector is drilled above a horizontal oil producer to
takeadvantageofgravityinmovingtheoildownward
to the producer. The third method is the continuous
steaminjectionwhichisalsoknownassteamflooding.
In this type of steam injection, steam is injected in
somewellsandoilisproducedfromdifferentwells.So,
this method is similar to water flooding with steam

101

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replacingwater.
Thispaperwillfocusonthesteaminjectionprojectsin
the fractured carbonate reservoirs in the Middle East
(ME)regionwhichhasaround48%oftheworldtotal
proved reserves (BP Statistical Review of World
Energy,June2012),Fig.1.

KuwaitandSaudiArabia.Thereweretwopilotssteam
injection (CSS) in Ratqa Lower Fars Field in Kuwait,
onein1982andtheotherin1986,wheretheresultsof
the pilots showed that the field was suitable for
thermalrecoverymethods(MilhemandAhmed1987).
Theothersteaminjection(steamflooding)isonWafra
Fieldwhichstartedon2006(Bargeetal.2009).
There is only one steam injection project in Issaran
which had its first trial on one well in 2004 (Samir
2010).
As mentioned previously, more details about fields
withfracturedcarbonatereservoirswillbeprovidedin
alatersection.Thepaperwilldiscussboththecurrent
steam injection projects in the ME as well as selected
simulationstudiesofsteaminjectionthathavenotyet
beenimplementedonthefield.

FIG.1PROVENRESERVESBYREGION
(BPStatisticalReviewofWorldEnergy,June2012)

Overview of Steam Injection Projects in the

Middle East
Although heavy oil in fractured carbonate reservoirs
represents2530%ofthetotaloilinplaceintheMiddle
East (Saidi 1988), there are very few steam injection
projectsandmostofwhichareimplementedrecently.
The projects mentioned here are all the projects
conductedregardlessoftheformationrocktype.More
detailsaboutfieldswithfracturedcarbonatereservoirs
will be provided in a later section. Fig. 2 shows the
current enhanced oil recovery project in the Middle
East(AlMutairiandKokal2011).
TherearethreemainsteaminjectionprojectsinOman
(AlMutairi and Kokal 2011). The first one is in Qarn
AlamField(SteamAssistedOilGasGravityDrainage)
where the pilot was initiated in 1996 with a plan to
reach full rate steam injection by late in 2009
(Macaulayetal.1995;Penneyetal.2007).Thesecond
one is in Mukhaizna Field where the steam injection
(modified SAGD) started in 2007 (Malik et al. 2011).
ThethirdprojectisinAFieldwherepilotsofsteam
injection (both continuesinjection andCSS)startedin
2007(Thumetal.2010).
There is one main project in Kuwait and there is
another one in the partitioned neutral zone between

102

FIG.2EORPROJECTSINTHEMIDDLEEAST
(AlMutairiandKokal2011)

Steamflooding Mechanism
There are several mechanisms that govern the
recovery of oil via steamflooding. Some of the main
mechanisms are thermal expansion, viscosity
reduction,wettabilityalteration,steamdistillationand
gas generation (Reis 1990), Fig. 3. For naturally
fracturedreservoirs,itisimportanttounderstandhow
different mechanisms affect both the matrix and the
natural fracture network. Table 1 and Table 2
(Holladay 1966, Reis 1990, Cathles et al. 1987, Al
Hadhrami and Blunt 2000, AlYousef et al. 1995,
Baviere 1991, Willhite and Green 1998, Mollaei, and
Maini 2010, Shahin et al. 2006) provide a brief
summary on the steamflooding mechanisms in
naturallyfracturedreservoirs.

JournalofPetroleumScienceResearch(JPSR)Volume3Issue3,July2014www.jpsr.org

Studiesshowedthat(kro)
eitherincreasesordoesnot
Evolutionof
change(dependsonoil
Absoluteand
properties)astemperature
Relative
increases.(krw)hassmall
Permeability
changesastemperature
increases.

Astemperaturegetshigher
duetosteaminjection,light
Distillation
componentsofoilinthe
(Oil
fractureswillvaporize
Vaporization)
leavingtheheavyonesas
residualoilsaturation(Sor).

FIG.3STEAMFLOODINGRECOVERYMECHANISM
CONTRIBUTIONVS.OILDENSITY(Burgeretal.1985)
TABLE1STEAMFLOODEFFECTSONRESERVOIRMATRIX

Mechanism

Effect

Significant

Viscosity
Reduction

hightemperaturecan
increasethemobility
ratio

Veryimportantinhigh
viscosityreservoirs

Thermal
Expansion

Important.Increasingthe
Expandinmatrixwill
matrixtemperatureto400
resultinreductionin
Fcanleadtoabout20%
porosityandoilwill
volumeexpansionofthe
beexpelfrommatrix
heavyoilcorePV.

Gas
Generation

Chemicalreactions
Important.Itcouldbe
mayoccurathigher
similareffectasthe
temperatures.CO2 solutiongasdriveandcan
andlighterHCmay increasetherecoverybyup
beproduced.
to25%.

Steam
Distillation

Lightercomponents
willevaporateandbe
produced

Notsignificantinmatrix
becausesteamwillflow
mainlyinfractures

Wettability
Alteration

Itssignificantdependson
Increasein
thematrixproperties(oil
temperaturewill
wetorwaterwet).
maketherockmore
Carbonatereservoirsin
waterwetwhichwill SaudiArabiaareusually
increasetherecovery neutraltoslightlyoilwet.
ofoil
So,alteringthewettability
canimproverecovery.

TABLE2MECHANISMSOFOILDISPLACEMENTFROMFRACTURESTOTHE
PRODUCTIONWELL

Mechanism

Effects
Asreservoirtemperature
increase,oilviscosity
decreasesfasterthanwater
Reductionof
viscosity,increasingtheoil
Viscosity
mobility.
Ratio(o/w)
Fracturedreservoirshave
highertransmissibility,this
meansoiltransportsfaster.

Significant

Considersbeingthe
strongestrecovery
mechanismin
fracturedsystem.

Oilrelative
permeabilitychanges
foundtobestronger
ifthefracture
networksexist.
BothReductionof
(o/w)and
evolutionof(kro)can
improvetheoil
mobility
Theadvantageisthat
(Sor)willdecrease,
howevertheresidual
heavycomponents
mayresultin
asphaltenes
precipitationwhich
maychangethe
reservoirandfluid
properties.

TABLE3STEAMFLOODGENERALSCREENINGGUIDE(CHU1985)

Ref.
No.
1
2
3
4
5
Ref.
No.
1
2
3
4
5

So

So

API

0.150.22
>0.10
>0.065
>0.065
>0.08

0.3

>0.3
>0.2

>0.5
>0.5
>0.4
k,
md
~1000

>1000

1215
>10
>10
1020
<36
,
cp
<1000

2001000

D,ft
<3000
<4000
<5000
25005000
>400

h,
ft
30
>20
>20
30400
>10
kh/,
mdft/cp

>20
>100
>50

TABLE4SCREENINGGUIDEFORSTEAMINJECTION

(BOURDAROTANDGHEDAN,2011)
Property
OilGravity
Viscosity
OilSaturation

Units
API
cp
%PV

Formation

Fracture
GasCap
NetThickness
Permeability
Transmitivity
Depth
Pressure
Temperature

ft
md
mdft/cp
ft
psi
oF

Recommended
8to25
<100,000
>40
Sandorsandstonebutcanbe
usedincarbonates
Notfracturedreservoirs
Noextensivegascap
>20
>200
>50
<4,500
<3,200
Notcritical

Steamflooding Screening Guide

Based on the experience obtained from field projects,
reservoir and oil criteria of successful steam injection
project were proposed by many authors. All the
criteria
proposed
have
common
findings,
steamflooding works well with relatively thick

103

www.jpsr.orgJournalofPetroleumScienceResearch(JPSR)Volume3Issue3,July2014

shallow reservoir and high oil saturation, as it is

shown in Table 3 (Chu 1985). At depth higher than
5000 ft, steam will condense to hot water, thus the
heating value of injected fluid will decrease the
efficiencyofsteamflood.Furthermore,heatlossesfrom
thin reservoirs are significant resulting in very low
heatingefficiency,thusitisrecommendedtoperform
steam injection in reservoirs with 30 ft thicknesses or
more(Donaldsonetal.,1989).Amorerecentscreening
criterion was proposed by Bourdarot and Ghedan,
Table4.Table4showsthatitisrecommendedtouse
steamflooding in nonfractured reservoirs. However,
severalfieldexampleshaveshownthatsteamflooding
can be successful in heavy oil fractured reservoirs.
Examples of such fields in the Middle East are Qarn
Alam field in Oman, Issaran field in Egypt and the
WafrafieldbetweenKuwaitandSaudiArabia.
Steamflooding Design
The design parameters of steam injection are vital to
produce economical project, the following parameters
will be examined; steam to oil ratio (SOR), steam
injection rate and steam quality. According to (Chu
1985), the steam oil ratio (SOR) is a crucial element
defining thesuccess orfailure ofa steamflood project
andshouldbelessthan10andideallyaround4.This
number is based on old study where oil prices were
much lower than the current price; economic project
canbeachievedevenwithhigherSOR.Steaminjection
rate can greatly affect the performance and the
efficiency of steamflood project. Although, high
injection rate will lead to high initial oil production
rateandhighoilrecovery,itwillalsoleadtohighSOR
andearlysteambreakthroughresultinginadeclineoil
rateatlaterstages(Ali1974).Therefore,itisimportant
to optimize the steam injection rate via experimental
andsimulationmethodstoachievehighrecoveryand
lowSOR.
Another important design parameter in steam
injectionprojectissteamquality.Onesimulationstudy
indicatedthathighsteamqualitywouldimproveboth
the cumulative production and production rate for
heavy oil reservoirs. The same study showed that
steam quality to some degree was not significant for
lightoilreservoirsandsimilarsteam.
Field Pilots and Simulation Studies
The performance of steam injection projects in three
heavy oil carbonate fractured Middle Eastern fields
willbereviewedinthissection.Inaddition,theresults

104

of two simulation studies of one light oil fractured

carbonate field and another heavy oil fractured
carbonatefieldwillbediscussed.
IssaranField,Egypt(Waheedetal.2001)(Samir2010)
Issaranoilfield,withanareaof20,000acreslocatedin
290KM southeast of Cairo and 3KM inland from the
western shore of the Gulf of Suez, was discovered on
1981.Fromninewells,thecumulativeoilproducedup
to1998was0.7MMbbls.Thetotaloilproducedmade
the overall recovery factor less than 1%. The small
volumeofoilproducedreflectsthedifficultiesandbig
challengestoproducethisfield.Thisfieldasshownin
Fig.4consistsoffiveformations:Zeitsandformation,
upper dolomite formation, lower dolomite formation,
Gahrandal formation, and Nukhul formation. Zeit
Formation considered as a massive sandy formation,
Upper and Lower dolomite could not be produced
naturally due to the low pressure, Gahrandal
formation consists of three limestone and the last
formationisNukhulformationwhichcanbeproduced
naturally due to the existence of naturally fractures.
One of the biggest challenges with this field is that it
consists of several zones and each zone has its own
uniquepropertiesandcharacteristics.Thismeansthat
new technologies must be applied to solve the
potential problems and optimize the production and
reserve.

FIG.4ISSRANFIELDFORMATION(Samir2010)

The general properties that these zones share are; oil

type,oilcontentsandpressure.Theaveragegravityof
oil exists in all zones is between 10 to 12 API with a
viscosityupto4000cpatstandardconditions.Theoil
also consists of 10% H2S, 10% CO2, and asphalting
content around 15%. Moreover, the pressure of all
zones is very low and considered being below the
normal gradient. All these characterizations make it
difficulttoproducethefieldnaturally.
According to Samir in 2010, out of five formations,
three formations have been produced by applying

JournalofPetroleumScienceResearch(JPSR)Volume3Issue3,July2014www.jpsr.org

cyclic steam injection. First formation is Zeit sand

formation which has a 12 ft as a pay zone. Second is
the upper dolomite which is characterized by a
depleted fractured dolomite reservoir and has an
average thickness of 400 ft, with the top of the
formation located at 1,000 ft and has an average
pressure of250 psia. The third formation is the lower
dolomite formation located at 1,500 ft and has almost
same characteristics and an average thickness as the
upper dolomite formation. Both the upper and lower
dolomiteformationshavebeenproducedbyapplying
cyclic steam injection technology. The Issaran Field
cumulative production has increased after applying
the new technologies and the right reservoir
managementpracticesfrom1.5MMSTB(oilproduced
sincethefieldwasdiscoveredandbeforeapplyingthe
new techniques) to more than 10 MMSTB during the
last 10 years. Moreover, for the upper and lower
dolomite formations, the steam injection project is
considered the first successful cyclic steam project in
theMiddleEast.

viscosity and therefore increase the oil mobility in

1980s failed to provide any improvement in
production.As another option to resolve the problem
was to initiate a Crestal Steam Pilot, Thermally
Assisted Gas Oil Gravity Drainage (TAGOGD), in
1996.
TAGOGDprocesscanbedescribedasfollow:

Asthesteamisinjectedintotheformation,the
oil at the top of the matrix block is heated up
by conduction of heat from the fractures into
thematrix.

Then, steam injected heats up oil gradually

deeperinthematrixblock.

Asaresultofheattransferintothematrix,two
oil zones exist: hot (less viscous) oil zone and
cold (high viscous) oil zone. The hot oil starts
drainingdownthematrixatanacceleratedrate
untilitfacesthecoldoilzone.

Because the cold oil (high viscous) acts as a

flow barrier in a similar way to a vertical
permeability barrier, hot oil (less viscous) will
flow out of the matrix into the gas filled
fracturesystem.

After the oil enters the fracture system, the

gravity will force the oil to flow downward
intotheoilrim.Fig.5showsaschematicofall
stepsduringTAGOGDprocess.

QarnAlamField,Oman(Macaulayetal.1995)
(Penneyetal.2007)(Penneyetal.2005)
Qarn Alam Field was discovered in 1972. It was
located in central Oman south of the western Hajar
Mountains.Thislargeaccumulationof16APIoilwith
a viscosity of 220 cp was trapped in shallow
Cretaceous limestone units at a depth of around 656
1312ftsswithaninitialpressureofaround6527psiat
around 1,100 ftss. The field was put on primary
production in 1975. The reservoir rock properties of
this field were showing a limestone formation with
29% porosity and low permeability in range of 514
md. The historical primary production of this field,
which was from1975 to 1995, showed a large peak in
oil during the first year. Then, the field showed a
reductionintheoilratetoaverylowsustainablerate.
Thelargeamountofoilproducedinthefirstyearwas
causedbythefracturenetworkasamajorcontributor
and the fluid expansion caused by the pressure
reduction as a minor contributor. Some of the field
characteristics such as low matrix permeability and
high oil viscosity made the primary recovery of Qarn
AlamFieldtobeverysmall.Itwasexpectedtobeonly
35%oftheoriginaloilinplace.Duetotheintensely
fracturesobservedinthefield,recoveriesusingmatrix
floodsofwater,polymersorsteamwerediscountedas
development options. To overcome the low
productivityofthefield,numberofattemptshasbeen
tried. A trial of hot water injection to reduce the oil

FIG5TAGOGDPROCESSSCHEMATIC(Penneyetal.2005)

In a fractured low permeability carbonate reservoir,

TAGOGDoftheQarnAlamwasconsideredtobethe
worldsfirstfullfielddevelopmentthermalproject.A
studyhadbeenconductedtoevaluatetheperformance
ofTAGOGDandcompareitwithGOGDmechanisms.
It showed that the recovery factor under steam
injection of 18000 tonnes per day would be in the
rangeof2035%oftheoriginaloilinplace.Theoilto
steam ratio would be in the range of 0.160.3 m3

105

www.jpsr.orgJournalofPetroleumScienceResearch(JPSR)Volume3Issue3,July2014

oil/toneofsteam.Oneofthemostadvantagesofthis
projectwasminimizingthenumberofwellsneededto
produce the field and hence minimize the
developmentcosts.Basedonthegreatresultsthathad
been achieved during the pilot test, the project has
proved to be viable. Beside the subsurface
uncertainties lesson learned during the pilot test, the
pilot trial provided significant insight into the
engineeringdesignandoperationalissues.

5 spot patterns. The construction of the LSP project

beganin2007andsteaminjectionstartedinJune2009
inthelowerCZone(SteamZone3).InNovember2011,
theprojectwasextendedtohavethesteaminjectionin
the middle B Zone (Steam Zone 2). One of the main
goals of the (LSP) was to reduce uncertainties in
several parameters and features; these uncertainties
include:

Reservoirresponsetosteamflooding

TheWafraField,(Kuwait&SaudiArabia)
(Meddaughetal.2012)(Meddaughetal.2007)
(Hale,2002)(Brownetal.2011)

Steamfloodrecovery

Reservoir variability by pattern and by steam

zone

The Wafra Field consists of several reservoirs with

different characteristics. The formation of our interest
istheFirstEocenereservoir,whichwasdiscoveredin
1953. The First Eocene reservoir is one of the five
significant producing reservoirs in the Wafra Field in
thePartitionedZone(PZ),SaudiArabiaandKuwait;it
was put on production in 1954. Among the five
important reservoirs producing from Wafra Field, the
First Eocene reservoir is the shallowest one, it is
located at a depth of about 1,0001,400 ftss with an
averagethicknessof750ft.Thisdolomitereservoircan
be classified as heavy oil reservoir with oil gravity
between 13o to 20o API and the oil viscosity in the
rangeof100500cpwithamaximumviscosityaround
10001200cp.Thisreservoirhasaporosityof37%and
apermeabilityof250md.Theoriginaloilinplaceis10
billionbbl.

Organizational capability and scale mitigation

(e.g.chemical,dosage,deliverysystem)

Duetothelowproductivityandrecoveryperformance
of the First Eocene reservoir, a great IOR/EOR
opportunity has been suggested to resolve the
problem and produce the reservoir. A study
conducted to evaluate the possibility of applying
continuessteamfloodingtoproducethereservoir.The
study was conducted based on a dynamic modeling
andeconomicanalysis.Theresultsofthestudyhelped
to make the decision to conduct a pilot test to assess
the ability and performance of the steamflood to
producethereservoireconomically.Thepilottestwas
conductedintwolocationsinthefield:theinitialpilot
SmallScaleSteamfloodTest(SST)andtheLargeScale
Steamflood pilot (LSP). The SST started in 2005 and
consisted of a single 1.25acre 5 spot with a central
injectorandonetemperatureobservationwell.Aspart
of the preparation for the larger pilot test, injectivity
tests and water treatmenttechnology were conducted
inSSPtoassesstheperformance.Thelargerpilottest
(LSP),whichwasplannedintheveryhighoriginaloil
inplace(OOIP),wasconductedin16,2.5acreinverted

106

BasedontheLSPresult,averygoodresponsetosteam
injectionhasbeenobtainedfrombothzones,middleB
andlowerC.
As part of this study to make a proper plan and
improve the injection performance for the next steam
injection for the entire field, a twodimensional
reactive transport model (2DRTM) was built to
evaluatetheinteractionbetweenfluidandrockduring
theinjectionofhightemperatureandhighpHsteams.
The results of this modelshowed thatthe injectionof
high quality steam (steam quality >95% and neutral
pH) would not negatively impact the injectivity near
the wellbore. However, the injection of low quality
steam and high pH may result in mineral
precipitations, but their capacity to affect injectivity
wasuncertain.
ReservoirA,Iran(HaghighiandShabaninejad,2010)
This part is highlighting the results of a simulation
study to assess the performance of steamflooding
process in an Iranian highly fractured light oil
carbonate reservoir. The reservoir under analysis was
named (Reservoir A) with some reservoir properties
described in Table 5. This reservoir was put on
production for about 40 years ago. The reservoir was
considered as a good candidate for EOR due to the
decline in the oil production rate. To evaluate the
performance of different EOR methods as it is shown
in Table 6, sensitivity analyses were conducted to
measurethefeasibilityofeachmethodtoproducethe
field and enhance the oil recovery. The study was
conducted and several parameters were tested and
evaluated.Theseparametersincluded:

Producing the reservoir by water flooding or

steamflooding.

JournalofPetroleumScienceResearch(JPSR)Volume3Issue3,July2014www.jpsr.org

Locationofnewinjectionwells.

Appropriateinjectiontime.

Steaminjectionrate

Steamquality

Injectionwellperforation.

TABLE6COMPARISONOFWATERINJECTIONWITHSTEAMFLOODING

(HAGHIGHIANDSHABANINEJAD,2010)
Process

A study was conducted in a small sector of the field.

The main results of this study can be summarized as
follow:

Steam injection process is likely to be

economical for producing this reservoir. The
resultsshowedthatthewaterfloodingcanlead
to a recovery factor of 10.24% and the
steamflooding gives higher recovery factor,
14.17%. Table 6 gives a comparison among
threemethodstoproducethisreservoir.

Among three injection strategies: the edge

water,fivespotpatternsandninespotpatterns,
the injection with five spot patterns results in
thehighestultimateoilrecovery.

Thereisarelationbetweentheoilrateandthe
injection rate, the cumulative oil production
rateincreasesassteaminjectionrateincreases.

The result of this study shows that the steam

quality has no significant effect on the overall
performance of producing the light oil
reservoir.

Oneofthemainoperationalparametersiswell
completion. Three strategies were tested to
evaluate this parameter: completing the well
with perforating four bottom layers,
perforating four top layers and perforating all
layers.Thebestcompletionstrategywasfound
tobecompletingthewellwithperforatingfour
toplayers.
TABLE5SOMEPROPERTIESOFRESERVOIRA

(HAGHIGHIANDSHABANINEJAD,2010)
Property(unit)

Value

Areaofthereservoir(acre)

3036

Originaloilinplace(barrel)

1x109

Solutiongasdensity(lbm/m3)

16.49

Deadoildensity(lbm/m3)

2.21x106

Initialpressureat7546ft(psi)

4350

Initialtemperature(oF)

172.2

Natural
Depletion
Water
Injection
Steam
Flooding

CumulativeOil
Production
(bbl)

IncrementalOil
Production
(bbl)

Recovery
factor(%)

5.4395x108

1.1845x108

9.13

5.5384x108

1.2834x108

10.24

5.8661x108

1.7004x108

14.17

ReservoirKIran(Bahonaretal.2007)
This part is summarizing the results of a simulation
study to evaluate the performance of steam injection
process in an Iranian highly fractured heavy oil
carbonate reservoir. The field is located in southwest
of Iran at the coast of Persian Gulf. The field which
was discovered in 1959 is producing from two main
formations: Jahrum and Sarvak. The formation under
investigation was Sarvak with initial oil in place
estimated to be 2.7 billion barrels. The oil, which is
consideredasextraheavyoil,hasagravityof7.24API
with a viscosity of about 2700 cp. The top depth of
Sarvak formation is around 3,652 ft with an average
thickness of 985 ft, initial pressure of 927 psi and
reservoir temperature of 139.3 oF. Based on a
correlation from a core sample of the wells, the
porosity ranges between1127%and the permeability
ranges between 0.2850 md. The reservoir is
consideredasagoodcandidateforEORduetothelow
oil API and high viscosity. Sensitivity analysis was
conductedtomeasurethefeasibilityofeachmethodto
produce the field and enhance the oil recovery. The
study was conducted and several parameters were
testedandevaluated.Theseparametersincluded:

Wellspacing,welltypepatterntypeandsize

Capillarypressure.

Steaminjectionandoilproductionrate

Steamquality

Injectionwellperforation.

A study was conducted as mentioned previously in

Sarvak formation. The main results of this study can
besummarizedasfollow:

Steam injection process is likely to be good

method for producing this reservoir. The
resultsshowedthatsteaminjectioncouldresult
in higher oil recovery. It was shown that the
recovery could be improved from zero up to
nearly12%.

107

www.jpsr.orgJournalofPetroleumScienceResearch(JPSR)Volume3Issue3,July2014

There is a relation between the steam quality

and the cumulative oil rate. As steam quality
increases, more oil can be produced
consequently.

Reservoir
A
Iran

Oilwet
carbonate
reservoir

Oneofthemainoperationalparametersiswell
completion. Four strategies were tested to
evaluate this parameter. The best completion
strategy was found to be producing from the
top3layersandinjectingintothetop3layers.

Theresultsshowedthat
thewaterfloodingcan
Continues
leadtoarecoveryfactor
steamflooding
of10.24%andthe
(Simulation)
steamfloodinggives
higherrecoveryfactor,
14.17%.

Reservoir
K
Iran

Sarvak
Formation
carbonate
reservoir

Continues
steamflooding
(Simulation)

Oil water capillary pressure must be

determined carefully due to its significant
effect on the final cumulative oil and water
produced.
Due to the intensive fractures existing in the
reservoir,theresultofthisstudystatedthatthe
bestwaytoachievehighrecoverywastokeep
abalancebetweenthesteaminjectionrateand
theoilproducedandtokeeptheratesaslowas
possible.

Conclusion

Theresultsshowedthat
steaminjectioncould
improveoilrecovery
fromzeroupto
nearly12%

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank both Dr. Berna

Hascakir,assistantprofessoratTexasA&MUniversity,
and JPSR reviewers for their valuable comments that
helpinimprovingthequalityofthispaper.
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