Design of a Simulator for Enhanced Oil Recovery Process Using a Nigerian Reservoir as a Case Study

Abstract

This study involves the applications of different numerical techniques in a more general way to the design of a simulator for an enhanced oil recovery process with surfactant assisted water flooding. The data from a hypothetical oil well and a Nigerian oil well were used for the validation of the simulator. The process is represented by a system of nonlinear partial differential equations: the continuity equation for the transport of the components and Darcy’s equation for the phase flow. The orthogonal collocation, finite difference and coherence theory techniques were used in solving the equations that characterized the multidimensional, multiphase and multicomponent flow problem. Matlab computer programs were used for the numerical solution of the model equ- ations. The predicted simulator, obtained from the resulting numerical exercise confers uncondi- tional stability and more insight into the physical reservoir description. The results of the ortho- gonal collocation solution were compared with those of finite difference and coherence solutions. The results indicate that the concentration of surfactants for orthogonal collocation show more features than the predictions of the coherence solution and the finite difference, offering more opportunities for further understanding of the physical nature of the complex problem. We have found out that the partition of the three components between the two-phases determines other physical property data and hence the oil recovery. The oil recovery for the Nigerian oil reservoir is higher than the recovery predicted for the hypothetical crude. The displacement mechanism for the multicomponent and multiphase system is stable in the Nigerian oil reservoir due to the mod- erate value of the oil/water viscosity instead of the hypothetical reservoir with high value of oil/water ratio.