Methods in Oil Recovery Processes and Reservoir Simulation

Abstract

The exploitation of an oil field is a complex and multidisciplinary task, which demands a lot of prior knowledge, time, and money. A good reservoir characterization is deemed essential in the accomplishment of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) processes in order to estimate accurately the properties of the porous medium affecting the flow properties. Several techniques at a field scale are currently being used to determine these properties, which are time and money consuming. But these alone do not guarantee the success of the project. Reservoir simulation and numerical techniques were then included in the pre-development and follow-up studies as an effective tool to determine the productivity and future behavior of the oil field. As the computational power increased, more advanced and detailed models were developed, including different chemical and physical phenomena. But alongside this process, there was an active research in the area of reservoir simulation, improving the accuracy and efficiency of the numerical schemes used for the flow, transport, and energy equations. The aim of this review is to address the topics described. Firstly, the origin of an oil recovery process, the economic factors and field tests involved are introduced. Secondly, the oil and porous medium origin and characterization as well as an introduction to the fundamental concepts and equations are associated to reservoir simulation. Finally, a brief description and analysis of the techniques are used in reservoir simulation employing finite difference methods, their downsides and possible ways to overcome these problems.