Proceedings of the Thirty-second (2022) International Ocean and Polar Engineering Conference
Shanghai, China, June 5–10, 2022
Copyright © 2022 by the International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers (ISOPE)
ISBN 978-1-880653-81-4; ISSN 1098-6189

www.isope.org

Application of High Temperature and High Pressure Physical Simulation Experiment Technology in
Heavy Oil Recovery
Tao Lin, Yubao Sun, Hongzhi Song, Qiaobo Wang
China Oilfield Services Limited
Tianjin, China

ABSTRACT

including hot water/steam, N2 and CO2. Composition of the mixture
produced by the generator varies with temperature and pressure,whichhas the characteristics of gas miscible flooding (nitrogen flooding,carbon dioxide flooding) and thermal oil recovery (Tang, 2011;Lin,2012a; Lin, 2013; Lin ,2012b).

A two-dimensional visualization physical simulation device of hightemperature and high pressure is designed and developed. The device
separates the temperature-resistant and pressure-resistant parts byapplying over pressure to the visual model. The inner model body canwithstand temperature but can not withstand pressure, while the outerpressure chamber can withstand pressure but can not withstandtemperature. Moreover, the pressure between the inner and outer layers
keeps balance and heat insulation, so as to realize the visual simulationof high temperature and high pressure. The experimental results showthat the overall device test meets the design requirements, themaximum test pressure is 20 MPa. The sweep of the temperature field
displayed by the experimental data acquisition device is basicallyconsistent with that of the actual visual observation. Using the designconcept of high pressure chamber, the high temperature and highpressure visual simulation is realized, which meets the demand ofoffshore heavy oil thermal recovery and plays an active role in theresearch of process mechanism.

The characteristics of thermal recovery of offshore heavy oil put
forward higher requirements for thermal recovery technology, andoffshore oilfield development requires high investment and highproductivity, that means on the one hand the high EOR need to beimproved, and on the other hand the high oil recovery rate need toachieved. Moreover, offshore heavy oil oilfields have thecharacteristics of high porosity, high permeability, high pressure, andlow viscosity, which require thermal recovery technology to ensure therecovery effect and to solve the challenges of economic benefits (Sun,2019). The realization of these requirements requires more accurate
research methods.
Physical simulation and numerical simulation are important methods tocarry out research. In terms of research methods, different models suchas indoor one-dimensional tubular model, two-dimensional ( 2D ) platemodel, and three-dimensional physical simulation model are widelyused. By simulating production experiment on the plate model, theexploitation process that takes decades in the actual oilfield can becompleted in a short time, so as to achieve the purpose of predicting thedevelopment effect (Teng, 2013). For the study of the two-dimensional
plate model, the one-dimensional glass tube oil and gas migration
simulation experiment and the two-dimensional visible oil and gas
migration simulation experiment are mainly used (Gong, 2014). Chen
Ping et al. (Chen, 2013) used a high-temperature and high-pressure
visual sand-filled tube of Φ 25mm × 70 mm to achieve a temperature
resistance of 100 °C and the pressure resistance of 20 MPa. However,this method used a sand-filled pipe, where it cannot be observed for thesweeping situation of the plate. Wang Bo (Wang, 2016) established the2D visualization model whose size is 200×200 mm, with the pressure
resistance of 3MPa. Niu Baolun (Niu, 2017) used a high temperatureand high pressure microscopic visualization model to establish a 50×50mm laser etching model for the flat glass model, the external pressure
was always 2-3MPa higher than the displacement pressure inside themodel, so that the overall model can withstand a pressure of 20MPa.
Wu Zhengbin et al. (Wu, 2015) established a 2D visualization model

KEY WORDS: high temperature and high pressure; thermalrecovery; visualization experiment; physical simulation;
experimental technology.
INTRODUCTION
Heavy oil resources in Bohai Oilfield are huge, accounting for nearly
80% of the total resources (Wang, 2019), mainly distributed in Luda,Nanpu, Suizhong, Chengbei and other oil areas. Thermal recovery ofheavy oil has been widely applied in heavy oil fields at home andabroad due to its good effect on heavy oil development. It has formedwith thermal recovery huff and puff and thermal flooding as the maindevelopment methods for thermal recovery technology (Yu, 2001). In
recent years, the thermal recovery technology has been applied on
offshore oil fields, and the multi-component thermal fluid huff and puff
technology (It is called MCTF for short) is a newly developed thermal
recovery technology for offshore heavy oil (Sun, 2020).The current
development trend of thermal recovery technology is compound
thermal recovery, and MCTF is where fuel combusts and water isheated and vaporized, generating the multi-component thermal fluid

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