A Theoretical And Experimental Study Of Steam Drive
Authors: El-Saleh Mudafar M. , Ali S.M. Farouq 
Published: December 2007

El-Saleh, Mudafar M., Student Member AIME, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa., and Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa., and Farouq Ali, S.M., Junior Member AIME, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa. Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa. Copyright 1968

American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Inc.

This paper was prepared for the 43rd Annual Fall Meeting of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of AIME, to be held in Houston, Texas, September 29 to October 2, 1968. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made.

Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

Results of theoretical and experimental investigation of the steam drive process, or steam flooding, are presented. The displacement of oil and water by steam was represented by a system of five partial differential equations. The equations were solved by use of a combination finite difference technique. The mathematical model included vaporizations and condensation effects, as well as changes in viscosity and density due to temperature changes. Two-dimensional flow of heat in the adjacent formation was considered. The model was used to simulate the results of one of the experiments.

The experimental work performed provided information on the relative roles of steam distillation and viscosity reduction in oil recovery by a steamflood, for partially distillable oils.

Introduction

Relatively few experimental and theoretical investigations of steamflooding have been reported so far, in spite of the growing interest in this powerful oil recovery method. Recently conducted powerful oil recovery method. Recently conducted field tests show that large amounts of oil can be recovered by this process. A number of variations of the basic process have been proposed.

To-date, Willman et al's work constitutes the only published investigation of steamflooding, where a method of computing oil recovery was proposed. Basically, the scheme developed was based upon the assumptions that a constant residual oil saturation is left in the area invaded by steam, while a modified Buckley-Leverett type displacement takes place ahead of the steam front. In spite of the necessity for determining the residual oil saturation in the steam zone experimentally, the computational scheme of Willman et al has the merits of being simple, theoretically sound, and easy to program.