TITLE:
Design of a Simulator for Enhanced Oil Recovery Process Using a Nigerian Reservoir as a Case Study
AUTHORS:
Kamilu Folorunsho Oyedeko, Alfred Akpoveta Susu
KEYWORDS:
Enhanced oil Recovery, Simulator Design, Multidimensional, Multicomponent and Multiphase System, Surfactant Assisted Flooding, Orthogonal Collocation, Finite Difference, Coherence Theory, Hypothetical Reservoir, Nigerian Reservoir
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Chemical Engineering and Science,
Vol.4 No.4,
October
7,
2014
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.