Steam Flooding

Steam flooding is a proven thermal recovery method employed in the oil and gas industry to
enhance oil production from reservoirs containing heavy, viscous crude oil. This technique
involves injecting steam into the reservoir through injection wells, creating a flow of hot
steam towards production wells. This injection process serves a dual purpose: reducing oil
viscosity and providing additional drive mechanisms for oil recovery.
How Steam Flooding Works:
 Viscosity Reduction: The high temperature of the injected steam significantly reduces the
viscosity of the heavy oil, making it more mobile and easier to flow towards production
wells.
 Vaporization and Displacement: The heat from the steam vaporizes lighter hydrocarbons
in the reservoir. These vapors travel ahead of the steam front, cooling and condensing into
liquids. This condensate acts as a solvent, dissolving and displacing the heavier crude oil.
 Gas Drive: The steam itself acts as a gas drive, pushing the displaced oil towards production
wells.

Key Advantages of Steam Flooding:

 Increased Oil Recovery: By reducing viscosity and providing additional drive mechanisms,
steam flooding significantly improves oil recovery from heavy oil reservoirs.
 Enhanced Production: The enhanced flow of oil due to steam flooding results in increased
production rates.
 Cost-Effective: Compared to other thermal recovery methods, steam flooding can be more
cost-effective in certain scenarios.

Challenges of Steam Flooding:

 High Energy Consumption: Steam generation requires significant energy, which can
contribute to higher operational costs.
 Reservoir Compatibility: The effectiveness of steam flooding depends on reservoir
characteristics, such as permeability and reservoir pressure.
 Environmental Concerns: The steam injection process can lead to potential environmental
concerns related to water usage and potential steam leaks.

Cyclic steam stimulation

Cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) is a method of producing heavy oil by injecting a certain
amount of steam into a well and shutting it in for a period until the heat energy of steam gets
transferred to the reservoir and then putting it back on production. Cyclic steam injection is
used extensively in heavy-oil reservoirs, tar sands, and in some cases to improve injectivity
prior to steam flood or in situ combustion operations. Cyclic steam injection is also called
steam soak or steam huff `n puff (slang) method.
Mechanism of CSS
Viscosity reduction by heating
By injecting high temperature and high-pressure steam into the reservoir, the formation
temperature within a certain distance near the well zone increases and the reservoir and crude
oil are heated. The steam injected into the reservoir first enters the high permeability zone.
However, due to the low density of steam, the steam migrates towards the top of the
reservoir under the action of gravity, and the reservoir is heated unevenly.
Thermal expansion
When hot steam is injected into the reservoir, the heated crude oil expands. If there is a small
amount of dissolved gas in the crude oil, it will also escape from the crude oil and produce
the effect of solution gas drive. At the same time, the fluid and rock skeleton in the reservoir
have thermal expansion, the pore volume decreases, the fluid volume increases, and the
elastic energy to maintain oil production increases.
Gravity drive
Because of the difference of vapor-liquid density, the overlap phenomenon is formed in the
process of steam injection, and the longitudinal heating of the reservoir is uneven. However,
the heated area of the reservoir increases and the non-displacement part of the reservoir is
heated due to the heat conduction. Heated crude oil flows down the well by gravity.
Steam distillation
In the process of steam injection, the vaporization pressure of oil and water increases with
the increase of temperature. When the vaporization pressure of oil and water is equal to the
current pressure of the reservoir, the light components in crude oil are vaporized into the gas
phase, resulting in steam distillation.
Compaction of formation
Formation compaction is a mechanism of oil displacement that cannot be ignored. The
weight of the overlying layers compresses the reservoir layer to squeeze out the oil.
Emulsion displacement
In the process of steam injection, the steam flow rate and specific volume in the steam
chamber are large, and the steam in the leading edge of the steam chamber condenses and
releases heat, leading to the disturbance effect. Therefore, emulsification occurs to form oil-
in-water or water-in-oil emulsion.
High temperature improves oil phase permeability
In the heterogeneous reservoir, the relative permeability of the reservoir to oil and water
changes at high temperature after the reservoir is heated by wet steam injection, and the
colloidal oil film on the surface of the sand grain is destroyed, and the wettability changes,
from the original reservoir being oil-wet or strong oil-wet to water-wet or strong water-wet.

Production process
The cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) method, also known as “huff-and-puff” or “steam soak,”
consists of three stages:
Steam injection stage (steam intake), Shut-in stage (steam soak) and production stage (steam
ejection).

1. Steam injection stage: The steam injection stage is the process of steam intake into the
oil layer, as shown in the figure above. According to the required process parameters
(injection pressure, injection speed, steam dryness, cycle steam injection volume), the
high temperature and high-pressure saturated steam is injected into the reservoir.
2. Shut-in stage: after the steam injection is completed, the steam injection is stopped and
the well is shut-in (also called steam soak). The time of steam soak is generally 2-7
days.
3. Production stage: The well operation enters the production stage after steam injection
and shut-in reach the designed soak time. In the recovery stage, due to the high
reservoir pressure, the well can flow without any artificial lift and requires the
installation of a nozzle to prevent the reservoir from producing sand due to
excessively high rate.

Surface processes and equipment

 Water supply: Seawater - Water tank - Seawater desalination equipment - Water

treatment equipment - High pressure piston pump - Steam generator
 Fuel supply: Fuel - Oil Tank - Oil pump room - Steam generator - Well
 The nitrogen system: Air compressor - Membrane separation - Supercharger - Oil well
annulus

Advantages

 Low one-time investment, simple process technology, fast production increase and good
economic benefits.
 For ordinary and extra heavy oil reservoirs, steam stimulation almost has no technical and
economic risks, so it has been widely used in heavy oil production and is also the best
industrial application of thermal recovery method.
Disadvantages

 Low recovery: As with conventional oil recovery methods, only 15-20% of oil is
recovered from natural energy.
 Because of the change of hot and cold period, the damage to the well is significant.

Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD)

Definition and Overview.

Steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is the most used thermal recovery method and it
consists of injecting steam into the reservoir in such a way that it develops a hot zone that
heats the oil until its viscosity is low enough so that it flows under the effect of gravity.
SAGD operations require two horizontal wells: The upper well is a steam injection well and
the lower well is a producer well. This well receives the oil which flows naturally once its
viscosity had been reduced.

SAGD was originally proposed as an alternative to conventional steam flooding, in which

the oil is pushed by injected steam towards a producing well. The mechanism uses gravity as
the main driving force for oil movement when it is injected above a horizontal production
well, the steam would move to the top of the reservoir and the warmed oil would eventually
move downwards towards the
production well. The steam
injection causes the steam
chamber to start expanding
gradually until its size covers a
considerable volume of the
reservoir in which the oil
would eventually start to move
towards the production well.
The well design is placed
horizontally near the bottom of
the reservoir, from where it rises upwards while the heated oil and condensate flow
downwards towards a horizontal production well, which is approximately 5 m below the
injection well.

Mechanisms in SAGD Process

In order to understand SAGD, the mechanisms involved in SAGD are summarized in the
following parts:

- Growth of Steam Chamber.

- The Relationship Between Bitumen Viscosity and Temperature.
- Effect of Oil Viscosity Heterogeneity.
- Heat (Energy) Transfer and Distribution
 - Oil Flow in SAGD.

The mobility of heavy oil and bitumen is very low, which leads to the formation of steam
chambers rather than steam channels. If the following conditions are met, SAGD can be
successfully implemented.
- First, the steam injected from an upper horizontal well should have enough capacity to
form a steam chamber. As a result, the temperature in the steam chamber significantly
reduces the viscosity of heavy oil or bitumen, thereby improving the mobility of the crude
oil (Gates et al., 2008).
- Second, the heated crude oil should be drained from the steam chamber to a production
well by gravity (Elliott and Kovscek, 1999). Steam injection and oil production are
carried out simultaneously (Giacchetta et al., 2015).
- SAGD is very effective for bitumen and heavy oil recovery, and its efficiency increases
with an increase in the target oil layer thickness (Shin and Polikar, 2006). SAGD oil
production is considered uneconomical when the reservoir thickness is less than about
15 m (Edmunds and Chhina, 2001), due to the high steam-to-oil ratio (SOR) required.
- The improper control of operation will result in the loss of steam and then impair oil
recovery, as the process is susceptible to low mobility control and rapid gravity
separation (Coskuner, 2009).

Thermal expansion: When hot steam is injected into the reservoir, the heated crude oil
expands. If there is a small amount of dissolved gas in the crude oil, it will also escape from
the crude oil and produce the effect of solution gas drive. At the same time, the fluid and
rock skeleton in the reservoir have thermal expansion, the pore volume decreases, the fluid
volume increases, and the elastic energy to maintain oil production increases.
Gravity drive: Because of the difference of vapor-liquid density, the overlap phenomenon is
formed in the process of steam injection, and the longitudinal heating of the reservoir is
uneven. However, the heated area of the reservoir increases, and the non-displacement part
of the reservoir is heated due to the heat conduction. Heated crude oil flows down the well
by gravity.
Steam distillation: In the process of steam injection, the vaporization pressure of oil and
water increases with the increase of temperature. When the vaporization pressure of oil and
water is equal to the current pressure of the reservoir, the light components in crude oil are
vaporized into the gas phase, resulting in steam distillation.
Compaction of formation: Formation compaction is a mechanism of oil displacement that
cannot be ignored. The weight of the overlying layers compresses the reservoir layer to
squeeze out the oil
Emulsion displacement: In the process of steam injection, the steam flow rate and specific
volume in the steam chamber are large, and the steam in the leading edge of the steam
chamber condenses and releases heat, leading to the disturbance effect. Therefore,
emulsification occurs to form oil-in-water or water-in-oil emulsion.
High temperature improves oil phase permeability: In the heterogeneous reservoir, the
relative permeability of the reservoir to oil and water changes at high temperature after the
reservoir is heated by wet steam injection, and the colloidal oil film on the surface of the
sand grain is destroyed, and the wettability changes, from the original reservoir being oil-wet
or strong oil-wet to water-wet or strong water-wet.
- Thickness: The reservoir should be thick enough to place two parallel horizontal wells,
also ensure less energy loss. The recommended minimum reservoir thickness is 15
meters.
- Vertical permeability: Since the steam need to travel inside the reservoir and the
mobilized heavy oil need to flow downward to the well through gravity drainage, a high
vertical permeability of the reservoir is essential.
- Oil saturation: Higher heavy oil saturation will lead to higher efficiency of the steam
chamber.

Some consideration for injected steam.

Steam Injection Volume: Produced oil volume is directionally proportional to the volume
of injected steam, when large steam volume injected more heat carried thus more utilization
of steam and increased volume of cumulative oil. Small volumes of steam do not provide
sufficient heat. This will reduce the cycle oil production, then more volumes of steam needed
but further steam increment will push the oil away from well bottom hole and the cumulative
oil-steam ratio drops.

Steam quality: Steam quality (some literature refers to it as steam dryness) is a direct
indicator to the enthalpy of steam, from the definition the more quality of steam the more
production comes from the well, this is explained by the enthalpy. When steam quality is a
high enough the volume of oil heated by steam increases, vice versa, at low steam quality the
steam changes into hot water this will corrupt the CSS process.

Bottom Hole The Level of Oil Recovery Thermal Process

Quality
0 - 20 % Low recovery Hot water injection
20 – 50 % Recovery increasing Transition period (hot water and
sharply steam)
Above 50 % Recovery increasing slowly Steam injection

Steam injection temperature: Steam temperature and pressure are related to each other by
the equation of state EOS, the higher temperature and pressure under constant quality and
injection rate, the higher the recovery and water production.