Abstract
An isothermal, oil-water, two phase system for thermal recovery methods was studied experimentally to understand the influence of temperature on their fluid-rock properties such as irreducible water saturation, residual oil saturation, relative permeability and mobility ratio. And the temperature dependency of these parameters was quantitatively discussed. It was found that these parameters were all shifted to work to increase the fluid-rock properties of oil, hence to increase the oil recovery.
A computer simulation model of isothermal, two phase-system for thermal recovery by hot water flood was developed, incorporating the temperature dependency of these parameters experimentally defined in this study. It was found that for a relatively light oil, improvement of relative permeability was the most effective mechanism to improve oil recovery by increasing the formation temperature, though decrease of oil viscosity was most effective for heavy oils.
