Title: Streamline based black-oil simulation and its application to waterflooding

Authors: P. Bhambri

Addresses: British Petroleum, BP Americas, 900 East Benson Blvd., Anchorage, AK 99508, USA; Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston, 4800 Calhoun Road, Houston, TX 77204-4004, USA

Abstract: Finite-difference method is widely used for solving large-scale multiphase displacement problems. Drawbacks of finite difference methods are numerical dispersion, grid orientation, small time step size, and large computation time. To overcome these problems, streamline methods are being developed in which fluid is transported along the streamlines instead of the finite difference grid. This paper describes the development and application of a three-dimensional black-oil streamline simulator to study water flooding in a quarter five spot pattern. Larger time steps and higher spatial resolution can be achieved in these simulations. Streamline simulator is benchmarked against finite difference simulator (UTCOMP) for different test cases. Predictions from streamline simulator are in good agreement with the results from finite difference simulation, however speed up factor of up to 12 times is observed with streamline simulator. Results from the streamline simulator are also compared with the laboratory scale experimental data which shows a fairly good match. The 3-D streamline simulator is further extended to study the impact of various factors on the water flood performance. [Received: July 15, 2011; Accepted: November 25, 2011]

Keywords: streamline simulation; black oil simulation; water flooding; mathematical modelling; sweep efficiency; finite difference method; 3D modelling.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2012.046304

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2012 Vol.5 No.2/3, pp.267 - 298

Published online: 25 Oct 2014 *

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