ylfink@water.waterloo.edu (ylfink) (02/06/89)
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
SEMINAR ACTIVITIES
SCIENTIFIC COMPUTATION SEMINAR
- Thursday, February 9, 1989
Mr. Peter H. Sammon, B.P. Canada Limited, will speak on
``Thermal Reservoir Modelling''.
TIME: 1:30 PM
ROOM: DC 1304
ABSTRACT
BP Canada Limited is part owner of an oil lease at Wolf
Lake, in the Cold Lake region of Northeastern Alberta.
The target reservoir in the lease is located at a depth
of 1500 feet and is nearly 100 feet thick. This single
lease is estimated to contain nearly 4 billion barrels
of oil. The oil is of a particularly heavy type, and
is more properly called bitumen. Bitumen is
essentially immobile at reservoir conditions, where it
is up to 800,000 times more viscous than water.
However, it can be produced if it is heated first.
The Wolf lake project currently uses cyclic steam
injection as a first attack on the reservoir. This
process will ultimately recover about 15-20% of the
bitumen in place. Plans call for following up with a
new in-situ combustion process. Oxygen will be
injected into the steam-heated reservoir, generating
more heat and combustion gases in-situ, which will
drive bitumen to the production wells.
During this talk, some of the modelling considerations
involved in thermal reservoir simulation will be
reviewed, both theoretically and from an applied
viewpoint. A thermal reservoir simulator must take
into account multiphase flow of water/oil/gas(steam),
and energy. Chemical reactions create solids (coking)
and a variety of reaction products.
The effects of various modelling choices on the matrix
solver and other related issues regarding formulation
and stability will be discussed.