Strategies to Conduct Steam Injection in Waterflooded Light Oil Reservoir and a Case in Fuyu Reservoir, Jilin

Abstract Steam injection is an effective means to enhance the recovery of light oil reservoirs. The industry experience has been built up over the past decades. But there is no detailed literature to describe or demonstrate any successful use. The pilot test of steam injection on several wells of Block E9 in Fuyu oilfield was conducted in 2007. After then, injection was converted to Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) at a field scale from late 2008.In this study, an integrated investigation was conducted to analyze the steam injection performance and potentials in the Fuyu field light oil reservoir. The methodologies include in-house experiments and dynamic analysis based on geologic and reservoir characteristics and production performance. First of all, the factors which impact CSS performance have been summarized and quantified, like natural and artificial fractures, major direction of the flow line during waterflooding, and the distribution of sandbodies, etc. During the CSS process of light oil reservoir, the phenomenon of steam driving oil during steam injection phase is apparent which results in lower oil saturation in the wellbore vicinity and lower peak oil rate compared with heavy oil CSS. Finally, essence of steam injection in the light oil reservoirs, mechanisms of EOR, and strategies to enhance the performance of steam injection are summarized.