Yu. K. Leonov, T. L. Zorin, A. V. Lushnikov, and A. M. Zorin

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF COUPLED HEAT EXCHANGE IN A PRODUCING RESERVOIR

The paper reports on the numerical simulation of conjugate heat transfer occurring in an oil-saturated reservoir and a production borehole with the introduction of a heating inductive cable. It estimates the potential efficiency of using a heating cable to increase the average static temperature
of the reservoir and the extractive fluids, thus creating conditions unsuitable for the vital activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria. Due to a significant reservoir length and a well depth of more than 1 km, the problem is considered in a plane formulation using two planes: the transverse and longitudinal sections of the reservoir. The sections are aligned along the producing well. Both the thermophysical properties of the rock and the physical properties of all the structural and building materials of the well and the extracting column are taken into account. Numerical simulation was performed in a quasi-stationary formulation based on the finite volume method. The study resulted in the values of the fields of the physical quantities of the fluid (a mixture of water and oil with a fixed water cut degree), the associated petroleum gas, and the temperature fields in the longitudinal and transverse sections. It shows both the inefficiency of using a heating cable to change the temperature of the reservoir in the oil production zone and the sufficiency of the heat flow from the heating cable to maintain a fluid temperature of at least 65 °C in the borehole, which is sufficient to suppress the vital activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria in the borehole and enhance the performance of the downhole equipment.

Article reference