Exploitation of Bati Raman field using advanced thermal methods: MAHOP VS. CSHP

The aim of this work is to examine and estimate the ultimate recovery from Turkey's largest oil reserve (1.85 billion barrels) utilizing a new approach called mining-assisted heavy oil production (MAHOP) and conventional steam injection horizontal production (CSHP) method. In MAHOP, declines (tunnels) are excavated from the surface to the reservoir and proceed along the reservoir's bottom. Fan-shaped steam injection holes are drilled from the upper and lower sides of the reservoir with conventional steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). The suggested CSHP method uses conventional vertical wells as steam injectors and produces heated oil from newly drilled horizontal well pairs. To reach this goal, an experimental scaled model and a numerical model have been designed and developed. Laboratory studies have been carried on three different wettability environments to observe the effect of wettability on the ultimate recovery. The oil recovery obtained from MAHOP at different wettability environments varied with higher steam injection temperatures. The highest recovery (71.73%) was realized in water-wet rock. However, in the CSHP method, the maximum recovery was lower (48.11%). It was believed that the temperature altered the wettability of oil-wet rock to more water-wet, which contributed to incremental oil recovery. However, higher steam injection temperatures greater than 140 degrees C had no significant effect on incremental oil recovery. Furthermore, asphaltene precipitation, especially in the oil-wet system and alteration of wettability to more water-wet increased oil production.