B. A. Bagirov, A. M. Hajiyev / News of the Ural State Mining University. 2018. Issue 4(52), pp. 18-25

Relevance. For efficiency of oil field development, Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) methods are used. These methods can be classified into physical-chemical, thermal, microbiological, nuclear, etc. Among these treatments, the thermal method has a special place. It is related to the fact, that these methods are applied to the formations with scavenger (tight) oil, where ultimate oil recovery factor otherwise cannot exceed 0.2–0.3. Thermal methods are aimed to reduce the viscosity of the oil, thus increasing its mobility in the reservoir. The method is based on pumping the driving substance (steam or hot water) into the reservoir, and also on burning the oil in the reservoir (in-situ combustion).
Purposes and objectives of the study. The efficiency of the thermal treatment largely depends on geological and physical conditions of the oil reservoir – its depth, physical and chemical characteristics of the fluids, reservoir type, oil, gas and water saturation.
The substance to be heated in the reservoir is oil. However, part of thermal energy heats water and the rock as well. Therefore, it is very important to study the reservoir before the start of thermal treatment. Geologically heterogeneous layers especially require detailed study.
The thermal methods have been tested on the reservoirs, occurring at different depth. However, the efficiency of thermal treatment decreases with depth. The reason for that is the loss of the heat on its way in the borehole, from one hand, and higher temperature of the formation itself, on the other. That is why, the application of the thermal methods on the deeper horizons are limited.
Results and recommendation. Apparently, the successful application of thermal treatment of the reservoirs requires the systematic monitoring of the development process, which allows to correct the treatment process in a timely manner. Getting the information about formation current physical characteristics, making temperature measurements are challenging and expensive processes. The processing of the information also takes time. All of this can have negative effect on ultimate recovery factor. Usually, construction of isotherm maps is recommended for thermal treatment monitoring. However, these maps not always indicate the direction of the movement of the injected heat. Thus, the effective method of controlling and monitoring of the thermal treatment is very relevant task of the reservoir geology.

Keywords: reservoir, oil recovery, thermal treatment, temperature, exposure to steam, in-situ combustion, water mineralization.

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