Scientific Study on the Design of a Simulator for Enhanced Oil Recovery Process Using a Nigerian Reservoir as a Case Study

This study involves the applications of different numerical techniques in a more general way to the
design of a simulator for an enhanced oil recovery process with surfactant assisted water flooding.
The data from a hypothetical oil well and a Nigerian oil well were used for the validation of the
simulator. The process is represented by a system of nonlinear partial differential equations: the
continuity equation for the transport of the components and Darcy’s equation for the phase flow. The
orthogonal collocation, finite difference and coherence theory techniques were used in solving the
equations that characterized the multidimensional, multiphase and multicomponent flow problem.
Matlab computer programs were used for the numerical solution of the model equations. The
predicted simulator, obtained from the resulting numerical exercise confers unconditional stability and
more insight into the physical reservoir description. The results of the orthogonal collocation solution
were compared with those of finite difference and coherence solutions. The results indicate that the
concentration of surfactants for orthogonal collocation show more features than the predictions of the
coherence solution and the finite difference, offering more opportunities for further understanding of
the physical nature of the complex problem. We have found out that the partition of the three
components between the two-phases determines other physical property data and hence the oil
recovery. The oil recovery for the Nigerian oil reservoir is higher than the recovery predicted for the
hypothetical crude. The displacement mechanism for the multi component and multiphase system is
stable in the Nigerian oil reservoir due to the moderate value of the oil/water viscosity instead of the
hypothetical reservoir with high value of oil/water ratio.