Criterion-based method for determining the time of steam injection during steam cyclic stimulation of bottomhole zones of wells

The problems’ solving of heat and mass transfer during the cyclic steam stimulation of the bottom-hole zone of the production wells allows us to control the process of high-viscous oil extracting. Based on the mechanics of multiphase systems development approaches, a mathematical model is formulated and a criterion method for the steam injection time determining into the bottomhole zone is proposed. Within the framework of this method, the following processes are crucial: heat transfer to the roof and bottom of the reservoir, the water-saturated zone increase during continuous injection, and the presence of a limiting pressure gradient in a non-Newtonian fluid. The developed model was tested on the synthetic data. The development dynamics of thermal, steam-water and oil-water fronts during injection in the radial formulation of the problem are investigated. The model was verified based on a comparison of the results obtained with calculations in a hydrodynamic simulator.