Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:08:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 KeilaRSpdf.pdf: 4445609 bytes, checksum: 3395044458045d549e1940f35912e4a6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-07-31 / Petr?leo Brasileiro SA - PETROBRAS / Due to reservoirs complexity and significantly large reserves, heavy oil recovery has become one of the major oil industry challenges. Thus, thermal methods have been widely used as a strategic method to improve heavy oil recovery. These methods improve oil displacement through viscosity reduction, enabling oil production in fields which are not considered commercial by conventional recovery methods. Among the thermal processes, steam flooding is the most used today. One consequence in this process is gravity segregation, given by difference between reservoir and injected fluids density. This phenomenon may be influenced by the presence of reservoir heterogeneities. Since most of the studies are carried out in homogeneous reservoirs, more detailed studies of heterogeneities effects in the reservoirs during steam flooding are necessary, since most oil reservoirs are heterogeneous. This paper presents a study of reservoir heterogeneities and their influence in gravity segregation during steam flooding process. In this study some heterogeneous reservoirs with physical characteristics similar those found in the Brazilian Northeast Basin were analyzed. To carry out the simulations, it was used the commercial simulator STARS by CMG (Computer Modeling Group) - version 2007.11. Heterogeneities were modeled with lower permeability layers. Results showed that the presence of low permeability barriers can improve the oil recovery, and reduce the effects of gravity segregation, depending on the location of heterogeneities. The presence of these barriers have also increased the recovered fraction even with the reduction of injected steam rate / Devido a complexidade dos reservat?rios e as reservas significativamente grandes, a recupera??o de ?leos pesados tem se tornado um dos grandes desafios da ind?stria petrol?fera. Os processos de recupera??o t?rmica t?m sido largamente empregados como um m?todo estrat?gico para melhorar a recupera??o de ?leo pesado. Estes melhoram o escoamento de ?leos atrav?s da redu??o da viscosidade, viabilizando a produ??o de petr?leo em campos considerados n?o comerciais pelos m?todos convencionais de recupera??o. Entre os m?todos t?rmicos, a inje??o de vapor ? o mais utilizado atualmente. Uma consequ?ncia inerente a este processo ? a segrega??o gravitacional, dada pela diferen?a de densidades dos fluidos do reservat?rio e o injetado. Este fen?meno ? fortemente influenciado pela presen?a de heterogeneidades. Como a maior parte dos estudos ? realizada em reservat?rios homog?neos, necessita-se de um estudo mais detalhado dos efeitos das heterogeneidades nos reservat?rios durante a inje??o de vapor, j? que a maioria dos reservat?rios de petr?leo s?o heterog?neos. Este trabalho apresenta um estudo da influ?ncia da presen?a de heterogeneidades na segrega??o gravitacional durante o processo de inje??o cont?nua de vapor. Os modelos estudados representam reservat?rios heterog?neos com caracter?sticas similares ?s encontradas no Nordeste brasileiro. Para a realiza??o das simula??es, foi utilizado o simulador comercial STARS (Steam, Thermal, and Advanced Processes Reservoir Simulator) do grupo CMG (Computer Modelling Group) vers?o 2007.11. As heterogeneidades foram modeladas como camadas de baixa permeabilidade. Os resultados mostraram que a presen?a de barreiras de baixa permeabilidade pode melhorar a recupera??o de ?leo, al?m de reduzir os efeitos da segrega??o gravitacional, dependendo da localiza??o da heterogeneidade. A presen?a dessas barreiras tamb?m permitiu o aumento da fra??o recuperada mesmo com a redu??o da vaz?o de inje??o do vapor