Advanced Modeling and Simulation Techniques for Heavy Oil and Oil Sands Reservoirs

阿尔伯塔省已探明的油砂储量为1740亿桶，使加拿大与沙特阿拉伯和委内瑞拉一起成为全球探明或可开采原油储量最大的三个国家之一。回收这些资源的关键问题是：回收这些资源的最佳技术是什么？在何处以及如何改善可持续复苏？有多少是可收回的？目前油砂储量的主要开采方法包括开采和提高采收率（EOR）方法。阿尔伯塔省90%以上的巨大能源资源是在地下太深而无法在地表开采的矿床中发现的。因此，EOR方法必须用于将糖蜜状的沥青，即“未加工的”重质原油诱出地面。稠油和油砂油藏常用的EOR方法是热采方法，如蒸汽辅助重力泄油（SAGD）和循环蒸汽增产（CSS）。这些方法利用了油相粘度对温度的依赖性。这些过程对环境的影响以及其中大量的水和天然气的使用表明，需要对这些储层进行经济和环境友好的开发进行广泛的研究。

Alberta's 174 billion barrels of established oil sands reserves make Canada one of the top three countries globally - along with Saudi Arabia and Venezuela - in terms of proven or recoverable crude oil reserves. The key questions in recovering these resources are: What is the best technology available to recover them? Where and how can sustainable recovery be improved? How much is recoverable? The current major production methods for oil sands reserves include mining and enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods. More than 90% of the vast energy resources in Alberta is found in deposits too deep underground to be mined at the surface. Thus the EOR methods must be used to coax the molasses-like bitumen, the "raw" heavy crude oil, to the surface. The commonly used EOR methods for heavy oil and oil sands reserves are thermal recovery methods such as steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) and cyclic steam stimulation (CSS). These methods take advantage of the dependence of the oil phase viscosity on temperature. Environmental impacts of these processes and the use of a high volume of water and natural gas in them suggest that extensive research is required for the economical and environmentally friendly development of these reservoirs.