INVITED SPEAKER

Challenges in Numerical Simulation of Heavy Oil/Oil Sands Reservoirs

Prof. Zhangxing John Chen
Director, Global Research Initiative on Unconventional Oil and Gas
Professor, Depart. of Chemical & Petroleum Engineering
University Of Calgary, Canada

Duration

60 minutes

Abstract

Mathematical models have widely been used to predict, understand, and optimize complex physical processes in modeling and simulation of multiphase fluid flow in petroleum reservoirs. These models are important for understanding the fate and transport of chemical species and heat. With this understanding the models are then applied to the needs of the petroleum industry to design enhanced oil recovery strategies.
While mathematical modeling and computer simulation have been successful in the recovery of conventional (easy) oil, there still exist a lot of challenges in heavy oil/oil sands (uneasy oils) modeling. As conventional oil reserves dwindle and oil prices rise, the recovery of uneasy oils is now the center stage. Enhanced uneasy oils recovery technologies are an intensive research area in the oil industry, and have recently generated a battery of recovery methods, such as cyclic steam stimulation (CSS), steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), vapor extraction (VAPEX), hybrid steam-solvent processes, and other emerging recovery processes. This presentation will give an overview on challenges encountered in modeling and simulation of these recovery processes: insufficient physics/chemistry in current models, multi-scale phenomena, phase behavior, geomechanics, assisted history matching with closed-loop optimization, transport of solvents, four-phase flow, etc. It will also discuss the development of fast and accurate computational algorithms and their matching-up with emerging hardware architecture.
http://www.ucalgary.ca/reservoir_simulation/

Biography of the Invited Speaker

Dr. Zhangxing (John) Chen is a Professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, currently holds the NSERC/AI-EES/Foundation CMG Industrial Research Chair in Reservoir Simulation and AITF (iCORE) Industrial Chair in Reservoir Modeling, and is Director, iCentre for Simulation & Visualization, University of Calgary. His Ph.D. (1991) is from Purdue University, USA. He was a professor and reservoir engineer at Xi’an Jiaotong University, Peking University, University of Minnesota, Texas A&M University, Mobil, and Southern Methodist University (SMU). Dr. Chen held the Gerald J. Ford Professorship at SMU, Dallas, Texas, USA, and was awarded the Chang Jiang Chaired Professorship by the Chinese Ministry of Education and “Qian Ren Plan Expert” by the Chinese Government. Other significant appointments include Director of the Center for Scientific Computation, SMU, Director of the Center for Advanced Reservoir Modeling and Simulation, Peking University, and President of the Chinese Association of Science and Technology in Texas. He has published and/or edited 16 books and over 592 research papers, and has given over 352 invited (plenary and keynote) presentations worldwide. He has received numerous prestigious awards such as NSERC’s Synergy Award for Innovation, The Outstanding Leadership in Alberta Technology Award, IBM Faculty Award, Imperial Oil University Research Award and Gerald J. Ford Research Fellowship Award. His research interest is in Reservoir Engineering and Numerical Reservoir Simulation for conventional and unconventional oil and gas reservoirs.