Monitoring of Steam Injection in a Heavy Oil Reservoir by Integration of Production and 4D Seismic Data

Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) operations for Heavy Oil production in the Lower Fars formation of South Ratqa field located in North Kuwait is being monitored using 3D Vertical Seismic Profiling (VSP) and 4D surface seismic methods. 4D seismic inversion has been integrated with production data by assessing the cycle stage of individual wells, production and injection data, measured temperatures of emulsion, and pressure fall off data during soaking period. To qualitatively cross-check the results, analytical and numerical methods were also invoked to show good correlation between injected steam volume and the size of steam anomaly around the injectors at the time of the acquisition. The orientation of the steam anomalies is consistent with the measured temperatures of production streams. The lesson learnt from the CSS pilot study proved the significance value of 4D seismic in monitoring of the CSS mainly in injection mode and follow-up steam flooding.