Venezuela has many heavy oil reservoirs, including the Orinco belt - the world's largest accumulation of heavy and ultra heavy oil. The first important Venezuelan heavy oil field was discovered at Mene Grande in 1914. Steam injection was tested there in 1956, and led to the discovery of the benefits of cyclic steam injection.
In a more recent steam injection project at the Lake Maracaibo field, the Schlumberger Sensa fiber optic distributed temperature sensing and monitoring system was used to acquire real-time data for the purpose of monitoring well characteristics during the injection and production phases. The goal was to gain a better understanding of the steam-injection process with a view to optimizing the process. Downhole data acquired by the system showed the advance of the steam front through the entire horizontal section and indicated that longer horizontal sections could be stimulated, potentially increasing the optimum length of the horizontal borehole in injection wells and increasing production overall. The data was transmitted to the onshore team in real time using the Schlumberger InterACT wellsite monitoring and control system.
