One of the main methods of enhancement bitumen and high-viscosity oil recovery is the injection of steam and hot water. The efficiency of thermal methods is determined by the properties of hot fluid at the well bottom hole. But, as usually the hot fluid properties are only known at the wellhead. Much of heat energy is lost during the hot fluid injection especially at deep wells. Therefore, in order to estimate the efficiency of the steam injection, it is necessary to perform thermodynamic welltests to determine hot fluid properties at the wellbore. In these conditions, the development of approach of hot fluid properties estimation becomes highly important. This paper describes the approach of hot fluid properties estimation in any point of well during the steam injection. The approach is based on the conjugation of heat conductivity equation solution for estimation of heat losses and the equation of the vapor-liquid mixture flow in the well. The approach can be also implemented using average heat losses along the wellbore, when they are known from thermodynamic welltests. The proposed procedure can be easily implemented in spreadsheets. Considered algorithms allow us to provide engineering calculations of hot fluid properties in the wellbore without having special knowledge in thermal methods. It is necessary to mention that considered approach allows estimating bottomhole pressure during the steam injection. It helps to sel ect steam injection regimes at the wellhead to avoid fracturing at the bottom hole. An example of using the approach in real project of Zarubezhneft JSC is considered in the article.
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