Calculation of pressure distribution in heavy oil reservoir with boundary element method

•Boundary element method (BEM) in the calculation of heavy oil seepage is presented.•Pressure contours with different temperatures and arbitrary boundary shapes of heavy oil reservoir are obtained.•Temperature has evident effect on pressure contours.•The flexibility of BEM in dealing with irregular boundary problem is presented.•The numerical simulation results can provide theoretical basis for the heavy oil well pattern.

Boundary element method (BEM) is introduced to calculate the heavy oil seepage in this paper. The pressure contours with different temperatures and arbitrary oil reservoir shapes are obtained by solving the variable coefficients Darcy’s equations. The numerical simulation results indicate that temperature has evident effect on pressure contours when the pressure is lower. Varieties of pressure contours with different boundary conditions coincide well with the heavy oil seepage law, which indicates the validity and accuracy of BEM in dealing with the irregular boundary problem. The numerical simulation results can provide theoretical basis for the heavy oil well pattern.