Thermal & Advanced Processes Simulator
STARS™ is the industry standard in thermal, chemical EOR, and other advanced processes.
Robust reaction, well, and thermal capabilities make STARS the most complete and flexible reservoir simulator available for even the most advanced processes.
Improve Design, Management, and Recovery
Simulate simple to highly complex thermal recovery processes, which require accurate modelling of steam distribution and conformance to provide insight into reservoir, wellbore, and geomechanical caprock integrity issues. With STARS, engineers can design optimal well and field development plans while effectively managing steam conformance, production profiles, recovery, and ultimately Net Present Value (NPV).
Accurate and Robust
FlexWell accurately and robustly models advanced well completions, including concentric wellbores, flow control devices (FCDs), and well geometry to maximize recovery and NPV.
Model Complex Processes
Design and evaluate the effectiveness of all cEOR processes. STARS is the only simulator that accounts for the complex phenomena required to accurately model processes such as Alkaline-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) flooding, Low Salinity Water (LSW) injection, and foam flooding at a lab or field scale.
Optimize Energy Production
From Conventional Hydrothermal, to complex Enhanced Geothermal (EGS) or Closed-Loop Systems, STARS is the only fully-integrated simulator for complex geothermal mechanisms. Discover your optimal field strategy by considering transient wellbore dynamics and heat losses to pipes or formations, fluid behavior (Steam, CO2, Ethanol, etc.), geochemistry, natural and hydraulically-created fractures, geomechanics, and connections to process and production tools – all at field-scale.
Benefits
- Accurately model the physics of in-situ recovery processes including complex thermal phenomena.
- Model complex wellbore physics associated with heat transfer and fluid flow in the wellbore.
- Utilize full physics capabilities to model of a wide range of chemical EOR processes.
- Test the impact of recovery process on reservoir rock by including geomechanical effects in the simulation model.
- Attain results faster with multi-core and multi-node capabilities.
Key Features
- Simulate complex steam processes which require accurate steam distribution and conformance.
- Model advanced thermal recovery processes including SAGD, SA-SAGD, CSS, In-situ Combustion, and Solvent Co-Injection.
- Comprehensive geothermal modelling.
- Advanced modelling capabilities including geomechanics and geochemistry.
- Optimize steam allocation and solvent injection in full field multi-pad simulations.
- Accurately model wellbore effects with FlexWell.
Related Resources
Take your technical skills from the classroom to your workplace
STARS™ is the industry standard in thermal, chemical EOR, and other advanced processes.
Frequently Asked Questions
STARS is CMG’s Steam, Thermal, and Advanced processes Reservoir Simulator. It is a multi-phase, multi-component dynamic simulator designed to model complex recovery mechanisms where temperature, chemical, and geomechanical interactions play a dominant role. It supports studies including steam injection, chemical flooding, energy-transition applications (such as geothermal and hydrogen-related studies), and other thermal recovery methods.
STARS is used when thermal effects or advanced chemical processes control reservoir behavior, such as steam-based recovery or combustion. IMEX is better suited to black-oil studies where compositional and thermal effects are limited, while GEM is intended for equation-of-state compositional modeling, such as miscible gas injection.
STARS can mechanistically simulate a wide range of thermal recovery processes, including steam flooding, cyclic steam stimulation (CSS), Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD), and in-situ combustion (ISC). It also supports chemical EOR methods such as polymer, surfactant, and alkaline flooding (including ASP), foam and in-situ foam generation, low-salinity processes, and specialized behaviors such as foamy oil.
STARS models fluid-phase behavior using a K-value–based phase equilibrium formulation, in which phase equilibrium ratios are defined as functions of pressure, temperature, and composition.
STARS provides two complementary approaches for modeling thermal behavior in wells. The Flexible Wellbore (FlexWell) model is a fully numerical, discretized wellbore formulation that can represent the entire well trajectory from toe to wellhead, including complex completions such as multi-tubular and concentric strings, pumps, flow-control devices (FCDs), steam splitters, and AICDs, while capturing transient flow and heat-transfer behavior. The Semi-Analytical Model (SAM) offers an efficient way to calculate pressure drop and heat loss from the surface to the reservoir using analytical temperature and pressure profiles and is commonly applied to vertical or overburden sections of a well.