A Study of Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage Performance in the Presence of Noncondensable Gases

Canbolat, Serhat; Akın, Serhat; Kovscek, Anthony R.

doi:10.2118/75130-ms

Cited by 32 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…On the other hand, high concentration of the noncondensable gas in the steam chamber, particularly near the top, has the potential of forming an insulation layer which can prevent heat loss to overburden. Experimental works that have previously been published (15,16) for injection of noncondensable gases in SAGD reported improved SOR, but 7%-30% reduction in average oil production rate. In fact, noncondensable gas injection might not be always beneficial.…”

Section: Noncondensable Gas Coinjectionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Numerical Evaluation of Hydrocarbon Additives to Steam in the SAGD Process

Mohebati

Maini

Harding

2010

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

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Summary Heavy oil and bitumen are expected to become increasingly important sources of fuel in the coming decades. Steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is a commercially viable and widely used recovery technique for heavy oil and bitumen. However, it remains an expensive technique and requires large energy input in the form of steam. Energy intensity of SAGD, as well as environmental concerns such as fresh water usage and CO2 emission, make it imperative to find new oil extraction technologies. Coinjecting a hydrocarbon additive with steam offers the potential of higher oil rates and recoveries with lower energy and water consumption. A reservoir simulation study using a 20X12X15 3D Cartesian model and Athabasca fluid and reservoir properties was conducted to evaluate this process. The role of hydrocarbon additive in the steam chamber and its effect on the performance of SAGD was investigated. Simulation results revealed the parameters that will have the greatest impact on the process performance and indicated the effectiveness of each hydrocarbon additive in improving the performance of SAGD. The results also showed that selecting the most suitable hydrocarbon additive depends on the operating conditions as well as the original reservoir fluid composition.

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Section: Noncondensable Gas Coinjectionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Numerical Evaluation of Hydrocarbon Additives to Steam in the SAGD Process

Mohebati

Maini

Harding

2010

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

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“…Consequently, a lower oil recovery factor is obtained when solution gas exists in the heavy oil, as shown in Figure 6. The negative effects of the existence of the initial solution gas were briefly reported in the previous literature [56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69]. In this study, more details are investigated.…”

Section: Effect Of the Initial Gas Oil Ratiomentioning

confidence: 94%

Numerical Simulation Study on Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage Performance in a Heavy Oil Reservoir with a Bottom Water Zone

Zhou

Yuan

et al. 2017

Energies

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Abstract:In the Pikes Peak oil field near Lloydminster, Canada, a significant amount of heavy oil reserves is located in reservoirs with a bottom water zone. The properties of the bottom water zone and the operation parameters significantly affect oil production performance via the steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process. Thus, in order to develop this type of heavy oil resource, a full understanding of the effects of these properties is necessary. In this study, the numerical simulation approach was applied to study the effects of properties in the bottom water zone in the SAGD process, such as the initial gas oil ratio, the thickness of the reservoir, and oil saturation of the bottom water zone. In addition, some operation parameters were studied including the injection pressure, the SAGD well pair location, and five different well patterns: (1) two corner wells, (2) triple wells, (3) downhole water sink well, (4) vertical injectors with a horizontal producer, and (5) fishbone well. The numerical simulation results suggest that the properties of the bottom water zone affect production performance extremely. First, both positive and negative effects were observed when solution gas exists in the heavy oil. Second, a logarithmical relationship was investigated between the bottom water production ratio and the thickness of the bottom water zone. Third, a non-linear relation was obtained between the oil recovery factor and oil saturation in the bottom water zone, and a peak oil recovery was achieved at the oil saturation rate of 30% in the bottom water zone. Furthermore, the operation parameters affected the heavy oil production performance. Comparison of the well patterns showed that the two corner wells and the triple wells patterns obtained the highest oil recovery factors of 74.71% and 77.19%, respectively, which are almost twice the oil recovery factors gained in the conventional SAGD process (47.84%). This indicates that the optimized SAGD process with the two corner wells and the triple wells pattern is able to improve SAGD production performance in a heavy oil reservoir with a bottom water zone.

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“…Sasaki et al (2001) investigated a 2D laboratory model and noticed that a larger distance between an injector and a producer did favor to the steam chamber rising rate and oil production rate. But Canbolat et al (2002) considered that this might lead to low recovery efficiency. Also, Shin and Polikar (2007) discovered that this resulted in a decreased SOR, while reducing the distance enabled the oil production first to roar to the highest point and then fall.…”

Section: Influencing Factors During Sagd Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chemical Additives and Foam to Enhance SAGD Performance

Etminan

Chen

2015

All Days

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Adding chemical additives with in-situ generation of foam is an approach to enhance SAGD (steam assisted gravity drainage) performance both in terms of oil production and SOR (steam oil ratio). Simulation study tells that, owing to gas mobility control, interfacial tension reduction and emulsification, the steam chamber profile is substantially controlled with a reduced heat loss, and the residual oil saturation drops dramatically. A heterogeneous model based on a Suncor Firebag project is further employed to testify that bubbles are conducive to improve volumetric sweep efficiency by diverting steam into low-permeable area. Simultaneously, foam favors to reduce the influences of top water zone and maintain a bowl-shaped and uniformly-developed steam chamber growth. Afterwards, an analytical method is introduced to further explain the physical mechanisms with a modified finger rising model, which shows that CAFA-SAGD (chemical additives and foam assisted SAGD) owns a lower finger rising velocity with less steam consumption.iii

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A Study of Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage Performance in the Presence of Noncondensable Gases

Cited by 32 publications

References 14 publications

Numerical Evaluation of Hydrocarbon Additives to Steam in the SAGD Process

Numerical Evaluation of Hydrocarbon Additives to Steam in the SAGD Process

Numerical Simulation Study on Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage Performance in a Heavy Oil Reservoir with a Bottom Water Zone

Chemical Additives and Foam to Enhance SAGD Performance

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