Analytical Modeling of the Cyclic ES-SAGD Process

Jaimes, Diego Manfre; Clarke, Matthew A.

doi:10.3390/en13164243

Cited by 2 publications

References 36 publications

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A New Analytical Model for Predicting Steam-Assisted Gravity-Drainage Performance in the Plateau and Decline Stages

et al. 2022

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Summary Analytical models have been widely used to study the steam-assisted gravity-drainage (SAGD) process. Existing analytical models for this process either underperform or are limited in their applicability. In this paper, a new analytical model is developed to address these shortcomings. The new model consists of three major components. First, an equation for predicting oil production rate during the plateau stage was developed. This equation allows for permeability anisotropy in the reservoir, which is neglected in the majority of existing analytical models. Second, a novel and concise equation for calculating oil production rate during the decline stage was derived. This equation for the first time provides a general relationship between oil production rate during the decline stage and the properties of the reservoir together with key operating conditions and simultaneously mitigates the shortcomings of the majority of existing models (e.g., inapplicable in the decline stage of the SAGD process). Third, new correlations representing heat loss from the steam chamber to the overburden and heat transfer to oil-undepleted zone ahead of the chamber interface were derived; new predictive equations for estimating steam/oil ratio (SOR) in the plateau and decline stages of SAGD were obtained. The new model has been validated against a 2D scaled laboratory experiment and a set of field data. The results of this validation show that the new model predicts the oil production rate and SOR over the lifetime of an SAGD operation (excluding the short steam rise period) reasonably well. Predictions from the new model were also compared with several existing analytical models: The new model provided a closer match to actual measurements than other models. This robust model is grounded in more physics and incorporates reservoir geology and well operating conditions. It enables better understanding of the SAGD process and significantly improves the prediction of SAGD performance. Hence, it can be used to design new SAGD projects, predict existing projects, and optimize existing projects.

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A New Analytical Model for Predicting Steam-Assisted Gravity-Drainage Performance in the Plateau and Decline Stages

et al. 2022

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Integrated Characterization of Expanding-Solvent Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (ES-SAGD) Processes by Using a Heat-Penetration Criterion within a Unified, Consistent, and Efficient Framework

Yang,

Yang

2024

Day 2 Thu, March 14, 2024

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The hybrid solvent-steam injection (e.g., expanding-solvent steam-assisted gravity drainage (ES-SAGD) is the most promising method to enhance heavy oil recovery (EOR); however, it is a quite a challenge to reproduce the experimental measurements and in-situ observations because of the complicated multiphase flow behaviour resulted from the coupled mass and heat transfer. In this work, an integrated technique has been developed and applied for the first time to dynamically and accurately characterize an ES-SAGD process within a unified, consistent, and efficient framework. By taking the competitive impact between heat energy and solvent dissolution, a generalized heat-penetration (HP) criterion has been derived and integrated with a numerical simulator to characterize the dynamics of solvent/steam chamber propagation conditioned to the production profiles during hybrid solvent-steam processes. This generalized HP criterion allows us to not only dynamically calculate temperature profiles beyond a solvent/steam chamber interface (SCI), but also accurately and pragmatically quantify mass and heat transfer inside the diluted oil drainage zone as well as the solvent/steam chamber. Also, comprehensive effects of the thermally sensitive co/counter-current flows are examined with a series of multiphase relative permeabilities. Such an integrated technique has been successfully validated by reproducing the measured solvent/steam chambers in 3D physical ES-SAGD experiments. Good agreements between the simulated and measured production profiles (i.e., injection temperature, pressure, and flow rate) have been made throughout the entire production period. Not only have the measured solvent/steam chambers been reproduced, but also sensitivity analyses have been performed to investigate the influences of multiphase flow behaviour, solvent concentration, and grid dimension. It is found that the diffusion/dispersion coefficients and thermal properties are dependent on temperature and solvent concentrations, competitively affecting the calculated temperature distributions. Moreover, gas-liquid relative permeabilities can impose a significant impact on the SCI moving velocity as well as the oil drainage front. Such an integrated approach considerably reduces the simulation uncertainties and complexities, offering a straightforward and effective means of dynamically reproducing the observed solvent/steam chambers within a unified, consistent, and efficient framework.

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Analytical Modeling of the Cyclic ES-SAGD Process

Cited by 2 publications

References 36 publications

A New Analytical Model for Predicting Steam-Assisted Gravity-Drainage Performance in the Plateau and Decline Stages

A New Analytical Model for Predicting Steam-Assisted Gravity-Drainage Performance in the Plateau and Decline Stages

Integrated Characterization of Expanding-Solvent Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (ES-SAGD) Processes by Using a Heat-Penetration Criterion within a Unified, Consistent, and Efficient Framework

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