Design of the Steam and Solvent Injection Strategy in Expanding-Solvent Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage

Gates, I.D.; Chakrabarty, N.

doi:10.2118/2006-023

Cited by 26 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…In the optimization procedure, the SA algorithm conducts random searches that attempt to lower the value of the cost function, i.e., the optimum value of desired reservoir operating performance. The parameters of the SA algorithm were the same as those used in previous studies (see Gates and Chakrabarty, 2010, for more details).…”

Section: The Simulated Annealing Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stochastic Optimization of Hot Water Flooding Strategy in Thin Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Zhao

Gates

2013

All Days

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Stochastic optimization, based on a simulated annealing method, was done to determine the optimum hot water-flooding strategy for recovery of oil from thin (<6 m) heavy oil reservoirs. The results reveal that high injection pressures are critical to a successful hot water flooding strategy. For water temperature during injection, the results show from a thermal efficienty point of view that that it is most efficient to adopt a temperature profile where the injection temperature starts high and ends at low water temperature. Multiple cycles of this profile might be beneficial depending on the reservoir conditions. The lower temperature injection at later stages of the recovery process partially recovers the heat stored in the reservoir matrix and therefore increases the overall heat utilization efficiency. A sensitivity analysis shows that the permeability distribution affects the performance of the hot water flooding process most significantly. The existence of a higher permeability zone in the lower part of the reservoir leads to earlier oil production and water breakthrough. The absolute permeability value has the largest effect on process performance. High permeability was found to lead to more oil and water production in the early stage of operation and achieved the best economic performance. The low permeability case was found to show a slow oil production. Although it has the lowest cumulative injected energy to oil produced ratio, poor oil production made the operation process uneconomic.

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Section: The Simulated Annealing Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gates (2010) proposed a solvent-aided thermal recovery process for 8 m thick oil sands reservoir. The reported solvent-aided process led to substantially lower steam usage and net injected energy (both steam and solvent lost to the reservoir) to oil ratio compared with traditional SAGD.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stochastic Optimization of Hot Water Flooding Strategy in Thin Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Zhao

Gates

2013

All Days

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“…Although the LASER process is in CSS mode, in the later part of the LASER, which is similar to SAGD, the mechanisms of oil recovery is due to gravity drainage (18) . Hence, the injected solvent behaves in similar way to the injected solvent in the ES-SAGD process.…”

Section: Liquid Addition To Steam For Enhancing Recovery (Laser)mentioning

confidence: 99%

New Hybrid Steam-Solvent Processes for the Recovery of Heavy Oil and Bitumen

Nasr¹,

Ayodele²

2006

Proceedings of Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference

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TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractCanada has declining reserves of conventional oil, but vast reserves of heavy oil and bitumen. Over 90% of the world's heavy oil and bitumen trapped in sandstones and carbonates are deposited in Canada and Venezuela. Up to 80% of estimated reserves could be recovered by in-situ thermal operation. The current in-situ thermal technologies such as cyclic steam stimulation (CSS), steam flooding and steamassisted gravity drainage (SAGD) are energy intensive and use large quantities of fresh water. Increasing pressure of environmental concerns and the threat of a carbon tax will make it imperative to find new oil extraction technologies that are less energy intensive and that use less water. Combining technologies in the form of hybrid steam-solvent processes offer the potential of higher oil rates and recoveries, but at less energy and water consumption than processes such as SAGD.At the Alberta Research Council, new hybrid steam-solvent processes have been undergoing development in recent years. The Expanding Solvent-SAGD (ES-SAGD) (1-2) , is aimed at improving and extending SAGD performance by solvent addition to steam. The improvements include higher and faster drainage rates, lower energy and water requirements and reduced green house gas (GHG) emissions. The Thermal Solvent Hydrid process focuses on combining solvent with a small amount of steam in a VAPEX (vapour extraction) process (3)(4) . This process offers the potential of higher rates than cold solvent VAPEX at less energy consumption than SAGD.Hybrid steam-solvent processes, when fully developed, will extract oil at lower cost than SAGD and will also open currently marginal resources for exploitation, increasing oil reserves. This paper presents and discusses the principal concepts and key parameters for the new hybrid steam-solvent processes and compares expected performance to SAGD.

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“…They tried to reduce the required computational time and optimize the performance by using nonlinear proxy (response surface) models. Gates and Chakrabarty (2008) endeavored to design an injection strategy for steam and solvent in ES-SAGD process. They utilized thermal reservoir simulator to build a three-dimensional, single well pair heterogeneous model.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of Solvent Alternating SAGD Process to Improve SAGD Performance in Athabasca Bitumen Reservoir

et al. 2013

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Canada, Venezuela and United States contain the largest portions of heavy oil and bitumen resources throughout the world. The problem associated with this type of resource is very viscous fluid flow. The EOR methods applied to heavy oil reservoirs are mainly based on viscosity reduction processes such as heating the reservoir and solvent injection. Heating, in the form of hot water flooding, steam injection and in-situ combustion dramatically reduces the viscosity of heavy oil and bitumen, but it has green house gas (GHG) emission problems. Diffusion of solvents in heavy oil makes it lighter and therefore mobile and producible via production well. Diffusion of solvent is a very tardy process while time is very important in oil industry and any delay results in extra costs. Recently, hybrid methods like solvent and steam co-injection, steam alternating solvent injection (SAS) have been introduced to solve the mentioned problems, while benefiting from the advantages of heat and solvent.Several simulation studies were performed to evaluate and compare the performance of steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) and steam alternating solvent (SAS) processes. Athabasca bitumen reservoir properties were used. Effects of some reservoir and fluid parameters such as thickness, porosity, vertical to horizontal permeability ratio and viscosity were assessed and compared for both processes. Experimental viscosity data of Athabasca and Cold lake bitumen were applied to evaluate the viscosity effect. In addition, sensitivity analysis was carried out on injection time intervals of solvent, solvent type and concentration.Results revealed high recovery of bitumen and appropriate steam-oil ratio (SOR) for both processes. However, SAS showed better performance using hexane as a solvent. Lower porosity, vertical to horizontal permeability ratio and thickness resulted in higher SOR for SAGD process while they had no major effect on SAS. Higher concentration of injected solvent resulted in faster recovery performance and lower SOR. Pentane and heptane were used as alternatives for hexane to investigate the impact of the selected solvent. They divulged almost the same results as hexane. Different injection intervals of 3, 6, 9 months and a year were also studied and the analogous results were obtained.

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Design of the Steam and Solvent Injection Strategy in Expanding-Solvent Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage

Cited by 26 publications

References 14 publications

Stochastic Optimization of Hot Water Flooding Strategy in Thin Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Stochastic Optimization of Hot Water Flooding Strategy in Thin Heavy Oil Reservoirs

New Hybrid Steam-Solvent Processes for the Recovery of Heavy Oil and Bitumen

Application of Solvent Alternating SAGD Process to Improve SAGD Performance in Athabasca Bitumen Reservoir

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