Experimental study on the effect of different distributed interlayer on SAGD performance

Wei, Shihao; Duan, Yunlong; Wei, Mingqiang; Ren, Keyi; Lu, Chuan; Zhan, Jie; Tang, Yuxuan

doi:10.1016/j.petrol.2021.109827

Cited by 8 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Wei studied the influence of interlayers on the performance of the SAGD process. 25 That study revealed that the expansion of the steam chamber was hindered by the presence of interlayers, leading to its diversion toward the top of the reservoir through both sides of the interlayer.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The investigation revealed that an initial gas saturation of approximately 9% or higher caused an acceleration of thermal dissipation and hindered the formation and expansion of the steam chamber. Wei studied the influence of interlayers on the performance of the SAGD process . That study revealed that the expansion of the steam chamber was hindered by the presence of interlayers, leading to its diversion toward the top of the reservoir through both sides of the interlayer.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Study on the Uniform Steam Injection Method of Horizontal Wells during the SAGD Process in Heavy Oil Fields

Wang,

Liu,

Zhao

et al. 2023

Energy Fuels

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Uniform steam chamber expansion over the whole well length significantly affects the development of steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) in oil reservoirs. Currently, most research is focused on optimizing the steam suction profile through the production wells. While uniform steam injection (USI) along horizontal wells is often neglected and studied in only a few reports, it is a critical technique to enhance oil recovery. Herein, a novel type of USI-SAGD process using an injector tube with variable density perforation was developed. The performance of USI-SAGD was evaluated based on a custom-built physical experimental setup and numerical simulation. The experimental findings demonstrate that the USI-SAGD method exhibits a more homogeneous steam injection profile by mitigating the accumulation of wellbore fluids and, thereby, making the steam injection profile more uniform. This resulted in a notable increase of 22.6% in the uniformity of steam chamber development and an 8.02% increase in oil recovery compared with the single-point SAGD method under identical experimental conditions. Numerical simulations indicate that USI-SAGD effectively regulates the outflow profile and mitigates the decrease in steam quality caused by steam overlay along the injector. As a result, the method achieves an even distribution of the pressure and steam quality, which corresponds to an improvement in steam injection uniformity. The perforating point number and distribution were optimized, which indicated an optimal critical value of 30 perforating points per 1000 m wellbore and a 4:6 distribution ratio for improving the uniformity of the steam chamber and enhancing the production performance in the horizontal well. This work proves that USI-SAGD is efficient in improving heavy oil production and has great potential for use in field applications.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study on the Uniform Steam Injection Method of Horizontal Wells during the SAGD Process in Heavy Oil Fields

Wang,

Liu,

Zhao

et al. 2023

Energy Fuels

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“…The results were verified by numerical simulation. Wei et al [25] used a 3D physical model to study the effect of different interlayer areas (quarter-length coverage and half-length coverage) on the expansion of the steam chamber. Zhang et al [26] used cement to simulate a breccia interlayer and studied the influence of the breccia interlayer on steam chamber expansion and development effect in the SAGD production process by using a three-dimensional physical model.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Influence of Interlayer on the Development of Steam Chamber in Steam Stimulation during Heavy Oil Recovery

Fan¹,

Fan²,

Deng

et al. 2023

Processes

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Cyclic steam stimulation is an effective thermal recovery method for heavy oil recovery. The key potential mechanism is the growth of the steam chamber after steam injection. Taking the LD5X heavy oil reservoir as an example, besides the interlayer developed in this area, the top water and bottom water distribute above and below the interlayer. These factors may have adverse effects on the development of the steam chamber, thus affecting the final heavy oil exploitation. In this work, our goal is to study the effects of interlayer permeability and well–interlayer distance on CSS performance (in the presence of top and bottom water). We developed a high-temperature-resistant interlayer. Based on the simulated interlayer, the field scale model was converted into a laboratory element model through the similarity criterion. In order to quantitatively evaluate the performance of steam stimulation, a thermal detector was used to measure the dynamic growth of the steam chamber and record the production data. The experimental results show that the self-made interlayer has high-temperature resistance, adjustable permeability, and little difference between the physical parameters and the target interlayer. During the cyclic steam stimulation process, the steam chamber presents two different stages in the presence of the top water area, namely the normal production stage and the top water discharge stage. The bottom water has little effect on the growth of the steam chamber. The small interlayer permeability, the increase in horizontal well–interlayer distance, and the existence of the interlayer will delay the top water leakage during steam stimulation. This study has reference significance for us to develop heavy oil resources with a top water barrier when implementing steam stimulation technology.

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“…This characteristic makes thermal recovery technology the most direct and effective method for heavy oil development. Presently, the mainstream heavy oil thermal recovery technologies worldwide include steam flooding (Wang et al, 2015), cyclic steam stimulation (Yang et al, 2016), combustion oil in-situ (Zhang et al, 2013;Li et al, 2022), steamassisted gravity drainage (SAGD) (Wei et al, 2022), microwave oil recovery, etc (Li et al, 2023a).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental study on flue gas foam-assisted steam flooding: investigating characteristics of enhanced oil recovery and gas storage

Cao,

Wei,

et al. 2023

Front. Energy Res.

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Steam flooding is one of the most widely used heavy oil thermal recovery technologies. Steam transfers heat to heavy oil to reduce viscosity and improve fluidity. The current problem is that steam loses a lot of heat in the formation, and there are serious carbon emissions in the whole production process. In this paper, flue gas and steam were combined to drive heavy oil in the form of composite thermal fluid, and foam was added on this basis. With the help of one-dimensional sandpack model, both single-model and parallel dual-model with permeability ratio experiments were conducted to investigate key characteristics such as steam heat transfer, heavy oil production and flue gas retention during the displacement process. The experimental results indicated that flue gas effectively inhibited steam condensation and reduced heat loss during the flow process. Compared to steam flooding, the sandpack model exhibited temperature rises of 4.4°C and 9.1°C at the middle and end, respectively. While flue gas foam fell slightly short of flue gas in terms of enhanced heat transfer, it outperforms in recovery factor, achieving a 10.4% improvement over flue gas-assisted steam flooding. The foam blocked gas channeling by accumulating and capturing along the flow path, resulting in a gas retention volume of 389 mL within the model. Furthermore, the flue gas foam facilitated steam flow to previously unswept low-permeability areas, thus enhancing oil recovery. In the parallel double-model experiment, the low-permeability model exhibited significantly improved oil displacement efficiency compared to flue gas-assisted steam flooding, and the remaining oil content in the end of the high permeability model was increased by 1.9%, while the remaining oil content in the front and end of the low-permeability model was reduced by 3.5% and 3.8% respectively.

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Experimental study on the effect of different distributed interlayer on SAGD performance

Cited by 8 publications

References 26 publications

Study on the Uniform Steam Injection Method of Horizontal Wells during the SAGD Process in Heavy Oil Fields

Study on the Uniform Steam Injection Method of Horizontal Wells during the SAGD Process in Heavy Oil Fields

The Influence of Interlayer on the Development of Steam Chamber in Steam Stimulation during Heavy Oil Recovery

Experimental study on flue gas foam-assisted steam flooding: investigating characteristics of enhanced oil recovery and gas storage

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