Gravity Drainage To Horizontal Wells

Butler, R.M.

doi:10.2118/92-04-02

Cited by 20 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…SAGD is being used extensively in Western Canada and other areas in the world as an effective and economic means for the recovery of heavy oil and bitumen reserves and represents the current primary technology for the exploitation of this large hydrocarbon resource (1)(2)(3)(4)(5) . Key factors in the successful operation of a SAGD process include;…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protocols for Slotted Liner Design for Optimum SAGD Operation

Bennion

Gupta

Gittins

et al. 2009

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

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Slotted liners are used extensively in the majority of steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) operations conducted in Western Canada due to their superior mechanical strength and integrity in contrast to other mechanical sand-control devices. These liners are required because of the generally poorly or unconsolidated nature of the majority of formations in which SAGD applications are conducted. These liners can have a variety of configurations with varying slot density, slotting patterns, slot apertures and slot internal geometries. The overall objective of a successful slotted liner design is to ensure that the liner allows the maximum production of bitumen and other fluids with a minimum pressure drop, while retaining the majority of the formation sand and preventing infill of the horizontal section of the well with solids and erosion and failure of downhole pumps and surface equipment. This paper describes a detailed lab test protocol which was successfully developed over a number years for the design and evaluation of slot geometry for SAGD applications, describes test procedures used and quantifies some of the major mechanisms discovered that lead to the plugging of slots. It has been found that in addition to grain size of the sand under consideration and slot geometry, that clay content of the formation, flow velocity, wetting phase type and pH play crucial roles in the plugging mechanism of slotted liners. Clay plugging at the top portion of the slots has been found to be the dominant damage mechanism. Introduction SAGD is being used extensively in Western Canada and other areas in the world as an effective and economic means for the recovery of heavy oil and bitumen reserves and represents the current primary technology for the exploitation of this large hydrocarbon resource(1-5).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protocols for Slotted Liner Design for Optimum SAGD Operation

Bennion

Gupta

Gittins

et al. 2009

Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology

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“…The SAGD technique that was first designed by Butler (1992Butler ( , 1994) is one of the most effective steam injection methods and it has been widely applied in Canadian oilsand reservoirs. The steam movement is highly influenced by complex substructure in reservoirs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Interpretation Method of 4D Seismic for Estimating Steam Chamber Extent

Tanaka

Endo²,

Nakayama³

et al. 2009

All Days

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This paper presents a new interpretation methodology of 4D seismic data to determine the steam-chamber distribution generated by the SAGD operation in the Athabasca oil sands. Thin mudstone layers and abrupt changes in facies present difficulties upon SAGD implementation. 3D seismic surveys were conducted in 2002 to aid in understanding of the facies distribution, and in 2006 to evaluate SAGD performance.Two methods are demonstrated to estimate the steamchamber areal distribution. The first approach is based on comparison of seismic traveltime maps from the two 3D surveys, and the second method uses the interval P-wave velocity (Vp) from the top to the bottom of the reservoir transformed from the seismic traveltime. We formulated a petrophysical model that expresses Vp as a function of temperature, pressure, and water saturation based on the previous experimental measurements of seismic velocity with oil-sands cores. Scaling factors for Vp reduction were first estimated to adjust the laboratory scale to field scale and distributions of Vp reduction and traveltime changes corresponding to the steam-chamber conditions were calculated.Vp and traveltime maps that reflect the high pressure and high temperature zones generated by the SAGD process were obtained and distributions of Vp reduction and traveltime were calculated with the petrophysical model in order to decouple composite effects of temperature and pressure. Effects of pressure were assumed to be areally more extensive than temperature effects. By distinguishing high temperature and high porepressure zones from low temperature and high porepressure zones, the steam-chamber distribution was determined. The steam-chamber distribution obtained by the traveltime approach did not show a very good agreement with the well production performance, while the Vp approach presented consistent results. The bitumen volume in the steam-chamber zone estimated by the new approach was calculated, and compared with the actual bitumen production.The methodology demonstrated here can be applied to other 4D seismic data at fields under thermal recovery processes.

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“…Steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is being used extensively in Western Canada and other areas in the world as an effective and economic means for the recovery of heavy oil and bitumen reserves and represents the current primary technology for the exploitation of this large hydrocarbon resource (1)(2)(3)(4)(5) . Key factors in the successful operation of a SAGD process include;…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protocols for Slotted Liner Design for Optimum SAGD Operation

Bennion¹,

Gupta²,

Gittins³

et al. 2008

Canadian International Petroleum Conference

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Slotted liners are used extensively in the majority of steam assisted gravity drainage operations conducted in Western Canada due to their superior mechanical strength and integrity in contrast to other mechanical sand control devices. These liners are required due to the generally poorly or unconsolidated nature of the majority of formations in which SAGD applications are conducted. These liners can have a variety of configurations with varying slot density, slotting patterns, slot apertures and slot internal geometries. The overall objective of a successful slotted liner design is to ensure that the liner allows the maximum production of bitumen and other fluids with a minimum pressure drop, while retaining the majority of the formation sand and preventing infill of the horizontal section of the well with solids and erosion and failure of downhole pumps and surface equipment. This paper describes a detailed lab test protocol which was successfully developed over a number years for the design and evaluation of slot geometry for SAGD applications, describes test procedures used and quantifies some of the major mechanisms discovered that lead to the plugging of slots. It has been found that in addition to grain size of the sand under consideration and slot geometry, that clay content of the formation, flow velocity, wetting phase type and pH play crucial roles in the plugging mechanism of slotted liners. Clay plugging at the top portion of the slots has been found to be the dominant damage mechanism. PETROLEUM SOCIETY

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Gravity Drainage To Horizontal Wells

Cited by 20 publications

References 5 publications

Protocols for Slotted Liner Design for Optimum SAGD Operation

Protocols for Slotted Liner Design for Optimum SAGD Operation

A New Interpretation Method of 4D Seismic for Estimating Steam Chamber Extent

Protocols for Slotted Liner Design for Optimum SAGD Operation

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