Liner Deployed Flow Control Devices in SAGD Infill Producers

Abstract

Connacher Oil and Gas has deployed Flow Control Devices (FCDs)on an infill well liner as part of a Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) exploitation strategy. Infill wells are horizontal wells drilled in between offsetting SAGD well pairs in order to access bypassed pay and accelerate recovery. These wells can have huge variability in productivity, based on several factors: variable initial temperature due to variable steam chamber development and initial mobility variable injectivity from day one limiting steam circulation and stimulation significant hot spots during production that limit drawdown of the well and oil productivity FCDs have shown great value in several SAGD schemes and are becoming common throughout SAGD applications to manage similar challenges in SAGD pairs, but their application in infill wells is less prevalent and presents a novel challenge to design and evaluate performance. This case study will examine the theory, operation, and early field results of this field trial. Density-based FCDs designed for thermal operations were selected to minimize the impact of viscous fluids commonly encountered early in cold infill well production. The design also limited steam outflow during the stimulation phase, where steam is injected in order to initiate production of the well. Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) data, pressures and rates are utilized to analyze the impact of the FCDs towards conformance of the well in the early life. The value of FCDs has led to further piloting of this technology in a second group of nine infill wells, where further value is to be extracted using slimmer wellbores.