Horizontal producers deliverability in SAGD and solvent aided-SAGD processes: Pure and partial solvent injection

Summary Although the steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) process is still the preferred thermal-recovery process method for Athabascan deposits in Alberta, Canada, the interest in solvent-based techniques is growing due to reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions and water treatment concerns. In SAGD process, the thermodynamic trapping or subcool trapping is quite efficient due to strongly dependency of bitumen viscosity to temperature. As Irani (2018) discussed subcool trapping for solvent applications such NsolvTM recovery process is inefficient due to week dependency of solvent viscosity to temperature. Other factor that effects the efficiency of the thermodynamic trapping is that the pure solvent injection recovery processes are operated at low pressure and it is not large temperature window for operators to apply large subcools. Such challenges make the pure solvent injection recovery processes a perfect case for deployment of Flow-Control-Devices (FCDs). FCDs have demonstrated significant potential for improving recovery in SAGD production wells. FCD experience in SAGD has been primarily positive and most producers performed better with FCDs. Application of FCDs are even more important in pure-solvent injection recovery processes due to large amount of solvent in the liquid pool and also low latent heat of solvent in comparison of water. With FCDs, the draw-down pressure is typically higher, resulting in flashing near the well bore, which is largely correlated to latent heat of the main fluid in the liquid pool. The flashing creates either steam or vapour breakthrough that causes the reduction in the relative permeability of the liquid phase. Such mobility reduction creates new equilibrium that stabilizes at lower rates. Such new equilibrium analysis is conducted by forcing a new temperature gradient to the model. Such condition creates an environment that leads into extensive solvent-breakthrough called solvent-coning in this study. The main output of such analysis is the produced solvent gas-fraction produced at the sand-face. The gas-fraction is an important input for the flow control devices (FCDs) especially at subcools close to the zero, as it controls its behavior. EoS model is also created and simplified to be possible to used in defining different equilibrium conditions. This type of analysis can help the operators evaluate the effectiveness of different type of FCDs, whether they are primarily momentum- or friction-style devices for application of the pure solvent injection recovery processes. This study is the first of its kind that couple the EoS and Darcy flow in the liquid pool. The model includes all the factors into a liquid-relative-permeability, and limitation of the liquid flow into producer is modeled by Darcy flow and reduction of such relative-permeability.

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Modeling and Simulation of Asphaltene Inhibition and Remediation Using Aromatic Solvents

10.2118/200842-ms ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Ali Abouie ◽

Kamy Sepehrnoori

Keyword(s):

Oil Fields ◽

Asphaltene Precipitation ◽

Chemical Additives ◽

Aromatic Solvent ◽

Solvent Injection ◽

Intervention Cost ◽

Gas Flooding ◽

Pros And Cons ◽

The Common ◽

Side Track

Abstract Asphaltene precipitation and deposition occur in the reservoir, near-wellbore, inside the tubing, and production facilities during primary, secondary, or tertiary production. As more water-flooded oil fields produce under miscible gas flooding, this problem becomes more common around the world. If asphaltene deposition occurs in the reservoir or wellbore, it can severely affect the economics of the field in terms of production loss, intervention cost, and the requirement for chemical additives, if necessary. In some severe cases, intervention would be impossible and side-track well needs to be drilled. Hence, the best strategy for oil production in asphaltenic reservoirs is to control asphaltene precipitation and deposition through prevention and remediation jobs to minimize the number of well shut-ins, the downtime of the wells, and the associated cost. In this paper, we reviewed the common asphaltene prevention and remediation techniques along with their pros and cons. Since removing asphaltene deposits from the problematic wells is relatively expensive and sometimes requires substantial downtime of the well, we focused on one of the prevention techniques (i.e., continuous solvent injection through capillary injection string), which has become more popular, to control asphaltene precipitation in the wellbore. We obtained the physical properties of an aromatic solvent from literature and then characterized it as a component to be used with PC-SAFT EOS. Subsequently, we used the in-house wellbore model to evaluate the effectiveness of the continuous solvent injection with different injection rates on preventing asphaltene precipitation and deposition along the wellbore.

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