Liner Deployed Flow Control Devices in SAGD Infill Producers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Hardcastle ◽  
Ryan Holmes ◽  
Frank Abbott ◽  
Jesse Stevenson ◽  
Aubrey Tuttle
Keyword(s):  
Flow Control ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Distributed Temperature Sensing ◽  
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage ◽  
Well Production ◽  
Flow Control Devices ◽  
Control Devices ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Mobility Variable

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.

scholarly journals A Workflow for Optimization of Flow Control Devices in SAGD

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 3237
Author(s):  
Anas Sidahmed ◽  
Siavash Nejadi ◽  
Alireza Nouri
Keyword(s):  
Flow Control ◽  
Oil Sands ◽  
Net Present Value ◽  
Gravity Drainage ◽  
Operation Performance ◽  
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage ◽  
Mcmurray Formation ◽  
Flow Control Devices ◽  
Recovery Technique ◽  
Control Devices

In McMurray Formation, steam assisted gravity drainage is used as the primary in-situ recovery technique to recover oil sands. Different geological reservoir settings and long horizontal wells impose limitations and operational challenges on the implementation of steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). The dual-string tubing system is the conventional completion scheme in SAGD. In complex reservoirs where dual-string completion cannot improve the operation performance, operators have adopted flow control devices (FCDs) to improve project economics. FCDs secure more injection/production points along the horizontal sections of the SAGD well pairs, hence, they maximize ultimate bitumen recovery and minimize cumulative steam-oil ratio (cSOR). This paper will focus on the optimization of outflow control devices (OCDs) in SAGD reservoirs with horizontal wellbore undulations. We present the detailed optimization workflow and show the optimization results for various scenarios with well pair trajectory undulation. Comparing the results of the optimized OCDs case with a dual-string case of the same SAGD model shows improvements in steam distribution, steam chamber growth, bitumen production, and net present value (NPV).

Wingtip Vortex Stability and Control Using Mean Flow Perturbation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew L. Bodling ◽  
Daniel J. Garmann
Keyword(s):  
Flow Control ◽  
Linear Stability ◽  
Mode Shapes ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Stable Mode ◽  
Tip Vortices ◽  
Flow Perturbation ◽  
Flow Control Devices ◽  
Control Devices ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Wingtip vortices generated by aircraft are the source of induced drag. Therefore, flow control devices such as winglets have been created to reduce the impact of tip vortices and consequently improve the wings performance. To use other flow control devices such as periodic heat-flux sources, the receptivity to the actuator must be fully optimized to be effective. The optimization process includes actuator placement, frequency selection and spatial modulation. The Mean Flow Perturbation (MFP) technique is a linear stability analysis that can be used to understand the receptivity of base flows to small perturbations. Its advantage over other linear stability analyses is that it can be applied fairly easily to complex 3-D flows in a relatively efficient manner, embedded within traditional flow-solver frameworks. This technique can help in gaining a better understanding of the receptivity of a flow control actuator that is used to control a complex 3-D flow. The current study seeks to apply the MFP technique to the author’s previous work on unsteady tip vortices. The aspect-ratio-four, rounded-tip wing has a NACA0012 section and operates at a Reynolds number of Re = 2 × 105 and incidence of α = 12°. The objective is to uncover the least stable mode shapes and frequencies of the structure using MFP in hopes of informing future flow control design techniques. At these conditions, the MFP shows a dominant least stable frequency and mode shape that occurs near the trailing edge of the wingtip. A region near the incipient separation of the vortex also showed with a definitive spatial wavelength that may be susceptible to tailored control.

Flow Profiling Using Fiber Optics in a Horizontal Steam Injector with Liner-Deployed Flow Control Devices

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Javaheri ◽  
Minh Tran ◽  
Richard Scot Buell ◽  
Timothy Lee Gorham ◽  
Jack Sims ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Flow Control ◽  
Fiber Optics ◽  
Optical Fibers ◽  
Probabilistic Approach ◽  
Steam Injection ◽  
Flow Profile ◽  
Distributed Temperature Sensing ◽  
Capital Costs ◽  
Flow Control Devices ◽  
Control Devices

Abstract Horizontal steam injectors can improve the efficiency of thermal operations relative to vertical injectors. However, effective in-well and reservoir surveillance is needed to understand steam conformance. Uniform steam chest development improves steam-oil-ratio (SOR) in continuous steam injection and accelerates recovery in cyclic steam injection. Conformance of the injected steam can be achieved by flow control devices (FCD) deployed on either tubing or liner. A new liner-deployed FCD was used in a horizontal steam injector in the Kern River field. The liner-deployed FCD is intended to replace the tubing-deployed FCDs while reducing capital costs, surveillance costs, and well intervention costs for conformance control. Fiber optics was used for surveillance, which is the most promising method in horizontal steam injectors considering reliability, accuracy, and cost. Fiber optic data enables monitoring the performance of liner-deployed FCDs as well as estimating the flow profile along the lateral length. Multi-mode Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) optical fibers and single-mode Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) optical fibers were installed in the well for these objectives. Algorithms for interpreting DTS were improved to include a new technique, Shape Language Modeling (SLM), and a probabilistic approach. The configuration of the FCDs was changed during a well intervention, and it was monitored by DTS and DAS. Data from both DTS and DAS confirms the open/closed position of the sliding sleeve of FCDs initially and after the intervention. The probabilistic estimates of steam outflow in several FCD configurations match well with the theoretical outflow that is expected from the critical flow of steam through chokes installed in the FCDs.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document