Light- and Heavy-Solvent Impacts on Solvent-Aided-SAGD Process: A Low-Pressure Experimental Study

Li, Weiqiang; Mamora, Daulat Debataraja; Li, Yamin

doi:10.2118/133277-pa

Cited by 43 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…1.0 MPa) relevant to in situ reservoir conditions. Visualization techniques were used to analyze the oil recovery factor and pore scale mechanisms, and the effects of different solvents injected with steam were investigated in macroscopic, pore scale and microscopic scales, coinciding with previous conclusions in literature [14][15][16], and adding new insights in the solvent-SAGD process through pore scale and microscopic studies.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 70%

“…For the C4-SAGD run, the clearing at 15 minutes of the run is quite smaller, compared to the SAGD run. This is primarily due to the gas blanket effect, the solvent gas chamber dispersing faster and acting as a thermal insulation layer, impeding the heat transfer of steam [16].…”

Section: Experimental Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this regard, the use of light solvents to reduce the viscosity of bitumen through dilution, known as vapor extraction (VAPEX), has been proposed [7][8][9][10]. Furthermore, a hybrid method of co-injecting a minor volume of solvents (5-15 vol%) with steam has been implemented showing promising results in increasing bitumen recovery and reducing energy costs [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. This process is known as solvent-aided steam assisted gravity drainage (SA-SAGD), or expanding solvent steam assisted gravity drainage (ES-SAGD), its name derived from the expansion characteristic of solvents over the steam.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of condensing and non-condensing solvents in SA-SAGD

Kim¹

2018

IJETR

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 70%

Section: Experimental Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of condensing and non-condensing solvents in SA-SAGD

Kim¹

2018

IJETR

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“…After the pioneering works documented in the 1970s (Farouq and Synder 1973;Allen and Redford 1976;Farouq 1976) and the introduction of the VAPEX (vapor extraction) process (Butler and Mokrys 1993), different versions of solvent aided processes for heavy-oil recovery have been proposed (Das 1996a-b;Nasr et al 2003;Nasr and Ayodele 2005;Zhao 2004;Zhao et al 2005;Li and Mamora 2011;Pathak et al 2011Pathak et al , 2012Pathak et al , 2013.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selection of Optimal Solvent Type for High Temperature Solvent Applications in Heavy-Oil and Bitumen Recovery

Marciales

Babadagli

2014

Day 3 Thu, June 12, 2014

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The selection of most suitable solvent for an efficient heavy-oil recovery process is a critical task. Low carbon number solvents yield faster diffusion but the mixing quality may not be high. Also, high carbon number solvents yield a better qulity mixing (much less asphaltene precipitation) but the mixing process is rather slow. Hence, the understanding of solvent selection criteria for solvent-aided recovery processes has established two main aspects of oil-solvent interaction: (1) Oil-solvent mixture quality and (2) rate of mixture formation.Oil-solvent mixture quality is determined by two parameters: (1) Viscosity and (2) asphaltene precipitation. The rate of mixture formation is quantified by the diffusion rate. These two parameters need to be quantitatively and qualitatively determined to select the suitable solvent for heavy-oil recovery also supported by static experiments that measure solvent diffusion (and oil recovery) from a rock saturated with heavy-oil and exposed to solvent diffusion at static conditions. This paper focuses on these tests and uses three oil samples with a wide range of viscosities (250-153, 000 cp), and three liquid solvents with different carbon numbers varying between C7 and C13. The methodologies applied for diffusion rate measurement were optical applying image analysis under UV light (for processed -mineral-oil) and CT scanning (for heavy-oil obtained from fields). Next, viscosity and asphaltene precipitation measurements were conducted after mixing the crude oil and solvents to quantify the mixing quality.Then, core experiments were performed on Berea sandstone samples using the same solvent-heavy oil pairs to obtain the optimum carbon size (solvent type)-heavy oil combination that yields the highest recovery factor and the least asphaltene precipitation. Based on the fluid-fluid (solvent-heavy oil) interaction experiments and heavy-oil saturated rock-solvent interaction tests, the optimal solvent type was determined considering the fastest diffusion and best mixing quality for different oil-solvent combinations.

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“…;Li et al, (2011b);Nasr and Ayodele, (2006);Gates, (2007);Deng et al, (2008); Gates, (2010);You et al, (2012);Ayodele et al, (2010)). Ardali et al (2011) performed experimental work and simulation study to compare the efficiency of solvent co-injection with steam (SCI) method and SAGD process.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Field Scale Simulation Study, Investigating the Effect of Geological and Operational Parameters on Solvent Co-Injection Process in Athabasca Bitumen Reservoir

Souraki

Ashrafi

Ghahfarokhi

et al. 2015

SPE Western Regional Meeting

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Considerable proportions of the hydrocarbon resources in the world are in the shape of heavy oil and bitumen. In an environment of low economic returns for heavy oil operations, Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) process appears very promising from a technical point of view. However, it has two significant deficiencies, namely high energy and water requirements and environmental issues of green house gas (GHG) emissions. Recently, hybrid processes have attracted attentions, since they benefit from advantages of steam and solvents together. The vaporized solvents dissolve into the viscous oil and help the steam to reduce bitumen viscosity dramatically. Moreover, hybrid processes alleviate the high consumption of water and energy while improving the GHG emissions.The goal of this paper is to evaluate and compare the efficiency of SAGD and solvent co-injection (SCI) using experimental PVT properties of the Athabasca bitumen and a thermal numerical reservoir simulator. Steam trap control was applied in this study to hamper the steam production. Sensitivity analysis was performed to find out the effects of various geological parameters such as reservoir thickness, horizontal and vertical permeability, horizontal and vertical shale barriers and reservoir pressure, as well as operational parameters like injector location, solvent diffusivity, different solvent types and different concentrations of injected solvent. Three different crude oils from Cold Lake, Athabasca and Lloydminster reservoirs were selected to investigate the effect of viscosity.Results divulged great recovery of bitumen and reasonable amount of steam-oil ratio (SOR) for both processes. Applying solvent co-injection with steam reduced the amount of steam required and consequently decreased SOR, while higher recovery factors (R.F.) were obtained. Butane, pentane, hexane, heptane and dodecane were tested solvents in this study. Among them, hexane was used to investigate the effect of solvent concentration. Using higher concentration of injected solvent resulted in higher R.F. and lower SOR, however, economy of the process regarding the use of highly valuable solvents should also be considered.Higher vertical, horizontal permeability and reservoir pressure had positive effect on oil production. In addition, thicker reservoir showed better and more economical results in terms of oil production and SOR.Presence of shale barrier has a negative effect on oil production. This negative effect is more pronounced in case of horizontal than vertical shale layers. Applying solvent diffusivity coefficients revealed that very fine grid system in three directions is needed to evaluate the effect of diffusion precisely.

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Light- and Heavy-Solvent Impacts on Solvent-Aided-SAGD Process: A Low-Pressure Experimental Study

Cited by 43 publications

References 17 publications

The role of condensing and non-condensing solvents in SA-SAGD

The role of condensing and non-condensing solvents in SA-SAGD

Selection of Optimal Solvent Type for High Temperature Solvent Applications in Heavy-Oil and Bitumen Recovery

Field Scale Simulation Study, Investigating the Effect of Geological and Operational Parameters on Solvent Co-Injection Process in Athabasca Bitumen Reservoir

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