Numerical Study of Shale Issues in SAGD

Ipek, G.; Frauenfeld, T.; Yuan, John

doi:10.2118/2008-150

Cited by 40 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…Recently, Ipek et al (2008) conducted numerical studies of interbedded shales in SAGD. The purpose of this research was to determine the potential of pressure cycling as a method of enhancing the reservoir permeability.…”

Section: Shale Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation of SAGD Recovery Process in Presence of Shale Barriers, Thief Zones, and Fracture System

Dang

Chen

Nguyen

et al. 2013

Petroleum Science and Technology

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This study presents a numerical investigation for evaluating the potential applicability of the steamassisted gravity drainage (SAGD) recovery process under complex reservoir conditions such as shale barriers, thief zones with bottom and/or top water layers, overlying gas cap, and fracture systems in the McMurray and Clearwater formation. The simulation results indicated that the near-well regions were very sensitive to shale layers, and only long, continuous shale barriers (larger than 50 m or 25%) affect the SAGD performance in these well regions. In addition, the thief zones had a strongly detrimental effect on SAGD. The results also showed that the SAGD recovery process was enhanced in the presence of vertical fractures but horizontal fractures were harmful to recovery. Fracture spacing is not an important parameter in the performance of a steam process in fractured reservoirs and extending horizontal fractures will reduce ultimate oil recovery in the SAGD process. This article provides a guideline for SAGD operations in complex geological reservoirs.

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Section: Shale Barriersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulation of SAGD Recovery Process in Presence of Shale Barriers, Thief Zones, and Fracture System

Dang

Chen

Nguyen

et al. 2013

Petroleum Science and Technology

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“…For the startup phase of SAGD process, there are three approaches, including cyclic steam stimulation, steam circulation and fracturing. The factors to influence the development results of SAGD process included the following aspects [16][17][18][19]. (1) Reservoir thickness.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feasibility of the Steam-Assisted-Gravity-Drainage Process in Offshore Heavy Oil Reservoirs with Bottom Water

et al. 2014

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Due to the water-coning problem, cycle steam stimulation (CSS) in the heavy oil reservoirs with bottom water is often less effective, and the oil recovery is even below 10%. Steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is the oil-producing process with a constant pressure-drop (about 0.30 MPa), and it is a potential technique for this reservoirs. Through the implementation of SAGD, bottom water could be effectively controlled. Aiming at the LD heavy oil block in Bohai offshore oilfield, the SAGD performance in heterogeneous heavy oil reservoir with bottom water was numerically studied in this paper. In these simulation models, the water was broken into three components (connate water, injected water and bottom water) to study the water producing in SAGD process. Thus, the influences of startup approach, oillayer thickness, water thickness and the distance between well-pair and bottom-water on the water rising were all simulated. Thereafter, a set of numerical simulations were performed to assess the shale issues in SAGD process, e.g. the vertical and horizontal position of shalebarriers, the shale distribution range, the barrier permeable condition and the macroscopic vertical permeability.Results indicated that bottom water reduced the ultimate recovery of SAGD process by about 10% of the OOIP. The startup by steam-circulation was much suitable for the bottom water heavy oil reservoir instead of CSS approach. The bottom water tremendously reduced the startup pressure-decline rate, and thus the startup-time was prolonged. The distance between well pair and water zone had a great influence on the SAGD performance, and a small distance would delay the beginning time of the steam-chamber rising. For reservoir heterogeneity, the vertical and horizontal heterogeneity have great influence on the drainage process, especially the shale cases. It tremendously decreased the recovery rate by about one time. This investigation could be used as a tool for the successful design of SAGD process in heavy oil reservoirs with bottom water.

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“…Pooladi-Darvish (2002) constructed a series of 2D layered models on the basis of underground test facility field data to study the effects of shale continuity in the vertical direction on SAGD operations in the presence of gas cap and top water. Ipek et al (2008) incorporated the effects of geomechanics in SAGD operations for a series of reservoirs with varying degrees of shale content. Kumar et al (2013) studied the effects of thermal conductivity and permeability heterogeneity introduced by the presence of shale lenses on SAGD performance.…”

Section: The Effects Of Non-conformance On Sagd Economicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…horizontal and/or vertical permeability distribution (Al-Khelaiwi et al 2010;Baker et al 2008;Nasr et al 2000;Yang and Butler 1992), variations in porosity (Llaguno et al 2002), water saturation heterogeneity/characteristics (Baker et al 2008), variations in the distance between the wellbore(s) and fluid contacts (Al-Khelaiwi et al 2010;Baker et al 2008;Edmunds and Chhina 2001), variations in localized reservoir pressure (Al-Khelaiwi et al 2010;Tabatabaei and Ghalambor 2011), changes in capillary pressure and relative permeability along the wellbore (Wang and Leung 2015), localized skin damage or fractures (Furui et al 2003;Tam et al 2013), changes in mineralogy or wettability (Ipek et al 2008;Le Ravalec et al 2009;Pooladi-Darvish and Mattar 2002), changes in temperature (Bois and Mainguy 2011;Irani and Cokar 2016), changes in fluid density, viscosity, or both Larter et al 2008), or the presence or absence of insitu emulsifiers that blend reservoir and/or introduced fluids into something novel (Ezeuko et al 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Flow Control Devices in SAGD Completion Design: Enhanced Heavy Oil/Bitumen Recovery Through Improved Thermal Efficiencies

Banerjee

Hasçakir

2017

SPE Western Regional Meeting

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The volume of heavy oil/bitumen recoverable worldwide is vast in quantity but difficult and energy intensive to extract due to the high in-situ oil viscosity of these unconventional plays. One method of thermal recovery, steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), has proven a commercial success in heavy oil/bitumen production by using steam to raise the temperature of heavy oil/bitumen in the reservoir with a resulting lower hydrocarbon viscosity, shifting the relative mobility of reservoir oil to one favorable for extraction via horizontal wells.However, geological and reservoir heterogeneity often complicate this task resulting in uneven production rates, higher operational costs, and stranded heavy oil/bitumen. This work theorizes that SAGD recovery is improved using flow control devices (FCDs) to force conformance in SAGD laterals. To test this theory, a novel protocol and test flow loop was developed to measure pressure drop across an autonomous hybrid FCD while flowing multiphase mixtures containing steam. This laboratory data was used to qualify existing pressure drop correlations and determine if nitrogen gas, a common test gas to describe FCD pressure drop response, creates suitable data for modeling steam systems. Finally, the flow loop was used to induce a steam "flash", a transition of water at saturation temperature to vapor due to a suddenly decreased pressure

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Numerical Study of Shale Issues in SAGD

Cited by 40 publications

References 0 publications

Numerical Simulation of SAGD Recovery Process in Presence of Shale Barriers, Thief Zones, and Fracture System

Numerical Simulation of SAGD Recovery Process in Presence of Shale Barriers, Thief Zones, and Fracture System

Feasibility of the Steam-Assisted-Gravity-Drainage Process in Offshore Heavy Oil Reservoirs with Bottom Water

Flow Control Devices in SAGD Completion Design: Enhanced Heavy Oil/Bitumen Recovery Through Improved Thermal Efficiencies

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