Reservoir Simulation of Cyclic Steam Stimulation in the Cold Lake Oil Sands

Beattie, C.I.; Boberg, T.C.; Mcnab, G. S.

doi:10.2118/18752-pa

Cited by 91 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…This behavior is similar to what is reported in previous simulation work of the CSS process in the Cold Lake oil sands 4 . The authors propose a deformation model that consists of non-reversible dilation and recompaction lines that are joined by reversible lines describing elastic behavior as depicted in Figure 6.…”

Section: Geomechanical Descriptionsupporting

confidence: 91%

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Making Sense of the Geomechanical Impact on the Heavy-Oil Extraction Process at Peace River Based on Quantitative Analysis and Modeling

McGillivray

Brissenden

Bourne

et al. 2006

SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition

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TX 75083-3836, U.S.A., fax 01-972-952-9435. AbstractThe steam injection rates in the CSS operation for the extraction of the Peace River bitumen can be significantly increased by operating at a pressure above the vertical stress of 13 MPa. To improve the understanding of the CSS extraction process, Shell Canada designed and implemented a monitoring program over the most recently drilled production pads. This program included microseismic, surface time-lapse seismic (2D and sparse 3D), a time-lapse 3D VSP, a surface tiltmeter array, and InSAR. Joint interpretation of these data with production data has allowed us to build a conceptual model of the geomechanical response of the reservoir and its effect on the production process.Dynamic reservoir simulations for Pad 40 were done with the aim to obtain a predictive model. A dilation model from previous simulation work for Cold Lake CSS was applied on the basis of the monitoring analysis and incorporated into the simulations together with a relative-permeability-hysteresis model. A good match of the injection and production volumes, and injection wellhead pressures for the early cycles was achieved using a single well model. Simulation of the later cycles requires a full pad dynamic model constraint by monitoring data, if the heterogeneous steam distribution suggested by the monitoring data becomes significant.

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Section: Geomechanical Descriptionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Relative-permeability-hysteresis is well-established method to enable simulation of thermal recovery 4,5,6,7 . We apply the relative-permeability-hysteresis model proposed for the Cold Lake simulations 4 , as it is shown to enable the simulator to match field WOR's in the recovery of bitumen using CSS.…”

Section: Dynamic Reservoir Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making Sense of the Geomechanical Impact on the Heavy-Oil Extraction Process at Peace River Based on Quantitative Analysis and Modeling

McGillivray

Brissenden

Bourne

et al. 2006

SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition

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“…The first is a reservoir-dilation and -recompaction model, also known as the Beattie-Boberg model (Beattie et al 1991). This model is a hysteretic rock-compressibility model (see Fig.…”

Section: Previous Work On Numerical Simulation Of Steam Fracturingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reservoir Simulation of Steam Fracturing in Early-Cycle Cyclic Steam Stimulation

Cokar

Gates

Kallos

2012

SPE Reservoir Evaluation &Amp; Engineering

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In cyclic steam stimulation (CSS), steam is injected above the fracture pressure into the oil-sands reservoir. In early cycles, the injected steam fractures the reservoir, creating a relatively thin dilated zone that allows rapid distribution of heat within the reservoir without excessive displacement of oil from the neighborhood of the wellbore. Numerical reservoir-simulation models of CSS that deal with the fracturing process have difficulty simultaneously capturing flowing bottomhole-pressure (BHP) behavior and steam injection rate. In this research, coupled reservoir-simulation (flow and heat transfer) and geomechanics models are investigated to model dynamic fracturing during the first cycle of CSS in an oil-sands reservoir. In Alberta, Canada, in terms of volumetric production rate, CSS is the largest thermal recovery technology for bitumen production, with production rates equal to approximately 1.3 million B/D in 2008. The average recovery factor from CSS is between 25 and 28% at the economic end of the process. This implies that the majority of bitumen remains in the ground. Because the mobility of the bitumen depends strongly on temperature, the performance of CSS is intimately linked to steam conformance in the reservoir, which is largely established during steam fracturing of the reservoir in the early cycles of the process. Thus, a fundamental understanding of the flow and geomechanical aspects of early-cycle CSS is critical. A detailed thermal reservoir-simulation model, including dilation and dynamic fracturing, was developed, with the use of a commercially available thermal reservoir simulator, to understand their effects on BHP and injection rate. The results demonstrate that geomechanics must be included to accurately model CSS. The results also suggest that the reservoir dilates during steam injection as the result of increases in reservoir temperature, which lead to thermal dilation and higher pore pressure.

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“…In this model, the Beattie-Boberg dilation-recompaction model (parameters listed in Table 4) is used to represent dilation behaviour in the reservoir (Beattie and Boberg, 1991). The results are shown in Figures 6 and 7.…”

Section: Case 2 -Dilation-recompaction Model and No Predefined Fractumentioning

confidence: 99%

Reservoir Simulation of Steam Fracturing in Early Cycle Cyclic Steam Stimulation

Cokar

Kallos

Gates

2010

SPE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium

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In Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS), steam is injected above the fracture pressure into the oil sands reservoir. In early cycles, the injected steam fractures the reservoir creating a relatively thin dilated zone which allows rapid distribution of heat within the reservoir without excessive displacement of oil from the neighborhood of the wellbore. Numerical reservoir simulation models of CSS that deal with the fracturing process have difficulty simultaneously capturing flowing bottom hole pressure behaviour and steam injection rate. In this research, coupled reservoir simulation (flow and heat transfer) and geomechanics models are investigated to model dynamic fracturing during the first cycle of CSS in an oil sands reservoir. In Alberta, Canada, in terms of volumetric production rate, CSS is the largest thermal recovery technology for bitumen production with production rates equal to about 1.3 million bbl/day in 2008. The average recovery factor from CSS is between 25 and 28% at the economic end of the process. This implies that the majority of bitumen remains in the ground. Since the mobility of the bitumen depends strongly on temperature, the performance of CSS is intimately linked to steam conformance in the reservoir which is largely established during steam fracturing of the reservoir in the early cycles of the process. Thus, a fundamental understanding of the flow and geomechanical aspects of early cycle CSS is critical. A detailed, thermal reservoir simulation model, including dilation and dynamic fracturing, was developed to understand their effects on bottom hole pressure and injection rate. The results demonstrate that geomechanics must be included to accurately model CSS.

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Reservoir Simulation of Cyclic Steam Stimulation in the Cold Lake Oil Sands

Cited by 91 publications

References 18 publications

Making Sense of the Geomechanical Impact on the Heavy-Oil Extraction Process at Peace River Based on Quantitative Analysis and Modeling

Making Sense of the Geomechanical Impact on the Heavy-Oil Extraction Process at Peace River Based on Quantitative Analysis and Modeling

Reservoir Simulation of Steam Fracturing in Early-Cycle Cyclic Steam Stimulation

Reservoir Simulation of Steam Fracturing in Early Cycle Cyclic Steam Stimulation

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