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Promising approaches to enhance SAGD performance in uneconomical tar-sands

Low permeability, shale barriers and low thickness are the main issues making significant portion of the immense heavy oil and bitumen resource uneconomical to produce. Two main troublesome cases were investigated in this study to address by applying appropriate solutions in SAGD process; firstly re...

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Main Authors: Akhondzadeh, Hamed, Fattahi, Ali, Zare, Ali Reza, Derahman, Mohd. Nawi, Idriss, Ahmad Kamal
Format: Book Section
Published: Society of Petroleum Engineers 2012
Subjects:
TP Chemical technology
Online Access:http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/35791/
https://www.onepetro.org/conference-paper/SPE-151859-MS
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spelling my.utm.357912017-06-13T06:54:32Z http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/35791/ Promising approaches to enhance SAGD performance in uneconomical tar-sands Akhondzadeh, Hamed Fattahi, Ali Zare, Ali Reza Derahman, Mohd. Nawi Idriss, Ahmad Kamal TP Chemical technology Low permeability, shale barriers and low thickness are the main issues making significant portion of the immense heavy oil and bitumen resource uneconomical to produce. Two main troublesome cases were investigated in this study to address by applying appropriate solutions in SAGD process; firstly reservoirs with shale barriers and low permeability and secondly thin reservoirs. In cases of low vertical permeability due to shale inclusion in the reservoirs, the effect of induced vertical fracture resulted in faster upward steam chamber expansion and increased oil recovery rate. Sensitivity analysis showed higher well spacing is beneficial to the process while applying the induced vertical fracture. In thin reservoirs, steam chamber reaches overburden faster and increases cumulative steam-oil ratio (cSOR), hence making recovery processes uneconomical. Appropriate placement of Induced Horizontal-Fractures (IHF) and off-set vertical wells with the later being in halfway of two adjacent horizontal well pairs in SAGD and acting as a steam injector was applied. The results showed such applications reduce cSOR. Found from the sensitivity analysis, Induced Horizontal-Fractures positioned in the injector and the producer place improves oil recovery in thin reservoirs. When applying the fracture just in producer location, the oil recovery result is superior to the former case. In fact, IHF provide a path facilitating the oil drainage to producer that leads to faster oil transportation. The Off-set vertical well in the thin reservoir sweeps a part of the reservoir located beyond the chamber edges of two adjacent well pairs, hence reducing recovery time and cSOR. Based on sensitivity analysis, the most promising result of the process is achieved when initiating steam injection in the vertical injector from the beginning of the process. Society of Petroleum Engineers 2012 Book Section PeerReviewed Akhondzadeh, Hamed and Fattahi, Ali and Zare, Ali Reza and Derahman, Mohd. Nawi and Idriss, Ahmad Kamal (2012) Promising approaches to enhance SAGD performance in uneconomical tar-sands. In: Society of Petroleum Engineers - North Africa Technical Conference and Exhibition 2012, NATC 2012: Managing Hydrocarbon Resources in a Changing Environment. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Texas, pp. 1104-1111. ISBN 978-162276050-3 https://www.onepetro.org/conference-paper/SPE-151859-MS
institution Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
building UTM Library
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
content_source UTM Institutional Repository
url_provider http://eprints.utm.my/
topic TP Chemical technology
spellingShingle TP Chemical technology
Akhondzadeh, Hamed
Fattahi, Ali
Zare, Ali Reza
Derahman, Mohd. Nawi
Idriss, Ahmad Kamal
Promising approaches to enhance SAGD performance in uneconomical tar-sands
description Low permeability, shale barriers and low thickness are the main issues making significant portion of the immense heavy oil and bitumen resource uneconomical to produce. Two main troublesome cases were investigated in this study to address by applying appropriate solutions in SAGD process; firstly reservoirs with shale barriers and low permeability and secondly thin reservoirs. In cases of low vertical permeability due to shale inclusion in the reservoirs, the effect of induced vertical fracture resulted in faster upward steam chamber expansion and increased oil recovery rate. Sensitivity analysis showed higher well spacing is beneficial to the process while applying the induced vertical fracture. In thin reservoirs, steam chamber reaches overburden faster and increases cumulative steam-oil ratio (cSOR), hence making recovery processes uneconomical. Appropriate placement of Induced Horizontal-Fractures (IHF) and off-set vertical wells with the later being in halfway of two adjacent horizontal well pairs in SAGD and acting as a steam injector was applied. The results showed such applications reduce cSOR. Found from the sensitivity analysis, Induced Horizontal-Fractures positioned in the injector and the producer place improves oil recovery in thin reservoirs. When applying the fracture just in producer location, the oil recovery result is superior to the former case. In fact, IHF provide a path facilitating the oil drainage to producer that leads to faster oil transportation. The Off-set vertical well in the thin reservoir sweeps a part of the reservoir located beyond the chamber edges of two adjacent well pairs, hence reducing recovery time and cSOR. Based on sensitivity analysis, the most promising result of the process is achieved when initiating steam injection in the vertical injector from the beginning of the process.
format Book Section
author Akhondzadeh, Hamed
Fattahi, Ali
Zare, Ali Reza
Derahman, Mohd. Nawi
Idriss, Ahmad Kamal
author_facet Akhondzadeh, Hamed
Fattahi, Ali
Zare, Ali Reza
Derahman, Mohd. Nawi
Idriss, Ahmad Kamal
author_sort Akhondzadeh, Hamed
title Promising approaches to enhance SAGD performance in uneconomical tar-sands
title_short Promising approaches to enhance SAGD performance in uneconomical tar-sands
title_full Promising approaches to enhance SAGD performance in uneconomical tar-sands
title_fullStr Promising approaches to enhance SAGD performance in uneconomical tar-sands
title_full_unstemmed Promising approaches to enhance SAGD performance in uneconomical tar-sands
title_sort promising approaches to enhance sagd performance in uneconomical tar-sands
publisher Society of Petroleum Engineers
publishDate 2012
url http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/35791/
https://www.onepetro.org/conference-paper/SPE-151859-MS
_version_ 1643649841665933312
score 13.211869

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