EFFECTS OF RESERVOIR HETEROGENEITIES ON HEAVY

OIL RECOVERY BY STEAM-ASSISTED GRAVITY DRAINAGE

G. YANG R.M. BUTLER

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JCPT92-08-03 HEAVY OIL Effects of reservoir heterogeneities on heavy oil recovery by steam-assisted gravity drainage GUIHUA YANG and R.M. BUTLER University of Calgary Calgary, Alberta ABSTRACT Previous studies of the SAGD process have been based on homogeneous reservoir models. In this paper, new @riments are described which simulate heterogeneous @ervoirs. These include reservoirs with thin shale @ers and reservoirs containing horizontal layers of different permeabilities
The restdts show that a short horizontal barrier does not affect the general performance greatly. A long
horizontat barrier dec@ the production rate but, in some configurations, not nearly as much as might be @cted. It is observed that faster production is found when a higher permeabitity layer is above a lower permeability layer than when the conditions are reversed Introduction The production of heavy oils by gravity drainage to a horizontal well with the continuous injection of steam above follows from the existing steam stimulation and steam flooding practices. The process has been recognized as steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD).
Rapid development in this area is being encouraged by
improved horizontal wefl drilling technology which allows more favourable economics. Butler et al.(2,3,4) carried out early experimental and the- oretical stuches on tlm area. Their theoretical prechctions agreed well with the homogeneous reservoir model experiments.
No reservoir is completely homogeneous, and the degrees of het- erogeneity can vary significantly, even within the same field. It is necessary that pre@ary experiments be performed to study the effects of reservoir heterogeneities.
The research work presented here is limited to two types of reser- voirs which are
considered to be representative and close to the real field conditions: (1) reservoirs with thin shale layers, (2) reservoirs containing horizontal layers of different pen-neabuities.
Laboratory studies were conducted using a visual reservoir model saturated with Cold Lake bitumen. The steam injection pressure employed was 153 kPa. Two different weff configurations have been investigated. The first consisted of a vertical circulation steam in- jector which was perforated new the top of the fo@on with b ced at the bottom; the second employed a s@ar umen produ
't- configuration to the first, but with steam introduced slightly above the production well at the base of the formation. Photographs were taken at specified time intervals and the tem@erature profile was recorded continuously to provide a means for comparisons and even- tually for selecting an optimal wefl con@ation for different reser- voir conditions. Experimental _ The two-dimensional re@oir model is that which has been described by llutler et al.(') only with minor modifications. The schematic experimental set-up is illustrated in Figure 1. The model was scaled to the field conditions
by using the method described by Butler et al.(2). The scaling parameters are shown in Table 1. One hour for ihe model is equivalent to 1.5 years in the field. The vertical circulating steain injector(l) was employed to initiate the communication between the injmfion and production wela. The in- jection well location was adjusted verticay to allow for different steam injection locations. Figures 2a and 2b show how this vertical steam injector works.
The porous materials used in the reservoir model were 2 nim and 3 nim glass beads. hi order to obtain a uiiforrrdy random pack- ing of
the porous pack, the reservoir model was secured on a vibrat- ing table. For two layer reservoirs with either 2 n-im or 3 n-im glass beads as the top layer, enough shaking time had to be allowed for stable consolidation of the first layer before adding the second porous mediwn through three fitting openings along the upper edge of the model. A straight horizontal interface between the two lay- ers was achiened through slow patient operation. To simulate the thin shale layer in the formation, 0.4 cm thick, reinforced, phenol- ic resin dividei- was sealed inside the model. However, because
the plastic has a thermal conductivity wl-dch is about 20% of that for typical shales, its resistance to heat conduction is equivalent to that of a shale la@er as thick as 2 m.
Realizing tlie importance of proper production well control, a thermocouple was connected to the production well. The amount of steam let oiit through the production wefl was controlled in such a manner that the thermocouple reading was maintained at 96'C within + I'C. Results and Discussion Ten runs are described and a summary of the operating conditions for these experiments is shown in Table 2. Two mm glass
beads were used in i@he low permeability layer, and three mm glass beads in the high permeability layer. Cold Lake bitumen was used as the heavy crude in each of the experiments. The properties of the Cold Lake biturneii are shown in Table 3. Further analyses of this bitu- men have been described previously(5). Paper reviewed and accepted for publication by the Editorial Board
(of
The
Journal
of
Canadian
Petroleum
Technology. 37 Keywords: Heavy oil, Heterogeneities, Shale barrier, SAGD, Steam. October 1992, Volume 31, No. 8