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Oil Sand In-Situ Recovery Techniques

B. TECH PROJECT #53 MENTOR: DR. LALITA LEDWANI

Abstract
Objective: To understand the operations and

mechanisms involved in various oil sand in-situ recovery techniques, and their applicability in different reservoirs. We have focused on the SAGD technique in our project. Also prepared a MATLAB program to predict the performance of SAGD for given field data.

Oil Sand: Introduction


Definition: Mixture of sand, clay, water and bitumen - dense (4 to 8

API) and extremely viscous (up to millions of cP) unconventional petroleum deposit - also called tar sands, crude bitumen or extra-heavy oil. Global reserves: More than 2 trillion barrels of oil sands in world largest deposits in Canada and Venezuela - oil sands represent about 40% of Canada's oil production. World production rate of conventional crude is speculated to peak soon. Consequently, persistent demand will encourage more permanent and economically stable development of oil sand production oil sand is oil of the future. Indian oil and gas companies such as ONGC Videsh have started collaborating with production companies in Venezuela and Canada for oil sand production in those countries.

In-Situ Recovery
Oil sand production is very complex and expensive - mining operation

is simpler but can be carried out only in shallower (<75 m) reservoirs; in-situ recovery is only option for deeper deposits. In-situ recovery: Energy required and cost involved are of enormous proportions - imperative that the most suitable and economical production technique is selected for implementation in the given field. Oil sand mobility (k/) is extremely small due to tremendously high viscosity - primary aim of any in-situ technique is to increase mobility to encourage in-flux into well Done mostly by substantially decreasing the viscosity via injection of heat or steam into the reservoir.

Certain in-situ production techniques applied for oil sand production

have been discussed:


Cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) Toe to Heel Air Injection (THAI) In-Situ Combustion (ISC) or Fire-flood

SAGD is widely used in the Canadian oil sand fields, and is gaining

popularity in Venezuela.

CSS

REF: http://www.ceaa.gc.ca/default.asp?lang=En&n=AFF9B551-1&toc=show&offset=8

Fireflood

REF: S.M. Farouq Ali, J.A. Jones and R.F. Meldau; Practical Heavy Oil Recovery, 1997.

THAI

REF: May River Phase-1 project report, Petrobank, May 2009

SAGD

REF: http://www.oilsandsdevelopers.ca/index.php/oil-sands-information/

SAGD Performance Model


Model of Slices: modified model of previous works of

Butler and Reis.

REF: J.C Reis, Steam assisted gravity drainage model for tar sands: Linear geometry, JCPT92-10-01

REF: A. Azad and R.J Chalaturnyk, A mathematical improvement to SAGD using geomechanical modeling, University of Alberta, SPE141303PA-P, Vol 49, No. 10, October 2010.

MATLAB Code Results


Predicted Production Rate for first 30 days
40

Oil Production Rate (m3/day)

35

30

25

20

15

10

0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Time (days)

MATLAB Code Results


Predicted Cummulative Production
2000

Cummulative Oil Production (m3)

1800 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Time (days)

Selection of Production Technique


CRITERIA Parameters Oil Saturation Formation Depth Pay zone Thickness Permeability API Gravity Oil Viscosity Value 65% 1000 - 2000 m 30 - 40 ft. 200 - 500 md. 70 API 100,000 cp SAGD . x . x . . TECHNIQUE Fireflood x . . . . x THAI . . . . . . CSS x . x . x x

Poster Presentations
As a consequence of our project work, we participated in the following 2 poster presentations, and received good adulations in both: Oil Sand In-Situ Recovery: In-Situ Combustion versus THAI, International Conference on Unconventional Sources of Fossil Fuels and Carbon Management, PDPU Gandhinagar, 21st 22nd February 2011. Oil Sand Recovery via SAGD, Institute of Plasma Research, Gandhinagar, 27th 28th January 2011.

References
Works cited Books: S.M. Farouq Ali, J.A. Jones and R.F. Meldau; Practical Heavy Oil Recovery, 1997. Partha S. Sarathi, In-situ Combustion Handbook Principles and Practices [ecopy], Chapter 2, Dept. of Energy, USA, 1998.

References
Papers: National Petroleum Council (Team Leader Brian Clark); Topic Paper 22, Working Document of the NPC Global Oil and Gas Study [e-copy], 2007. M. Greaves, A. El-Sakr, T. X. Xia, A. Turta and C. Ayasse; THAI New Air Injection Technique for Heavy Oil Recovery and In-situ Upgrading [pre-print], Paper 99-15, The Petroleum Society, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 1999.

References
M. Greaves, T. X. Xia and A. T. Turta; Stability of THAI Process Theoretical and Experimental Observations, Paper 2007-109, Canada International Petroleum Conference, Alberta, Canada, 2007. Jaime Jimenez, Shell International Exploration & Production, The field performance of SAGD projects in Canada, IPTC 12860, International Petroleum Technology Conference, December 2008.

References
Fundamentals of Enhanced oil recovery, Chapter 4, In-situ combustion, PE-05045-3. A. Azad and R.J Chalaturnyk, A mathematical solution to consider geomechanics in SAGD, PETSOC-2009-019-P, 16 18 June 2009, . A. Azad and R.J Chalaturnyk, A mathematical improvement to SAGD using geomechanical modeling, University of Alberta, SPE141303PAP, Vol 49, No. 10, October 2010. J.C Reis, Steam assisted gravity drainage model for tar sands: Linear geometry, JCPT92-10-01

Presented By:
Devashish Saxena Nilay Parikh Chintan Kotak

Neesarg Bhatt
Tushar Raina

(07BT01033) (07BT01085) (07BT01167) (07BT01168) (07BT01222)

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