Application of the Steam-Foam Recovery Processes

Gravity Override. The steamdrive process is very efficient and there islittle potential
for foam when the effect of gravity makes a large contributionto the flux of the
heated oil from the injecter to the producer (downdip)and/or from the gas/oil
contact (GOC) to the perforated interval or pumpoff-take level. The gravitational flux
from the injecter to the producer islarge for a reservoir with a large dip angle and/or
permeability and alinedrive with updip steam injection. permeability and a linedrive
with updipsteam injection. An example of such a reservoir is the Mount Poso field,
wherethe dip angle is only 6 degrees but the permeability is 20 to 30 darcies.
Thegravitational flux from the GOC to the pump off-take level is large for athick,
high-vertical-permeability reservoir such as that described by Matthewsand
Lefkovits. For such a reservoir, Vogel suggests injecting just barelyenough steam
after steam breakthrough to maintain the heat requirements withoutproducing
steam. Steam will override the reservoir, and poor vertical sweepwill result, if a
reservoir (or a sand unit of a multizone reservoir) hasnonzero vertical permeability
and does not have high enough dip and/orhorizontal permeability. Such a reservoir
has a good potential for theapplication of foam. This override and poor sweep is
similar to the bypassingdescribed by Dietz for a low-density, high-mobility fluid and
by van Lookerenfor a steamdrive. An example of such a case is the steamdrive in
the MeccaPilot of the Kern River field (3 1/2 dip angle), where steam
breakthroughoccurred early and oil production declined as a result of (1) poor
pumpefficiency because of the produced steam and (2) reduced pressure gradient
forhorizontal oil displacement as the steam-zone thickness increased.