STEAM AND GAS PUSH (SAGP)

R.BUTLER

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THE PETROLEUM SOCIETY PAPER 97-137 Steam and Gas Push (SAGP) R. Butler GravDrain Inc. This paper is to be
presented at the 48th Annual Technical Meeting of The Petroleum Society in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 8 - 11, 1997. Discussion of this paper is invited and may be presented at the meeting if filed in writing with the technical program chairman prior to the conclusion of the meeting. This paper and any discussion filed will be considered for publication in CIM journals. Publication tights are reserved. This is a pre-print and is subject to correction. ABSTRACT
process is uneconomic. The problem is compounded by the steam chamber having long sloping boundaries that bound While heavy oils can be produced by horizontal wells at the heated area. economic rates, the percent of recovery is low because of loss of drive and/or watering out of the production. In In this paper it is shown that it is not necessary for the typical cases a recovery of
only a few percent of the OOIP whole steam chamber to be at a uniform high temperature. is achievable. SAGD overcomes these problems by allowing Only the lowest part, where the coning tendency is greatest, high production rates with only a small drawdown. The needs to be at the highest temperature. High temperatures reservoir pressure is maintained by the injection of the steam in the upper part of the chamber are an 'overkill' which and where operation without
steam coning is practicable, very high results in wasted heat. It is proposed that the SAGD recoveries are normally obtained. process be modified by injecting non-condensable gas, such as natural gas, with the steam from a horizontal injection In conventional SAGD the depleted reservoir becomes well some what above the producer. Gas accumulates in the filled with
steam at the saturation temperature corresponding chamber above the injector and lowers the temperature. to the operating pressure - typically 200 to 250 OC. Large Considerable savings can be made by this approach without quantities of steam are required to heat the depleted a substantial decline in performance. In one case it is reservoir, the reservoir surrounding the steam chamber and, shown that the heat stored in the chamber per cubic metre
particularly with thin reservoirs, the overburden. With high of produced oil will be only 62 % of that for conventional quality, thick reservoirs SOR's of about 2.5 to 3 are SAGD and that the heat lost to the overburden will be a very obtained but in thinner reservoirs, and in reservoirs with much smaller fraction. This concept should greatly extend lower oil saturations, SOR's are much higher and the the range of reservoirs that can be produced economically.
THE PETROLEUM SOCIETY
Steam and Gas Push (SAGP)
R. Butler
GravDrain Inc.
This paper is to be presented at the 48th Annual Technical Meeting of The Petroleum Society in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 8 - 11,
1997. Discussion of this paper is invited and may be presented at the meeting if filed in writing with the technical program chairman prior
to the conclusion of the meeting. This paper and any discussion filed will be considered for publication in CIM journals. Publication rights
are reserved. This is a pre-print and is subject to correction.
ABSTRACT
While heavy oils can be produced by horizontal wells at
economic rates, the extent of recovery is small because of
loss of drive and/or watering out of the production. In
typical cases a recovery ofonly afew percent ofthe OOIP
is achievable. SAOO overcomes these problems by allowing
high production rates with only a small drawdown. 7he
reservoirpressure is maintained by the injection ofthe steam
and operation withoutsteam coning is practicable,' very high
recoveries are nonnally obtained.
In conventional SAOO the depleted reservoir becomes
filled with steam atthesaturationtemperature corresponding
to the operating pressure - typically 200 to 250 DC. Large
quantities of steam are required to heat the depleted
reservoir, the reservoir surrounding the steam chamber and,
particularly with thin reservoirs, the overburden. With high
quality, thick reservoirs SOR's of about 2.5 to 3 are
obtained but in thinner reservoirs, and in reservoirs with
lower oil saturations, SOR's are much higher and the
1
PAPER 97-137
process is uneconomic. the problem is compounded by the
steam chamber having long sloping boundaries that extend
the heated area.
In this paper it is shown that it is not necessary for the
whole steam chamber to be at a uniform high temperature.
Only the lowest part, where the coning tendency is greatest,
needs to be at the highest temperature. High temperatures
in the upper part of the chamber are an "overkill" that
results in wasted heat. It is proposed that the SAOO
process be modified by injecting non-condensible gas, such
as natural gas, with the steam from a horizontal injection
well somewhat above theproducer. Gas accumulates in the
chamber above the injector and lowers the temperature.
Considerable savings can be made by this approach without
a substantial decline in performance. In one example it is
shown that the heat stored in the chamber per cubic metre
ofproduced oil will be only 62 % of that for conventional
SAOO and that the heat lost to the overburden will be a very
much smallerfraction. This concept should greatly extend
the range ofreservoirs that can be produced economically.
Introduction
For the efficient and economic recovery of heavy
oils it is necessary to employ means for facilitating
the flow of the viscous fluid through the reservoir.
Not only is it necessary to offset the effect of their
very high viscosities by providing extended contact
and/or viscosity reduction by heating, but it is also
necessary to maintain the drive needed to move the
oil as the reservoir becomes depleted.
Some approaches such as the use of long
horizontal wells or cyclic steaming are effective in
promoting flow but only produce limited recovery.
Steamflooding and, more recently, SAGO also
maintain reservoir drive and allow high recoveries.
However, because of their considerable heat
requirements, these processes are limited in their
economic use to higher quality reservoirs.
It is the purpose of this paper to describe a new
concept for the production of heavy oils that is a
modification of the SAGO process'" 2, 3, 4. 6J. In this
process the reservoir pressure is maintained by
injecting steam but, in contrast to conventional
steamflooding, the coning of steam to the production
well is avoided by using long horizontal producers
located at the base of the reservoir. This is made
possible by the low viscosity of the heated oil
combined with the extended length of the horizontal
well.
Even without heating, reasonably high production
rates are possible with long horizontal wells and this
has proven to be economic, particularly in
Saskatchewan. However the recoveries obtainable
by this method are very low, typically less than 10%
because of pressure decline and/or watering out of
the production. The injection of gas to maintain
pressure is ineffective because of rapid gas coning
caused by the high viscosity of the produced oil.
The concept that is developed in this paper is that
of modifying the SAGO process by the combined
injection of steam and gas. This co-injection enables
high temperatures to be maintained in the region of
the production well, and thus high production rates
without gas coning, while, at the same time, the
main steam/gas chamber is at much lower
temperatures. The advantage of this approach is that
of rapid economic production with a high recovery as
with SAGO but with much lower energy requirement
because of the lower reservoir and overburden
temperatures. It is hoped that the concepts will be
of interest even though many of the calculations are
only approximate.
Vertical Wells
The productivity of a centrally-located, vertical well
draining a cylindrical reservoir volume for pseudo
steady-state flow is given by1,
_ 2rrkhA¢l (1 )
q - p(ln(R,,/Rw ) -0.75)
which may be rewritten as,
A¢l = 2':/:h (In(R"IR w ) -0.75} (2)
The logarithmic term in these equations arises
because of the decreasing area for flow that exists as
the fluid flows radially towards the well. Most of the
potential drop occurs in the vicinity of the well; the
total drop increases only slowly2 with increasing Re •
Production rates have been calculated using
equation (1) for a hypothetical reservoir having a
thickness of 10m, an area of 16 ha (40 acres), a
permeability of 1 pm2 (1 darcy), a potential
drawdown of 3 MPa (435 psi) and a well bore radius
of 0.1 m. Oil viscosities ranging from 1 to 100,000
mPa.s (cp) were used. The results are shown by the
lower line in Figure 1. In this high quality reservoir
and with this ,...-....,..-~_ _
1 Flow potential rather than pressure is used in these equations
so that they may also be employedfor TWn-verticalwells. Thejlow
potential of phase i is defined as ~i=P+Pgy, where y is the
height. Thus for example ~ is constant in a bath of static fluid
even though P increases with depth. For horizontal jlow the
gradients ofpressure and potential are identicaL
2 For example if Re /R..=1000 then bz(Re /R,.) - 0.75=6.16.
Increasing the radius ofthe perimeter by afactor oflO to make the
ratio 10,000 and the pattern area 100 times greater increases the
term in bracketsfrom 6.16 to 8.46. The total required potential
drawdown has only increased by afactor of8.4616.16=1.37.