Smart completion design in cyclic steam stimulation process: an alternative for accelerating heavy oil recovery Online publication date: Thu, 21-Jan-2016
by A.M. Suranto; A.K. Permadi; W. Bae
International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology (IJOGCT), Vol. 11, No. 2, 2016
Abstract: Cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) has succeeded in recovering bitumen and heavy oil. However, after the fifth cycle, the process is no longer effective as indicated by the increasing cumulative steam-oil ratio (cSOR). This paper proposes an improvement to the CSS performance by modifying the completion design. The perforation interval is divided into two parts: upper section (for injection) and lower section (for production). In such design, the injected steam would condense due to heat loss. The steam would then flow to the lower section because of gravity force and the oil starts to produce. The injection-production cycle is managed by an interval control valve (ICV). Simulation results show that the proposed design would reduce the cSOR up to 30% and increase the cumulative oil production by 3.5 times. It is also revealed that the longer the distance between the injection and production sections, the better the steam efficiency. [Received: July 11, 2014; Accepted: March 22, 2015]
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology (IJOGCT):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com
Our Blog 
Follow us on Twitter 
Visit us on Facebook