Production performance prediction during steam assisted gravity drainage process in anisotropic reservoirs
by Shaolei Wei; Linsong Cheng; Shijun Huang; Wenjun Huang; Huideng Zhang
International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology (IJOGCT), Vol. 9, No. 1, 2015

Abstract: Although steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) technology is an effective thermal recovery process for heavy oil reservoirs, it consumes a mountain of natural gas and produces tons of greenhouse gas. Therefore, it is of great importance to predict the production performance during production period. In this paper, we extend Reis's research (Reis, 1992) to calculate SAGD production performance in isotropic reservoirs. The existence of permeability anisotropy increases the solving difficulty so that a numerical method is introduced to solve the problem. Two comparisons have been made, one with Chung's experiment (Chung and Butler, 1988) and the other with STARS (a numerical reservoir simulator), and similarities are observed in both cases. The effect of waste water recycling is evaluated for the prediction of energy consumption. It is indicated that the existence of permeability anisotropy has a great effect on oil production rate, while other production indexes are little influenced. [Received: April 1, 2014; Accepted: July 27, 2014]

Online publication date: Wed, 18-Mar-2015

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