Title: Production performance prediction during steam assisted gravity drainage process in anisotropic reservoirs

Authors: Shaolei Wei; Linsong Cheng; Shijun Huang; Wenjun Huang; Huideng Zhang

Addresses: College of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, Beijing 102249, China ' College of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, Beijing 102249, China ' College of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, Beijing 102249, China ' College of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, Beijing 102249, China ' College of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, Beijing 102249, China

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]

Keywords: steam assisted gravity drainage; SAGD; permeability anisotropy; wastewater recycling; energy consumption; greenhouse gases; GHG emissions; performance prediction; anisotropic reservoirs; thermal recovery; heavy oil reservoirs; oil production rate; isotropic reservoirs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2015.066952

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2015 Vol.9 No.1, pp.14 - 38

Received: 04 Apr 2014
Accepted: 27 Jul 2014
Published online: 18 Mar 2015 *

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