Title: Hybrid steam/solvent wellbore design for an optimal operation

Authors: Rafael Valladares De Almeida; Hamid Rahnema

Addresses: Petroleum Engineering Department, New Mexico Tech, 801 Leroy Place, Socorro, NM 87801, USA ' Petroleum Engineering Department, New Mexico Tech, 801 Leroy Place, Socorro, NM 87801, USA

Abstract: To have an efficient oil recovery in hybrid steam-solvent injection, the solvent must condense at the steam chamber edge. Thus, the injection well must deliver the solvent near its dew point at the sand face. This paper presents a sensitivity analysis to study how different operational parameters and well design affect the behaviour of steam and solvent along the wellbore before reaching the perforation intervals. This study highlights the importance of wellbore modelling in the solvent assisted steam injection process. Results show that with some specific operational parameters and solvent composition, up to 23% of the solvent condense along the wellbore before reaching the sand face, meaning that only 77% of the solvent mixture effectively is used for the heavy oil recovery. Also, in a case study, it was shown that using 2 7/8 inch tubing instead of a 3 1/2 inch leads to a temperature improvement of 54°F. [Received: December 16, 2016; Accepted: June 18, 2017]

Keywords: steam/solvent injection; wellbore; numerical modelling; thermal; compositional.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2018.093964

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2018 Vol.19 No.1, pp.1 - 21

Received: 10 Dec 2016
Accepted: 18 Jun 2017
Published online: 10 Aug 2018 *

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