Title: Optimisation of steam and gas push to prevent water influx from a top-water-bearing area into a vapour chamber

Authors: Sunghoon Chung; Joe M. Kang; Changhyup Park; Baehyun Min; Ilsik Jang

Addresses: Upstream Technical Team, SK E&S, Seoul, Korea ' Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea ' Department of Energy and Resources Engineering, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon, Kangwon, Korea ' Department of Climate and Energy Systems Engineering, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Korea ' Department of Energy and Resources Engineering, Chosun University, Gwangju, Korea

Abstract: This paper presents how to produce bitumen efficiently from the reservoir with top-water-bearing zone. The impact of naturally occurring and/or co-injected non-condensable gas on bitumen production is investigated using numerical studies. Non-condensable gas can improve energy efficiency in two ways: reduction of dynamic vacuum effect and blockage of direct contact of steam chamber and top water layer. A strategic operation mitigating the groundwater influx is presented. An artificial neural network (ANN) model adjusts both pressures of steam and non-condensable gas injected as well as the amount of non-condensable gas. The results show the optimised scheme of steam and gas push (SAGP) can improve the energy efficiency of thermal recovery by maintaining the pressure within the steam chamber enough to prevent excessive water influx, not to obstruct steam chamber expansion in early production stage. [Received: October 10, 2016; Accepted: February 2, 2017]

Keywords: steam and gas push; SAGP; oil sands; top-water-bearing zone; steam chamber; energy efficiency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJOGCT.2019.098460

International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal Technology, 2019 Vol.20 No.3, pp.304 - 326

Received: 18 Oct 2016
Accepted: 22 Feb 2017

Published online: 25 Mar 2019 *

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