The effects of injector-producer pressure difference on dual-well SAGD recovery
LIU Hao, CHENG Linsong, XIONG Hao, HUANG Shijun, YU Heng, LAN Xiang, HUANG Xiao
1 MOE Key Laboratory of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, Beijing 102249, China 2 Petroleum Institute, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China
Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) provides many advantages compared to alternate thermal recovery methods for bitumen, especially for thick and intact reservoirs. Nowadays, most researchers believe that the gravity mechanism is the main driver in SAGD recovery, ignoring the injector-producer pressure difference, which makes the field prediction deviates from reality. To study this problem, this paper makes further investigation into the injector-producer pressure difference. Based on the geological parameters from the Mackay River and Dover reservoirs in Canada, a numerical geological model is established. Meanwhile, the effects of pressure difference on oil production rate, stable production time, rising steam chamber and steam chamber expansion were studied in depth. The results indicate that the pressure difference has a great impact on SAGD recovery and with increasing pressure difference, the oil production rate also increases, but the increasing trend is reduced. At the beginning of the rising steam chamber stage, the steam chamber is fan-shaped, and sometime later, the fan-shaped chamber becomes a hexagon chamber. The steam chamber reaching the cap-rock does not mean it will show the greatest oil production rate. Pressure difference plays an important role on the steam chamber expansion angle, and the expansion angle has a great influence on the steam spreading range. The pressure difference has a significant impact on the steam rising stage, but at the steam expansion stage, its impact declines, so in the field, at the beginning of the SAGD recovery, it is better for us to increase the pressure difference and in the steam expansion stage, we can decrease the pressure difference to some degree, to avoid steam breakthrough and to improve economic returns.
