EOR Thermal Injection Course for Oil and Gas Professionals

• Good English communication skills
• Willingness and openness to participate in group work
• Internet access
• 3-6 hours per week
• Basic understanding of main petroleum engineering principles, petrophysics and fluid properties
• Some knowledge of reservoir geology
• Basic understanding main principles of reservoir modeling

THERMAL EOR COURSE OUTLINE

 

 

 

PROGRAM OVERVIEW:

 

The course will introduce students to thermal-based oil recovery.  Many countries in the world contain heavy oil and bitumen resources that require thermal recovery (steam injection) in order to produce oil.  This course is a practical and pragmatic approach to understanding thermal recovery is, how different EOR processes work, and how to run basic calculations to determine parameters such as steam injection requirements and predicted oil recovery rates in various thermal EOR processes.  Finally, students will learn about new improvements and alternatives to thermal processes, so that they are aware of technology advances and the future of thermal EOR.

 

 

 

After taking the course students will:

 

• • Understand the concepts enhanced oil recovery to improve production.

 

• • Have an overview of heavy oil deposits, properties of heavy oil formations, and how fluid properties change with temperature.

 

• • Understand the fundamental concepts of heat transfer, and consequently, reservoir heating and heat losses and steam chamber development.

 

• • Understand the mechanisms of several thermal processes currently used in commercial operations: steam flooding, cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) and steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD).

 

• • Design and predict the performance (steam-oil-ratio and oil production rates and recovery) of the various thermal EOR processes.

 

• • Calculate the energy requirement per unit volume of reservoir or per unit volume of oil produced, in order to compare thermal EOR processes against other technology.

 

 

 

 

The course is taught in the form of lecture slides with interspersed example problems for students to practice the concepts being discussed.  These examples will provide students with hands-on practice at using the concepts taught to run spreadsheet-based calculations.

 

 

 

The intended audience is for engineers with a reservoir or petroleum background.  The ideal course participant is someone who understands reservoir engineering and wants to learn how to utilize thermal recovery methods to exploit non-conventional resources.  This course focuses on upstream (reservoir) thermal recovery processes.

 

 

 

MODULE 1: EFFECTS OF EOR

 

• • Introduction to heavy oil and bitumen reservoirs worldwide: reservoir properties and descriptions

 

• • Challenges to conventional recovery methods in viscous oil systems

 

• • Concept of EOR and thermal oil recovery (to reduce viscosity to enable flow)

 

• • Introduction to thermal EOR processes

 

• • Steam flooding

 

• • Cyclic steam stimulation

 

• • Steam assisted gravity drainage

 

• • Chemical additions in thermal process

 

• • Correlations for water density and viscosity as a function of pressure

 

• • Correlations and equations for oil density and viscosity as a function of temperature and pressure

 

• • Existing correlations

 

• • Correlations generated based on reservoir fluids

 

• • Exercise: prediction of oil viscosity and density at reservoir and elevated temperatures based on ambient temperature data.

 

• • Exercise: calculation of oil drainage rates under variable pressure gradients, at different temperatures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

MODULE 2: FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF RESERVOIR HEATING

 

• • Heat capacity and thermal conductivity: a measure of energy storage and energy flow rate in the reservoir

 

• • Heat capacity and thermal conductivity of rocks and fluids

 

• • Hot water heating of reservoirs: sensible heat

 

• • Steam-based heating of reservoirs: latent and sensible heat transfer

 

• • Heat input vs. heat loss within the reservoir

 

• • Conductive heating: rates and temperature profiles in different reservoir systems

 

• • Steam flooding concepts and description

 

• • Calculations of steam chamber size and drained zone volumes

 

• • Exercise: Calculation of energy within a given unit volume of water at elevated temperature and pressure.

 

• • Exercise: Calculation of steam volumes required to heat a unit volume of reservoir

 

• • Exercise: Calculation of heating rates in different formations as a function of time from conduction

 

• • Exercise: Calculation of steam chamber size as a function of time, with and without heat loss to the overburden

 

 

 

 

MODULE 3: UNDERSTANDING AND DESIGNING CYCLIC STEAM INJECTION

 

• • Cyclic steam injection concepts and description

 

• • Calculations of steam injection volumes and heat transfer during injection cycles

 

• • Calculations of oil and water rates during production cycles

 

• • Cyclic steam injection vs. cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) in unconsolidated oil sands

 

• • Case study: cyclic steam injection in Grosmont (bitumen in carbonate)

 

• • Exercise: Calculation of heat input to the reservoir above and below fracture pressure.

 

• • Exercise: Design a steam injection cycle and predict the corresponding oil and water production rates.

 

• • Further reading:

 

• • Paper references provided showing field results of CSS and well responses over multiple cycles.

 

• • Paper references provided showing steam injection into Grosmont carbonate.

 

 

 

 

MODULE 4: STEAM ASSISTED GRAVITY DRAINAGE PART 1- WELL PAIR DESIGN

 

• • SAGD concepts and description

 

• • Butler calculation of oil drainage rates during SAGD

 

• • Calculations of rates during steam chamber rise and expansion

 

• • Calculation of CSOR to evaluate overall performance

 

• • Reservoir simulation of SAGD

 

• • Commercial simulators (STARS)

 

• • Advantages and disadvantages of using reservoir simulation

 

• • Grid size sensitivity

 

• • Relative permeability as a function of temperature

 

• • Rock and fluid properties as a function of temperature

 

• • Presence of non-condensable gas

 

• • SAGD typical injection and production profile

 

• • SAGD start up (description, timing and heating rates)

 

• • Bullheading vs circulation

 

• • Controlling factors

 

• • Converting from start up to SAGD

 

• • SAGD wind down

 

• • Timing

 

• • Gas vs. steam

 

 

 

 

• • Exercise: Provide a set of reservoir and fluid properties, calculate peak oil rate.

 

• • Exercise: Calculate the oil rates and cumulative production during rising chamber and expanding chamber periods using the Butler and Stevens (1981) models. Show the influence of varying reservoir permeability and well length on rates and cumulative recovery.

 

• • Exercise: Calculate the cumulative steam-oil-ratio (CSOR) from

 

• • Further reading:

 

• • Butler (1997) textbook

 

• • Original papers by Butler showing development of SAGD

 

• • Papers by Edmunds showing results of the original UTF SAGD pilot study

 

• • Papers on NCG co-injection with steam.

 

 

 

 

MODULE 5: STEAM ASSISTED GRAVITY DRAINAGE PART 2 – FIELD DEVELOPMENT

 

• • Facility requirement:

 

• • Water treatment

 

• • Steam generators

 

• • Field pattern:

 

• • Optimal distance between injector and producer

 

• • Optimal distance between well pairs

 

• • Observation wells

 

• • Reservoir performance monitoring in observation wells, injector and producer

 

• • SAGD reservoir challenges:

 

• • Poor conformance of steam chamber vs. length

 

• • Interbedded heterolythic shales (IHS)

 

• • With bottom or top water (or top gas)

 

• • SAGD in fractured carbonate systems

 

• • Further reading:

 

• • Paper references showing the effect of IHS beds on SAGD performance

 

• • SAGD references showing response in thin zones

 

 

 

 

MODULE 6: THERMAL ENHANCEMENTS

 

• • Solvent addition:

 

• • Solvent selection

 

• • Economic factors: amount of solvent injected and solvent returns

 

• • Concepts of solvent/oil PVT

 

• • ES-SAGD description and laboratory results

 

• • Steam/solvent hybrids: ES-SAGD, SAP, LASER

 

• • Field pilot results and findings

 

• • Warm solvent injection in bitumen systems: N-Solv and ESEIEH

 

• • Chemical steam additives:

 

• • Interfacial properties of oil, water and surfactants at elevated conditions

 

• • Steam additive concepts and laboratory findings

 

• • Steam foam concepts and laboratory findings