Modeling of Perspective Directions of Application of Steam-Assisted-Gravity-Drainage Technologies

About the authors:

Alexander Ya. Gilmanov, Cand. Sci. (Phys.-Math.), Senior Lecturer, Department of Modeling of Physical Processes and Systems, School of Natural Sciences, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; a.y.gilmanov@utmn.ru; ORCID: 0000-0002-7115-1629

Alexander P. Shevelev, Cand. Sci. (Phys.-Math.), Associate Professor, Professor, Department of Modeling of Physical Processes and Systems, School of Natural Sciences, University of Tyumen, Tyumen, Russia; a.p.shevelev@utmn.ru; ORCID: 0000-0003-0017-4871

Abstract:

The reserves of easily accessible oil are currently declining. Therefore, it is necessary to employ heavy oil fields in the development, as well as other hard-to-recover reserves. There are significant reserves of high viscosity oil in Tatarstan and Western Siberia (e. g., in the Russian oil field). For the extraction of such reserves, it is necessary to use special methods (mainly thermal), the most promising of which is the method of Steam-Assisted-Gravity-Drainage (SAGD). The SAGD method, with two vertical injection wells and one horizontal well, has only recently been used in addition to the common technology with two horizontal wells. Due to the large depth of oil and the possibility of heat loss, SAGD modeling is especially important in Russia. It can be achieved by a proven computational model based on the fundamental system of equations of mechanics of multiphase systems. However, this requires a large amount of data that is not always available for the considering field, as well as significant time loss. For elimination of these disadvantages without essential loss of accuracy, it is possible to use the integrated approach based on Butler’s model and the method of material balance proposed and constantly improved by the authors of this article.

For the first time this model is tested and compared with real field data for Western fields for both SAGD technologies, which is the purpose of this work and which distinguishes it from the authors’ previous work. At the same time, the obtained results are comparable with the real Western data and prove the physical consistency of the model and the possibility of its application to calculate the optimal SAGD parameters for other highly viscous oil fields in Russia.

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