Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) is a commonly used EOR/IOR method for improving recovery in heavy oil reservoirs. However, continued research for a more energy efficient method has led to the development of an improved version called Expanding Solvent (ES)-SAGD, which has the potential to replace conventional SAGD method for production from some heavy oil reservoirs. This thesis provides some insights into determination of the reservoir performance of ES-SAGD process using an improved semi-analytical method. This model is then used for optimizing the solvent requirement while minimizing the steam injected. The semi-analytical model is determined by combining Butler’s oil drainage analytical model and solvent dilution effect of VAPEX process. The predictive ability of this model was improved by accounting for concentration and viscosity dependent solvent diffusion process. Results from this extended model in terms of solvent injection, oil production and Cumulative Steam to Oil Ratio (cSOR) were compared with that of reservoir simulation at various levels of grid resolution. Furthermore, the results from simulation were analyzed using response surface methodology including gradient based optimization technique to determine optimum operating conditions, which was then compared with more robust multi-objective optimization based on Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) and Pareto-optimality. Both the optimization techniques were used within the improved semi-analytical formulation to come up with optimized operational parameters. Modeling solvent diffusivity as a function of solvent concentration gives better results than those obtained using a constant value for diffusivity. Moreover, results for some key performance factors are in good agreement between the semi-analytical model and the numerical simulation, rendering this model suitable for performing solvents-screening studies. The multi-objective optimization framework within the semi-analytical model is demonstrated to be a feasible option for determining optimum ranges of key operating parameters that would result in success of the project. Intermediate values of solvent fraction ranging 0.1 to 0.2 for almost the entire range of injection pressures result in high bitumen recoveries and relatively low cSOR. The results indicate that higher values of solvent fraction at low operating pressures and lower values of solvent fraction at high operating pressures lead to optimized oil recovery rate and lower steam-oil-ratio. The multi-objective optimization process results in several combinations of control parameters that yield solutions along the Pareto-optimum front. These combinations are all viable solutions to the optimization problem. / text

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:08:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TayllandyaSP_DISSERT.pdf: 2803522 bytes, checksum: 516959be83003bd573c721b4ad05b984 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-11-06 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / Nowadays, most of the hydrocarbon reserves in the world are in the form of heavy oil, ultra - heavy or bitumen. For the extraction and production of this resource is required to implement new technologies. One of the promising processes for the recovery of this oil is the Expanding Solvent Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (ES-SAGD) which uses two parallel horizontal wells, where the injection well is situated vertically above the production well. The completion of the process occurs upon injection of a hydrocarbon additive at low concentration in conjunction with steam. The steam adds heat to reduce the viscosity of the oil and solvent aids in reducing the interfacial tension between oil/ solvent. The main force acting in this process is the gravitational and the heat transfer takes place by conduction, convection and latent heat of steam. In this study was used the discretized wellbore model, where the well is discretized in the same way that the reservoir and each section of the well treated as a block of grid, with interblock connection with the reservoir. This study aims to analyze the influence of the pressure drop and heat along the injection well in the ES-SAGD process. The model used for the study is a homogeneous reservoir, semi synthetic with characteristics of the Brazilian Northeast and numerical simulations were performed using the STARS thermal simulator from CMG (Computer Modelling Group). The operational parameters analyzed were: percentage of solvent injected, the flow of steam injection, vertical distance between the wells and steam quality. All of them were significant in oil recovery factor positively influencing this. The results showed that, for all cases analyzed, the model considers the pressure drop has cumulative production of oil below its respective model that disregards such loss. This difference is more pronounced the lower the value of the flow of steam injection / Atualmente, a maior parte das reservas de hidrocarbonetos no mundo se encontram na forma de ?leo pesado, ultra-pesado ou betume. Para a extra??o e produ??o desse recurso ? necess?ria a implanta??o de novas tecnologias. Um dos processos promissores para a recupera??o desse ?leo ? a drenagem gravitacional assistida com vapor e solvente (ESSAGD) que utiliza dois po?os horizontais paralelos, onde o injetor ? disposto acima do produtor. A realiza??o do processo se d? mediante a inje??o de um aditivo de hidrocarboneto em baixa concentra??o em conjunto com vapor. O vapor contribui com calor para redu??o da viscosidade do ?leo e o solvente ajuda na miscibilidade, reduzindo a tens?o interfacial entre ?leo/solvente. A principal for?a atuante neste processo ? a gravitacional e a transfer?ncia de calor ocorre por meio da condu??o, convec??o e pelo calor latente do vapor. Neste estudo foi utilizado o modelo discretizado, onde o po?o ? discretizado da mesma forma que o reservat?rio, sendo cada se??o do po?o tratada como um bloco da grade, com conex?o interblocos com o reservat?rio. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a influ?ncia da perda de carga e calor ao longo do po?o injetor no processo ES-SAGD. O modelo utilizado para estudo trata-se de um reservat?rio homog?neo, semissint?tico com caracter?sticas do Nordeste Brasileiro e as simula??es num?ricas foram realizadas atrav?s do simulador t?rmico STARS da CMG (Computer Modelling Group). Os par?metros operacionais analisados foram: porcentagem de solvente injetado, vaz?o de inje??o de vapor, dist?ncia vertical entre os po?os e qualidade de vapor. Todos eles foram significativos no Fator de Recupera??o de ?leo. Os resultados demonstraram que, para todos os casos analisados, o modelo que considera a perda de carga apresenta produ??o acumulada de ?leo inferior ao seu respectivo modelo que desconsidera tal perda. Essa diferen?a ? mais acentuada quanto menor o valor da vaz?o de inje??o de vapor

The Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) Process involves the injection of steam through a horizontal well and the production of heavy oil through a lower horizontal well. Several authors have tried to model this process using analytical, semi-analytical and fully numerical means. In this dissertation, we improve the predictive ability of previous models by accounting for the effect of anisotropy, the effect of heat transfer on capillarity and the effect of water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion formation and transport which serves to enhance heat transfer during SAGD. We account for the effect of anisotropy during SAGD by performing elliptical transformation of the resultant gravity head and resultant oil drainage vectors on to a space described by the vertical and horizontal permeabilities. Our results, show that unlike for the isotropic case, the effect of anisotropy is time dependent and there exists a given time beyond which it ceases to have any effect on SAGD rates. This result will impact well spacing design and optimization during SAGD. Butler et al. (1981) derived their classical SAGD model by solving a 1-D heat conservation equation for single phase flow. This model has excellent predictive capability at experimental scales but performs poorly at field scales. By assuming a linear saturation -- temperature relationship, Sharma and Gates (2010b) developed a model that accounts for multiphase flow ahead of the steam chamber interface. In this work, by decomposing capillary pressure into its saturation and temperature components, we coupled the mass and energy conservation equations and showed that the multi-scale, multiphase flow phenomenon occurring during SAGD is the classical Marangoni (or thermo-capillary) effect which can be characterized by the Marangoni number. At low Marangoni numbers (typical of experimental scales) we get the Butler solution while at high Marangoni numbers (typical of field scales), we approximate the Sharma and Gates solution. The Marangoni flow concept was extended to the Expanding Solvent SAGD (ES-SAGD) process and our results show that there exists a given Marangoni number threshold below which the ES-SAGD process will not fare better than the SAGD process. Experimental results presented in Sasaki et al. (2002) demonstrate the existence of water-in-oil emulsions adjacent to the steam chamber wall during SAGD. In this work we show that these emulsions enhanced heat transfer at the chamber wall and hence oil recovery. We postulate that these W/O emulsions are principally hot water droplets that carry convective heat energy. We perform calculations to show that their presence can practically double the effective heat transfer coefficient across the steam chamber interface which overcomes the effect of reduced oil rates due to the increased emulsified phase viscosity. Our results also compared well with published experimental data. The SAGD (and ES-SAGD) process is a short length-scaled process and hence, short length-scaled phenomena (typically ignored in other EOR or conventional processes) such as thermo-capillarity and in-situ emulsification should not be ignored in predicting SAGD recoveries. This work will find unique application in predictive models used as fast proxies for predicting SAGD recovery and for history matching purposes. / text

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:08:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 RutinaldoAN_DISSERT.pdf: 3892841 bytes, checksum: c2e0ab636612eb7f303f7c05dcbc863a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-08-28 / Como os recursos de hidrocarbonetos convencionais est?o se esgotando, a crescente demanda mundial por energia impulsiona a ind?stria do petr?leo para desenvolver mais reservat?rios n?o convencionais. Os recursos mundiais de betume e ?leo pesado s?o estimados em 5,6 trilh?es de barris, dos quais 80% est?o localizados na Venezuela, Canad? e EUA. Um dos m?todos para explorar estes hidrocarbonetos ? o processo de drenagem gravitacional assistido com inje??o de vapor e solvente (ES-SAGD Expanding Solvent Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage). Neste processo s?o utilizados dois po?os horizontais paralelos e situados verticalmente um acima do outro, um produtor na base do reservat?rio e um injetor de vapor e solvente no topo do reservat?rio. Este processo ? composto por um m?todo t?rmico (inje??o de vapor) e um m?todo misc?vel (inje??o de solvente) com a finalidade de causar a redu??o das tens?es interfaciais e da viscosidade do ?leo ou betume. O objetivo deste estudo ? analisar a sensibilidade de alguns par?metros operacionais, tais como: tipo de solvente injetado, qualidade do vapor, dist?ncia vertical entre os po?os, porcentagem de solvente injetado e vaz?o de inje??o de vapor sobre o fator de recupera??o para 5, 10 e 15 anos. Os estudos foram realizados atrav?s de simula??es concretizadas no m?dulo STARS (Steam Thermal, and Advanced Processes Reservoir Simulator) do programa da CMG (Computer Modelling Group), vers?o 2010.10, onde as intera??es entre os par?metros operacionais, estudados em um modelo homog?neo com caracter?sticas de reservat?rios semelhantes aos encontrados no Nordeste Brasileiro, foram observadas. Os resultados obtidos neste estudo mostraram que os melhores fatores de recupera??o ocorreram para n?veis m?ximos do percentual de solvente injetado e da dist?ncia vertical entre os po?os. Observou-se tamb?m que o processo ser? rent?vel dependendo do tipo e do valor do solvente injetado

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