ES2482668T3 - Apparatus and procedure for the exploitation of oil sands - Google Patents

Abstract

Downhole apparatus for the exploitation of oil sands, comprising at least: - a casing pipe (130) to house a water conduit (250) to receive water through a water tube, - at least one chamber steam generation (375) that is in fluid communication with said water conduit (250) and that has at least one steam outlet hole (390), - at least one electric heater (350), which is thermally connected to said steam generation chamber (375), - the casing comprises at least one crude oil conduit (135) to recover the crude oil, which has been mobilized by said steam, characterized in that the at least one chamber ( 375) of steam generation is supported by the peripheral surface of the casing (130).

Description

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DESCRIPTION

Apparatus and procedure for the exploitation of oil sands

Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for the mobilization in situ of heavy oil or crude oil by steam injection.

Description of the related technique

The oil sands, also designated as oil sands, comprise grains of sand coated with petroleum oil, similar to tar, briefly designated as petroleum oil. Crude oil from oil sands has a high viscosity and must be heated or diluted to flow. In situ exploitation of oil sands can be carried out by “steam-assisted gravity drainage”, abbreviated as SAGD. The SAGD uses a horizontally extending steam injection well that forms a steam generation chamber to mobilize oil from oil sands. The mobilized oil crude pours down and is recovered by a second horizontally extending well, called the production well, as disclosed in US 2001/0278001 A1.

The steam can be either produced by external or bottomhole installations by means of an electric heater as suggested in US Patent 4,805,698. Water is supplied from the outside by a water supply conduit. The electric steam generator heats the water to generate steam. The steam is injected into the sand and mobilizes the crude oil, which is collected by adjacent production wells.

US 2005/072567 A1 discloses a system for the treatment of a survey that uses a loop system to heat the oil in an underground formation in contact with the survey. Steam is produced either by outdoor installations and supplied by a steam duct to the system's bottomhole apparatus

or by means of a boiler that is part of the bottomhole apparatus. In both cases the steam is injected through the steam duct located in the underground formation in order to mobilize the crude oil, which is recovered by a petroleum crude conduit that can be part of the bottomhole apparatus.

US 5,085,275 A shows a bottomhole apparatus for an exploitation of oil sands comprising a casing pipe through which a steam pipe extends to a steam outlet. The steam generated in a boiler located on the ground or surface is supplied through the steam pipe. Deposit fluids are transported through an opening made through a production tube to the surface

US 4,116,275 A shows a similar bottomhole apparatus for the exploitation of oil sands comprising a casing pipe through which an outer steam pipe extends to a steam outlet. The steam generated by a boiler located on the ground or surface is supplied through the steam tube and the fluids from the tank are transported through an opening made through an inner tube to the surface.

Document 4,127,169 A shows an apparatus with a casing pipe that includes passages for electrical cables, water and the like. In the casing pipe there are electrodes as heating elements to generate steam that is emitted through outlets.

Summary of the invention

The problem to be solved by the invention is to improve the exploitation of oil sands in situ.

Solutions to the problem are provided by a bottomhole apparatus and a method for operating an oil sands tank as described in the respective independent claims. The dependent claims relate to further improvements of the invention.

The bottomhole apparatus for the exploitation of oil sands, comprises at least one casing pipe that houses a water conduit for receiving water through a water pipe and at least one steam generation chamber arranged in fluid communication with said water conduit and which has at least one steam outlet. The steam generation chamber is thermally connected to an electric heater. The bottomhole apparatus further comprises at least one oil crude conduit for recovering the crude oil that has been mobilized by said steam. The bottomhole apparatus allows steam to be injected to mobilize oil crude into oil sands and to recover oil from a single device and, therefore, only requires a single survey.

The casing pipe, preferably, can accommodate the at least one oil crude conduit. The casing pipe may, for example, be or include a multi-conduit pipe, in which the at least one water conduit and the at least one oil crude conduit are each at least multiple conduits. This allows a stable design of the housing.

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The at least one steam generation chamber is supported by the peripheral surface of the casing. This position of the steam generation chamber allows a simple injection of the steam generated in said steam generation chamber into the oil sands.

Preferably, there are multiple, for example five or nine, at least two steam generation chambers arranged around the peripheral surface of the casing that defines a package of steam generation chambers. The bottomhole apparatus may incorporate one or more beams. In one embodiment, there is a package of steam generation chambers. In another embodiment, there are two or more beams arranged in different positions along a distal length of the casing. The one or more beams of steam generation chambers allow the homogeneous injection of steam and with it the efficient exploitation of the oil sands. Because the one or more beams of steam generation chambers are arranged around the casing, the one or more beams also act to maintain or raise a temperature of the casing which contributes to the removal of crude from oil from a reservoir (by means of a conduit of crude oil existing in the casing)

Each steam generation chamber preferably has a stainless steel cladding compartment that surrounds a heating tube. The heating tube can accommodate at least one electric heating cartridge. This allows, on the one hand, to efficiently heat the water and, on the other, the simple replacement of the electric heating cartridge in case of failure. The heating tube preferably houses at least one replacement electric heating cartridge. This allows longer operating intervals between retraction of the bottomhole apparatus.

The heating tube may be hollow and may incorporate an interior containing a composition of inorganic compounds and possibly pure elementary species. Examples of such composition are described in US Patent Nos. 6,132,823, 6,911,231, 6,916,430, 6,811,720 and US Application 2005/0056807. Said composition acts as a thermally conductive material or medium to provide at least a nearly perfect homogeneous distribution by means of the heat heating tube supplied by the heating cartridge. The heating tube can also be evacuated as suggested in the previous references.

The heating tube may extend above the steam generation chamber, for example axially extended. In this way, at least one section of the heating tube extends out of the steam generating chamber into the borehole. The heating tube, in this way, not only heats the water inside the steam generating chamber to emit steam, but also reheats the steam or water that cooled in a tank after its injection. In this way, the efficiency of exploitation is increased.

The method of operating an oil sands tank comprises at least the stages of steam production within a steam generating chamber of a well bottom apparatus, the injection of said steam by means of steam outlets to the inside the oil sands deposit to mobilize crude oil from the oil sands deposit. At least part of said mobilized crude oil is recovered by said bottomhole apparatus. This procedure minimizes the number of surveys for an exploitation of oil sands in situ compared to the SAGD, and therefore the costs.

Description of the drawings

The invention will now be described by way of example, without limitation of the general inventive concept, with examples and embodiments with reference to the drawings.

Figure 1 shows a schematic representation of an oil sands exploitation system,

Figure 2 shows a perspective view of a section of a bottomhole apparatus,

Figure 3 shows the section of the steam generation chamber,

Figure 4 shows a schematic representation of a second embodiment of an oil sands exploitation system.

Detailed description

The oil sands exploitation system 100 of Figure 1 presents an exterior station 110 for housing the aforementioned exterior facilities, such as the control station 115 for monitoring and controlling the exploitation of oil sands. The outdoor station 110 may also include a power source for, for example, providing power to an extraction well. The outdoor station 110 may include a water source, such as a reservoir to provide water (eg fresh water) to an extraction well. The outdoor station 110 is represented as a ground station, but it can also be a submerged station for the exploitation of oil sands pipeline of water liners.

The oil sands exploitation system 100 includes an extraction well 120 with a well bottom apparatus inserted into a borehole 105. The well bottom apparatus includes a casing pipe 130 as a multi-conduit, for example for a cable 230 to carry electrical energy (see Figure 2)

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for supplying electrical power to the bottomhole equipment, for example a guard 165 and / or a motor 153 to drive a wellhead and a well monitoring device 140 as schematically shown in Figure 1. Well 120 The extraction generator includes a steam generator 200 that can be mounted on the peripheral surface of the casing pipe 130. The steam generator 200 is discussed below in greater detail with respect to Figures 2 and 3. The steam generator 200 is located in this embodiment around the casing pipe 130 in a lower or distal portion of the casing pipe 130, which is located in a first, preferably vertical, section of the extraction bore 105. The steam generator 200 injects steam, preferably, laterally into the oil sands as shown in Figure 1. The steam mobilizes the crude oil existing in the oil sands.

The extraction well 120 is configured to collect oil, in particular the extraction well may be configured to collect the mobilized crude oil existing in the oil sand. To this end, the casing pipe 130 of the extraction well 120 includes one or more oil inlets 135 along its length and allows the oil to infiltrate the casing pipe. Arranged within the casing pipe 130 there is at least one oil conduit 125. The oil conduit 125 extends from the inner or distal portion of the casing 130 to the outer station 110. The oil that infiltrates the liner 130 can enter the oil conduit 125 disposed at the distal end of the conduit, for example, by means of one of the oil inlets 135 and can be pumped to the surface and fed to a line 109, for example, by means of a centrifugal pump 180 which is preferably arranged in the distal lower portion of the casing 130. Before pumping the crude oil to the outside station 110, the water can be separated from the crude oil through separator 176. Likewise, in the lower or distal portion of the casing pipe 130 there is an Electric Cable Clamp 195, a Vent Valve 172, a Single Flow Valve 185, a Cable 175 for Transporting Energy Electrical, Rotary Separator 176, a Protector 165, a Cable Head 162, a Motor 152 and a Well Monitoring Device 140. In the middle is a pair of water spray holes 145 and additional oil inlets 135. The water spray holes 145 are preferably in fluid communication with the steam generating means, for example with at least one of the steam generating chambers 375 (cf. Figure 3) and thus allowing steam injection into oil sands to mobilize oil crude.

Figure 2 shows a section of an isometric view of the casing pipe 130 that includes a steam generator 200 from the extraction well 120. The steam generator 200 comprises a package of heating members 300 (cf. Fig. 3). The heating members 300 are arranged around the peripheral surface of the casing pipe 130. The casing pipe 130 is in the form of a pipe. The casing pipe 130 has multiple compartments or conduits around an internal periphery that can serve as a water conduit 250 (to supply water from the outside station 110 to the steam generator 200), an oil conduit 125 (for the oil being infiltrates existing oil inlets 135 in casing pipe 130) or as a cable conduit (to provide electrical power to the components of the casing pipe (for example, centrifugal pump 180, motor 152) and heating cartridges associated with steam generator 200).

The steam generator 200 comprises a package of heating members 300 (cf. Figure 3). The heating members 300 are arranged around the peripheral surface of the casing pipe 130 and are each connected to the casing pipe 130 by, for example, one or more welded connections. When it is desired to have more than one package associated with a well such as the extraction well 120, the beams can be stacked on top of each other along the casing 130. With reference to Figure 3, each member 300 of Heating includes a heating tube 310 and a steam generating chamber 375, respectively.

The facing side (upper) of the heating tube 310 is closed by a conical cap 330, which can be connected by welding to the heating tube 310. The side facing the rear of the heating tube 310 may be enclosed by a terminal cap 340 which may, preferably, be a water impermeable but releasable connection, for example a threaded connection. The heating tube 310, the conical cap 330 and the terminal cap 340 define a volume or chamber 335.

As shown in Figure 3, the chamber 335 of the heating member 300 is divided into a first portion and a second portion with a cap 360 of a thermally conductive material, such as a metallic material (for example, steel). In one embodiment, the electric heater cartridge 350 with positive and negative terminals located at a single end (a proximal end as seen) is located in a first portion of the chamber 335 (proximal to the cap 340). The cap 360 can divide the chamber 335 at a certain distance from a first end so that it is sufficient to make it possible for the heating cartridge 350 to be arranged in a first portion of the chamber 335 but minimize any additional volume for the first portion. As shown in Figure 3, when the heater cartridge 350 is disposed in a first portion of the chamber 335, terminals 355 may extend inside a volume of the terminal cap 340. Each terminal cap 340 preferably includes a side opening 365 which is, for example, a threaded opening for the connection of electrical energy to terminals 355. A conductor is fed through a peripheral conduit of the casing pipe 130 inside the lateral opening 365. The

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Current can be supplied to the conductor from an external power source arranged at the outdoor station 110.

Each steam generating chamber 375 is defined by, for example, a cylindrical housing 320, a front wall 380 and a rear wall 370 connected, for example, to welded connections. The front wall 380 and the rear wall 370 each have an opening through which a heating tube 310 is arranged. The heating tube 310 extends axially through the steam generating chamber 375. The connection of the heating tube 310 and the front wall 380 and / or the rear wall 370 may be a welded connection.

The electric heater cartridge 350 is thermally connected to the heating tube 310 and electrically connected with an energy transport line, for example, by means of the energy transport cable 230. The energy (for example, electric current) is preferably controlled by the control station 115 and can be channeled through a side opening, such as the side opening 365. A gasket can be used to seal the power cable tightly. The internal heating tube 310 is a thermally conductive material as described in US Patents 6,132,823; 6,911,231; 6,916,430; 7,220,365 and in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0056807. The rear wall 370 of the housing 320 includes an inlet 395 for a water source intended to be connected thereto to provide water to the steam generating chamber 375. Water is supplied from a water source located at, for example, the station 110 outside the steam generating chamber 375 through a peripheral conduit of the casing pipe 130 which is in fluid communication with the inlet 395. To heat the water to obtain steam, the energy can be supplied to the electric heater cartridge 350. The heating cartridge 350 thus produces heat, which is transferred to the steam generating chamber 375 by means of the heating tube 310. The steam develops inside the steam generating chamber 375 and escapes through the steam outlet 390 entering the oil sands. A single flow pressure valve may be disposed at steam outlet 390. In this way, foreign matter, such as sand grains and the like, can be prevented from entering the steam generating chamber 375. Also, steam can be pressurized. When the heating tube 310 extends above the steam generating chamber, a part of the heat supplied by the electric heating cartridge 350 is also transferred directly to the oil sands. This heat reduces the concentration of steam near the extraction well 120 and, thus, allows the steam to heat a larger area around the extraction well in order to better mobilize petroleum oil. The mobilized petroleum crude can be collected by means of the oil inlets 135 (see Figures 1 and 2), separated from the water by the rotary separator 176 and pumped by the centrifugal pump 180 into the production line 109 represented in a way schematic in Figure 1.

As depicted, and as described above with reference to Figure 1, one or more bundles 200 of pipes from the extraction well 120 may be used to generate and discharge steam into an oil reserve for, in the case of sands oil, provide sufficient liquidity for petroleum oil from the oil sands to make it possible to extract it through the casing pipe 130 and the pumping conduit 125, and secondly to also heat the casing pipe 130. So Preferably, the temperature of the steam produced in the steam generating chamber 375 is monitored and / or controlled by the controller 115. For example, a treatment protocol supplied to the control computer 115 may include instructions for receiving measurements from the temperature from at least one temperature sensor. Based on these measurements, instructions are legibly entered by a machine to be executed by the controller 115. Accordingly, the controller 115 executes the instructions to increase or reduce the output power towards one or more heating rods 350 for achieve an optimum temperature within a range f (for example, from 250 ° C to 280 ° C). It is appreciated that the controller 115 may be increasing the energy to some 350 heater cartridges while at the same time reducing the energy to other heating cartridges 350. The controller 115 may, alternatively or additionally, control, enhance or reduce the flow of water supplied to the steam generating chamber (s) 375 to thereby control the steam temperature. Moreover, the controller 115 may be connected to the pump 180 and other components of the pumping conduit 125 and control the pump and / or other components based on the program instructions to achieve a desired total well performance.

Figure 4 shows another embodiment of an oil sands exploitation system. In this embodiment, the oil sands exploitation system 400 includes an exterior holding 410 to house the aforementioned exterior installations, such as a controller 415, a power source and a water source. Similar to Figure 1, the referred outdoor station 410 is represented as a ground station, but it can also consist of a submerged station for the exploitation of oil sands pipeline of water liners. System 400 includes a probe 405 into which an extraction well 420 is inserted with a bottomhole apparatus. In Figure 1, the extraction well was inserted vertically or approximately vertically to the entire length of the well. In Figure 4, the extraction well 420 extends vertically through the bore 405 located on an outer surface of the well but then extends laterally inside the well. On the other hand, the construction and operation of the extraction well 420 and the system 400 is similar to the construction and operation of the extraction well 120 and the system 100 described with reference to Figures 1 and 3. The bottomhole apparatus includes a casing pipe 430 which is, for example, a multi-duct casing pipe configured similarly to the casing pipe 130 of Figure 1, and one or more beams of steam generators 500 configured in a manner

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similar to steam generators 200. Figure 4 shows a single package arranged around and connected to the distal portion of the casing 430. The water supplied to each steam generating chamber of the steam generator 500 is converted to steam by the heat supplied to the chamber by a heating tube containing a heating cartridge and a thermally conductive material as described above with reference to Figures 1 and 3. The steam is distributed from the steam outlets 490 of a steam generating chamber to the interior of the sand tank oil to mobilize the existing oil in the oil sands. The mobilized oil infiltrates the casing 430 through the oil inlets 435 and is pumped to the surface of the well.

List of numerical references

100 System 105 sounding 108 wellhead 109 production line 111 valve 110 outdoor station 115 control station 120 extraction well 125 oil pipe 130 extraction pipe 135 oil inlet 140 well monitoring device 150 engine 162 cable head 165 protector 170 rotary separator 172 vent valve 175 cable for transporting electric power 176 rotary separator 180 centrifugal pump 185 single flow valve 190 vent valve 195 electrical cable clamp 200 tube package / steam generator 230 electrical cable 250 water conduit 300 heating member 310 heating tube 320 housing 330 conical cap

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335 chamber 340 terminal cap 350 electric heater cartridge 360 cap heater cartridge terminal 365 side opening 370 rear wall (facing down) 375 steam generation chamber 380 front wall (facing up) 390 steam outlet 400 system 405 sounding 410 station exterior 415 controller 420 extraction well 430 casing pipe 435 oil inlet holes 490 oil outlet holes 500 steam generator

Claims (1)

E12150055 07-16-2014 1.-Well bottom apparatus for the exploitation of oil sands, comprising at least: a casing pipe (130) to accommodate a water conduit (250) to receive water through a water pipe, 5 -at least one steam generation chamber (375) that is in fluid communication with said water conduit (250) and that has at least one steam outlet (390), -at least one heater (350) electrical, which is thermally connected to said chamber (375) of steam generation, -the casing pipe comprises at least one conduit (135) of crude oil to recover the 10 crude oil, which has been mobilized by said steam characterized in that the at least one steam generating chamber (375) it is supported by the peripheral surface of the casing pipe (130) 2.-Well bottom apparatus of claim 1 characterized because 15 the casing pipe (130) houses at least one conduit (135) of crude oil. 3.-Well bottom apparatus of any one of the preceding claims characterized because The casing pipe (130) is a multi-conduit tube in which the at least one water conduit (250) and the at least one petroleum crude conduit (125) are each multiple conduits. 20 4. Well bottom apparatus of any one of the preceding claims characterized because at least two steam generating chambers (375) are arranged in beams arranged around the peripheral surface of the casing pipe (130). 5.-Well bottom apparatus of any one of the preceding claims 25 characterized in that -the steam generating chamber (130) has a coated compartment that surrounds a tube (310) heater, -the heater tube (310) houses at least one electric heating cartridge (350). 6.-Well bottom apparatus of claim 5 characterized in that the Heating tube (310) is hollow and has an inner surface, the inner surface being coated with inorganic salts. 7.-Well bottom apparatus of claim 6 characterized in that the 35 tube (310) heater is evacuated. 8.-Well bottom apparatus of any one of claims 5 to 7 characterized because The heating tube (310) extends axially over the steam generating chamber (375). 9. A method for the exploitation of an oil sands deposit comprising at least steps 40 of: the production of steam in a well bottom apparatus according to claim 1, 8 E12150055 07-16-2014 - the injection of said steam through the steam outlets (390) into the oil sands deposit to mobilize the oil from the oil sands deposit, -the recovery of at least part of the oil crudes mobilized by at least one oil crude conduit of said well bottom apparatus. 9