WO2013075208A1 - Oil recovery process using crossed horizontal wells - Google Patents
Oil recovery process using crossed horizontal wells Download PDFInfo
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- WO2013075208A1 WO2013075208A1 PCT/CA2011/001310 CA2011001310W WO2013075208A1 WO 2013075208 A1 WO2013075208 A1 WO 2013075208A1 CA 2011001310 W CA2011001310 W CA 2011001310W WO 2013075208 A1 WO2013075208 A1 WO 2013075208A1
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- E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
- E21—EARTH DRILLING; MINING
- E21B—EARTH DRILLING, e.g. DEEP DRILLING; OBTAINING OIL, GAS, WATER, SOLUBLE OR MELTABLE MATERIALS OR A SLURRY OF MINERALS FROM WELLS
- E21B43/00—Methods or apparatus for obtaining oil, gas, water, soluble or meltable materials or a slurry of minerals from wells
- E21B43/30—Specific pattern of wells, e.g. optimizing the spacing of wells
- E21B43/305—Specific pattern of wells, e.g. optimizing the spacing of wells comprising at least one inclined or horizontal well
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- E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
- E21—EARTH DRILLING; MINING
- E21B—EARTH DRILLING, e.g. DEEP DRILLING; OBTAINING OIL, GAS, WATER, SOLUBLE OR MELTABLE MATERIALS OR A SLURRY OF MINERALS FROM WELLS
- E21B43/00—Methods or apparatus for obtaining oil, gas, water, soluble or meltable materials or a slurry of minerals from wells
- E21B43/16—Enhanced recovery methods for obtaining hydrocarbons
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- E—FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS
- E21—EARTH DRILLING; MINING
- E21B—EARTH DRILLING, e.g. DEEP DRILLING; OBTAINING OIL, GAS, WATER, SOLUBLE OR MELTABLE MATERIALS OR A SLURRY OF MINERALS FROM WELLS
- E21B43/00—Methods or apparatus for obtaining oil, gas, water, soluble or meltable materials or a slurry of minerals from wells
- E21B43/16—Enhanced recovery methods for obtaining hydrocarbons
- E21B43/24—Enhanced recovery methods for obtaining hydrocarbons using heat, e.g. steam injection
- E21B43/243—Combustion in situ
Definitions
- the present invention relates to an oil recovery process , and more particularly to a method of recovering oil from subterranean hydrocarbon deposits using horizontal crossed injector wells.
- US Patent 5,273,11 1 (Brannan et al, 1993) teaches a steam-based pattern process for the recovery of mobile oil in a petroleum reservoir.
- a pattern of parallel offset horizontal wells are employed with steam injectors.
- the horizontal sections of the injection wells are placed in the reservoir above the horizontal sections of the production wells, with a horizontal production well drilled into the reservoir at a point below the injection wells, but intermediate said injection wells.
- Steam is injected on a continuous basis through the upper injection wells, while oil is produced through the lower production wells. Neither in situ combustion nor line drive processes are taught.
- US Patent 7,717,175 discloses a solvent-based process utilizing horizontal well patterns where parallel wells are placed alternately higher and lower in a reservoir with the upper wells used for production of solvent-thinned oil and the lower wells for solvent injection. Gravity-induced oil-solvent mixing is induced by the counter-current flow of oil and solvent.
- the wells are provided with flow control devices to achieve uniform injection and production profiles along the wellbores. The devices compensate for pressure drop along the wellbores which can cause non-uniform distribution of fluids within the wellbore and reduce reservoir sweep efficiency. In situ combustion processes are not mentioned.
- WO/2009/090477 discloses an in situ combustion pattern process wherein a series of vertical wells that are completed at the top are placed between horizontal producing wells that are specifically above an aquifer. This arrangement of wells is claimed to be utilizable for oil production in the presence of an aquifer.
- US Patent Application 2010/0326656 discloses a steam pattern process entailing the use of alternating horizontal injection and production wells wherein isolated zones of fluid egress and ingress are created along the respective wellbores in order to achieve homogeneous reservoir sweep.
- the alternating wellbores may be in the same vertical plane or alternating between low and high in the reservoir, as in US Patent 5,803,171.
- Hot vapour is injected in the upper wells (e.g. steam).
- Canadian Patent Application 2,698,454 (Ayasse) teaches a combustion process in which a horizontal oxidizing gas injection well is placed high in the reservoir directly above an oil producing horizontal well placed low in the reservoir. After ignition, the combustion front grows laterally from the injector with oil and combustion gas draining into the lower producing well placed low in the reservoir.
- the overall field development is by the sequential placement of injector-producer well pairs in a pattern.
- steam-based oil recovery processes are commonly employed to recover heavy oil and bitumen from underground formations.
- steam- assisted-gravity-drainage (SAGD) and cyclic steam injection are used for the recovery of heavy oil and cold bitumen.
- SAGD steam- assisted-gravity-drainage
- cyclic steam injection are used for the recovery of heavy oil and cold bitumen.
- the oil is mobile as native oil or is rendered mobile by some in situ pre-treatment, such as a steam drive process, the thus-mobilized oil can then drain downwardly by gravity and be collected by a horizontal collector well.
- the present invention in one embodiment using in situ combustion, avoids the necessity of having to generate large quanties of steam, typically under high pressure, and inject such steam in a formation, such as in the prior art method of Brannan discussed above, which method has the drawbacks of needing to provide large and costly steam-generating equipment at surface, and as noted above is thermally inefficient in transferring heat to oil within the reservoir in order to achieve the necessary reduction in viscosity to be able to produce oil from a viscous oil reservoir.
- the present method thus avoids the capitall costs of acquiring , shipping, and assembling the necessary steam generating equipment in the form of boilers , burners, and associated piping.
- the "crossed-wells" method of the present invention has a greater initial oil recovery factor than one of the configurations disclosed in Canadian Patent 2,698,454 commonly assigned to the applicant herein, namely a configuration wherein pairs of upper and lower horizontal wells are parallel to and vertically spaced apart from each other, with the lower horiozntal well positioned immediately beneath the corresponding upper horizontal well of a lower and upper well pair, and the well pairs are all parallel to one another.
- the crossed-wells method of the present invention has been experimentally shown, under certain conditions as discussed herein, to provide a greater initial rate of recovery of oil than one of the embodiments of the method disclosed in CA 2,698,454, thus allowing for a more rapid initial return on investment .
- the ability to utilize a method of oil recovery which will generate revenue quickly and thereby permit quicker "pay- down" of initial expenses incurred with regard to search, locating, and acquiring, and initially drilling wells in a hydrocarbon-bearing formation is a significant advantage .
- the time in which a return on investment may be realized is frequently a very real and substantial consideration as to whether the investment in such a capital project is or can ever be made in the first place.
- such method comprises a continuous fluid injection process using solely a horizontal well or wells for injection of said fluid, and using horizontal wells for the simultaneous production of oil, using one or more upper horizontal injection wells, each parallel to one another, and a plurality of lower horizontal production wells spaced vertically below said upper horizontal wells, each of said lower horizontal wells likewise parallel to one another but each perpendicularly disposed to the upper horizontal wells.
- the method of the present invention comprises a method for recovering oil from a hydrocarbon-containing subterranean reservoir, comprising the steps of:
- the downward migration of oil in the formation can be enhanced, or caused to flow downwardly, by pressure drawdown from the lower horizontal wells, thereby causing oil in the formation to flow to a region on the formation of low pressure, namely areas surrounding the lower horizontal wells, and to thereby be recovered into and by such lower horizontal wells.
- the injected fluid may be carbon dioxide or a hydrocarbon diluent, which may be injected as a gaseous solvent in this oil recovery process to cause oil in the formation/reservoir when made less viscous due to such carbon dioxide or hydrocarbon diluent, to drain downwardly and thereafter be collected by the crossed lower horizontal wells, by gravity drainage and/or pressure drawdown.
- a thermal process may be conducted, such as by injecting steam to heat the oil in the formation, or by injecting an oxidizing gas to support in situ combustion, so as to by such heating of oil in the formation likewise decrease the viscosity of the oil in the formation and cause the oil to drain downwardly for subsequent collection by the lower horizontal production wells.
- Combinations of oxidizing gas, heating gas and solvent gas may also be used.
- in situ combustion of a portion of the oil in the hydrocarbon formation may be carried out, so as to thereby heat remaining oil in the formation, and likewise thereby decrease its viscosity and cause such heated oil, now made mobile (or more mobile) to drain downwardly under the effect of gravity and/or pressure drawdown in the lower horizontal wells, for subsequent collection by the lower horizontal collection wells.
- such method comprises an in situ combustion method for recovering oil from a hydrocarbon-containing subterranean reservoir, comprising the steps of:
- a plurality of upper injection wells namely at least two injection wells, are employed.
- the method of the present invention comprises a method for recovering oil from a hydrocarbon-containing subterranean reservoir, comprising the steps of:
- Such in situ method meets the commercial need of having relatively low energy costs (in that a separate supply of fuel for boilers to generate steam is not needed), and has lower initial capital start-up costs due to lack of need to acquire steam-generating equipment.
- such method for recovering hydrocarbons from a subterranean formation has a high initial oil recovery rate as compared to at least some alternative methods of recovery, for the dimensions of reservoir utilized in the examples below, such being a significant advantage in allowing income generated from the produced oil to be more quickly applied against the significant expenses of locating, acquiring, and developing a suitable hydrocarbon containing deposit.
- the lateral placement of the upper horizontal wells from a vertical side of a rectangular area of said reservoir containing the upper injector wells and lower production wells is determined by a particular formula , to achieve appropriate and optimum symmetric position for the injection wells.
- such method includes means to prevent the tendency of injected fluid to "short circuit” and travel the path of least resistance (ie shortest distance) , namely travelling vertically directly downwardly from an injection well directly to the lower production wells at locations of crossing of the upper horizontal well(s) with the lower production wells, which "short circuiting" reduces and lessens the injection fluid which would otherwise contact oil elsewhere in the formation.
- such method may comprise the further step, prior to step (v) above, of : (a) introducing well liner means within said lower horizontal wells, said well liner means having apertures therein to allow ingress of oil into said lower horizontal wells, said well liner means at a location in each of said lower horizontal wells directly below a point or points at which an upper vertical well traverses said lower horizontal well not having any apertures therein proximate said point(s) of traverse.
- such method may alternatively (or additionally ) comprise the further step, prior to step (v) above, of :
- such well liner may still possess apertures therein, one or more cylindrical members of a finite length having no apertures in a circumference thereof is/are inserted in either the upper well(s) or lower wells, at various locations along said upper or lower wells where the upper well(s) traverse the lower wells, to thereby block such apertures at such location and thereby block such direct route of travel by the injected fluid from the upper injection well directly downwards and into the lower production well via apertures in such well liner means at such point(s) of traverse .
- the method of the present invention comprises an in situ combustion method for recovering oil from a hydrocarbon-containing subterranean reservoir, comprising the steps of:
- Such preferred method is preferred particularly in instances where the vertical distance separating the upper horizontal wells from the lower crossed horizontal wells is 20 m or less, and/or the rate of injection of oxidizing gas is equal or greater than 200,000 m3/day, and/or oxidizing gas is the gas being injected.
- the method of the present invention comprises a method for recovering oil from a hydrocarbon-containing subterranean reservoir, comprising the steps of: (i) drilling a least one upper horizontal well within an upper region of said hydrocarbon-containing reservoir;
- such method comprises an in situ combustion method of recovering oil from within a subterranean hydrocarbon-containing formation, comprising the steps of.
- the process of the present invention can be applied to reservoirs with mobile oil or even immobile oil, such as bitumen reservoirs.
- immobile oil the reservoir is first treated with solvent or heat to reduce the oil viscosity and attain oil mobility.
- the process of the present invention can be applied directly to a reservoir containing mobile oil so that pre-treatment is not required to establish communication between the injectors and producers.
- the well liner segments of the production wells directly below the injection wells are not perforated (ie contain no apertures at certain locations therein).
- the transmissibility of well liners can easily be accomplished by varying the slot density of slotted liner segments (or "joints"), or the screen plug density of Facsrite 1 production well liners, or by other methods known to those skilled in well completion design.
- the well liner means typically comprises well liner segments, which as noted above, generally contain apertures therein, but in respect of the well liner segments contained in the horizontal wells at locations where an upper horizontal well traverses a lower well, do not possess such apertures and are impervious so as to assist in preventing oil and oxidizing gas from entering the lower horizontal well directly via such location immediately beneath and upper injection well.
- the outside diameter of the horizontal well liner segments can be 4 inches to 12 inches, but preferably 5-10 inches and most preferably 7-9 inches.
- the perforations in the horizontal well segments, for both the upper injection wells and the lower production wells can be slots, wire-wrapped screens, Facsrite tm screen plugs or other technologies that provide the desired degree of sand retention yet allow ingress of oil, or in the case of well liner segments positioned in the horizontal upper wells, allow egress of oxidizing gas into the reservoir.
- the injected gas injected into the formation via the upper horizontal wells and apertures in well liner segment in such upper horizontal wells may be any oxidizing gas, including but not limited to, air, oxygen or mixtures thereof.
- the oxidizing gas is air but is further diluted with varying quantities of a non-oxidizing gas such as carbon dioxide, to thereby regulate (per injected volume) the relative concentration of oxygen in such quantity of injected gas, thereby allowing variable control over the temperature produced during combustion by decreasing or increasing the amount of oxygen injected and which is thereby allowed to combust with hydrocarbon within the formation.
- such oxidizing gas may further comprise variable quantities of steam, which may be used in a similar fashion to regulate the amount of oxygen in an injected volume of gas, or may be injected for the sole (or additional ) purpose of allowing such steam to condense when moving downwardly in the formation and thereby release heat in the latent heat of condensation, thereby assisting in transferring heat to oil in the lower portion of the formation and allowing such oil to become mobile and drain downwardly into the lower horizontal collector wells.
- variable quantities of steam which may be used in a similar fashion to regulate the amount of oxygen in an injected volume of gas, or may be injected for the sole (or additional ) purpose of allowing such steam to condense when moving downwardly in the formation and thereby release heat in the latent heat of condensation, thereby assisting in transferring heat to oil in the lower portion of the formation and allowing such oil to become mobile and drain downwardly into the lower horizontal collector wells.
- such oxidizing gas may further comprise a solvent gas, such as a hydrocarbon vapour or carbon dioxide, both of which act as a diluent to reduce the viscosity of the oil in the formation.
- a solvent gas such as a hydrocarbon vapour or carbon dioxide, both of which act as a diluent to reduce the viscosity of the oil in the formation.
- the maximum oxidizing gas injection rate will be limited by the maximum gas injection pressure which must be kept below the rock fracture pressure, and will be affected by the length of the horizontal wells, the reservoir rock permeability, fluid saturations and other factors.
- the production mechanism is a combination of pressure drive and gravity drainage. Water, oil and production gas are typically co-produced.
- Production and injection well lengths can vary from 50 meters to 1500 meters or longer.
- Production well lateral spacings will depend on the mobility of the reservoir oil and will typically range from 50m to 200m or longer.
- the injection well length will be sufficient to span the production wells and extend in a direction perpendicular to the production wells.
- the injection and production wells may be perforated in a homogeneous manner along their lengths. In a preferred embodiment, the production wells are perforated according to a pattern so as to maintain equalized fluid transmissibility of fluids into the well, using processes and equipment well known to persons skilled in the art. For example, the frequency of perforations may be lowered near the heel of a producer where a pump is placed so that region of the wellbore will not receive excessive fluid from the reservoir and act like a thief zone.
- the process of the gravity-stable present invention may be applied to any gas injection process.
- C0 2 may be injected in a gaseous solvent oil recovery process.
- a thermal process may be conducted by injecting steam.
- Combinations of oxidizing gas, heating gas and solvent gas may also be used.
- FIG. 3 illustrate one or more exemplary embodiments of the present invention and are not to be construed as limiting the invention to these depicted embodiments:
- FIG. 1 shows a perspective schematic view of a broad embodiment of the "crossed- wells" method of the present invention, having two injector wells;
- FIG. 2 is a similar perspective schematic view of another preferred embodiment of the "crossed-wells" method of the present invention, where the lower horizontal wells, and in particular well liner means therein, do not possess any apertures in a location immediately below an upper horizontal well where the upper (perpendicular ) horizontal well traverses the lower horizontal well, so as to prevent unwanted breakthrough of oxidizing gas at such location;
- FIG. 3 is a similar perspective schematic view of another preferred embodiment of the "crossed-wells" method of the present invention, where the lower horizontal wells, and in particular well liner means therein, do not possess any apertures in a location immediately below an upper horizontal well where the upper (perpendicular ) horizontal well traverses the lower horizontal well, so as to prevent unwanted breakthrough of oxidizing gas at such location;
- FIG. 4 is a perspective schematic view of a broad embodiment of the "crossed-wells" method of the present invention, having five injector wells;
- FIG.5 shows a perspective schematic view of a subterranean hydrocarbon- containing formation, showing a method as disclosed in Canadian Patent 2,698,454 wherein pairs of upper and lower horizontal wells are drilled in a hydrocarbon-containing formation parallel to and vertically spaced apart from each other, and lower horizontal wells are drilled immediately beneath a corresponding upper horizontal well, and the well pairs are all parallel to one another, such method depicted in FIG. 5 not forming part of the present invention and depicted to show a comparison method of oil recovery used in the comparative Examples referred to in herein; and
- FIG. 6 is a series of graphs showing oil recovery factor versus time (days) for the method of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 (line 1) and the method of the present invention shown in FIG. 2 (line 2) , each using an injection rate of oxidizing gas of 100,000 m 3 /day, and further showing oil recovery factor versus time (days) for the method of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 (line 3) and the method of the present invention shown in FIG. 2 (line 4) , each using an injection rate of oxidizing gas of 200,000 m 3 /day.
- FIG's 1 -4 show various embodiments of the crossed-wells method of the present invention, used for extracting oil from an underground hydrocarbon-containing reservoir 20 of height "H", length "L”, and width "W”. .
- FIG.'s 1- show various embodiments of the crossed-wells method of the present invention, used for extracting oil from an underground hydrocarbon-containing reservoir 20 of height "H", length "L”, and width "W”. .
- an upper horizontal injection well 1 and preferably at least two upper horizontal injection wells 1 , 1' are drilled in within an upper region 8 of a hydrocarbon-containing reservoir 20 , each having a vertical portion 10 (only a lowermost part of which is shown, at the point of communication with upper horizontal injection wells 1, 1') that extends to surface.
- upper horizontal injection wells 1 , 1' are drilled in parallel , spaced-apart relation to each other, within an upper region 8 of a hydrocarbon-containing reservoir 20.
- Each of upper injection wells 1 , 1 ' are situated substantially co-planar within a horizontal plane 22 in upper region 8 of reservoir 20.
- a plurality of lower horizontal producer wells 2, 2', 2", and 2'" are drilled low in said reservoir 20 parallel to each other, below said upper horizontal wells 1 , 1'.
- Each horizontal well 2, 2', 2", and 2"' likewise has an associated vertical well portion 10 (only a portion of which is shown in FIG's 1-4), which likewise extends to surface.
- Each of horizontal production wells 2, 2', 2", and 2' are positioned substantially parallel to each other, but perpendicular to said upper wells 1 , 1'.
- each of lower production wells 2, 2', 2", and 2"' have well liner means, typically a plurality of well liner segments 30 situated within such production wells 2, 2', 2", and 2" , with the well liner segments 30 each having porous screened slots or apertures 32 therein which serve to allow oil to drain into production wells 2, 2', 2", & 2", but simultaneously prevent sand particles and other detritus from entering production wells 2, 2', 2", & 2".
- two types of well liners 30 and 30' are used in each of production wells 2, 2', 2", & 2 .
- the first type of series of well liners 30 is as described above, having porous screened slots or apertures 32 therein which serve to allow oil to uniformly drain into production wells 2, 2', 2", & 2" but simultaneously prevent sand particles and other detritus from entering production wells 2, 2', 2", & 2".
- the second type of well liner segment 30' which is inserted in production wells 2, 2', 2", & 2" at various spaced intervals therealong in the manner described below, lacks any apertures therein, and prevents oil (and thus any oxidizing gas from injector wells 1, 1') from entering the production wellbores 2, 2', 2", & 2".
- well liners 30' are positioned in production wells 2, 2', 2", & 2" at a location 11 in each of said lower horizontal wells 2, 2', 2", & 2" corresponding to point(s) at which a respective upper vertical well 1 , 1 ' traverses a respective lower production well 2, 2', 2", & 2", as shown in FIG. 2.
- the first type of series of well liners 30 is as described above, having porous screened slots or apertures 32 therein which serve to allow fluid I to uniformly flow out of injection wells 1, 1' into the reservoir 20 but simultaneously prevent sand particles and other detritus from entering injection wells 1, 1'.
- the second type of well liner segment 30' which is inserted in injection wells 1, 1' at various spaced intervals therealong in the manner described below, lacks any apertures therein, and prevents oxidizing gas from injector wells 1, 1' at such locations 11 directly above the lower production wells 2, 2', 2", and 2"' from travelling directly downward and entering the production wellbores 2, 2', 2", & 2" at locations 11.
- well liners 30' are positioned in injection wells 1 , 1" at a location 11 in each of said upper horizontal wells 1, 1' corresponding to point(s) at which a respective upper vertical well 1, 1' traverses a respective lower production well 2, 2', 2", & 2", as shown in FIG. 3.
- oxidizing gas which is injected into formation 20 via apertures 32 in well liners 30 in upper horizontal injection wells 1', 1" is prevented from following the shortest route through formation 20 to such point 11 along production wells 2, 2', 2", & 2", and instead such oxidizing gas is forced through the reservoir 20 in a more circuitous route where there is greater chance that such oxidizing gas will then function as intended and be consumed during oxidation of a portion of the hydrocarbon in such formation 20, thereby providing heat to the remainder of the formation 20 so as to heat oil therein and cause such oil to flow downwardly and into production wells 2, 2', 2", & 2" as intended.
- the lateral distance spacing of injector well 1 (ie well number 1) from a vertical side wall 50 of the rectangular volume of length L, width W, and height H) is a distance D1
- the lateral distance spacing injector well 1' from vertical side wall is a distance D2 which in the case of injector well 1 such distance D1 is w/4
- the lateral distance spacing of second injector well 1' (ie progressively numbered well number "2") from vertical side wall 50, namely distance D2
- the desired position within reservoir 20 is a distance w/2 from vertical side wall 50, namely directly in the middle of reservoir 20 having a width W equal to 100m . More generally, therefore, for any number "ft" of injection wells , for desired symmetric positioning of such injector wells 1, 1', ... 1" in reservoir 20, said reservoir having a width "W” and a number of upper horizontal injector wells "n” spaced along said width "W", each of said upper injection wells 1, V, ... 1” being designated with a respective successive well number "wn” , namely 1 , 2, 3, ...
- FIG. 4 in order to demonstrate desired lateral positioning of upper injector wells 1, 1 ' in relation to formation 20 where more than two upper injector wells 1, 1 ' are utilized, five (5) injector wells 1 , 2, 3, 4, & 5 are shown in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, respectively identified as well number 1 , well number 2, well number 3, well number 4, and well number 5.
- Such wells 1-5 are drilled with the distances from vertical side wall 50 being distances D1, D2, D3, D4, and D5 respectively, as shown in FIG.
- the "crossed- wells" method of the present invention of FIG. 1 is carried out as follows.
- a least one parallel , upper horizontal injection well 1 is drilled within an upper region
- a plurality of parallel, lateral spaced apart lower horizontal producer wells 2, 2' are drilled relatively low in said hydrocarbon containing reservoir 20 below said upper horizontal well(s) 1, 1 " and positioned substantially parallel to each other but perpendicular to said upper well(s) 1, 1 '.
- An fluid such as a heated fluid such as steam, a diluent such as C0 2 or a hydrocarbon diluent is injected into each of said upper horizontal well(s) and into said reservoir 20 via apertures 32 in each of said pair of upper horizontal wells 1 , 1 '.
- Oil which has migrated downwardly in said subterranean reservoir 20 is recovered in said lower horizontal wells 2, 2 ; and thereafter recovered from said lower horizontal wells 2, 2', to surface.
- the methodology for the "crossed-wells" method of FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 is identical, save for the additional steps , prior to the step of injecting oxidizing gas, of using impervious well liner segments 30', or inserting sealing "blanks" to seal well liners in upper wells 1 , 1' and/or lower wells 2, 2', 2", or 2"' to prevent "short circuiting".
- well liner means in the form of well liner segments 30 are introduced within said lower horizontal wells 2, 2', 2", and 2"', wherein the well liner segments 30 having apertures 32 therein to allow ingress of oil into the lower horizontal wells 2, 2', 2", and 2"', and are situated within horizontal wells 2, 2', 2", and 2"', but at locations 11 in each of said lower horizontal wells 2, 2', 2", and 2'" directly below points at which an upper horizontal well 1, 1' respectively traverses each lower horizontal well, well liner segments 30' not having any apertures 32 therein are positioned.
- well liner means in the form of well liner segments 30 are introduced within said upper horizontal wells 1 , 1"', wherein the well liner segments 30 having apertures 32 therein to allow egress of fluid from the injection wells 1 , 1 ' into formation 20, , but at locations 11 in each of said upper horizontal wells 1, 1 ', directly above points at which an upper horizontal well 1, Y respectively traverses each lower horizontal well, well liner segments 30' not having any apertures 32 therein are positioned, to thereby prevent "short circuiting" of fluid via the shortest downward path, namely to location 11 within a lower production well 2, 2', 2", and 2"'
- a least one parallel , upper horizontal injection well 1 is drilled within an upper region 8 of said hydrocarbon-containing reservoir 20 and substantially within a horizontal plane 22 therein, and if two or more injection wells 1, V are drilled such wells 1, 1' are drilled in parallel relation but laterally spaced apart.
- a plurality of parallel, lateral spaced apart lower horizontal producer wells 2, 2' are drilled relatively low in said hydrocarbon containing reservoir 20 below said upper horizontal well(s) 1, 1" and positioned substantially parallel to each other but perpendicular to said upper well(s) 1, 1'.
- An oxidizing gas (not shown), is injected into each of said upper horizontal well(s) and into said reservoir 20 via apertures 32 in each of said pair of upper horizontal wells 1, 1', and allowed to combust within the reservoir 20, thereby heating oil within such reservoir 20.
- the ignition of the oxidizing gas and a portion of the oil in the formation in contact with such oxidizing gas is accomplished by known means, such as briefly heating the reservoir 20 near the upper injection well 1 and / or 1' with hot gas such as steam, and subsequently injecting oxidizing gas, wherein oil in the formation, due to the elevated temperatures therein due to the earlier steam injection, will then spontaneously auto-ignite.
- electrical heaters may be used, to bring the temperature of oil in regions of the heater up to sufficient combustion temperature, where injection of air when coming into contact with heated oil will cause auto-ignition and spontaneous combustion of the oil and thus commencement of in-situ combustion within the reservoir 20.
- linseed oil may be injected into the reservoir 20 (which typically has a low temperature of combustion), and injecting compressed air into the reservoir of a sufficient temperature (air becomes heated during compression) to cause ignition of the linseed oil, which thereafter ignites oil in the reservoir 20 which comes into contact with sufficient injected oxidizing gas in reservoir 20. Oil which has become heated and migrated downwardly in said subterranean reservoir
- FIG. 5 shows an alternative method of oil recovery, namely a method which is disclosed and claimed in CA 2,698,454 published November 1 , 2011 and commonly assigned to the Applicant herein.
- an upper horizontal injector well 1, 1', 1" is drilled immediately above respective lower production wells 2, 2', and 2".
- Well liners 30 are similarly situated in each of upper injection wells 1, 1', 1", having apertures 32 therein to allow injection of oxidizing gas into formation 20, and likewise well liner segments 30 with similar apertures 32 therein may similarly be utilized in production wells 2, 2', and 2" to allow ingress of oil into said production wells 2, 2', and 2"
- the number of grid blocks for each were 20x50x20, and the grid block sizes were respectively 5.0m, 5.0m and 1.0m, resulting in the same total reservoir volume in each case of 500,000 m 3 (ie 100m width "W" x 250m length "L” x 20m height "H").
- the modelling reservoir used in each of comparative methods herein contained bitumen at elevated temperature (54.4 °C) with high rock permeability.
- injection well 1 received 10,000 m 3 /day air injection
- wells 1' and 1 " received 20,000 m 3 /day, for a similar total of 50,000 m 3 /day of air injection.
- the present invention of FIG. 1 with crossed horizontal wells 2, 2', 2", and 2"" provides substantially improved oil production with 80.5% oil recovery by 5-years, 14% higher than by the method of FIG. 5.
- the method of FIG. 5 took 3233 days to reach 80.5%oil recovery, compared with 1827 days for the present invention shown in FIG. 1.
- the air compression energy was 26% higher for the method depicted in FIG. 5.
- the "crossed-wells" method of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 is more economical than the method of FIG. 5 because of initial accelerated oil production rate, while requiring less oxidizing gas compression energy.
- Example 2- In order to measure the value of the preferred embodiment of the method of the present invention shown in FIG. 2 (namely a method using strategically placed well liners 30' having no apertures therein (ie 'blank' sections) at strategic locations along each of the lower horizontal production wells 2, 2', 2", and 2"') and determine if any performance improvement or operability improvement exists over the method of the present invention of FIG. 1 which does not make use of such well liners 30' and instead uses well liners 30 throughout a width of each production well 2, 2', 2", and 2"', computer simulations were conducted for identically reservoir conditions, namely those reservoir conditions identical to those of Example 1 above for each of the methods of FIG. 1 and FIG.
- the "blank" (ie non-perforated) well liner segments 30' , blank segments of 15 m in length were inserted at location 11 of FIG. 2.
- the specific wellbore fluid transmissibilities employed were: 1.000 "TOE; 0.997; 0.994; 0.991 or 0.000 (BLANK); 0.988 or 0.000 (BLANK); 0.985 or 0.000 (BLANK); 0.982; 0.979; 0.976; 0.973; 0.970; 0.967; 0.964; 0.961 or 0.000 (BLANK); 0.958 or 0.000 (BLANK); 0.955 or 0.000 (BLANK); 0.952; 0.952; 0.949; 0.946; 0.943 **HEEL.
- the length off the blank sections 30' employed was 15 meters, centered at location 11 directly below the crossing injection wells 1,1'.
- line " shows the cumulative oil recovery for the method of FIG. 1, using a 100,000m 3 /day injection rate.
- Line '2' shows the cumulative oil recovery for the method of FIG. 2, similarly using a 100,000 m 3 /day injection rate.
- Line '3' of FIG. 6 shows the method of FIG. 1 using air injection of 200,000m 3 /day
- line '4" shows the method of FIG. 2 at a similar air injection rate of 200,000m 3 /day.
- Example 2 demonstrates the important benefits of strategically inserting blank joints (ie non-perforated well liners 30', containing no apertures) in the horizontal production wells 2, 2', 2", and 2" Of the "crossed-wells" method of the present invention, which allows higher air injection rates, and thus higher initial oil recovery.
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PCT/CA2011/001310 WO2013075208A1 (en) | 2011-11-25 | 2011-11-25 | Oil recovery process using crossed horizontal wells |
US13/314,008 US8978758B2 (en) | 2011-11-25 | 2011-12-07 | Oil recovery process using crossed hortizonal wells |
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