A Workflow for Optimization of Flow Control Devices in SAGD

Anas Sidahmed, Siavash Nejadi and Alireza Nouri
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Anas Sidahmed: School of Mining & Petroleum Engineering Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6H 1G9, Canada
Siavash Nejadi: Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
Alireza Nouri: School of Mining & Petroleum Engineering Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6H 1G9, Canada

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 17, 1-16

Abstract: In McMurray Formation, steam assisted gravity drainage is used as the primary in-situ recovery technique to recover oil sands. Different geological reservoir settings and long horizontal wells impose limitations and operational challenges on the implementation of steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). The dual-string tubing system is the conventional completion scheme in SAGD. In complex reservoirs where dual-string completion cannot improve the operation performance, operators have adopted flow control devices (FCDs) to improve project economics. FCDs secure more injection/production points along the horizontal sections of the SAGD well pairs, hence, they maximize ultimate bitumen recovery and minimize cumulative steam-oil ratio (cSOR). This paper will focus on the optimization of outflow control devices (OCDs) in SAGD reservoirs with horizontal wellbore undulations. We present the detailed optimization workflow and show the optimization results for various scenarios with well pair trajectory undulation. Comparing the results of the optimized OCDs case with a dual-string case of the same SAGD model shows improvements in steam distribution, steam chamber growth, bitumen production, and net present value (NPV).

Keywords: production optimization; flow control device; steam conformance; steam assisted gravity drainage; SAGD; reservoir simulation; borehole undulation; well completion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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