Analytical Modeling of the Cyclic ES-SAGD Process

Diego Manfre Jaimes and Matthew Clarke
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Diego Manfre Jaimes: Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive N.W., Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada
Matthew Clarke: Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive N.W., Calgary, AB T2N 1N4, Canada

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-25

Abstract: Approximately half of the daily oil production from the Canadian oil sands comes from the application of steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). Due to the high steam requirements of SAGD, many studies have focused on solvent injection as a means of reducing the steam consumption. One of the multiple variations of the steam-solvent injection process consists on the intermittent co-injection of solvent with steam, also known as a cyclic expanding-solvent (ES)-SAGD process. The current study represents a first attempt to create an analytical model that can describe a cyclic ES-SAGD process. The proposed analytical model uses previous SAGD and ES-SAGD models to describe the steam plus solvent stages of the process. The results obtained from the analytical model were contrasted against numerical simulation results for cases in which the solvent was hexane, pentane, and butane, as well as for cases in which hexane is a solvent and the injection cycle length is variable. In all cases, it was seen that the cumulative oil production computed by the analytical model and the numerical model are in good agreement. Over the range of conditions that were tested the absolute relative difference in the cumulative oil production, after a period of 10 years, ranged from 8.6% to 9.4%, with a median value of 9%. However, compared to the numerical simulations, the analytical model did not fully match the oil rate and the steam chamber shape. This difference was attributed to the analytical model’s simplified description of heat and mass transfer during the process. Thus, it is recommended that further studies be conducted, and recommendations for further investigations are given.

Keywords: SAGD; ES-SAGD; numerical simulation; analytical modeling; heavy oil (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: 2020
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