Experimental Study and Numerical Simulation of an Electrical Preheating for SAGD Wells in Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Chao Wang (), Yongbin Wu, Chihui Luo, Youwei Jiang, Yunjun Zhang, Haoran Zheng, Qiang Wang and Jipeng Zhang
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Chao Wang: Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina, Beijing 100083, China
Yongbin Wu: Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina, Beijing 100083, China
Chihui Luo: Xinjiang Oilfield Company, Petrochina, Karamay 834000, China
Youwei Jiang: Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina, Beijing 100083, China
Yunjun Zhang: Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina, Beijing 100083, China
Haoran Zheng: Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina, Beijing 100083, China
Qiang Wang: Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina, Beijing 100083, China
Jipeng Zhang: School of Energy Resources, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 17, 1-13

Abstract: It is necessary to establish effective communication between two horizontal wells during the preheating period of steam-assisted gravity-drainage (SAGD). However, the preheating time is usually very long, which results in high steam consumption and CO 2 emissions. There is little research on the effects of different wellbore fluids during the preheating period. The heat transfer and heating characteristics of different wellbore fluids–water, heat-conduction oil, and air–were explored by using physical experiments and numerical simulations. In this study, the results indicated that the heat-transfer performance of heat-conduction oil is the best. The numerical simulation’s results indicated that compared with the wellbore saturated with water, the heat-conduction oil reduced the viscosity of crude oil, and energy consumption was not obvious during the preheating stage. The super-heavy oil flowed into the wellbore due to the solubility of the heat-conduction oil and its own gravity. As a result, the super-heavy oil content in the wellbore gradually accumulated, increasing the risk of coking. Those experiments showed that the use of electrical heating provides good potential to improve SAGD efficiency during the preheating period, and water is the best injection fluid for wellbores during the electrical heating process.

Keywords: heavy oil reservoir; steam-assisted gravity-drainage (SAGD); electrical heating; heat transfer characteristics; preheating (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: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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