CT Imaging of Wormhole Growth Under

Solution-Gas Drive
Bernard Tremblay, SPE, George Sedgwick, SPE, and Don Vu, Alberta Research Council
Summary
The cold production process has increased primary heavy oil production and has been applied with commercial success in the
Lloydminster area ~Alberta, Canada!. In this process, the production of sand is encouraged in order to form high permeability
channels ~wormholes! within the formation. The process depends
on the formation and flow of foamy oil into the wormholes as
these grow away from the wellbore and into the reservoir. The
formation and growth of a wormhole was visualized using a computed tomography scanner, in an experiment in which oil flowed
through a horizontal sandpack and out an orifice. The only drive
mechanism was the formation and expansion of methane bubbles
within the live oil. The pressure gradient at the tip of the wormhole was approximately 1 MPa/m when it started to develop at the
orifice. Two conditions appear necessary for wormholes to keep
growing: ~1! the pressure gradient at the tip of the wormhole must
be sufficiently large to dislodge the sand grains, ~2! the pressure
gradient along the wormhole must be large enough to transport the
sand from the tip to the orifice. The pressure gradient at the tip of
the wormhole was 2.9 MPa/m when it reached its maximum
length. This suggests that, although the pressure gradient at the tip
was sufficient for erosion to occur, the sand could not be carried
along the wormhole causing the wormhole to stop growing. The
pressure depletion experiment suggests that wormholes can easily
develop in uncemented sand in the field since the maximum oil
production rate during wormhole growth ~18 cm3/day! was significantly lower than in the field. The minimum pressure gradient
~11 kPa/m! necessary for sand transport along the wormhole is
important in calculating the extent of wormhole growth in the
field.

Introduction
Cold production is a nonthermal recovery process used in uncemented heavy oil reservoirs in which sand and oil are produced
together. Production rates from wells on cold production can be
up to 30 times larger than the rate predicted by Darcy flow without sand production. In order to better understand the role of sand
production in the cold production process, tracer injection tests
were performed by well operators.1,2 Tracer dye velocities of 7
m/min were measured between certain wells. The dye showed up
18 h later at 2 km away from the injection well.1,2 The rapid flow
of the tracer suggested that it flowed through a small channel
excluding the possibility of a fracture or cavity around the well.
We confirmed directly the development of high conductivity
channels wormholes in the laboratory in two previous
experiments.3,4 An orifice was located at the end of a sandpack
and heavy oil was injected into the sandpack at constant flow
rates. The heavy oil did not contain any dissolved gas. A high
permeability channel ~wormhole! was observed to develop at a
Copyright 1999 Society of Petroleum Engineers
This paper (SPE 54658) was revised for publication from paper SPE 39638, first presented
at the 1998 SPE/DOE Improved Oil Recovery Symposium, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1922 April.
Original manuscript received for review 8 April 1998. Revised manuscript received 17
November 1998. Paper peer approved 23 November 1998.

SPE Reservoir Eval. & Eng. 2 ~1!, February 1999

critical flow rate. The drive mechanism in these experiments was

external since a constant flow rate was maintained using a positive
displacement pump.
The drive mechanism for the cold production process is
solution-gas drive.5 We wanted to determine whether or not a
wormhole would develop under solution-gas drive. The pressure
vessel used in the two previous external drive experiments was
modified to handle the live oil. This required maintaining a back
pressure at the orifice end of the sandpack. This back pressure was
reduced at a constant rate of 205 kPa/day during the experiment.
We observed that a wormhole developed in the sandpack even
though the only drive mechanism was the expansion of gas
bubbles in the heavy oil. The critical pressure gradient required
for the wormhole to start growing ~1 MPa/m! was significantly
lower than in the two previous dead oil experiments: 800 MPa/m
in a first experiment3 and 32 MPa/m in a second experiment.4 This
significant difference in the critical pressure gradient is attributed
to a destabilization of the sand grains at the wormhole tip due to
the growth of the gas bubbles in the pressure depletion experiment. The wormhole stopped growing when the pressure gradient
along the wormhole was equal to 11 kPa/m. These measurements
are required in order to estimate how far these wormholes can
extend in the field. This experiment shows that a wormhole can
develop in a sandpack by solution gas drive.

Materials
The Clearwater sand used in preparing the pack was obtained
from collection tanks at Suncors former cold production pilot
field in Burnt Lake, Alberta, Canada. The sand was packed in 2
cm layers with a hydraulic press under 27.6 MPa. The high packing stress was necessary to obtain a porosity of 34% representing
field conditions ~3234%! and to give the sand a cohesive
strength comparable to field values by creating more interlocking
between sand grains. The porosity of naturally deposited sand
ranges from 37% for a well-sorted, well-rounded, medium to
coarse sand, to more than 50% for poorly sorted, fine-grained
sands with irregular shaped grains.6 Either compaction or cementation is required to reduce the porosity of naturally deposited
sands to field values. Porosity reduction by compaction of sand
sediments can occur by plastic flow, crushing, fracturing, or pressure solution at grain contacts.7 An average particle size distribution of the sand after packing at 27.6 MPa is shown in Fig. 1. The
average size of the sand grains was 198 microns. The fines content
~less than 37 microns! was 8.4% by weight. The permeability of
the sand pack was 1.7 Darcy. The pore volume of the sandpack
was 2336 cm3.
The pack was placed horizontally and flooded with water ~8.8
pore volumes! and then with live oil ~2.2 pore volumes!. The
viscosity of the dead oil ~80 300 cP at 19 C! was measured using
a Carrimed shear rheometer. The viscosity of the live oil ~30 000
cP at 19 C! was calculated from the pressure drop across a 1.75
mm i.d. tube, 530 mm in length at a constant flow rate. The
compressibility of the live oil at pressures above the saturation
pressure was measured to be 7.4310210/Pa. The asphaltene content was measured to be 16.6%. The oil was saturated in a large
pressure vessel containing methane by recirculating the oil until

1094-6470/99/2~1!/37/9/$3.5010.15

37

Fig. 1Particle size distribution. Produced Clearwater sand after packing under 27.6 MPa.

the pressure stabilized ~2 weeks!. The saturation pressure was

5.17 MPa. The gas/oil ratio ~GOR! of the saturated oil was
14.1 to 1.

Fig. 3Longitudinal pressure profiles. Arrow indicates position

of wormhole tip.

Experimental Procedure
After the sandpack was flooded with live oil, the pump was shut
off and sufficient time was allowed for the pressure to stabilize
evenly in the pack. A scaled drawing of the pressure vessel is
shown in Fig. 2. The inlet port remained closed throughout the
pressure depletion experiment. The pressure in the sample cup
~back pressure! was decreased in steps of 205 kPa/day until it
reached 0 kPa. The experiment was allowed to continue until the
pressure everywhere inside the pack was close to 0 kPa. The
scanning length of the medical scanner was limited to 35.2 cm.
The full length of the sandpack was 85.0 cm however. Therefore,
only the production end of the sandpack was scanned. The produced sand, oil, and water flowed through the orifice ~1.91 cm
diameter! and was collected within a pressurized sampler at the
end of the pressure vessel. Samples of the produced solids and
liquids were taken by closing the ball valve, blowing down the
pressure in the cup to atmospheric pressure, and unbolting the
cup. The oil, sand, and water were then collected. The cup was
then bolted back on, the pressure within the cup was increased by
injecting methane to the same pressure as upstream of the ball
valve and the valve was reopened.

X-Ray Computed Tomography

Pressure Profiles
The pressure was measured at ports 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ~Fig. 2! along
the top of the sandpack and on the face of the production end cap
at different times after the start of the experiment. Longitudinal
profiles of the pressure are shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The locations
of the wormhole tip at different times are indicated by arrows.

The sandpack was scanned using a modified second generation

computed tomography ~CT! scanner. An x-ray beam is collimated
into two separate parallel beams which penetrate the sand pack
and reach two side by side banks of detectors. Two adjacent images are obtained simultaneously. The pixels are approximately
1.5 mm by 1.5 mm in section by 8 mm in length. In other words,
the in-plane resolution is approximately 1.5 mm with a slice thickness of 8 mm. The equation used to convert the measured attenuation values to porosity is
s H m 2 d H m 5 f ~ H o 2H g ! ,

~1!

where H o,g 5calibration coefficients for oil and gas, respectively,

s H m 5measured attenuation at a pixel within the oil-saturated
pack, d H m 5measured attenuation at a pixel within the dry pack.
In this particular experiment, the pore space was filled with
varying amounts of oil, water, and gas depending on the pore
pressure and the stage of wormhole development. This impacted
on the interpretation of the measured CT values. For pore pressures above the bubble point, the single-energy CT values
were converted to porosity using Eq. ~1! where the calibration
coefficients for heavy oil and water were assumed to be the same.
Below the bubble point however, the presence of free gas phase
led to an apparent increase in porosity both within and outside the
wormhole. Equation ~1! was no longer valid. In previous dead oil
experiments3,4 little dilation of the sand matrix was observed outside the wormhole. This was assumed to be the case in this experiment as well. Any measured change in the pack proper was

Fig. 2Axisymmetrical sandpack. All dimensions are in cm inches. Distance between

pressure ports and orifice1: 85, 2: 70, 3: 59, 4:
38.7, 5: 27.7, 6: 16.7, 7: 5.7 cm.

38

Tremblay, Sedgwick, and Vu: CT Imaging

SPE Reservoir Eval. & Eng., Vol. 2, No. 1, February 1999

sand matrix where any measured change is attributed to the evolution of a gas phase:
S g 5 ~ s H m 2H m ! / ~ s H m 2 d H m ! ,

~2!

where H m 5measured value for pixels outside the wormhole. The

resolution in the gas saturation measurements is 61%.

Cross-Sectional CT Images

Fig. 4Longitudinal pressure profiles. Arrow indicates position

of wormhole tip.

attributed to the presence of a gas phase. CT values within the

wormhole however were more ambiguous since both the sand and
gas content were changing.
Calculations of gas saturation outside the wormhole were made
using Eq. ~2!. This equation is based on the assumption of a fixed

Computed tomography images of the sand pack before the pressure depletion was started are shown in Fig. 5 at different locations from the orifice. The porosity within the sandpack before the
pressure depletion started was calculated from the attenuation
numbers in each pixel using Eq. ~1!. A cavity can be observed at
the 4 mm scan. The radius of the cavity was approximately 11
mm which is slightly larger than the orifice radius ~9.52 mm!.
This cavity was created when the screen, used to prevent sand
production into the orifice during oil saturation, was removed. A
porosity gradient can be observed in the images. This gradient
was caused by the bending of the hydraulic piston during packing.
CT images taken 24 days and 47 days after the start of the
experiment are shown in Figs. 6 and 7, respectively, at the same
locations as in Fig. 5. In these images the gray scale represents the
attenuation number difference between the initial scan ~before the
pressure depletion started! and the scan at the time indicated in
Figs. 6 and 7. The lighter shades indicate regions of higher attenu-

Fig. 5Cross-sections of sandpack. Porosity prior to pressure depletion time50 days. Numbers below images indicate distance
from orifice.
Tremblay, Sedgwick, and Vu: CT Imaging

SPE Reservoir Eval. & Eng., Vol. 2, No. 1, February 1999

39

Fig. 6Cross-sections of sandpack. Attenuation number difference 24 days after experiment started. Numbers below images
indicate distance from orifice.

ation. A comparison of Figs. 5 and 7 shows that the wormhole

developed towards higher porosity regions of the sandpack as in
previous experiments using dead oil.3,4

positions closer to the orifice. The cavity around the orifice shows
up in the initial profiles at 4 mm in Fig. 8. The radius of the cavity
was measured from the profile to be approximately 11 mm.

Attenuation Number Profiles

Vertical attenuation number profiles shown in Fig. 8 were assembled from pixels along a vertical line through the center of the
wormhole. The same vertical lines were used in Fig. 6 even
though the wormhole had only grown to 180 mm after 24 days.
There is a sharp decrease in the CT numbers at the boundary of
the wormhole after 24 days ~Fig. 8!. A sudden decrease in attenuation number was also observed in two previous experiments.3,4 In
these latter experiments the attenuation numbers could be directly
converted to changes in porosity since the oil did not contain any
dissolved gas. In the case of the pressure depletion experiment, a
decrease in attenuation number can be caused by both an increase
in porosity and/or gas saturation. A comparison of the initial attenuation profile to the profiles along the same vertical line after
24 days and 47 days shows that the attenuation outside the wormhole decreases uniformly. The shift in the profiles is larger as the
orifice is approached. It is likely that the porosity of the sand
outside the wormhole did not change with time as in previous
experiments3,4 and that the attenuation decrease was due to the
increase in gas saturation. The attenuation profiles after 47 days at
260 and 324 mm away from the orifice ~Fig. 8! did not change as
abruptly as the wormhole was approached. The sand within the
wormhole at these positions may not have been as dilated as at

Longitudinal CT Images
Three longitudinal sections of the pack were assembled from
cross-sectional images taken along the pack and are shown in Fig.
9. The top image in Fig. 9 shows the sandpack before the pressure
depletion started. The cavity around the orifice created when the
screen was removed is clearly observed. The middle and bottom
images shows the sandpack 20 days and 47 days after the start of
pressure depletion. The back pressure at the time the scans were
taken is shown below each image. Since the wormhole meandered
as seen from the cross-sections in Fig. 7, the longitudinal slice
was prepared from vertical chords which passed through the axis
of the wormhole. Therefore, the longitudinal sections in Fig. 9 are
not a single plane but shift according to the location of the wormhole axis. The sandpack was not scanned over its full length. The
scanning length was 35.2 cm whereas the pack length was 85 cm.
The wormhole started to grow after the back pressure reached
3.10 MPa. This pressure was 2.07 MPa below the saturation pressure ~5.17 MPa!. The average diameter of the wormhole was 40
mm. The wormhole was stable throughout the experiment.

40

Tremblay, Sedgwick, and Vu: CT Imaging

Gas Saturation
The average gas saturation, outside the wormhole, along the
length of the sand pack was plotted in Fig. 10 as a function of the
SPE Reservoir Eval. & Eng., Vol. 2, No. 1, February 1999

Fig. 7Cross-sections of sandpack. Attenuation number difference 47 days after experiment started. Numbers below images
indicate distance from orifice.

distance from the orifice. Each cross-sectional image was composed of pixels approximately 1.5 mm by 1.5 mm in section by 8
mm in length. The letter W indicates the position of the wormhole
tip. The gas saturation profile was flat at 0% ~within experimental
error! when the back pressure was 4.55 MPa which was 0.62 MPa
below the saturation pressure of 5.17 MPa. This profile was taken
3 days after the start of the experiment. The slope of the saturation
profile was 8%/meter when the back pressure was 3.1 and 1.45
MPa.
The average gas saturation within the sand pack outside the
wormhole at 164 mm away from the orifice was plotted in Fig. 11
as a function of the time after the pressure depletion started. The
gas saturation started to increase 10 days after the start of the
experiment. The rate of gas saturation increase was 1%/day until
the saturation reached 23% after 30 days. The wormhole at this
time reached its maximum length. The saturation then remained
approximately constant at 23%. The total recovered oil was 18.3%
of the original oil in place ~OOIP!. The volume percentage of the
produced oil, water, and sand ~21.5%! should be equal to the
average gas saturation within the sandpack ~including the wormhole!. The average methane saturation ~23%! within the scanned
length of the sandpack ~excluding the wormhole! was obtained
from Eq. ~2! by averaging the gas saturation at the individual
pixels. Only the production end of the sandpack was scanned
since the scanning length of the medical scanner was limited to
35.2 cm. The full length of the sand pack was 85 cm. The final gas
saturation is therefore expected to be lower in the unscanned
Tremblay, Sedgwick, and Vu: CT Imaging

length of the sand pack. Therefore, the percentage of the produced

solids and liquids would be lower than the measured gas saturation using the CT scanner.
The sandpack was excavated at the end of the experiment. Ten
different samples were taken at different distances along the sandpack outside the wormhole. The average oil and water content of
the ten samples outside the wormhole was 22.7 and 3.3 vol %,
respectively. The oil and water content were determined by
extraction/distillation of the oil sand with toluene. An average gas
saturation of 23.5% was then calculated assuming the porosity of
the sandpack to be 34%. This gas saturation is close to the gas
saturation calculated from the produced oil, sand, and water.
Oil, Water, and Sand Production Rates
The oil production rate was measured from the slope of the cumulative oil production curve in Fig. 12. The maximum oil production rate ~18.2 cm3/day! occurred after 12 days. The produced
water and sand cuts were plotted in Fig. 13. The water cuts were
higher than the water volumetric content in the sandpack. Some
water may have come from within the pressurized sampler after
the initial water saturation. Although the wormhole started to develop 6 to 9 days after the start of the experiment, high sand cuts
only appeared after 20 days. This delay was likely due to the time
required for the oil and sand to travel the length of the outlet tube
between the orifice and the ball valve in Fig. 2. The wormhole
length and oil production rate were plotted versus time in Fig. 14.
The maximum growth rate did not occur at the same time as the
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41

Fig. 8Vertical attenuation number profiles. Triangles: initial scan. Thin line: after 24 days. Thick line: after 47 days. Numbers
below images indicate distance from orifice.

maximum oil production rate. The more rapid rate of growth at

latter times may be due to a reduction in the hydraulic diffusivity
of the foamy oil. The lower hydraulic diffusivity would be due to
the greater compressibility of the foamy oil at higher gas saturation. The pressure gradient at the wormhole tip would then have
been steeper leading to greater tensile failure of the sand.
Wormhole Growth
The growth of the wormhole was measured by tracking the wormhole tip with the CT scanner. The wormhole was first observed 9
days after the start of the experiment. The previous scan of the
sandpack 6 days after the start did not reveal any enlargement of
the initial cavity around the orifice. Therefore, the wormhole
would have grown some time between 6 days to 9 days after the
experiment started. The wormhole was observed to advance at a
rate of 0.85 cm/day for the first 20 days. The rate of advance then
increased to a maximum of 6.6 cm/day until it reached a length of
34.5 cm and stopped. The pressure gradient at the tip of the wormhole was estimated from the pressure profile measured at the top
of the sand pack ~Figs. 3 and 4!. This estimated pressure gradient
was plotted in Fig. 15 versus the time in days after the start of the
pressure depletion. The pressure gradient at the tip of the wormhole increased almost linearly when the wormhole was growing at
a rate of 0.85 cm/day and reached a constant value of 1.9 MPa/m
just before the wormhole started to grow at the higher rate of 6.6
cm/day. The growth of a wormhole requires that the pressure
gradient at the tip be large enough for erosion to occur. In addition, the pressure gradient along the wormhole should be large
enough for the sand to be transported. If the sand cannot be transported from the tip, the wormhole will not grow even though the
pressure gradient at the tip would be large enough for erosion to
occur. The wormhole stopped developing after 27 days ~Fig. 15!
42

Tremblay, Sedgwick, and Vu: CT Imaging

although the pressure gradient at the tip of the wormhole was 2.7
MPa/m. This indicates that the pressure gradient along the wormhole was not large enough to carry the sand. The oil production
rate at this time was 8.5 cm3/day. The pressure gradient at which
the wormhole stopped developing was estimated to be 11 kPa/m.
This estimate is important in calculating how far wormholes grow
out in the field.
Critical Pressure Gradient
A criterion was developed by Fjaer et al.8 for the failure of a sand
arch. They assumed that the sand around the cavity was in a
plastic state and that the radial and tangential stresses were related
by the MohrCoulomb criterion. The radial stress profile at the
surface of the cavity was given by
d s r /dr52C 0 /R,

~3!

where s r 5radial stress, C 0 5unconfined compressive strength,

R5radius of cavity.
According to Fjaer et al.8 the cavity will be stable if the pressure gradient is less than the radial stress gradient. The condition
for stability of the arch was then:
dp/dr,2C 0 /R.

~4!

The unconfined compressive strength ~UCS!, C 0 , of the reconstituted oil sands was measured previously for oil sands of different
porosity9 using a shear cell and a triaxial cell. The pressure gradient at the surface of the hemispherical cavity was calculated
from Darcys law:
dp/dr5 m 0 Q/ ~ 2 p KR 2 ! ,

~5!

where K5permeability of sandpack; 51.7 Darcy, m 0 5live oil viscosity; 530 000 cP, Q flow rate.
SPE Reservoir Eval. & Eng., Vol. 2, No. 1, February 1999

Fig. 9Longitudinal section of the sandpack. Attenuation number. Note: only production end of pack was scanned. Top image:
before pressure depletion, middle image: 20 days after start of pressure depletion, bottom image: 47 days after start of pressure
depletion.

Fig. 10Longitudinal gas saturation profile. Arrows indicate location of wormhole tip. Numbers above curves indicate back
pressure at time profile measured.
Tremblay, Sedgwick, and Vu: CT Imaging

Fig. 11Average gas saturation within CT slice 164 mm from

orifice vs time days.
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43

Fig. 12Cumulative oil production and oil production rate vs time.

Fig. 13Water and sand cuts volume % vs time.

Fig. 14Wormhole length and oil production rate vs time.

Fig. 15Wormhole length and pressure gradient at wormhole tip vs time.

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Tremblay, Sedgwick, and Vu: CT Imaging

SPE Reservoir Eval. & Eng., Vol. 2, No. 1, February 1999

In two previous experiments,3,4 an orifice was located at the end

of a sandpack and heavy oil flowed through the sandpack at a
constant flow rate. The radius of the cavity in experiments 1 and 2
was 6.6 and 10 mm, respectively, as estimated from the volume of
sand produced before the wormhole started to grow. The critical
pressure gradients at the orifice were large: 800 and 32 MPa/m in
a first3 and second4 experiment, respectively.
Equation ~4! was used to calculate the critical pressure gradient
for sand production due to the flow of a live oil into a cavity. In
this equation the unconfined compressive strength was first assumed to be the same for a live oil as for a dead oil. The unconfined compressive strength of a reconstituted oil sand, packed at
the same stress as in the experiment, was measured in a shear cell
to be 114 kPa.9 The radius of the cavity at the orifice was 11 mm
before the pressure depletion experiment started. The critical pressure gradient at the orifice was calculated to be 20.7 MPa/m. The
pressure gradient measured at the top of the sandpack may not be
the same as the pressure gradient at the wormhole tip. The wormhole started to develop 6 to 9 days after the start of the experiment. The oil flow rates at 6 and 9 days were 10.4 and 15.2
cm3/day, respectively. The pressure gradient at the surface of the
cavity was then estimated from Eq. ~5! to be 2.8 MPa/m after 6
days and 4.0 MPa/m after 9 days. These calculated critical pressure gradients are still lower than predicted by Eq. ~4! ~20.7 MPa/
m!. It is likely that the unconfined compressive strength of the
sand is lowered when the gas bubbles grow at the surface of the
cavity and unlock the sand grains from their tight packing.
Discussion and Conclusion
We showed that a wormhole can develop in a sandpack under
solution gas drive. In this experiment the only drive mechanism
was the expansion of gas bubbles within the sandpack. The critical pressure gradient measured at the wormhole tip when it started
to grow ~1 MPa/m! was significantly lower in this experiment than
in two previous dead oil experiments ~800 MPa/m in a first
experiment3 and 32 MPa/m in a second experiment!.4 This significant difference in the critical pressure gradient was attributed to a
destabilization of the sand grains at the wormhole tip due to the
growth of the gas bubbles in the pressure depletion experiment.
The wormhole stopped growing when the pressure gradient along
the wormhole was equal to 11 kPa/m. The measurements of the
critical pressure gradient for wormhole growth and arrest are being used in calculations of the extent of the wormhole network.
As in previous experiments3,4 the wormhole developed in the
higher porosity region. The unconfined compressive strength of a
given oil sand decreases with increasing porosity.9 The wormhole
likely followed the weaker ~higher porosity! sands as suggested
by the stability criterion in Eq. ~4!. This experiment suggests that
wormholes may preferentially develop in the weaker sands in a
formation which normally contain more oil.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the members of the ADOE/ARC Core Industry
Research Program for their financial and technical support.
References
1. Jensen, E.: Primary Production Enhancement in Unconsolidated
Sandstones: Conduits Formed by Sand Production, paper presented
at the 1995 International Heavy Oil Symposium held in Calgary,
Alberta, 1921 June.
2. Squires, A.: Inter-Well Tracer Results and Gel Blocking Program,
paper presented at the 1993 Annual Heavy Oil and Oil Sand Technical Symposium, 9 March.
3. Tremblay, B., Sedgwick, G., and Forshner, K.: Imaging of Sand
Production in a Horizontal Sandpack by X-Ray Computed Tomography, SPE Form. Eval. 11~2!, 94 ~1996!.

Tremblay, Sedgwick, and Vu: CT Imaging

4. Tremblay, B., Sedgwick, G., and Forshner, K.: Simulation of Cold

Production in Heavy Oil Reservoirs: Wormhole Dynamics, SPE
Reservoir Eng. 12~2!, 110 ~1997!.
5. Maini, B.B., Sarma, H.K., and George, A.E.: Significance of
Foamy-Oil Behaviour in Primary Production of Heavy Oils, J. Can.
Pet. Tech. 32, 50 ~1993!.
6. Chilingarian, G.V.: Compactional Diagenesis, in Sediment Diagenesis, Parker, A.B. and B.W. Sellwood, ~eds!, D. Reidel, Dordrecht, Holland ~1981!, 57.
7. Chilingarian, G.V. and Wolf, K.H.: Compaction of Coarse-Grained
Sediments II, Developments in Sedimentology 18B, Elsevier, Amsterdam ~1976!, 51.
8. Fjaer, E., Holt, R.M., Horshud, P., and Raaen, A.M.: Petroleum
Related Rock Mechanics, Developments in Petroleum Science,
Elsevier, Amsterdam ~1992!, Vol. 33, 262.
9. Tremblay, B., Oldakowski, K., and Settari, A.: Geomechanical
Properties of Oil Sands at Low Effective Stress, paper presented at
the 48th ~1997! Annual Technical Meeting of the Petroleum Society
of the CIM, Paper No. 97-07, June.

Appendix A: Critical Pressure Gradient along

Wormhole for Sand Transport
The pressure gradient along the wormhole after it stopped growing was estimated. The pressure gradient is difficult to measure
since the pressure taps are located along the walls of the sandpack
and not within the wormhole. The pressure gradient was estimated
from the KarmenKozeny equation.
d P/dz5180m 0 U ~ 12 f ! 2 / ~ d 2p f 3 ! ,
where
U5
5
Dw 5
5
Q5
5
f5
dp 5
5

~A-1!

superficial velocity of oil

4Q/( p D 2w ),
wormhole diameter
5 cm,
flow rate of oil after wormhole reached its maximum
length
8.5 cm3/day
0.52,
average particle diameter
0.198 mm.

The pressure gradient was then estimated to be 11 kPa/m.

Bernard Tremblay is a research engineer at the Alberta Research Council in Edmonton specializing in the geomechanics
of oil sands and the rheology of slurries and fracturing gels. He
coordinates research projects aimed at understanding the
basic mechanisms involved in the cold production process.
He holds a BS degree in mechanical engineering from the U.
of Ottawa, an MS degree in mechanical engineering from the
U. of Toronto, and a PhD degree in mechanics from the U. of
Grenoble, France. George Sedgwick is a senior research officer at the Alberta Research Council specializing in advanced instrumentation and measurement across a number
of disciplines, including heavy oil, pulp and paper and biological waste treatment. His heavy oil research is in x-ray CT imaging of flow through porous media and multispectral IR imaging
of mine-face saturations. He holds a BS degree in engineering
physics from the U. of Saskatchewan and a PhD degree in
electrical engineering from the U. of Alberta. Don Vu is a
technologist at the Alberta Research Council specializing in
enhanced heavy oil recovery. He conducts experiments investigating cold production with CT imaging, solvent extraction, and hydraulic fracturing. Previously, he worked for a wireline company as an electronics specialist. He holds an Honors
Diploma in electronics engineering technology and an Honors
Certificate in biomedical equipment technology from the
Northern Alberta Inst. of Technology.

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45