Beyond CSS, SAGD and VAPEX

Heavy Oil and Oil Sands Reservoir Modeling

Zhangxin Chen
University of Calgary, NSERC/AERI/CMG Chair Professor

Participants
Synergia
Polygen Ltd

Outline
Why? Importance of the Research
Enhanced Recovery Methods:
- CSS (cyclic steam stimulation)
- SAGD (steam assisted gravity drainage)
- VAPEX (vapor extraction)

Problems in Oil Recovery from Heavy Oil/Oil

Sands

Modeling Challenges

Importance of the research

Reserves of unconventional oil are

enormous worldwide and important to

economy
Conventional oil & gas in decline and must
be replaced by unconventional resources
New technology needed to reduce risk and
costs and make environmentally sustainable
Mathematical modeling important for
process design & optimization

Importance of the research

(contd)

About 10 trillion barrels of

heavy oil resources worldwide

Roughly triple the combined

world reserves of conventional
oil and gas

Global crude reserves by

country
Proven reserves (billions of barrels)

300

Canada, with 174 billion barrels in Oil

Sands reserves, ranks second only to
Saudi Arabia in global oil reserves

250
200
150
100
50
0
Saudi

Canada

Iraq

Iran

Kuwait

Source: Canadian Heavy oil Association

Abu
Dhabi

Venez. Russia

Libya

Nigeria

USA

Oil classification
Viscosity Density
(cp)
(kg/m3)

Density
(API)

Conv. oil <100

<934

Heavy oil 10010,000

Bitumen >10,000

934-1,000 10-20
>1,000

>10

<10

Examples of heavy oil/bitumen

Cold lake
bitumen

11 API

1-300,00
cp

Peace
9-10
200,000 cp
river
API
bitumen
Athabasca 8-9 API 2-5 million
bitumen
cp

What is oil sands ?

Composition
Inorganic material (75-80%, of which 90%
quartz sand)
Water (3-5%)
Bitumen (10-12%)

Unconsolidated,
crumbles easily
in hands

Canadian oil sands growth

Currently about 1.5 million b/d of oil

sands (out of total 2.5 million b/d of
oil production)

2015=3.5 million b/d (out of total 4.5

million b/d of oil production)

In-situ represents a growing

opportunity

More than 80% of reserves

too deep to mine

Athabasca
River

Open Pit Mine

Open Pit Mine

Oil Sands

Currently 65% of production is mined

Enhanced recovery methods of

heavy oil reservoirs
The principal obstacle in heavy oil (<20 API, >100 cp)
recovery is the high viscosity. Any reduction in
viscosity will increase the oil mobility.
Thermal methods

Non-thermal methods

CSS

Waterflooding (polymers)

Steamflooding

Chemical flooding

Hot waterflooding

Immiscible CO2 flooding

In-situ combustion (THAI)

Solvents injection

SAGD

VAPEX

Enhanced recovery methods:

CSS

CSS was accidently discovered in 1957 when Shell Oil

Company of Venezuela was testing a steam drive in the

Mene Grande field.

Problems in oil recovery from

oil sands
In-place hydrocarbons (bitumen): too
viscous and thus immobile.

No communication between injection

and production wells.

Oil sands in shallow formations that do

not contain superimposed injection
pressures.

Partial solutions
The viscosity can be lowered by
application of heat in the form of:
Steam injection
In situ combustion
Conduction heating
Electrical heating

1000000

10000
Steam Saturation
Athabasca Bitumen Visco

Pressure, Kpa

10000
100
1000
10
100
1

10
Thermal Method Favorable zone

0.1
0

100

200

Temperature, C

Uo =

ko

(Po o gz )

Oil phase effective permeability is a

control on oil flow rate.

Oil phase viscosity is the other.

1
300

Oil Viscosity,cP

100000

1000

Partial solutions (contd)

The lack of communication
between injection and
production wells can be
rectified by:
Fracturing
Use of steam stimulation of
individual wells
Use of an existing bottom water
zone linking the wells

Partial solutions (contd)

Insufficient overburden
is related to injection
pressure requirements:
Reduction of well
spacing to compensate
for overburden
Use of horizontal wells

Enhanced recovery methods:

SAGD

Low recovery rate: 30% of initial

oil in place

Relatively new thermal concept:

SAGD (steam assisted gravity
drainage) by Butler in 1977-78

SAGD concept

SAGD (contd)
Uses heating for viscosity reduction
Drive energy comes from gravity
Process is driven by heat transfer
between steam and cold oil
Heat can pass through rock grains
Thin shale layers are not a big barrier to
heat transfer

SAGD (contd)

Up to 70% recovery
Commercial steam/oil ratio under favorable

conditions
High operating costs and environmental impact

Enhanced recovery methods:

VAPEX
Similar to SAGD, VAPEX (vapor
extraction) involves injection of light
hydrocarbon vapors such as
propane, butane, or mixture of them
as solvent into a reservoir to dilate
and recover bitumen (late Butler,
1989).

Enhanced recovery methods:

VAPEX (contd)

Unresolved issues &

challenges of VAPEX
Lower oil rate than SAGD
Loss of solvent to untargeted zones
Accumulation of non-condensable gas
in the vapor chamber
Formation damage by asphaltenes
precipitation
Hydrate formation

Examples of heavy oil/bitumen

(contd)
Cold lake
bitumen

11 API

1-300,00 cp

CSS

Peace river 9-10 API 200,000 cp

bitumen

CSS

Athabasca
bitumen

Mining
/SAGD

8-9 API

2-5 million
cp

Modeling challenges

Reservoir heterogeneities
Heterogeneities in fluid properties

Phase behavior important (e.g., VAPEX)

Moving thermal fronts--thin

For thermal-solvent processes, moving mobile solvent-rich oil
layers are thin
Presence of mud and shale layers, vertical flow barriers
Geomechanics important (e.g., shearing of sand at chamber edges)
Reactions (in situ combustion and upgrading)
Thin diffusion

Modeling challenges (contd)

Reservoir NOT Homogeneous

Modeling challenges (contd)

Cold lake
bitumen

11 API

1-30,000
cp

Peace
9-10
200,000 cp
river
API
bitumen
Athabasca 8-9 API 2-5 million
bitumen
cp

Modeling challenges (contd)

Current simulation models are too simple,

homogeneous and does not have sufficient
physics for heavy oil/bitumen.

Need detailed simulation models and

robust algorithms that can capture physics.

Need fast tools because hundreds to

thousands of simulations are run for
process design and uncertainty analysis.

5-year program
Foundation CMG
$1 mil
NSERC
$1 mil

Oil industry $2 mil

8 @ $50K x 5 yr

THE CHAIR
RESEARCH
PROGRAM
CMG/SEGP/CFI/SYNERGIA

AERI
$1 mil

Equipment
$1 mil

U of C
Infrastructure

Collaborators
Lab Research:
Drs. J. Abedi,
R. Heidemann,
B. Maini, R. Mehta,
G. Moore, and
T. Okazawa

Reservoir
Characterization:
Drs. J. Jensen and
S. Larter

Reservoir
Geomechanics:
R. Chalaturnyk,
T. Settari, and
R. Wan

THE CHAIR
RESEARCH
PROGRAM

Students, PDFs,
and RAs

Reservoir Simulation:
Drs. M. Dong, I. Gates,
L. Nghiem, T. Harding,
and T. Settari
DR. MANI
LAB EXPERIMENTS
MODELING

Research resources

Simulation software
Computing hardware (128 CPU Shared Memory)
Computer server room
CMG Simulation Laboratory
Visualization Centre (i-Centre)
Tomographic Imaging/Porous Media Lab
Advanced oil recovery laboratories
Administrative and technical support staff and
systems
Graduate students and PDFs

Lab Experimental Set Up

Modification
Data Acquisition

Model Temp

Temp

Steam
Oil/Water
Production

Steam

Water

Load Cell

Weight Cum
Steam Inj.

Modification

Applications

Applications (contd)

THAI Model

Modelling Complex
Layers & Slanted
Wells
Wells

Water

Complex Flow Due to

Heterogeneous Geology

Oil & Water

Mixture
Oil

Modelling of a Reservoir

Applications (contd)
Tracer study

Given a rock volume, where

would the petroleum be found?
Use fluid flow simulations to
simulate reservoir filling,
charging history.
For well planning, field
economics
For quantification of mixing

Applications (contd)
Fluid mixing

Unstable displacement
Fingering, instability
Advection, diffusion, gravity
segregation, and viscosity
Compositional variation

Applications (contd)
Demo 1
Assessing
development
projects
Demo 2
Management of
reservoirs
Simulation with shales

Applications (contd)

Demo1 Well architecture

Demo2 Adaptive grids
Demo3 Conner point correction
Demo4 Streamlines
Demo5 Fault treatment

Conclusions
Thermal/solvent processes for heavy

oil/bitumen are difficult to simulate. With

sufficient physics and good geological
characterization, significant improvement in
modeling and simulation will be made.
With all the new tools (gridding, solvers,
parallelization, and computer hardware)
significant improvements in simulation
robustness and speed and optimization
algorithms will be made.
All these mean significant savings in capital
costs.

Three recent books

Finite Element Methods
and Their Applications

Z. Chen
Year 2005
Textbook & reference

Three recent books (contd)

Computational Methods
for Multiphase Flows in
Porous Media

Year 2006
Z. Chen, G. Huan and Y.
Ma

Textbook and reference

Three recent books (contd)

Reservoir Simulation:
Mathematical Techniques
in Oil Recovery

Year 2007
Z. Chen
CBMS-NSF Regional Conference
Series in Applied Mathematics

Acknowledgements