Noncondensable Gas Distribution in SAGD Chambers

作者：Jian-Yang Yuan, Joyce Chen, G. E. Pierce, B. Wiwchar, H. Golbeck, Xinkui Wang, Gilles Beaulieu, Shauna Cameron · 发表于：Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology · 年份：2011 · DOI：10.2118/137269-pa · 被引用次数：46 · 研究领域：Reservoir Engineering and Simulation Methods、Hydraulic Fracturing and Reservoir Analysis、Enhanced Oil Recovery Techniques

Summary This paper summarizes a set of SAGD experiments conducted live under an X-ray scanner. These experiments were specifically designed for mapping noncondensable gas distribution and their movement in an active steam chamber during SAGD. Many researches over the past 3 decades have shown that noncondensable gases may have critical impacts on SAGD performance. Some may be positive and others may be negative, depending on reservoir and operating conditions. To better use the positives, avoid the negatives, and for better SAGD performance predictions, it is crucial to understand how these gases behave in a steam chamber. It is arguable that noncondensable gases tend to accumulate at the steam front where steam condenses. However, this assertion has only been supported by numerical simulations. Field observation data have been too sparse. Meaningful tracking of gas production is not a normal practice in the field. The first experiment was conducted in an aluminum vessel packed with 4 darcy sands at 1.0 MPa. The second experiment was conducted in a scalable system consisting of a titanium pressure vessel and a PEEK cell, allowing the SAGD experiment to run at 2.1 MPa. Both experiments used bitumen fully saturated with methane at reservoir conditions and were run live under the X-ray scanner. X-ray images were taken at given time intervals. Temperature profiles were obtained directly from thermocouples. Density profiles were computed from the X-ray images. Methane in the free ...