Browsing by Author "Bao, Yu"

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    On Steam Based Recovery Process Design
    (2015-12-15) Bao, Yu; Gates, Ian; Siegler, Hector; Hejazi, Hossein; Hubbard, Stephen; Leung, Juliana
    Steam-based thermal recovery process is the most commonly used recovery process for bitumen production from oil sands reservoirs. The most used thermal methods are Steam Flooding (SF), Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS), and Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). The choice of method depends on the geology, initial reservoir conditions, and the viscosity of the oil. In the research documented here, a detailed examination of the Liaohe heavy oil operation is analyzed from field data. The analysis relies on from a construction of detailed geological and reservoir models and a history match of the CSS and steam-injection gravity drainage operation. The model is then used to evaluate steam flooding and automated control of the recovery process. Also, a submodel from the history-matched reservoir model is used to understand, at fine scale, the dynamics of CSS. The results show that conducting steam flooding post CSS provides an effective means to achieve greater recovery factors at reasonable steam-to-oil ratios. Also, automated control by using proportional-integral-derivative control can yield further improvements of the process performance. The results of the detailed ultra-refined CSS models demonstrate that CSS dynamics are complex due to steam-based dilation and steam condensation. The overall results of the research reveal that CSS is an effective thermal recovery method that can be used with post-CSS processes to produce the majority of oil from the reservoir.