Investigating Three-Phase Flow of Steam-Water-Oil in Porous Media for Maximizing SAGD Potential: A New Measurement Technique

研究多孔介质中蒸汽-水-油的三相流以最大化 SAGD 潜力：一种新的测量技术

• 批准号: RGPIN-2014-06105
• 负责人: Dehghanpour, Hassan
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: University of Alberta
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2018-01-01 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=648923
• 关键词: Investigating; Three; Phase; Flow; Steam

The proposed research program develops a novel laboratory technique and procedure for fundamental study of three-phase flow in porous media. The measured data will be used for prediction and optimization of in-situ thermal recovery methods for oil production from Canada's heavy oil and bitumen resources. More than 300 billion cubic meters of viscous bitumen exist in Alberta and Saskatchewan. Only one-third of this huge resource is enough to meet the hydrocarbon requirements of all of North America for more than 100 years. However, only 20% of this resource is accessible through surface mining. The other 80% requires in-situ methods such as Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). SAGD has been proved to be the most successful in-situ recovery method for heavy oil and bitumen recovery in Canada. In SAGD, steam, steam-condensate, and oil simultaneously flow through the rock pore space. Mathematical modelling and optimizing such processes require careful measurement of flow conductance (relative permeability) and residual saturation of each phase in the laboratory. However, laboratory determination of relative permeability curves for steam, oil, and water is very challenging due to difficulties in phase saturation (i.e., volumetric fraction) measurement. The main challenge is to distinguish between the water and oil phases, which have similar densities. Phase A of this research develops a novel non-destructive method for measuring the saturation of oil, water and steam simultaneously flowing through a porous medium confined inside a core holder. In this method, the total oil and water saturation (So + Sw) is measured by a x-ray based technique, and water saturation (Sw) is measured by a capacitance (described by dielectric constant) based technique. The dielectric constant of water is several times higher than that of oil, which allows computing the fraction of each phase. The three-phase saturations measured in time and space will be interpreted and modelled to obtain three-phase relative permeabilities for each point in the saturation space. Phase B of the research develops mathematical techniques to use the measured data to evaluate, predict and optimize the performance of field-scale SAGD projects. The existing models for steam chamber development rate will be improved to account for the physics of three-phase flow, which is an inevitable phenomenon during steam-based in-stue recovery processes. **The results of this study, which will be conducted by two PhD and two MSc students is anticipated to develop an improved understanding of complex dynamic phenomena occurring during simultaneous flow of steam, water, and oil in porous media. Modelling three-phase oil relative permeability in the presence of steam condensation phenomenon is a challenging problem, which will be studied by conducting careful laboratory measurements in the proposed research program. In addition to the scientific impacts, this research will help the oil industry to estimate the amount of oil remaining in the reservoir after the operations and to develop complementary techniques for recovering the remaining oil. Predicting and extending the economic life SAGD projects are important strategically since there are many mature SAGD steam chambers in Canada containing a significant amount of oil and heat energy. Therefore, the outcomes of this research will help the industry indirectly to 1) reduce the cost and environmental impacts per barrel of oil produced.

拟议的研究计划开发了一种新型的实验室技术和程序，用于多孔介质中三相流的基本研究。测得的数据将用于预测和优化加拿大重油和沥青资源的原位热恢复方法。艾伯塔省和萨斯喀彻温省存在超过3000亿立方米的粘性沥青。这些巨大的资源中只有三分之一足以满足整个北美整个100多年来的碳氢化合物要求。但是，只有20％的资源可以通过表面挖掘获得。其他80％需要原位方法，例如蒸汽辅助重力排水（SAGD）。事实证明，SAGD是加拿大重油和沥青恢复最成功的原位恢复方法。在SAGD中，蒸汽，蒸汽 - 浓度和油同时流过岩孔空间。数学建模和优化此类过程需要仔细测量流动电导率（相对渗透率）和实验室中每个阶段的残留饱和度。但是，由于相饱和（即体积分数）测量的困难，实验室确定蒸汽，油和水的相对渗透率曲线非常具有挑战性。主要的挑战是区分具有相似密度的水和油相。这项研究的A期A开发了一种新型的非破坏性方法，用于测量同时流过核心座中的多孔介质的油，水和蒸汽的饱和。在这种方法中，总油和水饱和度（SO + SW）是通过基于X射线的技术测量的，水饱和度（SW）是通过基于电容（用介电常数描述）技术来测量的。水的介电常数比油高几倍，该油可以计算每个阶段的分数。在时间和空间中测量的三相饱和度将被解释和建模，以获得饱和空间中每个点的三相相对渗透率。研究的B期开发了数学技术，以使用测量数据来评估，预测和优化现场规模的SAGD项目的性能。现有的蒸汽室开发速率模型将提高以说明三相流的物理，这在基于蒸汽的基于蒸汽的内部恢复过程中是不可避免的现象。 **这项研究的结果将由两名PHD和两名MSC学生进行，预计将在多孔培养基中同时流动的蒸汽，水和油中进一步了解复杂的动态现象。在存在蒸汽冷凝现象的情况下对三相油相对渗透性进行建模是一个具有挑战性的问题，这将通过在拟议的研究计划中进行仔细的实验​​室测量来研究。除了科学的影响外，这项研究还将帮助石油工业估算运营后储层中剩余的石油量，并开发用于恢复剩余石油的补充技术。在战略上预测和延长经济寿命下的SAGD项目非常重要，因为加拿大有许多成熟的SAGD蒸汽室，其中包含大量的石油和热能。因此，这项研究的结果将间接帮助该行业1）减少每桶石油生产的成本和环境影响。