Development of alkane solvents enhanced steam + flue gas processes for enhancing heavy oil recovery from post-CHOPS reservoirs

开发烷烃溶剂增强蒸汽烟气工艺，以提高 CHOPS 后油藏的重油采收率

• 批准号: 514877-2017
• 负责人: Yang, DaoyongDY
• 金额: $ 7.77万
• 依托单位: University of Regina
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Collaborative Research and Development Grants
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2022-01-01 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=752770
• 关键词: Development; alkane; solvents; enhanced; steam

As for the enormous heavy oil reserves deposited in Western Canada, the most common production process is the cold heavy oil production with sand (CHOPS) which can typically recover only 5-15% of original-oil-in- place due to both wormhole generation and foamy oil flow. As such, efficient follow-up enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques are required in these post-CHOPS reservoirs where both conventional steam-based thermal recovery techniques and solvent-based non-thermal recovery techniques find their limits. In practice, flue gas that typically consists of 80-88% N2 and 12-20% CO2 can be used as an efficient immiscible agent for enhancing heavy oil recovery through a free gas mechanism provided by N2 and a solubilization mechanism provided by CO2. The overall objective of this proposed research is to not only investigate the suitability and applicability for enhancing heavy oil recovery from the post-CHOPS reservoirs through the alkane/water-soluble solvents enhanced steam + flue gas recovery processes while minimizing environmental footprint, but also evaluate the possibility of safely storing CO2 in the depleted geological formations.With the successful development of direct contact steam generation (DCSG) processes referred to as the submerged combustion vaporizers (SCVs), this allows directly converting the untreated oilfield produced water into high-quality steam together with clean flue gas at high efficiency and low cost. With addition of alkane/water-soluble solvents, the newly proposed flue gas-assisted thermal recovery techniques with the optimized SCV operating parameters will be extended to the pilot tests in the targeted post-CHOPS reservoirs. The proposed research has the potential of providing the upstream oil and gas industry with viable techniques for efficiently and effectively recovering heavy oil from post-CHOPS reservoirs by taking advantages of both flue gas and thermal energy while minimizing freshwater usage as well as mitigating CH4 and CO2 emissions. This will also help Canada to become a technology resource centre, focusing on the usage of flue gases, EOR techniques for heavy oil reservoirs, and CO2 storage.

对于加拿大西部沉积的巨大稠油储量，最常见的生产工艺是冷出砂稠油开采（CHOPS），由于虫洞的产生和泡沫油流动，该工艺通常只能采收原始石油的5-15%。因此，在这些CHOPS后储层中需要有效的后续提高石油采收率（EOR）技术，其中常规的基于蒸汽的热采收技术和基于溶剂的非热采收技术都发现其局限性。在实践中，通常由80- 88%N2和12- 20%CO2组成的烟道气可用作有效的不混溶剂，用于通过由N2提供的游离气体机制和由CO2提供的增溶机制来提高重油采收率。这项拟议研究的总体目标不仅是研究通过烷烃/水溶性溶剂增强蒸汽+烟气回收工艺提高后CHOPS油藏重油回收的适用性和适用性，同时最大限度地减少环境足迹，而且还评估了在枯竭地质层中安全储存CO2的可能性。随着直接接触蒸汽发生（DCSG）的成功开发，通过被称为浸没式燃烧蒸发器（SCV）的工艺，这允许以高效率和低成本将未经处理的油田采出水直接转化为高质量蒸汽以及清洁的烟气。随着烷烃/水溶性溶剂的加入，新提出的具有优化SCV操作参数的烟气辅助热采技术将扩展到目标CHOPS后油藏的中试试验。拟议的研究有可能为上游石油和天然气行业提供可行的技术，通过利用烟道气和热能，同时最大限度地减少淡水使用以及减少CH 4和CO2排放，有效地从CHOPS后油藏中回收重油。这还将有助于加拿大成为一个技术资源中心，重点是烟道气的使用、重油储层的强化采油技术和二氧化碳储存。