Improved exploitation of unconventional oil and gas reservoirs

这项研究旨在提高从边际质量矿床开采石油和天然气的经济可行性。我们正在研究如何将现有的采收率方法扩展到难度较大的油藏，我们正在探索新的采收率概念，以便在环境上可持续地开发这些油藏。Vapex是一种非热沥青和稠油开采工艺，包括通过水平井注入蒸发的轻烃，然后通过靠近油藏底部的另一口平行水平井排出稀释的沥青。我们的工作重点是通过优化溶剂组成和发展改进的数学建模能力来提高这一过程的效率。耗尽的Vapex模式中二氧化碳的封存也令人感兴趣。我们还计划评估Vapex在枯竭冷稠油生产油藏中的适用性。蒸汽辅助重力排水是目前沥青就地开采的主要方法，并已在商业作业中得到应用。然而，在边际油藏中，由于资本和运营成本高，产量小得多，因此并不经济。我们正在研究通过优化井型和向注入蒸汽中添加碳氢溶剂来改进该工艺的可能性。存在于加拿大永久冻土区和沿海水域的甲烷水合物沉积物中的气体预计将在几十年内成为重要的能源来源。我们正在研究多孔介质中天然气水合物的形成和分解行为。这项工作的目的是开发从这种水合物矿床中回收天然气的技术。

This research is aimed at improving the economic viability of producing oil and gas from deposits of marginal quality.  We are investigating ways of extending the applicability of existing recovery processes to difficult reservoirs and we are exploring new recovery concepts that will allow environmentally sustainable exploitation of such reservoirs.  Vapex is a non-thermal bitumen and heavy oil recovery process involving injection of vaporized light hydrocarbons via a horizontal well and draining the diluted bitumen via another parallel horizontal well placed near the base of the reservoir.  Our work is focused on improving the efficiency of this process with optimization of solvent composition and developing improved mathematical modeling capabilities.  Sequestration of CO2 in the depleted Vapex patterns is also of interest.  We also plan to evaluate the applicability of Vapex in depleted cold heavy oil production reservoirs.Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage is currently the mainstay of in situ bitumen recovery and is used in commercial operations.  However, it is not economical in marginal reservoirs due to high capital and operating costs for much smaller volumes of oil production.  We are investigating possible improvements in this process with optimization of well configurations and addition of hydrocarbon solvents to injected steam.Gas from methane hydrate deposits that exist in the permafrost regions and coastal waters of Canada is expected to become an important source of energy in couple of decades.  We are studying the formation and decomposition behaviour of gas hydrates in porous media.  This work is aimed at developing techniques for recovering natural gas from such hydrate deposits.