Satellite steam-assisted gravity drainage with oxygen (sagdox) system for remote recovery of hydrocarbons
Inactive Publication Date: 2013-10-31
CNOOC PETROLEUM NORTH AMERICA ULC
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Benefits of technology
The invention provides a way to upgrade an existing SAGD facility by adding a central oxygen generation unit and adding at least one pipeline corridor to connect the facility to multiple satellite sites. This upgrade increases the area for bitumen recovery while minimizing costs. Additionally, the invention allows for longer well operation and increased reservoirs. The upgrade results in lower operational costs than SAGD.
Problems solved by technology
However, SAGD does have some limitations.
More specifically, bitumen production is limited because of the following SAGD central plant characteristics: 1) plant life is limited to 40 years at 90% average availability; 2) the available land for SAGD is 30% of the total (either due to reservoir quality, surface access or lease ownership issues); and 3) the average SAGD pattern size is 1000 m×100mth with an average pattern bitumen recovery of 1.5 million barrels (bbls) (411 bbls / day for 10 years).
The disadvantage is that the water concentration is reduced in the mix, so that push water flow and emulsion flow may be more difficult.
It is harder to control construction costs at a new greenfield plant compared to an existing brownfield plant site.
Method used
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[0117]Referring now to FIG. 1, a typical geometry of the SAGDOX system of the present invention is depicted. As can be seen, oxygen 5 is added during the SAGD process through the steam pipeline 1 and the effluents include produced gas 4 as well as bitumen and water 2.
[0118]Referring now to FIG. 2, there is depicted a SAGD system in which a SAGD central plant is connected to a SAGD satellite site. In this instance, a set-up consists of pipelines running from the base plant 10 to the satellite site 20. A series of pipelines connect the base plant 10 with the satellite site 20. In particular, treated water is provided to satellite site 20 via pipeline 30. Diluent is provided to satellite site 20 via pipeline 40. Natural gas fuel to fuel the boiler in the satellite site is provided to the satellite site via pipeline 50. Finally, pipeline 60 is provided to transport the mixture of diluent+produced water+bitumen from the satellite site 20 to the central plant 10. In this set-up, 33.7 KBD ...
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A SAGDOX satellite system for recovering hydrocarbons includes a central SAGDOX site, at least one SAGDOX satellite site, and a pipeline corridor for communication between the central SAGDOX site and the SAGDOX satellite site. The satellite system is designed to recover hydrocarbons using a SAGDOX process at the satellite site and transfer recovered hydrocarbons to the central site.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]The Athabasca Oil Sands is one of the largest oil deposits in the world. It contains 2.75 trillion barrels of bitumen resources, including carbonate deposits (Butler, R. Thermal Recovery of Oil and Bitumen, Prentice-Hall, 1991). The recoverable resource (excluding carbonate deposits) is currently estimated at about 170 billion barrels. (CAPP, The Facts on Oil Sands, November 2010). 20% of these resources is recoverable by mining and the other 80% is recoverable by in-situ Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) (CAPP, 2010).[0002]The leading in-situ EOR process to recover bitumen is steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), a steam-only process. Table 1 provides typical production of leading producers in the industry based on SAGD. However, SAGD does have some limitations. Studies indicate that the economical limit for steam transportation, using an insulated pipeline, is about 10 to 15 km (Finn, A., Integration of Nuclear Power with Oil Sands Extraction Projects ...
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Login to View More IPC IPC(8): E21B43/24
CPCE21B43/2406E21B43/2408
Inventor KERR, RICHARD KELSO
Owner CNOOC PETROLEUM NORTH AMERICA ULC