Field Observation of Steam Fingering Phenomenon
A steam chamber is believed to rise steadily in the channel sands of Athabasca oil sands during a SAGD operation. It is commonly known that the steam chamber growth rate is mainly dependent on permeability. Once the steam chamber reaches the upper boundary, it starts to expand laterally. This is the basic concept of steam chamber growth during the SAGD process in fine sands. However, the actual growth of the steam chamber measured through the analysis of temperature changes at observation wells behaves differently in many instances than the commonly accepted steam chamber growth concept, explained above. In these temperatures measured at observation wells, the steam growth of chamber deviates from the usual behavior; sometimes stops and then resumes rising or shrinking, or even disappears during SAGD process. This can be caused by the specific nature of the steam fingering phenomenon during SAGD operation. Many simulation studies have been conducted to understand the steam rising phenomenon during SAGD operations. At the top of the steam chamber, steam fingers seemed to be created where steam flows through and the steam chamber expands vertically. If steam fingering actively developed, steam chamber grows steadily as expected. However, activity of fingering can be disturbed under certain conditions, which can result in various alterations in the growth of steam chamber. In this paper, the steam fingering phenomenon during SAGD process is discussed using actual measured field data from four SAGD projects; UTF Phase A, UTF Phase B, Hangingstone and Surmont projects.
Y. ITO G. IPEK
Alberta Reserrch Council
国际会议
首届世界重油大会(The Technical Sessions of the First World Heavy Oil Conference)
北京
英文
18-27
2006-11-12（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）