Comparison of HASDrive and Sand-Filled Multiple Communications Steam Recovery Processes for Heavy and Extra-Heavy Oil Reservoirs

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ABSTRACT An assessment of two novel, steamdrive recovery processes for heavy oil reservoirs is presented. Special experimental procedures were designed and used to assess and compare steamdrive recovery processes using a HAS-pipe or a sand-filled channel (SFMC) in a simulated tar sand field. It was found that temperature development and distribution of saturation progress more uniformly around the HAS-pipe than around the sand-filled channel, and this could explain higher initial recovery rates observed for SFMC than for the HASDrive process. A multicomponent thermal numerical model was first validated against laboratory experiments and was then used to assess the influence of reservoir properties such as formation depth and oil viscosity, on recovery processes employing either (SFMC) or HASDrive-hot pipe strategies. The effectiveness of each process was assessed using the final recovery and diagrams of the key characteristics of oil-steam ratio versus running time. The results indicate that for shallow heavy oil reservoirs the HASDrive process can be more effective than the SFMC process. The situation is reversed for higher permeabilities and deeper formations, where a better chance of effectively recovering the viscous oil is indicated for the SFMC process. A new steamdrive recovery process employing a HAS-pipe embedded in a sand channel is suggested for shallow heavy oil formations. This process was analyzed and compared to both the SFMC and HASDrive recovery processes.