Technology Focus: Heavy Oil (April 2024)

Abstract

Heavy oil can be one of the more technically challenging resources to recover. It is often easy to find but hard to move. This creates an incentive for knowledge seekers and problem solvers: The puzzle pieces are on the table; we just need to put them together. The physical characteristics of heavy oil and the formations in which it is found—the puzzle pieces—are often unique to a region or even to a specific asset, so recovery techniques must be tuned, adapted, and sometimes invented for each region. Creative professionals around the world are taking up this challenge and sharing their work with us in a wealth of excellent recent publications. In particular in our featured papers, we see three different parts of the world working with three different recovery techniques. First, we have a fundamental study in paper SPE 212779 of a perennial question from Canada’s oil sands: Where does the emulsion form in the steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) recovery process, where the effect of a surfactant is studied? Moving south to paper SPE 213199, we review a study that progresses from laboratory work to field implementation using foam injection in Colombia in conjunction with cyclic steam stimulation. From Colombia, we look across to the other side of the world to paper SPE 215943, where we see a transition from steamflood recovery to an adapted configuration of SAGD, with a comprehensive discussion on optimizing production in Mukhaizna field in Oman. The theme of adaptation and invention continues in our recommended reading, with discussions of fundamental research, applied and practical insights on field implementation, and all the steps in between as these are applied to heavy oil production challenges around the world. I hope you enjoy the tour. Recommended additional reading at OnePetro: www.onepetro.org. SPE 212767 Part 1: Kinetics of Methane Exsolution From Bitumen in Thermal Recovery Processes—Experimental Study by Mohammad Khalifi, Imperial Oil Resources, et al. SPE 214113 Physical and Numerical Simulations of Offset Well Pair Combined Steam-Drive and Gravity-Drainage Process To Develop Superheavy Oil or Oil Sands Project by Guangyue Liang, China National Petroleum Corporation, et al. SPE 215342 Optimization of Chemical Acid Stimulation by Improving Selection Intervals in Lateral Section of Horizontal Well in X Field Heavy Oil Steamflood by Fatichin Fatichin, Pertamina, et al.