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Surfactant-steam-noncondensible Gas-foam Modeling for SAGD Process in the Heavy Oil Recovery
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, IOR 2017 - 19th European Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery, Apr 2017, Volume 2017, p.1 - 10
Abstract
SAGD(steam assisted gravity drainage) is a mature technology to recover the heavy oil and oil sands in the Alberta. Owning to the reservoir heterogeneity and fluid properties differences, nonuniform steam chamber formed along the horizontal well leading to lower recovery
Foam is dispersion of gas in a continuous water phase with thin films (lamella), acting as a separator. surfactant mobilizes the high viscous oil by emulsification and reduction of interfacial tension.Adding surfactants also lowers the interfacial tension at the water-oil interface and further produces water in oil or oil in water emulsion. In situ emulsion generation is thus another active mechanism that is involved as a result of surfactants presence. Noncondensible gas could enhance the steam foam by reducing the affection of liquid phases condensation and evaporization.
Due to the above properties, gravity override is consequently limited.The existence of noncondensible gas contributes to foam stability. The phase behavior for emulsification regulates different relative permeability regimes into the oil flow. We find that adding surfactant,condensable gas and foam contributes to higher production and leads to less steam consumed.