Cyclic Hot Solvent Injection (CHSI) Process for Enhanced Heavy Oil Recovery in Thin Reservoirs

循环热溶剂注入 (CHSI) 工艺提高薄油藏稠油采收率

• 批准号: RGPIN-2019-06253
• 负责人: Zeng, Fanhua
• 金额: $ 2.84万
• 依托单位: University of Regina
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=715329
• 关键词: Cyclic; Hot; Solvent; Injection; CHSI

One of the long-term goals of my research program is to develop effective and efficient techniques to unlock Western Canada's heavy oil resources in an environmentally sustainable way. Western Canada has the second largest oil resource in the world. Over 90% is heavy oil and bitumen. Among them, about 32 billion of heavy oil is deposited in Lloydminster area. The heavy oil reservoirs in Lloydminster are featured with thin pay-zone (in average 3-5 m thick), high oil saturation (average 85%), high permeability (average 2D), and high viscosity (1000 12,000 cp). Cold Heavy Oil Production with Sand (CHOPS) is the main recovery method in this area. However, only 10-15% of oil can be produced with CHOPS. Even though enhanced oil recovery method is strongly needed for Lloydminster heavy oil reservoir. None of current enhanced heavy oil recovery method is commercially viable. This research program is proposing a new hybrid process, Cyclic Hot Solvent Injection (CHSI) process and both fundamental and application studies will be conducted. The new invented CHSI process is a single well based process where heated solvent in its near dew point is employed as injection fluid. In each cyclic of the CHSI process, similar to CSI process there have three periods: solvent injection, soaking and production. The solvent used for CHSI process is propane or butane. The injected solvent can be heated to 50-100 C, depending on which solvent is used. The wellbore should be insulated in order to prevent heat loss through the well bore and condensation of solvent in the wellbore. During the injection and soaking periods, both heat and mass transfers occur in the reservoir. The latent heat and sensible heat carried by the solvent will be transferred to the reservoir/hydrocarbon system and solvent will dissolve into the heavy oil. The oil viscosity will be reduced due to the increased reservoir temperature and the dissolved solvent. In the oil production period, both pressure and temperature of the reservoir will be decreased gradually. Foamy oil flow, solution gas drive and gravity effects are the main driving mechanisms of the oil production. The CHSI process is a new process and has never been investigated by other researchers yet. During the past two years, through my NSERC Discovery Development Grant preliminary assessment of CHSI process has been conducted and promising results have been obtained. Patent application is in the process to protect the Intellectual Property of this invention. The proposed research program is to evaluate the performance of CHSI process, better understand the fundamental physics of CHSI process under different pressure and temperature effects and measure fundamental data which needed to evaluate the performance of this process in field scale.

我的研究计划的长期目标之一是开发有效且高效的技术，以环境可持续的方式释放加拿大西部的重油资源。加拿大西部拥有世界第二大石油资源。 90%以上是重油和沥青。其中，劳埃德明斯特地区蕴藏着约320亿重油。劳埃德明斯特稠油油藏具有产层薄（平均厚度3～5 m）、含油饱和度高（平均85%）、高渗透率（平均2D）、高粘度（1000～12,000 cp）等特点。砂冷稠油开采（CHOPS）是该地区主要的采收方法。然而，CHOPS 只能生产 10-15% 的油。尽管劳埃德明斯特稠油油藏强烈需要提高采收率方法。目前的强化重油采收方法均不具有商业可行性。 该研究计划提出了一种新的混合工艺，即循环热溶剂注射（CHSI）工艺，并将进行基础和应用研究。新发明的 CHSI 工艺是一种基于单井的工艺，其中采用接近露点的加热溶剂作为注入流体。在CHSI工艺的每个循环中，与CSI工艺类似，也有三个阶段：溶剂注入、浸泡和生产。 CHSI工艺所用的溶剂是丙烷或丁烷。注入的溶剂可以加热至 50-100°C，具体取决于所使用的溶剂。 井筒应隔热，以防止通过井筒的热量损失和溶剂在井筒中的冷凝。在注入和浸泡期间，储层中会发生传热和传质。溶剂携带的潜热和显热将传递到油藏/烃系统，溶剂将溶解到重油中。由于油层温度升高和溶剂溶解，油的粘度会降低。在石油生产期间，油藏的压力和温度都会逐渐降低。泡沫油流动、溶解气体驱动和重力作用是石油生产的主要驱动机制。 CHSI 过程是一个新过程，尚未被其他研究人员研究过。在过去的两年里，我通过 NSERC 发现发展补助金对 CHSI 流程进行了初步评估，并取得了可喜的结果。专利申请正在进行中，以保护本发明的知识产权。拟议的研究计划是评估CHSI过程的性能，更好地了解CHSI过程在不同压力和温度影响下的基本物理原理，并测量现场规模评估该过程性能所需的基础数据。