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，有效的技术，以环境可持续的方式解开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。超过90％的重油和沥青。其中，劳埃德明斯特地区沉积了约320亿个重油。 Lloydminster中的重油储层具有薄的支付区（平均3-5 m厚），高油饱和度（平均85％），高渗透率（平均2D）和高粘度（1000 12,000 CP）。用沙子生产冷油（排骨）是该地区的主要恢复方法。但是，只能用排骨生产10-15％的油。即使劳埃德明斯特重油储层强烈需要增强的石油回收法。目前没有任何增强的重油回收法在商业上可行。 该研究计划提出了一种新的混合过程，环状热溶剂注射（CHSI）过程，并将进行基本和应用研究。新发明的CHSI工艺是一个基于井的过程，其近露点的加热溶剂被用作注入液。在CHSI过程的每个环状中，类似于CSI过程，都有三个时期：溶剂注入，浸泡和生产。用于CHSI过程的溶剂是丙烷或丁烷。注射的溶剂可以加热至50-100 C，具体取决于使用哪种溶剂。 井眼应进行绝缘，以防止井眼孔的孔和溶剂的凝结。在注入和浸泡期间，储层中都有热量和质量转移。溶剂所携带的潜热和明智的热将被转移到储层/碳氢化合物系统中，溶剂将溶解到重油中。由于储层温度升高和溶解溶剂，油粘度将降低。在石油生产期间，储层的压力和温度都将逐渐降低。泡沫油流量，溶液气体驱动和重力效应是石油生产的主要驾驶机制。 CHSI过程是一个新过程，从未受到其他研究人员的调查。在过去的两年中，通过我的NSERC Discovery Development Grant Grant对CHSI过程的初步评估，并获得了有希望的结果。专利申请正在进行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，更好地了解在不同的压力和温度效应下CHSI过程的基本物理学，并测量在现场尺度上评估该过程所需的基本数据。