Steam Injection Strategies for Bitumen Recovery from an Element of the Grosmont Carbonate Reservoir.

摘要

The bitumen resource in the Grosmont carbonate deposits in Alberta is over 400 billion barrels, but hitherto a commercial recovery scheme remains elusive. This study employs numerical simulation for several steam-based recovery schemes and proposes steam injection strategies. Selected simulation results were analyzed using analytical methods.;The vertical well injector-horizontal well producer steamflood gave the same recovery performance 21 months earlier than the horizontal well cyclic. Analytical methods were used to interpret physical mechanisms operating in steam injection processes for this reservoir, including the steam over-injection, steam override, condensate formation at the steam front and water flashing.;A representative geological model of Grosmont was used to examine numerically several steam injection schemes, which included: vertical or horizontal well cyclic, SAGD, and conventional pattern steamfloods. Steamflooding, using vertical steam injectors and a horizontal producer, is proposed for the Grosmont carbonate reservoir to overcome shortcomings of other schemes.