Wellbore Heat Loss for Steam Injection into Deep Reservoirs

摘要

A numerical method is developed and applied to the analysis of steam injection into typical wellbores. The steam flow is assumed to be one-dimensional with quasi-steady heat transfer occurring only in the radial direction. Numerical simulations are used to assess the relative effects of time of injection, pipe friction, radiation heat transfer, insulation of the injection tube, and geometry changes in the well completion for selected values of surface injection pressure and mass flow rate. Simulations are restricted to those cases for which the steam quality is between zero and one-hundred percent. It is concluded that a typical wellbore can be adequately insulated, using conventional insulation, so that steam of reasonably high energy content can be injected at mass flow rates from 5000 to 15,000 lbm/hr into oil reservoirs as deep as 5000 feet. (ERA citation 05:004013)