A New Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage Process Utilizing Vertical Wells

A novel process utilizing vertical wells to enhance heavy oil recovery during steam assisted gravity drainage has been developed. In the vertical well steam assisted gravity drainage (VWSAGD) process shown in Figure 1, the vertical well includes two production strings which are separated by three packers (one dual and two single packers): the short injection string (SIS) is attached to the bottom of the annulus and completed in the top quarter of the perforated formation, while the long production string (LPS) is attached to the bottom of the production tubing and completed in the bottom quarter of the perforated formation. The new process (VWSAGD) requires an initial start-up period (warm-up stage) where the steam is injected into both of the injection strings and production string for a specified period of time of about 14-30 days; then both strings are closed to injection for a specified time period of approximately 7 - 10 days (soaking period). After the initial warm-up and the soaking period, the long production string is opened for production, and the short injection string is opened to continuous steam injection for the rest of the specified simulation time. A commercial simulator (CMG-STAR Simulator) was used to study the performance of the new VWSAGD process. A sensitivity analysis was performed for the grid density, soaking time, steam quality, bottom hole producing pressure, steam injection rate, reservoir thickness, reservoir area, and horizontal to vertical permeability anisotropy. The results of this study have shown that the new VWSAGD process is more preferable for reservoir conditions such as high horizontal to vertical permeability ratio and thick reservoir oil zones.