Page 42: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Dec/Jan 2015)

41 43

Wellbore heat loss results 80% 80% Initial steam quality of 80% • Initial steam quality of 80% •

Production Asset of the Month • At 500 bpd cwe steam quality is reduced to 60% 23.3% at 4,000' At 1,000 bpd cwe steam quality is reduced to • 51.5% at 4,000' 40% • Steam condensed is 285 bpd in each case So, at 10,000 bpd cwe steam quality would • reduce by about 3% 20%

Steam quality 500 bcwe/day 1000 bcwe/day

Data for 500 and 1,000 bcwe/day cases, new advances 10,000 bcwe/day and a historical review of insulated steam injection 0% tubing - SPE-113981; 4,000’ case calculated by 1000 1500 2000 2500 300035004000 extrapolation.

Depth feet assessed what it would need in terms is looking at a ? xed well head platform much like Shell’s Schoonebeek ? eld of topside equipment. They approached with dry trees. which stretches across the Dutch and

Cleaver-Brooks, a boiler manufac-

German border, where it is operated by

Downhole tricks turer in the US which supplies SAGD

Wintershall and called Emlichheim. It is

Steam Oil is also looking to deploy at a similar depth, 3500ft, and 3 Darcies projects in Canada, which suggested autonomous in? ow control valves permeability. Shell is using a similar

Steam Oil use an industrial water tube (AICVs), to optimize the ? ood. “The well pattern as that planned for Pilot, boiler, which can be quite compact. A 1500m-long wells will be 100m apart, but, at Schoonebeek the reservoir is more 364,000lb/hr boiler, weighing 250- pushing a pillow of steam across from faulted and pressure depleted, Brown tonne, including ancillary equipment, one well to the other,” Brown says. “But, says. could produce 25,000 b/d steam, Brown it won’t go in a straight line. It will wob- says. This would be instead of once-

Optimization ble, with steam breakthrough in one area through steam generators typically used before another. To maximize recovery While Steam Oil has a broad plan in in tar sands heartland Alberta, Canada.

To produce the steam, water treatment we want to shut off that break through place, Brown says there could be optimi- facilities would also be needed, so Steam point as soon as possible and it looks zations, such as recycling the produced

Oil went to Aquatech, which supplies like the AICV is promising technology to water and capturing heat from it, to mechanical vapor compression equip- do that.” Steam Oil has been looking at reduce energy input. ment for Mukhaizna heavy oil project in Norwegian ? rm In? ow Control’s AICVs, “One of the things we want to do is

Oman, onshore. Aquatech advised Steam which were initially designed for to con- make the process as ef? cient as possible,”

Oil to use reverse osmosis or similar, trol gas coning in the Troll ? eld offshore Brown says. “We are currently predicting which is what BP is using on Clair Ridge Norway. we are going to have about 2.5-3 bbl of for their fresh water, Brown says. steam per barrel of oil extracted and the

Tried and semi-tested

To get water pure enough – with reality is that makes the economics work. solids content at less than 10ppm – they While steam ? ood is certainly not com- But, if we can reduce that steam oil ratio would need two passes through reverse mon offshore, it has been tried. In Lake it would improve the economics.” The osmosis and then using electrodeion- Maracaibo, Venezuela, steam boilers on ratio is typically 2.5-5 on SAGD projects, ization (EDI). This would mean lifting barges inject steam on a Huff and Puff he says.

There are also additional tech- 300,000 b/d sea water, taking it from basis. niques, like those being tried in China 35,000 ppm to c. 3000 ppm in the ? rst In Bohai Bay in China, CNOOC has and Canada, to add non-condensable stage, then 300 ppm in the second stage also used Huff and Puff on a number of gas, such as methane or nitrogen, to and to <10 ppm in the EDI, with 120,000 ? elds and they have also been mixing reduce the ratio to 1.5, or use a solvent bbl water left. Once turned into steam combustion products with the steam, to like propane or butane, which would and injected, the reservoir could then increase the recovery, Brown says.

help mobilize the oil, with the added produce 80,000 b/d water and 35-40,000 Offshore Congo, Perenco has been bene? t of helping product transport b/d oil, Brown says. The water treat- using steam on the Emeraude ? eld in downstream. ment equipment would weigh less than 65m water depth. Total had a pilot in the 200-tonne and adding both this and the 1980s, then Perenco built a platform and But, these optimizations are further steam generation equipment would only steam ? ooding started in a number of down the process for Steam Oil. The add 10-15% to the project’s cost, Brown wells, but there seems to have been lim- young company with a big vision is now says. To house the equipment, and to ited success, possibly due to the nature of looking to work with partners to bring its enable intensive drilling and ability to the reservoir there, Brown says. idea to reality. We look forward to seeing access pumps in wells, etc., Steam Oil Brown says the Pilot ? eld is very the results.

December 2015 | OE oedigital.com 44 042_OE1215_ProdOps1_EOR.indd 44 11/20/15 5:45 PM