Optimizing Horizontal-Well Steam Stimulation Strategy for Heavy-Oil Development

SPE Presentation

At the recent 2006 SPE Eastern Regional Meeting held in Canton Ohio October 11-13, a paper (SPE 104520) titled Optimizing Horizontal-Well Steam-Stimulation Strategy for Heavy -Oil Development was presented by authors Shanqiang Luo, SPE, and Andy Baker, SPE, Schlumberger. I wanted to share this as I found the paper a handy reference offering a practical approach for heavy oil development using horizontal wells with combinations of CSS, steamflooding, and SAGD to optimize production.

As advances in horizontal well construction have created more opportunities in the implementation of thermal recovery processes, it is important to have a set of guidelines or a framework for the field application of horizontal well steam stimulation in heavy oil reservoirs - this papers outlines a relatively low cost approach using 3D reservoir simulation (as opposed to expensive field pilots) to compare production performance of CSS, SF, and SAGD looking at which combinations of timing and thermal processes are optimal. For example, CSS followed by SF in horizontal wells was shown to be a very efficient approach but requires careful timing in converting from CSS to SF in order to optimize recovery while subsequent production performance from SAGD was highly sensitive to horizontal well location and configuration.

The full reprint can be found on SPE 104520 .

Jorge