Method for cutting steam heat losses during cyclic steam injection of wells. Final report
Heavy Oil is abundant in California. It is a very viscous fluid, which must be thinned in order to flow from wells at economical rates. The best method of oil viscosity reduction is by cyclic steam injection into the oil-containing rock formations. Making steam in conventional generators fueled with Natural Gas is, however, a costly process. The main objective of this Project is to reduce the cost of the required steam, per Barrel of Oil produced. This is made possible by a combination of Patented new technologies with several known methods. The best known method for increasing the production rate from oil wells is to use horizontal drainholes, which provide a much greater flow area from the oil zone into the well. A recent statistic based on 344 horizontal wells in 21 Canadian Oil fields containing Heavy Oil shows that these are, on the average six times more prolific than vertical wells. The cost of horizontal wells, however, is generally two to three times that of a vertical well, in the same field, so our second goal is to reduce the net cost of horizontal wells by connecting two of them to the same vertical casing, well head and pumping system. With such a well configuration, it is possible to get two horizontal wells for the price of about one and a half times the price of a single vertical well.
- Research Organization:
- Southern California Research Corp., San Rafael, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG49-93CE15600
- OSTI ID:
- 184274
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/CE/15600-T7; ON: DE96005158; TRN: 96:001272
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: Dec 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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