SPE Journal
Volume 16, Number 2, June 2011, pp. 343-357

SPE-141053-PA

Experimental and Numerical Investigations Into Oil-Drainage Rates During Vapor Extraction of Heavy Oils

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DOI  More information 10.2118/141053-PA http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/141053-PA

Citation

  • Alkindi, A.S., Al-Wahaibi, Y.M., and Muggeridge, A.H. 2011. Experimental and Numerical Investigations Into Oil-Drainage Rates During Vapor Extraction of Heavy Oils. SPE J.  16 (2): 343-357. SPE-141053-PA. doi: 10.2118/141053-PA.

Discipline Categories

  • 6.4 Primary and Enhanced Recovery Processes
  • 6.4.7 Miscible Methods
  • 6.8 Fundamental Research in Reservoir Description and Dynamics
  • 6.4.2 Gas-Injection Methods

Keywords

  • VAPEX, gravity drainage, diffusion, dispersion, heavy oil

Summary

A set of analog vapor-extraction (VAPEX) laboratory experiments was performed to test the ability of existing analytic and numerical models to predict oil-drainage rates from this process. The selected analog fluids and porous media enabled all input parameters to the analytic model to be determined independently of the analog VAPEX experiments without history matching. The results show that the underprediction of oil rate by the standard analytic model is not because of increased levels of mixing between the solvent and oil over that expected from molecular diffusion and convective dispersion, but rather because of a deficiency in the analytic model formulation.

© 2010. Society of Petroleum Engineers

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History

  • Original manuscript received: 9 November 2009
  • Revised manuscript received: 30 April 2010
  • Manuscript approved: 30 July 2010
  • Published online: 4 January 2011
  • Version of record: 17 June 2011