Summary
The vapour extraction (VAPEX) process, as a nonthermal process, may be
suitable for the recovery of heavy oil and bitumen. In this process, the
injected solvent diffuses into the heavy oil/bitumen, reduces its viscosity,
and drains it to the producing well. The VAPEX process is more acceptable than
other processes because of its environmental friendliness, low capital and
operating costs, and suitability for thin reservoirs.
Most of the efforts in the modelling of the VAPEX process have concentrated
on the application of fluid-flow equations to the solvent and the diluted oil
inside each gridblock used in the simulation of the VAPEX. This is adequate
when very fine gridblocks are chosen to simulate the process in which the
boundary layer (transition zone) occurs over a number of gridblocks. Fine
gridblocks, however, require a large amount of simulation time, which is not
applicable for field-scale simulation even with today's computing power. To
deal with this problem, a new approach is introduced that is based on the
application of the fluid-flow equations to three phases: solvent, diluted oil,
and heavy oil/bitumen. With this approach, it becomes possible to have mobile
solvent, mobile live oil, and immobile or slow-moving heavy oil/bitumen inside
a gridblock. The main feature of the proposed model is its ability to capture
the boundary layer within a gridblock, making very fine gridblocks unnecessary
in the simulation of the VAPEX process. In addition, this approach can be
applied to model the viscous fingering inside gridblocks.
© 2011. Society of Petroleum Engineers
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History
- Original manuscript received:
25 March 2009
- Meeting paper published:
17 June 2009
- Revised manuscript received:
13 July 2010
- Manuscript approved:
15 February 2011
- Version of record:
1 November 2011
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