Method of improving production in steam assisted gravity drainage operations
AssigneeBaker Hughes, A Ge Company, LLC
InventorEugene Stolboushkin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of improving production in a steam assisted gravity drainage operation, the method including positioning a tubular system within a borehole, the tubular system including a plurality of inflow control devices; injecting steam into a formation to assist in drainage of targeted resources from the formation; receiving fluids at an inlet of the inflow control devices; and regulating thermal conformance in the formation by choking liquids at the inflow control devices when the liquids have a subcool lower than a predetermined subcool at a selected drawdown pressure.
Claims14
A method of improving production in a steam assisted gravity drainage operation, the method comprising:
- positioning a tubular system within a borehole, the tubular system including a plurality of inflow control devices, wherein each of the inflow control devices includes a flow device having an inlet;
- an outlet;
- a flow path fluidically connecting the inlet to the outlet;
- and a feature including a plurality of staggered pins in the flow path;
- cavitating and/or flashing the liquids at the feature;
- injecting steam into a formation to assist in drainage of targeted resources from the formation;
- receiving fluids at an inlet of the inflow control devices;
- passing the fluids through a fixed geometry converging-diverging nozzle arranged along a fluid flow path, the converging-diverging nozzle creating a fluid choke;
- and
- regulating thermal conformance in the formation to establish a substantially balanced zonal heat distribution along the tubular system with the fluid choke at select ones of the plurality of inflow control devices when the fluids have a subcool lower than a predetermined subcool at a selected drawdown pressure.
A method of improving production in a steam assisted gravity drainage system, the method comprising:
- disposing a plurality of inflow control devices within a tubular system, each of the plurality of inflow control device including a flow device having an inlet, an outlet, a flow path, and a fixed geometry converging-diverging nozzle arranged along the flow path fluidically connecting the inlet to the outlet, and a feature including a plurality of staggered pins in the flow path, the converging-diverging nozzle creating a fluid choke;
- cavitating and/or flashing the liquids at the feature;
- receiving liquids through one or more of the inflow control device;
- reducing a mass flow rate of the liquids having a subcool less than a predetermined subcool at a selected drawdown pressure by engaging the liquids with the converging-diverging nozzle at select ones of the plurality of inflow control devices;
- and
- regulating thermal conformance in a formation to establish a substantially balanced zonal heat distribution along the tubular system by transferring heat from the liquids to adjacent zones having a greater subcool than the liquids.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.