PREDICTION OF BOTTOM-HOLE CONDITIONS FOR WET

STEAM INJECTION WELLS

J.P FONTANILLA K. AZIZ

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JCPT82-02-04 THERMAL OIL RECOVERY Prediction of bottom-hole conditions for wet steam injection wells JERRY P. FONTANILLA Shell Canada Resources, Ltd. KHALID AZIZ University of Calgary ABSTRACT The design of steam injection projects requires a knowledge of the quality and pressure of steam at the sandface before it enters the formation. In order to make such predictions, the multiphase flow and energy balance equations must be solved simultaneously. 7here are very few multiphase correlations in the literature that could be applied to the down flow of slm- A mathematical model was
developed for multiphase, non- isothermal down flow of steam in pipes. Several correlations J.P. Fontanilia J.P. Fontanilla holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Mapua Institute of Technology in the Philip- pines and an M.Eng. in Petroleum Re servoir Engineering from the Universi- ty of Calgary. He is a reservoir engineer with Shell Canada Resources Ltd. Currently he is on assignment with Bellaire Research Center, Shell Development Co. in Houston, Texas. Mr. Fontanilia's technical interests are in well test analysis, enhanced oil recovery and simulation, especially carbon dioxide
flooding. K. Aziz Khalid Aziz received his engineering education at the University of Michigan, the University of Alberta and Rice University. Over the past twenty-five years, he has held several academic and industrial appoint- ments. Currently, he is manager of the Computer Modelling Group, Pro- fessor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary and president of Neotechnology Consultants Ltd. Keywords: Thermal oil recovery, Bottom-hole conditions, Steam in- jection, Flow equations, Energy balance equations, Multiphase cor- relations, Mathematical models, Wellbore
heat, Reservoir simulation. Paper reviewed and accepted for publication by the Editorial Board of the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology. 82 _ were tested against limited experimental data. A method was also developed to adjust one of the correlations to fit available experimental data. The results of this investigation indicate the limitations of existing correlations and show the need for more expert. mental data. Introduction Wellbore heat loss and pressure drop for steam injection wells are often ignored and most thermal reservoir simulators as- sume the sandface
condition of the steam to be the same as that at the surface. This may be a good approximation for shallow wells, but for deep steam injection wells, wellbore heat loss is often substantial. One of the first workers to consider this problem was Ramey(t). He was primarily concerned with wellbore heat loss during the injection of hot water. Ramey developed a model with the following assumptions: 1. The physical properties of the fluid and the formation are independent of depth and temperature. 2. Heat transfer in the wellbore rapidly reaches steady state, while heat
transfer to the formation occurs under transient conditions. 3. The over-all heat transfer coefficient, U, is independent of depth. 4. The frictional losses and kinetic energy effects are negligi- ble. Satter(2) improved Ramey's analytical model by making the over-all heat transfer coefficient, U, dependent on depth and the fluid properties a function of temperature. Holst and Flock(3) further improved the models proposed by Ramey and Satter to include friction losses and
kinetic energy effects. Pacheco and Farouq Ali(4), as well as Herrera et al.(5), presented comprehensive models, but only considered single- phase fluid flow in the tubing. In this paper, a mathematical model is presented that also accounts for two-phase flow in the tubing. Our objective is to see if available two-phase flow correlations, possibly with some minor modifications, are applicable to the down flow of wet steam. Mathematical Model Assuming constant rate of injection (flow rate in the tubing), the conservation of mass, the conservation of energy and the mechanical energy
balance equations may be combined to yield the following two simultaneous ordinary differential equationS,(4,6). The Journal of Canadian Petroleum