Non-condensable gas coinjection with fishbone lateral wells

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10287864-B2
Application number	US-201514956030-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 1, 2015
Priority date	Dec 1, 2014
Publication date	May 14, 2019
Grant date	May 14, 2019

Abstract

Producing hydrocarbons by steam assisted gravity drainage, more particularly utilizing conventional horizontal wellpair configuration of SAGD in conjunction of infill production wells the production wells comprising two or more fishbone lateral wells to inject steam initially and then switch to NCG-steam coinjection after establishing thermal communication between the thermal chamber and infill well.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A process for producing hydrocarbons where the process comprises:
a) a reservoir having interbedded layers;
b) a horizontal wellpair comprising an injection well and a wellpair production well;
c) one or more infill production wells comprising two or more fishbone ribs drilled laterally from the infill production well to the wellpair production well;
d) initially injecting steam through said injection well;
e) establishing thermal communication between the thermal chamber and one or more infill production wells;
f) switching to non-condensable gas (NCG) and steam injection; and
g) producing hydrocarbons.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein said hydrocarbons are selected from the group consisting of heavy oil, bitumen, tar sands, extra heavy oil, and the like.

3. The process of claim 1 wherein said NCG are selected from the group consisting of air, carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), hydrogen (H2), anhydrous ammonia (NH3), flue gas, and combinations thereof.

Assignees

• Conocophillips Co

Inventors

• Chen Bo
• Chen Qing
• Wheeler Thomas J

Classifications

• E21B43/305

  comprising at least one inclined or horizontal well · CPC title

• E21B43/2408 Primary

  SAGD in combination with other methods · CPC title

• E21B43/166

  Injecting a gaseous medium; Injecting a gaseous medium and a liquid medium (CO2 injection E21B43/164; steam injection E21B43/24) · CPC title

• E21B43/164

  Injecting CO2 or carbonated water (in combination with organic material C09K8/594) · CPC title