Research Specialist, Imperial Oil's Research Center

TOPIC

Optimization of process operating strategy for oil reservoir simulation

Abstract:

In connection with oil reservoir simulation, optimization has been used for four general types of problems: first, field development and well placement, second, history matching, third, investment and resource exploitation, and fourth, process operating strategy. In this talk, we are concerned with the fourth one, process operating strategy.

In Cold Lake, Imperial Oil practices Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS). The key issue with the bitumen in Cold Lake is that its viscosity is over 100000 cP at reservoir conditions (this means that it would take an hour or so to pour it out of a coffee cup). However, if the bitumen is heated sufficiently, the viscosity drops significantly and it flows like water. In CSS, first, a specified volume of steam is injected into the reservoir through a well. Second, the well is shut in to allow the steam to distribute its heat into the reservoir. Third, the well is opened for production and hot reservoir fluids, including bitumen, steam and its condensate, are produced to the surface. At present, there are over 3000 wells in Cold Lake at various stages of CSS.

This talk will introduce the problem of scheduling the CSS oil recovery process at Imperial Oil's Cold Lake project to optimize a particular process or economic measure. A comparison between quasi-Newton, simulated annealing, and genetic algorithm will be discussed. Automated scheduling coupled to optimization capabilities have been developed that attempt to meet our CSS best practices as well as maximizing economic value.

About the Speaker

Ian Gates is currently a Research Specialist at Imperial Oil's Research Center in Calgary, Alberta. He is a member of the Oil Sands Recovery Research Group and conducts both experimental and theoretical (reservoir simulation) research. Most of the work over the past few years has focused on thermal-solvent oil recovery processes.

He graduated from the University of Calgary with a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering, University of British Columbia with a M.A.Sc. in Chemical Engineering, and the University of Minnesota with a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering. After the University of Minnesota, Ian did a postdoc with Sandia National Labs for one year and then worked at the 3M Company in St. Paul, Minnesota in the Engineering Systems Technology Center where he was involved in process research for a variety of products including automotive, optical, adhesive, and microstructured films.

Ian is a member of APEGGA and enjoys woodwork as well as recreational programming.