Experimental studies of thermal solvent oil recovery process for live heavy oil

VAPEX and related processes for the recovery of heavy oil and bitumen have potential application to oils containing some methane in solution. A set of experiments has been completed to evaluate the potential for thermal VAPEX operations in heavy oils containing significant dissolved methane content. Three experiments were run to evaluate a VAPEX process operating in a reservoir in which the oil had significant initial methane saturation. The first experiment tested a 3-component mixture (C-1-C-2-C-3) that was used in an earlier non-thermal dead oil VAPEX,test. The second experiment used horizontally offset wells and 100% ethane as the working solvent. The production well was heated to reflux. the solvent in situ. The third experiment also used horizon tally offset wells and 100% ethane, plus steam. The. steam was injected into the production well to reflux, the solvent. Results indicated that the live oil inhibited solvent absorption, and hence production. rates, but that a properly designed sol-vent system could produce oil at reasonable rates. Oil production from the steam-heated well/ethane experiment was similar to that from the electrically heated well/ethane reflux experiment. The experiments provided a database which can be used for econornic comparison of process options, and for developing numerical simulations for field predictions.