In situ upgrading via hot fluid injection

Abstract

The invention relates to systems, apparatus and methods for integrated recovery and in-situ (in reservoir) upgrading of heavy oil and oil sand bitumens. The systems, apparatus and methods enable enhanced recovery of heavy oil in a production well by introducing a hot fluid including a vacuum or atmospheric residue fraction or deasphalted oil into the production well under conditions to promote hydrocarbon upgrading. The methods may further include introducing hydrogen and a catalyst together with the injection of the hot fluid into the production well to further promote hydrocarbon upgrading reactions. In addition, the invention relates to enhanced oil production methodologies within conventional oil reservoirs.

1 . A method for recovery and in situ upgrading of hydrocarbons in a well pair having an injection well and a recovery well within a heavy hydrocarbon reservoir comprising the steps of:
 a) introducing a selected quantity of a hot injection fluid including a heavy hydrocarbon fraction into the injection well to promote hydrocarbon recovery and in situ upgrading; and   b) recovering hydrocarbons from the recovery well.   
     
     
         2 . The method as in  claim 1  where the injection well and recovery well are a horizontal well pair. 
     
     
         3 . The method as in  claim 1  wherein the heavy hydrocarbon fraction is selected from any one of or a combination of shale oil, bitumen, atmospheric residue, vacuum residue, or deasphalted oil. 
     
     
         4 . The method as in  claim 1  wherein the hydrocarbons recovered from the recovery well are subjected to a separation process wherein heavy and light fractions are separated and wherein the heavy fraction includes a residue fraction. 
     
     
         5 . The method as in  claim 4  wherein the residue fraction from the separation process is mixed with the injection fluid prior to introduction into the injection well. 
     
     
         6 . The method as in  claim 5  further comprising the step of mixing make-up heavy hydrocarbons with the injection fluid prior to introducing the injection fluid into the injection well and wherein the temperature and pressure of the injection fluid is controlled to promote downhole upgrading reactions. 
     
     
         7 . The method as in  claim 1  wherein the injection fluid includes diluent. 
     
     
         8 . The method as in  claim 1  wherein the temperature and pressure of the injection fluid is controlled to promote thermal cracking upgrading reactions. 
     
     
         9 . The method as in  claim 8  wherein the temperature of the injection fluid is controlled to provide a downhole sump temperature of 320±20° C. 
     
     
         10 . The method as in  claim 1  wherein the downhole residence time of injected fluids is 24-2400 hours. 
     
     
         11 . The method as in  claim 1  wherein the temperature and pressure of the injection fluids are controlled such that greater than 30% of residual heavy hydrocarbon of the recovered bitumen is upgraded into lighter fractions within the reservoir. 
     
     
         12 . The method as in  claim 1  wherein the temperature and pressure of the injection fluids are controlled such the recovered hydrocarbons have a viscosity less than 500 cp at 25° C. 
     
     
         13 . The method as in  claim 12  wherein the recovered hydrocarbons have a viscosity less than 250 cp at 25° C. 
     
     
         14 . The method as in  claim 2  wherein prior to step a), steam is injected into the horizontal well pair to initiate connection between the injector well and the recovery well and formation of a downhole reaction chamber. 
     
     
         15 . The method as in  claim 14  wherein prior to step a) the steam is progressively replaced with a heavy hydrocarbon fluid, selected from any one of or a combination of heavy oil, shale oil, bitumen, atmospheric residue, vacuum residue, or deasphalted oil. 
     
     
         16 . The method as in  claim 1  further comprising the step of mixing a catalyst into the injection fluid prior to introducing the injection fluid into the injection well. 
     
     
         17 . The method as in  claim 16  further comprising the step of mixing hydrogen into the injection fluid prior to introducing the injection fluid into the injection well. 
     
     
         18 . The method as in  claim 17  wherein the temperatures and pressures of the injection fluid are controlled to promote any one of or a combination of hydrotreating, hydrocracking or steam-cracking reactions. 
     
     
         19 . The method as in  claim 18  wherein the hydrogen is mixed with the injection fluid to provide excess hydrogen for the hydrotreating and hydrotreating reactions. 
     
     
         20 . The method as in  claim 17  wherein the hydrogen is injected along the length of the injection well. 
     
     
         21 . The method as in  claim 20  wherein approximately ⅓ of the hydrogen is mixed with the injection fluid at surface and approximately ⅔ is injected to the reservoir along the horizontal length of the recovery well. 
     
     
         22 . The method as in  claim 21  wherein the hydrogen is injected from the recovery well via at least one liner operatively configured to the recovery well. 
     
     
         23 . The method as in  claim 16  wherein the catalyst is any one of or a combination of nano-catalysts or ultradispersed catalyst. 
     
     
         24 . The method as in  claim 23  wherein the nano-catalyst has particles with diameters less than 1 micron. 
     
     
         25 . The method as in  claim 24  wherein the ultradispersed catalyst has particles with diameters less than 120 nm. 
     
     
         26 . The method as in  claim 1  wherein a plurality of adjacent interconnecting well pairs are configured to a single well pad wherein one of the interconnecting well pairs is an upgrading well pair and wherein heavy hydrocarbon fluids recovered from each well is mixed with the injection fluid of the upgrading well pair. 
     
     
         27 . The method as in  claim 26  wherein the heavy hydrocarbon fluids include any one of or a combination of heavy oil, shale oil, bitumen, atmospheric residue, vacuum residue, or deasphalted oil. 
     
     
         28 . The method as in  claim 2  wherein the injection well and recovery well have vertically overlapping horizontal sections and the injection well is the lower of the injection well and the recovery well. 
     
     
         29 . The method as in  claim 2  wherein the injection well and recovery well have vertically overlapping horizontal sections and the injection well is the upper of the injection well and the recovery well. 
     
     
         30 . A method of upgrading heavy hydrocarbons during hydrocarbon recovery from a heavy hydrocarbon formation comprising the steps of:
 a) drilling an injection well and recovery well into the heavy hydrocarbon formation;   b) creating a hydrocarbon mobilization chamber within the heavy hydrocarbon formation by introducing a hot fluid into the injection well so as to promote hydrocarbon mobility to the recovery well;   c) recovering heavy hydrocarbons from the recovery well to the surface;   d) subjecting the recovered hydrocarbons from step c) to a separation process to form lighter hydrocarbon fractions and heavy residual hydrocarbon fractions;   e) introducing a portion or all of the heavy residual hydrocarbon fractions at a temperature and pressure to promote hydrocarbon upgrading reactions in the hydrocarbon mobilization chamber; and,   f) recovering co-mingled and upgraded hydrocarbons from the recovery well.   
     
     
         31 . The method as in  claim 30  wherein a portion of the heavy residual fraction from the separation is used as a fuel to produce heat to heat the injection fluids for upgrading reactions. 
     
     
         32 . The method as in  claim 30  further comprising the step of subjecting a portion of the lighter hydrocarbons to additional separation processes for forming additional hydrocarbon fractions. 
     
     
         33 . The method as in  claim 30  wherein step e) includes introducing a catalyst into the injection well to promote catalytic upgrading within the injection well and the hydrocarbon mobilization chamber. 
     
     
         34 . The method as in  claim 30  wherein step e) further includes introducing hydrogen into the injection well to promote upgrading reactions within the hydrocarbon mobilization chamber. 
     
     
         35 . A system for recovery and in situ upgrading of heavy hydrocarbons within a heavy hydrocarbon formation comprising:
 a) an injection well;   b) a recovery well;   
       the injection well and recovery well operatively connected to a hydrocarbon distillation column for separation of recovered fluids from the recovery well into heavy and light fractions;
 c) a mixing and hot fluid injection system operatively connected to the distillation column for recovering heavy fractions from the distillation column and for mixing the heavy fraction with additional injection fluids for injection into the injection well. 
 
     
     
         36 . The system as in  claim 35  further comprising a gas/liquid separation system operatively connected to the recovery well for separating gas and liquids recovered from the recovery well and for delivering separated liquids to the distillation column. 
     
     
         37 . The system as in  claim 35  further comprising a catalyst injection system operatively connected to the mixing and hot fluid injection system for introducing catalyst to the mixing and hot fluid injection system. 
     
     
         38 . The system as in  claim 35  further comprising a hydrogen injection system operatively connected to the mixing and hot fluid injection system for introducing hydrogen to the mixing and hot fluid injection system. 
     
     
         39 . The system as in  claim 35  further comprising a diluent injection system operatively connected to the mixing and hot fluid injection system for introducing diluent to the mixing and hot fluid injection system. 
     
     
         40 . The system as in  claim 35  further comprising at least one additional injection and recovery well operatively connected to the distillation column for introducing additional heavy hydrocarbons from the at least one additional recovery well to the distillation column. 
     
     
         41 - 48 . (canceled) 
     
     
         49 . A method for recovery and in situ upgrading of hydrocarbons in a well pair having an injection well and a recovery well within a heavy hydrocarbon reservoir comprising the steps of:
 a) introducing a selected quantity of a hot injection fluid including a heavy hydrocarbon fraction selected from any one of or a combination of shale oil, bitumen, atmospheric residue, vacuum residue, or deasphalted oil into the injection well to promote hydrocarbon recovery and in situ upgrading; and   b) recovering hydrocarbons from the recovery well;   c) subjecting the hydrocarbons recovered from the recovery well to a separation process wherein heavy and light fractions are separated to produce any one of or a combination of shale oil, bitumen, atmospheric residue, vacuum residue and a deasphalted oil fraction   d) re-introducing any one of the shale oil, bitumen, atmospheric residue, vacuum residue or deasphalted oil fraction into the well as a hot injection fluid under temperature and pressure conditions to promote upgrading and repeating steps a) to d).   
     
     
         50 . The method as in  claim 49  where the heavy hydrocarbon reservoir includes bitumen and bitumen is recovered from the recovery well. 
     
     
         51 . The method as in  claim 49  where the injection well and recovery well are a horizontal well pair. 
     
     
         52 . The method as in  claim 49  where in step d) the fraction is a vacuum residue fraction. 
     
     
         53 . The method as in  claim 49  wherein the hot injection fluid includes diluent. 
     
     
         54 . The method as in  claim 49  wherein the temperature and pressure of the hot injection fluid is controlled to promote thermal cracking upgrading reactions and a downhole sump temperature of 320±20° C. 
     
     
         55 . The method as in  claim 54  wherein the temperature and pressure of the hot injection fluids are controlled such that greater than 30% recovered bitumen is upgraded into lighter fractions within the reservoir. 
     
     
         56 . The method as in  claim 49  wherein the temperature and pressure of the hot injection fluids are controlled such the recovered hydrocarbons have a viscosity less than 500 cP at 25° C. 
     
     
         57 . The method as in  claim 49  wherein the temperature and pressure of the hot injection fluids are controlled such the recovered hydrocarbons have a viscosity less than 250 cP at 25° C. 
     
     
         58 . The method as in  claim 49  further comprising the step of mixing a catalyst into the hot injection fluid prior to introducing the injection fluid into the injection well. 
     
     
         59 . The method as in  claim 49  further comprising the step of mixing hydrogen into the hot injection fluid prior to introducing the hot injection fluid into the injection well. 
     
     
         60 . The method as  claim 59  wherein the temperatures and pressures of the hot injection fluid are controlled to promote any one of or a combination of hydrotreating, hydrocracking or steam-cracking reactions. 
     
     
         61 . The method as in  claim 59  wherein the hydrogen is mixed with the hot injection fluid to provide excess hydrogen for the hydrotreating and hydrotreating reactions. 
     
     
         62 . The method as in  claim 49  wherein the hydrogen is injected along the length of the injection well. 
     
     
         63 . The method as in  claim 62  wherein approximately ⅓ of the hydrogen is mixed with the hot injection fluid at surface and approximately ⅔ is injected to the reservoir along the horizontal length of the recovery well. 
     
     
         64 . The method as in  claim 59  wherein the hydrogen is injected from the recovery well via at least one liner operatively configured to the recovery well. 
     
     
         65 . The method as in  claim 58  wherein the catalyst is any one of or a combination of nano-catalysts or ultradispersed catalyst. 
     
     
         66 . The method as in  claim 65  wherein the nano-catalyst has an average particle less than 1 micron. 
     
     
         67 . The method as in  claim 58  wherein the ultradispersed catalyst has an average particle diameter less than 120 nm.