PROCEDURE FOR FIRE DEVELOPMENT OF DEPOSITS OF NATURAL BITUMEN AND HEAVY OIL Russian patent published in 2011 - IPC E21B43/243 

FIELD: oil and gas production.

SUBSTANCE: procedure consists in drilling vertical and vertical- or inclined-horizontal boreholes, in connecting them into single hydraulically communicated module, in arranging modules along total deposit, in firing oil bearing reservoir in one borehole of module, in pressurising oxidant - air into second borehole, in counter flow transfer of firing source along horizontal part of drilling channel and in extracting oil of lowered viscosity from wells. According to the invention fire development of deposit is performed in three stages: at the first preparing stage each module is subjected to firing - expansion by means of counter flow transfer of fire source along a horizontal drilling channel, at the second flowing-producing stage air is pumped into one of module boreholes, while gaseous combustion products and liquid light end of oil are extracted from another opposite borehole; and finally, at the third filtration-producing stage air is pressurised into one part of thermally treated modules under high pressure, while gaseous products and light end of oil are extracted from another part of modules. Also, the flow-extracting stage of the procedure is performed during 40-50 days, while the filtration-extracting stage is carried out with consumption of air 5000-10000 m³/h.

EFFECT: increased efficiency of procedure due to fire development of drilling channels and extraction of products of thermal decomposition of natural bitumen and heavy oil.

4 cl, 4 dwg