HEATING OF BITUMINOUS SAND BEDS WITH PRESSURE CONTROL Russian patent published in 2012 - IPC E21B43/24 

FIELD: oil and gas industry.

SUBSTANCE: method to process a bed of bituminous sands is characterised by the following: at least a section of a hydrocarbon layer is heated in a bed from multiple heaters arranged in the bed; pressure is maintained in a larger part of the specified section at the level, which is lower than the pressure of bed hydraulic rupture; pressure is reduced in the larger part of the specified section to the selected pressure after the average temperature reaches the value, which is higher than 240°C and lower than or equal to the temperature of hydrocarbons pyrolysis in the specified section; and at least some hydrocarbon fluids are produced from the bed, at the same time upon achievement of the required temperature of pyrolysis and extraction of some hydrocarbon fluids from the bed, the pressure is varied to control composition of the produced fluids with control of condensing fluid content relative to non-condensing fluid in the bed fluid and control of density in degrees of API of the produced bed fluid.

EFFECT: increased efficiency of method.

11 cl, 29 dwg