HIGHLY VISCOUS OIL OR BITUMEN FIELD DEVELOPMENT METHOD Russian patent published in 2017 - IPC E21B43/24 

FIELD: oil-and-gas industry.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to oil producing industry. The heavy oil or bitumen field development method includes the construction of a pair of upper and lower horizontal wells, horizontal sections which are arranged in parallel one above the other in a vertical plane of the productive formation and equipped with tubing strings that allow to inject coolant and select the products. At the beginning of the method the coolant is injected in the form of vapour into the lower well, and sampling is performed from the upper well. After rise of temperature in the upper horizontal hole 20-40°C above the beginning of oil mobility in the near-well reservoir zone the coolant injection into the lower horizontal wellbore is stopped with continued sampling from the upper well. When the temperature drops in the upper horizontal well during the first day 10°C the coolant injection into the lower horizontal wellbore is resumed to the temperature in the upper horizontal hole 20-40°C above the beginning of oil mobility in the reservoir near-well zone. The cycles are repeated until the temperature drops in the upper well at the rate not higher than 10°C, or the temperature rise within the first day after stopping of coolant injection, then the upper horizontal well is set to the coolant injection, and the lower horizontal hole - to production until full depletion of the field.

EFFECT: provision of decrease of energy and time costs required for achieving the hydrodynamic connection between a pair of horizontal wells, exception of pressure increase in inter-well zone after initial heating.

1 dwg 1 ex