Thermal EOR requires special design for gravel packs

Successful gravel-packed completions in thermal recovery wells depend upon proper design and selection of downhole equipment. Equipment designed for normal geothermal environments will generally lack the strength necessary to maintain satisfactory performance throughout the life of the well. Due to increased energy demand, domestic energy shortages, and the increasing cost and risk of exploring for new reserves, enchanced oil recovery (EOR) methods have been developed, pilot tested, and applied in many areas. Methods of which allow operators to take advantage of existing wells and surface equipment are particularly economically attractive. With the unstable price of oil in today's market, few EOR projects will economically justify the re-drilling of wells and replacement of surface facilities to increase production. The most popular EOR method employed for the production of heavy crudes is thermal recovery. Productivity is increased by improving oil mobility and transmissibility in the reservoir. Improvement of ultimate recovery and displacement efficiency is also gained through crude oil expansion and more favorable mobility ratios with injected fluids. Thermal recovery processes involve four major methods: hot waterflooding, cyclic steam injection, steam drive, and in situ combustion. The most basic of these is hot water-flooding which is also the least effective of themore » thermal recovery processes, because the technique merely involves the injection of hot water and can be adapted to a waterflood project with few surface equipment changes.« less