Vacuum Insulation Tubing/Casing Specification
The Pre-stressed Vacuum Insulated Tubing/Casing (VIT or VIC) is innovative Tubing/Casing for thermal recovery of heavy oil or bitumen. It is used in Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) and In Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS). It reduces the heat loss of the high temperature steam during injection phase. And keep oil hot during production phase. The build-in pre-stress feature can compensate the thermal stress on tubing/casing induced from hot steam, prevent the casing and cement mantle damage from high temperature, and increase tubing/casing service life.
VIT is recommended for SAGD and CSS to improve the overall process and “gain four primary benefits:
- Reduce the wellbore heat exchange between the injected and returning fluid streams.
- Reduce the mass flow of steam delivering the specified enthalpy(Btu’s) to the reservoir using less steam volume.
- Improve the initial steam oil ratio (SOR) due to the reduced mass steam flow needed for the process.
- Reduce demands on surface facilities allowing for either smaller plant sizes or giving the existing plant spare capacity to circulate additional well pairs.
All the above can have a large impact on payout and return-on-investment. And in both conventional steam injection and SAGD processes Insulated Tubing (VIT) can benefits the overall process by:
- Delivering of the highest rate of Enthalpy (Btu’s) to the oil bearing zone.
- Reducing rate and magnitude of thermal expansion and heat transfer occurring in the production casing and cement relieving concerns for thermal induced damage to the well and cement integrity.
- Maximizing injected Enthalpy delivered to the reservoir optimizing viscosity reduction, gas thermal expansion, and the potential for insitu reservoir distillation.”
*reference: SPE Paper 153837
Vacuum Insulation Tubing (VIT)
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Vacuum Insulation Tubing/Casing Insulation Grades
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Petro