Portable Steam Generating Equipment
Authors: Gras E.H. 
Published: December 2007

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This paper was prepared for the Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting to be held in Montana, June 10–11, 1965, and is considered the property of the Society of Petroleum Engineers. Permission to copy is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words. Illustrations may not be copied. The abstract should contain conspicuous acknowledgment of where and by whom the paper is presented. Publication elsewhere after publication in the JOURNAL OF PETROLEUM TECHNOLOGY or the SOCIETY OF PETROLEUM ENGINEERS JOURNAL is usually granted upon request to the Editor of the appropriate journal provided agreement to give proper credit is made.

Discussion of this paper is invited. Three copies of any discussion should be sent to the Society of Petroleum Engineers office. Such discussion may be presented at the above meeting and, with the paper, may be considered for publication in one of the two SPE magazines.

The paper describes portable steam generators as used in oilfield operations. A discussion of the basic unit., accessory equipment and instrumentation is included. Design features necessary to provide a compact, high capacity unit which is independent of outside power sources are also discussed.

Introduction

The injection of steam into petroleum reservoirs is being performed in several ways. When practiced under true "flood" conditions the steam is injected continuously into one well over prolonged periods of time and stationary units are usually installed in a central location. Operating stations and allied equipment are enclosed where needed and the equipment is not moved until the flood has been completed. In many cases where immediate results are desired, steam is injected into a well for a period of from 3 to 30 days and the same well then is placed back on production. Depending upon remoteness of locations or density of wells, this work may be done with either a centrally located unit manifolded to several wells, or by a unit moved from well to well. Another type of treatment which is being used more and more is the injection of steam for an average of 24 hours to remove or reduce borehole damage in the form of paraffin or asphaltines. Portable units are usually used for this type of job.

Injection of steam as a recovery method has in many cases evolved into the highly successful "huff and puff" method. This method could be called the "hit and run", and by its title and nature implies injection of steam into a well for a short period followed by a longer producing period.

After the decision is made to inject steam into a well system we must then take a look at the equipment available for the job. Since there are many unknowns as to how formations will respond and what the results might be, there is a need for portable steam generators. In spite of the information that has been released both from operators and laboratories as to where this method of stimulation may or may not work there is such a variation in producing formations that the final answer will come only from putting steam in the ground and seeing what happens. Programs for evaluation may include one well in a remote field or scattered wells in the same field.

Portable generators fill the need to produce the greatest amount of steam, anywhere, in the shortest available time. They should be highly mobile self contained and be able to operate with the least amount of outside support and down-time between jobs.

The purpose of this paper is to show the development of this equipment and the advantages and disadvantages of using portable equipment to perform this type of work.