CHALLENGE
Nakasawa Resources’ main goal is to guarantee customers the highest possible steam quality at the bottom of their wells. Our NK-VIT ultra-insulated tubing design significantly reduces heat losses from the moment the steam enters the wellhead. This is fundamental to increasing any steam injection project’s chances of success.
OUR SOLUTION
NK-VIT™ tubing protects the integrity of all elements and increases the overall well stability. It also helps enhance steam delivery to the reservoir, ensuring the highest possible return for the lowest total project cost.
Our highly insulated NK-VIT tubing offers significant benefits and advantages that optimize thermal recovery processes, helping customers get the most out of their wells. Moreover, our NK-VIT tubing increases the productivity of heavy oil reservoirs by more than 70%.
Each product line consists of specific models optimized for different applications, as described below:
– Reduces heat loss, ensuring optimal steam is injected into reservoirs.
– Improves well life cycles, lowers costs, and avoids failures due to well integrity problems (improved tubing life: 3 to 5 injection cycles – reuse).
– Facilitates the injection of superheated steam (up to 680°F) or hot water into reservoirs to heat high-viscosity crude oils.
– Prevents the formation and deposition of asphaltenes, resins, and kerosenes.
PROCESS
Nakasawa Resources’ NK-VIT Tubing is made of a set of concentric pipes (outer and inner) with a high-vacuum atmosphere between them. This is achieved both chemically and mechanically by using vacuum pumps to activate the Hydrogen Collector and evaporation gases.
This process’s goal is to reach absolute zero pressure, thus eliminating convective heat transfer and reducing conduction and radiation effects in the space between the two tubes. Furthermore, NK-VIT® Tubing guarantees optimum performance and high-quality steam delivery to the formation or reservoir.
Our design offers high insulation to best mitigate heat loss. It uses 8 to 10 layers or thermal barriers based on silica, ceramic, fiberglass, and aluminum. This allows for a thermal conductivity coefficient (K at 360°F) of between 0.006 – 0.02 W/m.°C or 0.00346758 ~ 0.0115586 BTU/Hr.Ft.°F (degree of isolation: E).
It also helps transport high-quality steam from the surface to the bottom of the well. NK-VIT™ Tubing operates at temperatures up to 680°F (360°C), with a working pressure of up to 3000 PSI. The inner tube comes pre-stressed to compensate for any elongation between the two pipelines and is welded to the outer tube (double brazed).
Finally, supersonic, radiographic, and magnetic particle inspection tests are performed to ensure the integrity of all connections, joints, and welds.