Steam drive from fractured horizontal wells

Claim 1

In a process for producing oil from a relatively deep viscous oil reservoir, an improvement for increasing the rate at which oil production is initiated and maintained, comprising: opening at least two horizontal wells within a portion of the reservoir in which hydraulic fractures tend to be vertical with said wells being substantially parallel to each other, perpendicular to the least principal compressive stress, and positioned so that at least one well is located near the top and at least one well is located near the bottom of the reservoir; extending at least three substantially parallel vertical fractures between the wells; heating at least one portion of the reservoir which lies between at least the outermost pair of said fractures by circulating hot fluid through all of those fractures at substantially the same time; selectively injecting steam into at least said outermost pair of fractures adjoining a preheated portion of the reservoir while selectively producing fluid from at least one intermediately located fracture extending into a preheated portion of the reservoir between the pair of fractures into which steam is being injected; and recovering oil from fluid being displaced horizontally from the pair of fractures into which steam is injected and being produced from said intermediately located fracture.