As a large amount of mobile water exists in the lean zones of oil sands reservoirs, the analytical model considering mobile water can assist in the study of the mechanism on how lean zones affect SAGD performance. In 1981, Butler proposed a theory on the prediction of heavy oil and bitumen production [S1]. In 1991, Butler further obtained the transient expression for temperature distribution du...

Standing at 2.5 trillion barrels, Canada has the largest portion of the world’s ultra-heavy oil and bitumen resources. While shallow heavy oil reserves are extracted from pit mines, deeper reserves can only be extracted through wells. Production requires Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) and Cyclic Steam Simulation (CSS) methods. The optimal placement of wells defines the propagation of st...

We present a lab-on-a-chip approach to informing thermal oil recovery processes. Bitumen - a major global resource - is an extremely viscous oil which is extracted by injecting steam underground in a process known as Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). Here, a microfluidic network saturated with bitumen provides a physical model of the SAGD reservoir; steam is injected into the chip, and th...

The impact of steam quality, circulation rate and pressure difference between the well pair during SAGD initialization using steam circulation was explored through the use of numerical simulations employing a discretized wellbore model. These operating parameters appear to affect uniformity of reservoir heating, occurrence of steam breakthrough and time required to establish communication betwe...

With decreasing amounts of conventional energy resources available, production of unconventional oil and gas has become an important new source of energy. Steamassisted gravity drainage (SAGD) is a widely used process, allowing the production of very heavy oils. The numerical simulation of SAGD, however, is complex and highly CPU/time intensive. Moreover, the economical cost of this process is ...

It is widely considered that the continued development and production of Alberta’s oil sands deposits is on track to be the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Canada over the next few decades. As recent developments suggest, failure to address the issue of GHG emissions growth might jeopardize the potential for sustained expansion of oil sands operations in Alberta. Wit...

This report analyzes the technical aspects and the economics of utilizing nuclear reactor to provide the energy needed for a Canadian oil sands extraction facility using SteamAssisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) technology. The energy from the nuclear reactor would replace the need for energy supplied by natural gas, which is currently burned at these facilities. There are a number of concerns surr...

Thermal recovery techniques including Fast-SAGD process increases the production efciency of heavy oil reservoirs. Effective parameters in this study included injection and production rates, height of the injection, production, and offset wells, production and injection cycles, and pressure of the offset wells. In this study, optimization studies were performed. The objective function was defned a...

The studied deposit is located on the territory of Republic Tatarstan (Russia). reservoir formation represented by bituminous sandstone. being developed steam-gravity drainage (SAGD). researchers noted that has variability petrophysical parameters in thickness. correct adjustment lithological model will allow us to assess characteristics its thickness, which can better predict and elastic prope...