SAGD Wind Down and Post-SAGD Energy Scavenging

In-situ recovery methods for oils sands are applied to reservoirs containing bitumen that are too deep for mining. To date there has been only one commercially viable in-situ recovery method, Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD), involving high pressure steam injection and bitumen production using horizontal well pairs located near the base of oil sands formations. While SAGD has enabled conversion of significant resources to reserves (about 170 billion barrels), SAGD has many economic and environmental limitations. At the end of SAGD, steam chamber temperature remains very high and drops at a fast pace of about a few degrees per month even after the wells are shut in. The heat scavenging can play an important role in post SAGD reservoir management that requires the appropriate follow-up technologies to be developed. The project in the current proposal is an extension of an existing project and aids in further evaluating the benefits of several new technologies for stored energy scavenging from reservoir.

Faculty Supervisor:

ZhangXing John Chen

Student:

Partner:

CNOOC Petroleum North America ULC

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Mining

University:

University of Calgary

Program: