Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology
Volume 49,
Number 5,
May 2010,
pp. 40-49
Summary
The Burnt Lake Oil Sand Lease is located approximately 300 km northeast of
Edmonton. The lease is estimated to contain 330x106 m3 of
bitumen in place in the Clearwater oil sands formation. Cold production was
tested in the lease to recover 11°API - 12°API crude bitumen between 1990 -
1993.
Three pairs of SAGD operations began in April 1997 after 3 months of
circulation. Many interesting characteristics were identified in the injection
and production history. During the first year of operation, pressure and oil
production rates decreased when steam injection rates were reduced. After the
second year of operation, oil production rates responded inversely to steam
injection rates. Oil rates were reduced when steam rates were increased, and
oil rates increased when steam rates were reduced. Declines in oil rates were
relatively slow over the entire operation period. When the steam injection was
stopped for approximately 5 months after 5 years of operation, the operation
pressure and oil production rates were gradually reduced during this
period.
Many other unexpected trends were also observed. All these features were
consistently seen in all three pairs. This paper presents these behaviours in
detail. A simulation study of 9 years of performance of Pair 1 was conducted to
understand these characteristics. The history match demonstrated that oil
production was achieved by two different mechanisms: one was expansion of the
steam chamber and the other was drainage of oil from the layer above the steam
chamber. Many unexpected performances were the result of the combination of
these two recovery mechanisms.
© 2010. Society of Petroleum Engineers
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History
- Original manuscript received:
24 March 2009
- Meeting paper published:
17 June 2009
- Revised manuscript received:
26 March 2010
- Manuscript approved:
30 March 2010
- Published online:
24 May 2010
- Version of record:
5 May 2010
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