The course covers the major aspects of efficient and economic production of heavy oil and oil sands reservoirs by cold production (with and without sand), thermal (SAGD, CSS, SF) and thermal-solvent (solvent additive versions of SAGD, ES-SAGD, and CSS, LASER) recovery processes. Basic concepts of heat and steam transport, steam conformance, production mechanisms, energetics, emissions, impact of reservoir heterogeneity and simulation of these processes are described. The course also discusses field applications including detailed analysis of several SAGD and CSS operations with focus of best practices. Finally, the course presents an overview of heavy oil and oil sand designs (review of patent literature) as well as the results of pilots and field trials and new recovery processes being evaluated now or in the short-term future.

Day One

• Introduction to Heavy Oil
  • Heavy Oil Fluid Physical Properties
  • Overview of Heavy Oil Reservoirs
  • Viscosity Variation in Heavy Oil Reservoirs
  • Worldwide Cold Production and Thermal Operations
• Cold Production Processes
  Overview of Cold Production
  • Without Sand
    • Mechanisms
    • Typical production profiles
    • Follow-up processes
  • With Sand
    • Mechanisms
    • Typical production profiles
    • Follow-up processes
• Thermal and Thermal-Solvent Processes
  Overview of Thermal Processes
  • Hot Water Flooding
  • Steamdrive / Steamflood
    • Mechanisms
    • Operational Issues
  • Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS)
    • Mechanisms
    • Operational Issues
    • Examination of Field Data
  • Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD)
    • Mechanisms
    • Operational Issues
    • Examination of Field Data
  • In Situ Combustion (ISC)
    • Mechanisms
    • CSS and Combustion
    • Toe to Heel Air Injection (THAI)
    • Examination of Field Data

Day Two

• Heat Transfer in Reservoirs

  • Heat Transfer in Solids and Oil Sand
  • Conduction of Heat in Oil Sand
  • Convective Transport of Steam in Oil Sand
  • Steam Fingers in Reservoirs
  • Steam Chambers in Reservoirs
  • Heat Transfer Ahead of Moving Front
  • Heat Losses to Caprock and Understrata
• Steam Transfer in Reservoirs
  • Steam Injection and Heat Losses to Wellbores
  • Lauwerier’s Equation and Hot Water Flooding
  • Marx and Langenheim Steam Displacement Theory
  • Mandl and Volek Steam Zone Theory
  • Thermal Displacement Theory – Steam Fingering, Instability
• Model for Thermal Processes and Design of Thermal Recovery Processes
  • Physics and Simple Models for Steamflooding
  • Physics and Simple Models for CSS
  • Physics and Simple Models for SAGD
  • Design Considerations in Thermal Recovery Processes: Steam Injection Strategies
• Reservoir Simulation of Thermal Processes
  • Input Data Required
  • Steam Properties
  • Thermal Properties
  • Relative Permeability
  • Capillary Pressure
  • Flow Properties
  • Wells and Operating Strategies
  • Optimisation of Thermal Processes by Reservoir Simulation

Reservoir engineers, geologists, geophysicists, asset managers, production and operation engineers and technology development staff

Ian D. Gates is an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Calgary. He worked for seven years in the industry prior to joining the university.

Dr. Gates holds a BSc from the University of Calgary, an MASc from the University of British Columbia and a PhD from the University of Minnesota, all in chemical engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in Alberta.

His primary research interests are in:

• Thermal and thermalsolvent methods (SAGD, CSS, ES-SAGD, and SA-CSS) and optimisation of these technologies for in situ heavy oil and bitumen recovery, energetics and efficiency, emissions and water use
• Well-wormhole models for cold production with sand
• Imaging reservoirs by using white noise reflection processes
• Application of smartwell technologies for adaptive production of heavy oil fields
• Support vector machine learning for reservoir characterisation
• In situ gasification (in-reservoir reaction engineering)
• Biofilm development in porous media

Specialties:

• Thermal and thermal-solvent methods (SAGD, CSS, ES-SAGD, and SA-CSS) and optimisation of these technologies for in situ heavy oil and bitumen recovery – engineering, simulation, field data analysis, fundamentals

• Heavy oil and oil sands reservoir engineering