Steam-assisted gravity drainage

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Steam-assisted gravity drainage
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) is an Enhanced oil recovery technology for producing heavy crude oil
and bitumen. It is an advanced form of steam stimulation in which a pair of horizontal wells are drilled into the oil
reservoir, one a few metres above the other. High pressure steam is continuously injected into the upper wellbore to
heat the oil and reduce its viscosity, causing the heated oil to drain into the lower wellbore, where it is pumped out.
Dr. Roger Butler, engineer at Imperial Oil from 1955 to 1982, invented the steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD)
in the 1970s. Butler "developed the concept of using horizontal pairs of wells and injected steam to develop certain
deposits of bitumen considered too deep for mining. " In 1983 Butler became director of technical programs for the
Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority (AOSTRA),
[1]
a crown corporation created by Premier
Lougheed to promote new technologies for oil sands and heavy crude oil production. AOSTRA quickly supported
SAGD as a promising innovation in oil sands extraction technology.
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) and Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) are two commercially applied primal
thermal recovery processes used in the oil sands (Jiang 2009) in Geological formation sub-units, such as Grand
Rapids Formation, Clearwater Formation, McMurray Formation, General Petroleum Sand, Lloydminster Sand, of the
Mannville Group, a Stratigraphic range in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.
Canada is the single largest supplier of imported oil to the United Stateseven larger, despite popular conceptions,
than Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, or Nigeria. There are two primary methods of oil sands recovery. The strip-mining
technique is known best. However, the more recent steam-assisted gravity drainage technique (SAGD) is better
suited to deeper deposits. Much of the expected future growth of production in the Canadian oil sands is predicted to
be from SAGD.(Glassman & 2011 9)
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage, like other thermal extraction processes, is the subject of widespread controversy
due to the process being considered particularly environmentally destructive and carbon intensive
[2][3]
and has been
claimed to release 2.5 times more carbon dioxide than a traditional oil well for the same amount of fuel
[4]
Description
In the SAGD process, two parallel horizontal oil wells are drilled in the formation, one about 4 to 6 metres above the
other. The upper well injects steam, and the lower one collects the heated crude oil or bitumen that flows out of the
formation, along with any water from the condensation of injected steam. The basis of the process is that the injected
steam forms a "steam chamber" that grows vertically and horizontally in the formation. The heat from the steam
reduces the viscosity of the heavy crude oil or bitumen which allows it to flow down into the lower wellbore. The
steam and gases rise because of their low density compared to the heavy crude oil below, ensuring that
steamundefined is not produced at the lower production well. The gases released, which include methane, carbon
dioxide, and usually some hydrogen sulfide, tend to rise in the steam chamber, filling the void space left by the oil
and, to a certain extent, forming an insulating heat blanket above the steam. Oil and water flow is by a
countercurrent, gravity driven drainage into the lower well bore. The condensed water and crude oil or bitumen is
recovered to the surface by pumps such as progressive cavity pumps that work well for moving high-viscosity fluids
with suspended solids.
Sub-cool is the difference between the saturation temperature (boiling point) of water at the producer pressure and
the actual temperature at the same place where the pressure is measured. The higher the liquid level above the
producer the lower the temperature and higher is the sub-cool. However real life reservoirs are invariably
heterogeneous therefore it becomes extremely difficult to achieve a uniform sub-cool along the entire horizontal
length of a well. As a consequence many operators, when faced with uneven stunted steam chamber development,
allow a small quantity of steam to enter into the producer to keep the bitumen in the entire wellbore hot hence
keeping its viscosity low with the added benefit of transferring heat to colder parts of the reservoir along the
Steam-assisted gravity drainage
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wellbore. Another variation sometimes called Partial SAGD is used when operators deliberately circulate steam in
the producer following a long shut-in period or as a startup procedure. Though a high value of sub-cool is desirable
from a thermal efficiency standpoint as it generally includes reduction of steam injection rates but it also results in
slightly reduced production due to a corresponding higher viscosity and lower mobility of bitumen caused by lower
temperature. Another drawback of very high sub-cool is the possibility of steam pressure eventually not being
enough to sustain steam chamber development above the injector, sometimes resulting in collapsed steam chambers
where condensed steam floods the injector and precludes further development of the chamber.
Operating the injection and production wells at approximately reservoir pressure eliminates the instability problems
that plague all high-pressure steam processes and SAGD produces a smooth, even production that can be as high as
70% to 80% of oil in place in suitable reservoirs. The process is relatively insensitive to shale streaks and other
vertical barriers to steam and fluid flow because, as the rock is heated, differential thermal expansion causes
fractures in it, allowing steam and fluids to flow through. This allows recovery rates of 60% to 70% of oil in place,
even in formations with many thin shale barriers. Thermally, SAGD is twice as efficient as the older cyclic steam
stimulation (CSS) process, and it results in far fewer wells being damaged by high pressure. Combined with the
higher oil recovery rates achieved, this means that SAGD is much more economic than pressure-driven steam
process where the reservoir is reasonably thick.
History
The gravity drainage idea was originally conceived by Dr. Roger Butler, an engineer for Imperial Oil in the 1970s In
1975 Imperial Oil transferred Butler from Sarnia, Ontario to Calgary, Alberta to head their heavy oil research effort.
He tested the concept with Imperial Oil in 1980, in a pilot at Cold Lake which featured one of the first horizontal
wells in the industry, with vertical injectors.
Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority (AOSTRA) 1974
In 1974, former Premier of Alberta created the Alberta Oil Sands Technology and Research Authority (AOSTRA) as
an Alberta crown corporation to promote the development and use of new technology for oil sands and heavy crude
oil production, and enhanced recovery of conventional crude oil. Its first facility was owned and operated by ten
industrial participants and received ample government support (Deutsch and McLennan 2005) including from the
Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund. One of the main targets of AOSTRA finding of suitable technologies for that
part of the Athabasca Oil Sands that could not be recovered using conventional surface mining technologies.
AOSTRA Underground Test Facility 1984
In 1984, AOSTRA initiated the Underground Test Facility in the Athabasca Oil Sands, located between the MacKay
Rivers and the Devon River west of the Syncrude plant as an in-situ SAGD bitumen recovery facility. It was there
that they first test of twin (horizontal) SAGD wells took place, proving the feasibility of the concept, briefly
achieving positive cash flow in 1992 at a production rate of about 2000 bbl/day from 3 well pairs. The idea was
greatly furthered by the work of Roger Butler's Ph. D. student at the University of Calgary, Dr. Swapan Das.
Steam-assisted gravity drainage
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Foster Creek
The Foster Creek plant in Alberta Canada, built in 1996, was the first commercial Steam-assisted gravity drainage
(SAGD) project and by 2010 Foster Creek "became the largest commercial SAGD project in Alberta to reach royalty
payout status. "
The original UTF SAGD wells were drilled horizontally from a tunnel in the limestone underburden, accessed with
vertical mine shafts. The concept coincided with development of directional drilling techniques that allowed
companies to drill horizontal wells accurately, cheaply and efficiently, to the point that it became hard to justify
drilling a conventional vertical well any more. With the low cost of drilling horizontal well pairs, and the very high
recovery rates of the SAGD process (up to 60% of the oil in place), SAGD is economically attractive to oil
companies.
Current applications
This technology is now being exploited due to increased oil prices. While traditional drilling methods were prevalent
up until the 1990s, high crude prices of the 21st Century are encouraging more unconventional methods (such as
SAGD) to extract crude oil. The Canadian oil sands have many SAGD projects in progress, since this region is home
of one of the largest deposits of bitumen in the world (Canada and Venezuela have the world's largest deposits).
The SAGD process allowed the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board (ERCB) to increase its proven oil
reserves to 179 billion barrels, which raised Canada's oil reserves to the third highest in the world after Venezuela
and Saudi Arabia and approximately quadrupled North American oil reserves. As of 2011, the oil sands reserves
stand at around 169 billion barrels.
Disadvantages
Oil and water nexus
SAGD, a thermal recovery process, consumes large quantities of water(Glassman & 2011 4) and natural gas.
"Petroleum from the Canadian oil sands extracted via surface mining techniques can consume 20 times more water
than conventional oil drilling." However, by 2011 there was inadequate data on the amount of water used in the
increasingly important steam-assisted gravity drainage technique (SAGD) method.(Glassman & 2011 4)
Use of natural gas for steam generation
As in all thermal recovery processes, cost of steam generation is a major part of the cost of oil production.
Historically, natural gas has been used as a fuel for Canadian oil sands projects, due to the presence of large stranded
gas reserves in the oil sands area. However, with the building of natural gas pipelines to outside markets in Canada
and the United States, the price of gas has become an important consideration. The fact that natural gas production in
Canada has peaked and is now declining is also a problem. Other sources of generating heat are under consideration,
notably gasification of the heavy fractions of the produced bitumen to produce syngas, using the nearby (and
massive) deposits of coal, or even building nuclear reactors to produce the heat.
Use of water for steam generation
A source of large amounts of fresh and brackish water and large water re-cycling facilities are required in order to
create the steam for the SAGD process. Water is a popular topic for debate in regards to water use and management.
As of 2008, American petroleum production (not limited to SAGD) generates over 5 billion gallons of produced
water every day.
[5]
The concern of using large amounts of water has little to do with proportion of water used, rather
the quality of the water. Traditionally close to 70 million meters cubed of the water volume that was used in the
SAGD process was fresh, surface, water. There has been a significant reduction in fresh water use as of 2010, when
Steam-assisted gravity drainage
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approximately 18 million cubic meters were used. Though to offset the drastic reduction in fresh water use, industry
has began to significantly increase the volume of saline groundwater involved. This, as well as other, more general
water saving techniques have allowed surface water usage by oil sands operations to decrease by more than threefold
since production first began. Relying upon gravity drainage, SAGD also requires comparatively thick and
homogeneous reservoirs, and so is not suitable for all heavy-oil production areas.
Alternative methods
By 2009 the two commercially applied primal thermal recovery processes, Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage
(SAGD) and Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS), were used in oil sands production in the Clearwater and Lower Grand
Rapids Formations in the Cold Lake Area in Alberta. (Jiang 2009)
Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS)
Canadian Natural Resources employs cyclic steam or "huff and puff" technology to develop bitumen resources. This
technology requires one well bore and the production consists of the injection and production phases. First steam is
injected for several weeks, mobilizing cold bitumen. Then the flow on the injection well is reversed producing oil
through the same injection well bore. The injection and production phases together comprise one cycle. Steam is
re-injected to begin a new cycle when oil production rates fall below a critical threshold due to the cooling of the
reservoir. Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) also has a number of CSS Follow-up or Enhancement Processes,
including Pressure Up and Blow Down (PUBD), Mixed Well Steam Drive and Drainage (MWSDD), Vapor
Extraction (Vapex), Liquid Addition to Steam for Enhanced Recovery of Bitumen (LASER) and HPCSS Assisted
SAGD and Hybrid Process.
High pressure cyclic steam stimulation (HPCSS)
HPCSS Assisted SAGD and Hybrid Process: "Roughly 35 per cent of all in situ production in the Alberta oil sands
uses a technique called High Pressure Cyclic Steam Stimulation (HPCSS), which cycles between two phases: first,
steam is injected into an underground oil sands deposit to soften the bitumen; then, the resulting hot mixture of
bitumen and steam (called a bitumen emulsion) is pumped up to the surface. The process is then repeated multiple
times. "(Severson-Baker 2013) An Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) news release explained the difference between
high pressure cyclic steam stimulation (HPCSS) and steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). "HPCSS has been
used in oil recovery in Alberta for more than 30 years. The method involves injecting high-pressure steam into a
reservoir over a prolonged period of time. As heat softens the bitumen and water dilutes and separates the bitumen
from the sand, the pressure creates cracks and openings through which the bitumen can flow back into the
steam-injector wells. HPCSS differs from steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) operations where steam is
injected at lower pressures without fracturing the reservoir and uses gravity drainage as the primary recovery
mechanism. "(2013 AER)
In the Clearwater Formation near Cold Lake, Alberta the High Pressure Cyclic Steam Stimulation (HPCSS) is used.
(Jiang 2009) There are both horizontal and vertical wells. Injection is at fracture pressure. There is a 60 m to 180 m
spacing for horizontal wells. Vertical wells are spaced at 2 to 8 Acre spacing for vertical wells. The development can
be as low as 7 m net pay. It is used in areas generally with no to minimal bottom water or top gas. The CSOR is 3.3
to 4.5. The ultimate recovery is predicted at 15 to 35%.(Jiang 2009) SAGD thermal recovery method is also used in
Clearwater and Lower Grand Rapids Formations with Horizontal Well Pairs (700 to 1000 m), Operating pressure 3
to 5 MPa, Burnt Lake SAGD was started with higher operating pressure close to dilation pressure, 75 m to 120 m
spacing, Development to as low as 10 m net pay, In areas with or without bottom water, CSOR: 2.8 to 4.0 (at 100%
quality), Predicted ultimate recovery: 45% to 55%.(Jiang 2009)
Canadian Natural Resources Limiteds (CNRL) Primrose and Wolf Lake in situ oil sands project near Cold Lake,
Alberta in the Clearwater Formation, operated by CNRL subsidiary Horizon Oil Sands, use the high pressure cyclic
Steam-assisted gravity drainage
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steam stimulation (HPCSS). (2013 AER)
Vapor Extraction (Vapex)
Alternative enhanced oil recovery mechanisms include VAPEX (for Vapor Extraction), Electro-Thermal Dynamic
Stripping Process (ET-DSP), and ISC (for In Situ Combustion). VAPEX, a "gravity-drainage process that uses
vapourized solvents rather than steam to displace or produce heavy oil and reduce its viscosity, was also invented by
Butler.
ET-DSP is a patented process that uses electricity to heat oil sands deposits to mobilize bitumen allowing production
using simple vertical wells. ISC uses oxygen to generate heat that diminishes oil viscosity; alongside carbon dioxide
generated by heavy crude oil displace oil toward production wells. One ISC approach is called THAI for Toe to Heel
Air Injection.
Notes
[1] [1] AOSTRA is now known as the Alberta Energy Research Institute.
[2] http:/ / green. blogs. nytimes.com/ 2009/ 10/ 08/ making-dirty-oil-a-little-less-so/ ?_php=true& _type=blogs& _r=0
[3] http:/ / www. ncbi. nlm.nih. gov/ pmc/ articles/ PMC2679626/
[4] http:/ / www. scientificamerican. com/ article/ tar-sands-extraction-without-strip-mining/
[5] [5] Ralph M. Hall, Statement to the Committee on Science and Technology for the Produced Water Utilization Act of 2008, 110th Congress 2d
Session, Report 110-801.
References
External links
SAGD process with a focus on Reverse Emulsions (http:/ / sagd. wikispaces. com/ )
Description of SAGD and SAGD history (http:/ / www. uofaweb. ualberta. ca/ ccg/ pdfs/ Vol3-IntroSAGD.
pdf?bcsi_scan_27D7EF85B9B9160A=4US+ 7bKiNWIHrV1tXmS1+ QUAAAC7PFgd&
bcsi_scan_filename=Vol3-IntroSAGD. pdf)
Example Supplier of SAGD components (http:/ / www. blueskyprocess. com)
Key Supplier of SAGD components (http:/ / www. regentenergygroup. com)
Key Supplier of SAGD boilers (http:/ / www. nem-group. com/ EN/ products/ hrsgs/ 1/
enhanced_oil_recovery_hrsgs/ 12/ )
Article Sources and Contributors
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Article Sources and Contributors
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