| In the past two decades, Canada's remaining reserves of conventional crude oil have been declining. Heavy and extra-heavy oil reservoirs located in Western Canada (Alberta and Saskatchewan provinces) are one of the largest accumulations of hydrocarbons in the world, and constitute Canada's major remaining resources. This fact has led to the development of several methods of exploiting heavy oil deposits.;This research outlines a new variation of the Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) process, called Fast-SAGD. Simply, Fast-SAGD is operated in a combined SAGD and Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS) process, in which the CSS process is applied to an offset well. Numerical simulation of the Fast-SAGD process using a thermal reservoir simulation software package is performed to investigate the operating strategy. Geomechanical issues have been recognized as one of the important factors, as the steam is introduced into the reservoir, especially from an offset well in a cyclic injection mode. A geomechanical model is used to analyze the impact of geomechanics on the recovery process. It is concluded from this study that, besides gravity, steam drive, shear failure, and pore volume deformation are additional mechanisms in this recovery process. Clearly, Fast-SAGD is a process with high productivity and low cumulative steam-oil ratio. |
