SAGD Pad Performance in an Ultra-Defined Athabasca Point Bar Deposit

Abstract

AbstractIt has been shown that the performance of a Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) well pair is affected by its orientation and position within a point bar. In typical commercial operations, multiple wellpairs, usually arranged parallel to each other, are arranged in pads within oil sands reservoirs. Thus, the overall performance of the recovery process in a point bar is not that of a single well pair but reflected by oil accumulation differences, interactions between well pairs (pressure and fluid flow), and how the well pairs interact with the structure and geometry of the point bar including the arrangement of inclined heterolithic strata relative to the SAGD well pairs. This research describes how the point bar structure impacts the performance of a pad of SAGD wellpairs and the impact of pad orientation on performance of the pad. The results show that the performance of well pairs in a SAGD pad are affected by the orientation of the pad within the point bar. Also, the results show that the variability of the performance of the well pairs within the pad is large and thus, single well pair models do not provide sufficient analysis of process performance due to the heterogeneity of the point bar. In other words, pad-scale models are required for recovery process evaluation and design.