8/8/2019 edmunds OSR sagd

1/1

On the Difficult Birth ofNeil Edmunds is a specidist in rherhe'ml recolery of bitumen and heavyoii. ad developmenr of relaBd simula-tion softw@. He has over 20 yea$ ofexperience. including reseryoir, produc-tion, and software engineering d haspiaclised as a specislis! manager. atrd

Mr. Edmunds earned a B.Sc. inmechatrical etrgineering at the

ls There any Evidence SAGD is BetterThan Conventional Methods?The besl evidence of this is thui thc more successful SAGDprcjects have demonsrared comparable ojl^team mtios (OSR' tothosc of vcrticallhermal impleDenlations. even rhough thc SACDprcjects *ere conductcd in rcscrlons olsignificandy lower quali-ly. This is illDsfated ii FiguE l. which conpares rhe realized orprojected OSRS of foor acrual p.ojec$ plus a projected "primeAthabasca case. Reservoir quah) is cbaracterized by pcDeabili

ly timcs thickness. Il can be seen that approxinateiy twicc tle,tlis needed lo achieve lhe sarre OSR using vedcal technology, ascxn be obtained with t$innvctl SAGD.Pikes Peak and Cold L!\e were each conducred in e$enLiallythc bcst rcservoirs ever lound in Lheir respectilc formationsirvhereas the p.y zone at Senlac. ar only abort,l0 feet thick, souldhrle hiled Dost scrcoring crileria lhal have been proposed lbrlenicalCSS or stelm ilood.The lo$ ldlue of tl a$igncd ro the UTF B Partern is acruall)'on $e Senerous \ide. A 1o*-enerey e(uary rcsulted h good qual-ily saDd unils (5 Ddcyt bDt wnh frequenl silty laniMtions (25250 nD). which preldxed easy passage ol srexd arolnd thcm.The reservoir was too hctcrogcnous lo estimale a. elleclile bulkperneabiliry. bur geostatistical \imllations aDd rhe obsened pro,ject perfbrmance suggesr an overall efiective SAGD pcrneabilityofabout 1.0 a 0.3 Ddcy.The prcjccted Prine McMnray case n ba\ed on ,10 m of 5 D\and. .epesenting peftaps a lop necile Alhabasca rer(on. Suchreservon quality ; not ubiquirous oler rhe deposil. bur is knownin comnercial quamiry at r nufrber ofwidely{cparared places.iriFinally. OSR is by far ihe mosr impondr e.onomic indicatorfor srerd recovcly, bur rhe hieh producrilny of SAGD pai, s alsopronnes loser unit costs tbr drilling. workovers. Nellbore herrlosses. and field operlling labou.

t

IIGURE r: COSR r!..cscfloi. qullil), Canadian sream projects.

Univesity of Albena in 1978. He bego his c@er with GulfCanada and wenr on to AOSTRA and Vikor Resources. Hejoined the UTF prcjecr in 1986. working on the Phase A,HASDriv. and B-paum pilots unfl 1992. Duing the PhaseB design period, he developed lhe Gensim coDpledwellb@/reservoir simulator.In i993. Mr. Fnmunds joined CS Resources sith responsibility for design and conslruction of the Senlac ThermalProject, a lwin well SAGD scheme in southwestSastarchewan, and was later alpointed vice president ofrecovery technologies. He rotird frcm CS in 1997. md is cuFrenny engaged in s new soitware venture.Mr. Edmunds is a member of APEGGA. the PeroleumSociety of CIM. and the SPE. He is ihe aulhor o. cGanlho. ofoler 25 pape6 and patents on i! silu t@hnolo8y, dd was nnSPE Distinsuished Lecturcr it 1996 1997 .

lntroductionThis contibution attcmpts to addres sone quesdons su8gestedby rhe series(r rr) to dule. The lnsrvcrs lrc not all tcchnical in''Problens rren r solved by re.hnology alonei se also Deed athorolgh undestandin8 of social dynanics.'uAlier tomc selecl technicrl observ.lions. rhis corribulioD isindeed an essay on social dynaDics- as tbey rclate ro R&D in !en-eral. and SAGD delelopnent in panicular.

NOTE: l" rll: lil' ;il.rf,'i"'^Y,"i."^.3$lrwr\ fellured in ou Distinguished Author Series here in lhe-/CPl in Lhe June 1997. vol 36, No. 6 issuc. Since its publicr,tion, Farouq s dticle hrs engende.ed conriderable discusioD.Eve.mindfulof$e need forhealrhy dialogue and debare (YcslThere have been somc differirg opinionsl) we have inlned alollow-up series of Distinguishcd Aurhos to offer their viewson lhis ftermal technique lor promoting gruvity dminage ofhealy oil$/bitunen using honronlll well technology.Diti'tr i\hert Auttor Seties Chui no

14 ouna of Canadan PelroleLm Technology