CANADIAN FIRMS SEEK TO INCREASE RECOVERY OF OIL

Two producers have outlined programs to boost recovery from Canadian oil reservoirs. Shell Canada Ltd. began using a new technique that involves injecting steam to create a steam chamber, thereby allowing bitumen to flow down to a producing well on Shell's Peace River oil sands acreage in northern Alberta. "This $11 million horizontal well project is the first application of a new process called Enhanced Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (Esagd)," said Shell business process team leader John

Dec. 6, 1993

2 min read

Two producers have outlined programs to boost recovery from Canadian oil reservoirs.

Shell Canada Ltd. began using a new technique that involves injecting steam to create a steam chamber, thereby allowing bitumen to flow down to a producing well on Shell's Peace River oil sands acreage in northern Alberta.

"This $11 million horizontal well project is the first application of a new process called Enhanced Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (Esagd)," said Shell business process team leader John Howard.

He explained the current project relies on gravity to drain heated bitumen from the surface of the steam chamber into two production wells by first injecting steam into the chamber through two injection wells.

The method will be applied for 2 months, with production of 1,000 b/d expected early next year.

If the test succeeds, Shell will consider using the technology to begin staged Esagd development on the rest of its Peace River acreage, 500 km northwest of Edmonton.

The company owns 150,000 acres of Peace River leases holding an estimated 14 billion bbl of bitumen. Current production is about 10,000 b/d of bitumen.

IMPERIAL PILOT

Elsewhere, Imperial Oil Ltd. plans a $10 million enhanced recovery pilot project in Boundary Lake oil field of British Columbia.

A solvent mixture of natural gas and propane, butane, and pentanes will be injected horizontally into the Boundary Lake reservoir. A waterflood program has been in operation in the field since the 1960s.

Imperial said if the 4 year pilot is successful in the field, 39 miles northeast of Fort St. John, B.C., the new enhanced recovery application could be implemented in other fields in British Columbia. It said the EOR technique has the potential to increase the province's oil reserves by 100 million bbl.