On the Difficult Birth of
Neil Edmunds is a specidist in rhe
rhe'ml recolery of bitumen and heavy
oii. ad developmenr of relaBd simula-
tion softw@. He has over 20 yea$ of
experience. including reseryoir, produc-
tion, and software engineering d has
piaclised as a specislis! manager. atrd
Mr. Edmunds earned a B.Sc. in
mechatrical etrgineering at the
Univesity of Albena in 1978. He bego his c@er with Gulf
Canada and wenr on to AOSTRA and Vikor Resources. He
joined the UTF prcjecr in 1986. working on the Phase A,
HASDriv€. and B-pau€m pilots unfl 1992. Duing the Phase
B design period, he developed lhe Gensim coDpled
wellb@/reservoir simulator.
In i993. Mr. Fnmunds joined CS Resources sith responsi
bility for design and conslruction of the Senlac Thermal
Project, a lwin well SAGD scheme in southwest
Sastarchewan, and was later alpointed vice president of
recovery technologies. He rotir€d frcm CS in 1997. md is cuF
renny engaged in s new soitware venture.
Mr. Edmunds is a member of APEGGA. the Peroleum
Society of CIM. and the SPE. He is ihe aulhor o. cGanlho. of
oler 25 pape6 and patents on i! silu t@hnolo8y, dd was nn
SPE Distinsuished Lecturcr it 1996 1997 .
lntroduction
This contibution attcmpts to addres sone quesdons su8gested
by rhe series(r rr) to dule. The lnsrvcrs lrc not all tcchnical in
''Problens rren r solved by re.hnology alonei se also Deed a
thorolgh undestandin8 of social dynanics.'u
Alier tomc selecl technicrl observ.lions. rhis corribulioD is
indeed an essay on social dynaDics- as tbey rclate ro R&D in !en-
eral. and SAGD delelopnent in panicular.
NOTE:
wr\ ou
l" rll: lil' ;il.rf,'i"'^Y,"i."^.3$lr
fellured in in
Distinguished Author Series here lhe
-/CPl in Lhe June 1997. vol
36, No. 6 issuc. Since its publicr,
tion, Farouq s dticle hrs engende.ed conriderable discusioD.
Eve.mindfulof$e need forhealrhy dialogue and debare (Ycsl
There have been somc differirg opinionsl) we have inlned a
lollow-up series of Distinguishcd Aurhos to offer their views
on lhis ftermal technique lor promoting gruvity dminage of
healy oil$/bitunen using honronlll well technology.
Diti'tr i\hert Auttor Seties Chui no
14
ls There any Evidence SAGD is Better
Than Conventional Methods?
The besl evidence of this is thui thc more successful SAGD
prcjects have demonsrared comparable ojl^team mtios (OSR' to
thosc of vcrticallhermal impleDenlations. even rhough thc SACD
prcjects *ere conductcd in rcscrlons olsignificandy lower quali-
ly. This is illDsfated ii FiguE l. which conpares rhe realized or
projected OSRS of foor acrual p.ojec$ plus a projected "prime
Athabasca case. Reservoir quah) is cbaracterized by pcDeabili
ly timcs thickness. Il can be seen that approxinateiy twicc tle,tl
is needed lo achieve lhe sarre OSR using vedcal technology, as
cxn be obtained with t$innvctl SAGD.
Pikes Peak and Cold L!\e were each conducred in e$enLially
thc bcst rcservoirs ever lound in Lheir respectilc formationsi
rvhereas the p.y zone at Senlac. ar only abort,l0 feet thick, sould
hrle hiled Dost scrcoring crileria lhal have been proposed lbr
lenicalCSS 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 (25
250 nD). which preldxed easy passage ol srexd arolnd thcm.
The reservoir was too hctcrogcnous lo estimale a. elleclile bulk
perneabiliry. bur geostatistical \imllations aDd rhe obsened pro,
ject perfbrmance suggesr an overall efiective SAGD pcrneability
ofabout 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. Such
reservon quality ; not ubiquirous oler rhe deposil. bur is known
in comnercial quamiry at r nufrber ofwidely{cparared places.iri
Finally. OSR is by far ihe mosr impondr e.onomic indicator
for srerd recovcly, bur rhe hieh producrilny of SAGD pai, s also
pronnes loser unit costs tbr drilling. workovers. Nellbore herr
losses. and field operlling labou.
t
IIGURE r: COSR r!..cscfloi. qullil), Canadian sream projects.
Jouna of Canadan PelroleLm Technology