ABSTRACT
The Underground Test Facility is designed to test the application of the steam-assisted gravity drainage process for the in situ recovery of bitumen, using horizontal wells drilled from tunnels below the pay zone.
This paper presents a history match of the early injection and production data from the first well pair drilled in the pilot project. The field data showed high oil recoveries and large well head differentials between the injection pressure and the production pressure. The wells were 150 m long, with 93 m inclined and 57 m horizontal.
The history match was performed with a coupled reservoir / wellbore simulator. The wellbore equations take into account frictional and hydrostatic pressure drops, as well as the heat transfer between tubing flow and annulus flow
Simulation results indicated that most of the pressure drop occurred in the injection tubing. The substantial pressure drop (650 kPa) even in this short well implies that frictional pressure drop calculations should be included in designing longer wells for commercial projects.
The presence of shale streaks between the wells delayed the development of the steam chamber locally, and reduced the simulated bitumen production rates.
