Abstract
The majority of bitumen and extra heavy oil is produced by steam-based recovery processes yet these methods are energy intensive and emit large amounts of greenhouse gas to the atmosphere. Not only is the emissions intensity high due to steam generation, but also the water handling and treating facilities required for these recovery methods is expensive both to purchase and install but also to operate. A lot of focus of research has been on reduced steam processes, such as thermal-solvent techniques, as well as in situ combustion technologies such as Air Injection. Here, air injection is evaluated as a follow-up process to Cyclic Steam Stimulation in a deep thick heavy oil reservoir. The reservoir simulation model is obtained from a history-match to existing cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) field data. The results demonstrate that an additional 33% oil recovery is reached by using an air injection follow-up process. This gives a total recovery factor equal to about 55%. Based on incremental cumulative energy-to-oil ratio, the results suggest that air injection follow-up processes should be considered for post-CSS operations but that further improvement of the energy intensity is needed.
