Enhanced Oil Recovery Field Case Studies: Chapter 17. SAGD for Heavy Oil Recovery

Steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD), since its inception over 30 years ago, has been developed into one of the primary thermal recovery processes for bitumen in Canadian oil sands deposits. This chapter is aimed to provide a high-level description of process principle, features, and challenges. The focuses will be on the evaluation of resource quality suited for SAGD development, the process of start-up to initiate and establish the gravity drainage, the well design, and operational aspects to achieve stable operation and maximize thermal performance, as well as the importance of integration between the subsurface and surface processes, and finally the trend of solvent addition to steam to improve the thermal performance of SAGD.