Performance of SAGD wind-down with CO2 injection

An SPE paper presented at the April 2008 SPE/DOE Symposium on Improved Oil Recovery, analyzes SAGD wind-down recovery performance combined with CO2 injection.

Thermal heavy oil techniques typically result in high oil recovery compared to non-thermal methods but are characterized by excessive energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. Improved recovery efficiency can be achieved by combining thermal and non-thermal processes also known as hybrid processes. SPE 113234  presented by Heriot-Watt University, assesses the performance of SAGD followed by CO2 injection. According to the article, the baseline SAGD process had a recovery factor of 76%. The SAGD wind-down processes with CO₂ injection after 4, 6 and 8 years had recovery factors of 54%, 77% and 79% respectively. The results are encouraging and demonstrate the feasibility of SAGD wind-down processes to be augmented with CO₂ injection to further increase heavy oil recovery.

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