Summary The Upper Devonian Grosmont formation, located in the West Athabasca oil sands deposit, contains an estimated 318 billion barrels of bitumen. The reservoir is a heavily karsted and fractured, bitumen-saturated dolomite with up to 38% porosity and permeabilities commonly measured in the darcies. These properties make the Grosmont an excellent candidate for steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). Grosmont SAGD development will be exposed to similar operating conditions as McMurray SAGD projects, and will have similar logistics, well construction and materials challenges. However, there are many additional challenges, including severe loss circulation, that further complicate well design. This paper presents the challenges experienced by Laricina Energy in drilling Grosmont wells at Saleski and Burnt Lakes over the last three seasons. It will also address additional areas for future research and development in the drilling of vertical and horizontal wells.
The Upper Devonian Grosmont Formation, located in the West Athabasca Oil Sands Deposit, contains an estimated 406 billion barrels of bitumen. The reservoir is a heavily karsted and fractured, bitumen-saturated carbonate. Initial thermal horizontal well development is currently underway in this resource. These horizontal wells have similar logistics, well construction and materials challenges to those in the McMurray Formation. Laricina has been actively developing the Grosmont Formation. Production from the pilot began in 2011 and many lessons have been learned. The next phase of development is a 10,700 bbl/day commercial project scheduled for first steam in 2014. The Grosmont, despite many drilling challenges such as severe lost circulation, also provides many opportunities not typically achievable in clastic oil sands developments. Carbonate rock is typically a good candidate for open-hole completions due to its geomechanical properties. This paper will discuss the geomechanical investigation evaluating borehole stability during drilling and completion, steam injection and production operations.
Alberta's oil sands contain an estimated 286 billion m 3 (1.8 trillion barrels) of bitumen, including more than 64.5 billion m 3 (406 billion barrels) in the Grosmont Carbonate. The Grosmont at Saleski represents a significant resource, which will be developed from pilot to commercial development. The operating company plans to recover bitumen from the Grosmont using solvent-cyclic, steam-assisted gravity drainage (SC-SAGD), beginning with a pilot in the Saleski field.The Grosmont has been noted for drilling challenges relating to lost circulation, including difficulty in cement placement. To address these challenges, lightweight, foamed, thermal cement was specifically engineered, tested, and qualified for use at the pilot. This blend addresses placement challenges and was designed to achieve the mechanical properties required for zonal isolation and well integrity throughout the life of the well. This paper discusses the design and development of the blend using finite-element analysis (FEA) software to evaluate blend suitability, laboratory testing results to confirm basic properties, installation in the pilot wells, and results using ultrasonic cementinspection tools.
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