Monitoring of steam chamber in steam-assisted gravity drainage based on the temperature sensitivity of oil sand

Experiments on Steam Injection into Preformed Steam Chambers of Various Shapes for Maximum Condensate Recovery

“…The corresponding values of a and b, for each edge in Figure 1, are given in Table 1. In the specific case of the circular chamber, the radius is R = a = b = 0.10 m. We chose these edge shapes for ease of machining and, as previously mentioned, due to the actual formation of both aforementioned elliptically shaped steam chambers [18]. It is worth mentioning that, in a previous work [16], we already analyzed the steam injection into the elliptical steam chamber of Figure 1a, and it is referred to here to contrast with the new results obtained for the other two steam chamber designs, and to emphasize the importance of the shape of the steam chamber on the efficiency of the recovery of condensates.…”

“…The use of preformed chambers embedded in highly massive slabs was conceived as an experimental setup that reproduces the main physical characteristics of the SAGD process. Moreover, in the real-life monitoring of the steam chamber formed in the oil sand layer in the lower Cretaceous McMurray formation, it was shown that the temperature distribution of the steam chamber evolved from nearly elliptical with a horizontal semi-major axis to another ellipse with a vertical semi-major axis [18].…”