1. SAGD ELift Applications
Canadian Artificial Lift School
November 2006
Ken Kisman Ph.D., P.Eng.

2. Low-pressure SAGD with artificial lift: Reasons
(A) Thief Zones
Upper gas & water sand thief zones and/or bottom water are common in the Athabasca deposit
(B) SAGD Wind-down
Requires low pressure and/or injection of non-condensable gas

3. Low-Pressure SAGD with artificial lift: Reasons
(C) Improved SOR & economics
Less natural gas required
Less facilities for steam generation & water treatment
Lower capital cost for piping & vessels
(D) Environmental benefits
Reduced emissions (Kyoto)
Less source water needed
(E) Improved operations
Reduced H2S, CO2, silica, scaling, & may eliminate sulphur plant

4. Low-Pressure SAGD with artificial lift: Reasons
(F) More oil from same plant
Example
Plant Oil SOR Production
High pressure: ,000 b/d
Low pressure: ,000 b/d
with relatively modest extra facilities
addition of artificial lift
drilling of more well pairs initially (although total number needed is approx. the same)

5. SAGD artificial lift completion requires production tubing to toe
(to maintain full length of well hot & maximize steam chamber development all along the well pair)

6. SAGD steam-trap control Definition of subcool

7. Reference “mixed subcool” & additional potential subcool locations

8. Cartoon of Local & Mixed Subcool Values Along a SAGD Horizontal Well
Local subcool
Mixed subcool
Low mixed subcool requires lifting harder & increases the oil production rate
Low mixed subcool minimizes the local subcools, maximizes height of steam chamber & maximizes steam chamber development along the well pair

9. Low Subcool
Low subcool (ie vigorous lift) is particularly important at low pressure
Low subcool is more important for lower quality reservoirs

10. Cartoon showing how low subcool might increase steam chamber development along a well pair.

11. Evidence of need for low subcool values
SAGD Field Projects
UTF pilot Phase B used subcool values close to 0 °C in the production liner
Surmont pilot reported much higher oil rates & improved SOR with low subcool (EUB Resource Management Reports)
Simulations with real-life conditions
Kisman JCPT Aug 2003
as per transparency

12. Low Pressure Challenge: Saturated steam conditions reached prior to pump inlet for a standard pump configuration

13. Examples of low-pressure challenges: (a) 1000 kPaa versus (b) 3500 kPaa

14. Steam chamber may reach pump due to axial growth or from another well pair

15. SAGD Artificial Lift Standard Bottomhole Pump Configuration

16. SAGD Artificial Lift Standard Bottomhole Pump Configuration
Difficult Conditions
High temperature fluids
Saturated steam conditions with flashing to steam and gas breakout
High lift rates required to achieve low subcool values in the production liner
Scaling in pump
Unstable flow
slugging between bitumen & water
inflow rates varying with time

17. What if available artificial lift cannot lift hard enough to provide low mixed subcool?
Some bitumen recovery will still be obtained but only part of the well may have a steam chamber
There is no way of knowing how much better the bitumen rate, SOR, & recovery factor would be with low mixed subcool
The only way to be sure that field performance is optimized is to use vigorous lift, with low subcool values, for extended periods

18. Current SAGD lift status
Some SAGD operators are:
satisfied that electrical submersible pumps (ESPs) are providing adequate lift
expecting improving run life for ESPs
not unduly concerned about subcool and reservoir performance issues.

19. A fully successful SAGD lift system
To be fully successful, a SAGD lift system must demonstrate the following
Combination:
Low steam chamber pressures
Low mixed subcool
Long service life

20. ELift™: a patented 2-stage lift system Concentric configuration

21. Summary of ELift features

22. Concentric ELift Simplest instrumentation configuration

23. ELift control functions

24. Cooling of motor when downhole motor is used
(A) ELift shroud option for motor
A shroud around the motor may be used so flow of the liquid pool cools the motor. There is only liquid flow in the shroud. The high pump subcool provided by ELift will prevent flashing
(B) ELift 1st Stage Cooling Option for Motor
Motor does not have a shroud. A section of outer tubing at the elevation of the motor is left uninsulated so the motor is cooled by concentric flow up the 1st stage.

25. Concentric ELift tubing sizes
Example configurations
Casing od
Insulated outer tubing
od (id)
Inner tubing
9 5/8”
7 5/8” (~6.0”)
2 7/8”
7 ¾” (~6.5”)
11 ¾”
9 5/8” (~8.0”)
3 ½”
13 3/8”
10 ¾” (~9.0”)
4 ½”

26. ELift simulation
ELift performance can be predicted with the QFlow** thermal wellbore simulator
** Mike McCormack
Fractical Solutions Inc

27. ELift concentric QFlow simulation example CALS ► low subcool in liner ► conditioning of fluids at the pump inlet

28. ELift concentric QFlow simulation example CALS ► low subcool in liner ► conditioning of fluids at the pump inlet

29. ELift parallel configuration

30. ELift parallel QFlow simulation example CALS 3

31. Choice of Concentric ELift or Parallel ELift
Concentric can be installed in small 9 5/8” od intermediate casing
for low or moderate flow rates
careful design required
For large intermediate casing, both concentric and parallel configurations should be considered

32. ELift benefits: (a) Subcool & Recovery
ELift uses natural lift in 1st stage to an
intermediate elevation
Provides vigorous lift with low mixed subcool at low bottomhole pressures
Provides substantial recovery, facility & environmental benefits due to low pressure SAGD with low subcool
Increased feasibility for development of lower quality reservoirs (which require optimization)

33. ELift benefits: (b) Pump
Potential to reduce pump costs by half or
better
Can use standard, less expensive pumps
Increased pump life
Supported by indirect field evidence
Whatever improvements are made over time to pumps, pump life should always be longer when the pump is used with ELift because of fluid conditioning by ELift

34. ELift benefits: (c) ELift isolates the steam chamber during pump changes

35. ELift benefits: (d) downhole gas/liquid separation
Complete downhole gas/liquid separation provided by ELift
Eliminates the need for surface multiphase group separators
Allows good measurement of liquid production rates for each well & hence allows optimization of each well pair

36. ELift field demonstration
Parallel ELift, with gas lift in 2nd stage, was
used for 3 years in ConocoPhillip’s Surmont
SAGD pilot
Main principles of ELift were demonstrated
Very low mixed subcool values were obtained

37. Artificial lift field pilot
New piloting is needed to demonstrate the following:
COMBINATION:
Low steam chamber pressures
Low mixed subcool
Long pump service life
Note that pump performance when used at high pressures does not translate down to low pressures since all aspects are more challenging at low pressures

38. Recommendation: Use Large Intermediate Casing in future SAGD production wells
Facilitates the option of 2-stage ELift artificial lift
Otherwise, future operations could be jeopardized if low pressure becomes necessary
Typical extra well drilling cost is modest for 13 3/8” casing

39. Main Conclusions re: SAGD artificial lift with ELift
Any current or future SAGD pump should work better with ELift
The benefit could be substantial even if the only benefit considered is either
Increased pump life, or
Isolation of the steam chamber during pump changes etc
Optimization with ELift is particularly important for lower quality reservoirs

40. Main Conclusions SAGD artificial lift with ELift has benefits under five main headings
Improved recovery performance
due to vigorous lift with low subcool in liner
Pump savings
less expensive pumps & longer pump life
Isolates steam chamber during workovers
Good downhole gas-liquid separation
Makes low-pressure SAGD more feasible
Economic, environmental, operations benefits