Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) is a major oil recovery technology of the Alberta oil sands resources. This process involves injecting large amounts of steam into the reservoir to recover the bitumen. The steam is generated by burning natural gas, which creates CO2 emissions and operational costs. An efficiency metric, the steam-oil ratio (SOR), is a common parameter used to measure the SAGD efficiency by measuring the unit volume of steam injected to recover unit volume of oil. To improve this metric, Canadian Natural has been investigating using steam additives to improve SOR over the past several years. A new chemical has been identified through lab test to have the potential to lower the SOR by increasing the oil production at the same steam injection rate resulting in lower energy and greenhouse gas intensity per barrel of oil produced. Canadian Natural intends to further advance this technology by conducting a pilot to test the newly developed steam additive in a field demonstration.
The new additive is a patented ether amine family with unique characteristics that makes it distinctive from other additives used in past industry trials. This newly formulated additive was developed by ChampionX, one of the largest oil field chemical suppliers, and lab tested in a simulated field condition at InnoTech Alberta, which is one of the leading research labs in Alberta. The study was co-funded by Alberta Innovates. The lab test results suggest that meaningful improvement in oil production at the same steam injection rate in a steam assisted recovery process can be achieved by co-injection of a small amount of the additive (less than 0.1 wt%) with steam, resulting in GHG emissions reduction and freshwater usage reduction.