The Effect of the Reservoir Characteristic Parameters on the SAGD Economic Feasibility in Fractured Carbonate Reservoirs

The Grosmont Formation in Canada is a fractured carbonate reservoir containing more than 400 billion barrels of bitumen. This study investigates the effect of matrix permeability, fracture permeability, and fracture spacing of carbonate rocks on the commercial feasibility of Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). A dual permeability model was used to conduct SAGD simulations and the commercial applicability of SAGD was analyzed using Simple Thermal Efficiency Parameter (STEP) as an economic indicator of SAGD projects. Our results confirm that the economic feasibility of SAGD implementation is influenced by matrix permeability, fracture permeability, and fracture spacing shape. In particular, increase in fracture spacing leads to decrease in economic feasibility.