oa Impact of Tar Mat on Steam Development Options

This presentation is about the impact of a tar mat on steam development options for heavy oil fields with a strong bottom aquifer. In principle the standard steam development options, Cyclic Steam Stimulation (CSS), Steam Drive or Steam assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD), can be used to develop heavy oil fields with strong aquifers. Efficient operation of such steam developments require that aquifer water influx is controlled and fields are operated at low pressure. A low reservoir pressure maximizes usage of the latent heat content of steam, which is the main source of heat transferred to the reservoir. Both effects, water control and low pressure, can be achieved by implementing an aquifer pump-off scheme. A potential additional benefit of an aquifer pump-of scheme is to use the produced water as source water for steam.