In recent years, the addition of a hydrocarbon condensate to steam operations in heavy-oil and bitumen reservoirs has emerged as potential technology to improve not only oil recovery but also energy efficiency. The idea of solvent addition to a steamdrive process has been extended and applied for the first time in the Peace River area in Canada. There, evidence was obtained of oil uplift in the patterns where solvent was injected. However, piloting this new technology in a brownfield had many challenges, especially when evaluating its main economic factors: production increase and solvent recovery.
Introduction
Vertical-well steamdrive (VSD) is the selected process to recover bitumen from the Peace River Bluesky formation.
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