A Mathematical Solution to Consider Geomechanics in SAGD Process

Abstract

Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) process is a steam drive technique which is predominantly used forAlberta's unconventional reservoirs. Butler was the first researcher who proposed this technique and developed a theory to predict SAGD's performance and production. Although his theory is fast enough in terms of calculation speed for primary estimation of SAGD projects, it over-estimates the production and does not consider geomechanics. Many studies have proven now that geomechanics is inevitably a part of physics in this process.In this study, a classical theory of geotechnical engineering is employed to support the geomechanical part of a coupled simulator. Butler theory is also modified using model of slices to be a more realistic drainage model as a flow simulator. Combining these two models is able to solve fully coupled analytical analysis which has been presented in this paper. The solver is a fast and realistic proxy and can be used in any fast history matching and handling real-time data in future SAGD fields.