SPE-170879-MS

Carmon Creek Thermal Field Development Project

David Vannaxay, Frederic Wasden, and Benjamin Howell, Shell Canada Ltd

Copyright 2014, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 27–29 October 2014.

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Abstract
Carmon Creek is Shell’s Heavy Oil In-Situ thermal field development project in Peace River, Alberta,
Canada. The Peace River Lease contains some 10 billion barrels of bitumen in-place at a depth of 600 m
with viscosity as high as 100,000 cP. The Carmon Creek Phase 1&2 facilities, targeting a subset of this
resource, are planned to start-up in 2018 and include oil treatment at 80,000 bod, produced water recycling
and steam generation at 50 kt/d and electricity from co-generation at 600 MW. Over the project life-cycle,
approximately 7000 dedicated wells (injectors and producers) will be drilled.
The Carmon Creek development concept is a combination of cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) and
vertical steam drive (VSD) utilizing vertical and deviated wells in inverted 7-spot patterns at a well
spacing of 115m (or 2.8 acres). Produced and imported gas is burnt to generate steam and electricity in
co-generation facilities. Electricity is exported to market. After transfer of the thermal energy in the steam
the bitumen viscosity is reduced sufficiently enabling production via conventional beam pumps. The
produced emulsion is separated into gas, oil and water for treatment in the central processing facilities.
Acid gas consisting CO2 and H2S is re-injected to deep disposal and the remaining treated produced gas
burned in the co-generation facilities. Treated bitumen is mixed with diluents for pipeline export. Steam
generation is fed by recycled water with excess water stored in a saline aquifer, which can be back-
produced as needed.
This paper provides an overview of the main aspects of the field development, the challenges related
to project delivery for a mega-thermal development and the solutions that were selected to address these
challenges.

Introduction
The Peace River Lease (100% Shell) is located in the north of Alberta, Canada; about 40 kilometres from
the town of Peace River and 520 kilometers northwest of Edmonton (see Figure 1). The lease covers an
area of approximately 370km2 (~ 91,500 acres). It contains some 10 billion barrels of oil bitumen in-place
(OBIP) in the semi-consolidated Upper Bluesky sandstones reservoir (Lower Cretaceous), at depth of
around 600 meters. The Peace River Lease is one of the three largest oil sands deposits in Canada along
with the Athabasca and Cold Lake deposits. Despite its resources being discovered in 1951, the Peace
River Lease is the least developed amongst these large oil sands deposits with less than 1% of the
estimated OBIP recovered from to date. This is mainly related to the difficulty producing the bitumen due
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Figure 1—Peace River Lease (100% Shell) location in Alberta, Canada.

to the ultra heavy oil gravity (range of 7-9° API) and In-Situ oil viscosity as high as 100,000 cP in many
parts of the Lease.
Since 1951, almost every known thermal recovery mechanism and well designs have been tried in the
Lease, many of them as field experiments or pilots and some as production operations. All these concepts
have faced the same key challenge that consisted of finding the most efficient subsurface development
concept to produce at high volumes whilst combining robust economics, affordable costs and environ-
mentally sustainable operations.
In 2013, Shell received the approval from the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) to move forward with
Carmon Creek Project (CCP) as a major commercial phased re-development for the Peace River Lease.
The first phase of CCP (called CCP1&2) is developing the central part of the Lease and is targeting a
production of 80,000 bpd using a combination of cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) with vertical steam drive
(VSD) as the thermal recovery mechanism. The selected subsurface development concept is leveraging on
the learning of past trials and development in Peace River. To deliver the targeted production, approxi-
mately 7000 wells (producers, injectors, observation) will be drilled over the full life cycle of the project
which exceeds 35 years. A dedicated Central Processing Facility (CPF) will be built to process the
produced emulsion (bitumen, gas, water) and to generate power and steam. The size of the required
facilities and equipment, the targeted level of production and the duration of the full project life have put
CCP1&2 in the league of mega thermal projects. In addition, the stringent regulatory framework of
Alberta province has forced CCP1&2 project team to develop solutions and concepts that have to be
“best-in class” for Non-Technical Risks (NTR) management with minimum surface footprint for facilities,
smart disposal (water and acid gas) schemes, and smart energy efficiency management (water recycling,
power generation, etc. . .).

Subsurface Development Concept

Since 1951, some 15 thermal projects have been conducted in the Peace River Lease in the attempt to
unlock the bitumen resources. These projects covered almost all known thermal recovery mechanisms and
were deployed as field experiments, pilots or production operations as depicted in Figure 2.
Some of the wells of these projects continue to produce and cold development in pockets of lighter and
less viscous oil has been added for a total current production in 2014 of about 15,000 bpd from some 270
active wells.
SPE-170879-MS 3

Figure 2—Historical overview of thermal recovery mechanisms performed in Peace River Lease.

With a total cumulative production less than 1% of the estimated OBIP, Shell has taken the decision
in 2012 to massively re-develop the Peace River Lease with the Carmon Creek Project (CCP). Regulatory
approval (commercial scheme and environmental permits) was received from the Alberta Energy Regu-
latory (AER) in 2013 for CCP to move forward into the execution phase as a commercial phased
re-development of the Lease.
The selected subsurface development concept for CCP leverages on the learning of all the past projects.
In particular two projects with promising results have been used as analogs, the Peace River In-Situ
Project (PRISP) and Peace River Expansion (PREP) that operated between 1979 and 1994 and 1996 and
2001 respectively. PRISP and PREP used pressure cycle steam drive (PCSD) combined with vertical well
development in inverted 7-spot pattern and they achieved recovery factors in range of 40 to 55%.
For CCP, the inverted 7-spot pattern configuration has been retained, using vertical and deviated wells
at a spacing of 115m (or 2.8 acres) to be drilled from a surface pad. All wells will be initially operated
by cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) to establish adequate inter-well communication and after a number of
cycles the process will be converted to vertical steam drive (VSD) to sustain the production with the
central well in the pattern as a dedicated steam injector and the 6 surrounding wells as dedicated
producers. The advantage of the CSS-VSD combination is further described in Refs. [1] and [2].
The selected concept of CSS followed by VSD and well configuration for CCP avoid the negative
performances related to the possible presence of occasional shale “baffles” or mud drapes, see Figure 3.
This is mainly related to the deposition of the Upper Bluesky sandstones within a predominant flood tidal
delta environment.
These shale baffles have certainly precluded alternative past development concepts in the lease relying
on the rise of steam such as Steam Assisted Gravited Drainage (SAGD) from being successful.
Another key aspect for the definition of the development concept is location of the Peace River Lease
in an environmentally sensitive area. The Lease is in a northern boreal forest containing some harvestable
forest, but also has significant wet areas consisting of streams, ponds and muskeg. The project has been
designed to minimize the surface footprint and disturbance. For example the surface well pad design
consists of a single row with 48 to 50 wells at 4m wellhead spacing in order to minimize the surface
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Figure 3—Stratigraphy of Peace River Lease and Core example of Upper Bluesky reservoir illustrating possible presence of shale features or “baffles”
in a very clean sand package.

footprint. Each well pad will have a production life of around 12 years after which equipment will be
dismantled, moved, and re-used on new pads where possible. Pad decommissioning begins at the end of
production with well abandonment activities and surface reclamation. At any time during the project there
is less than 5 % of the total lease area disturbed at surface.
An overview of CCP subsurface field development concept is provided in Figure 4. The relative
simplicity and high level of possible replication (steaming sequence, well design, pad geometry. . ..)
allows a mass re-development for the Peace River Lease.
Process Concept
Steam for the CCP thermal development is generated in cogeneration facilities (Cogens) at rate of 50,000
tonnes per day of steam and 600MW of electricity. The generated steam is then routed to each well pad
for injection into the reservoir. The viscosity is expected to reduce enough to enable emulsion to be
produced back from the reservoir using conventional beam pumps. This emulsion is separated at surface
into bitumen, gas and water in the central processing facilities (CPF) of CCP1&2. The bitumen is mixed
with imported diluents to enable pipeline transport and then exported for sale. The raw produced gas is
treated to remove the acid gas: H2S and CO2 and are injected back into the Leduc deep aquifer, which lies
some 2 km deep directly beneath the development area (see Figure 3). The disposal of the acid gas also
presents the advantage to significantly minimize the air emissions of the project. The remaining treated
gas will be burned and used as fuel for the Cogens along with supplementary imported gas as the volume
of produced gas is not sufficient for the total steam generation.
Water produced from the formation via the bitumen production is re-cycled and thereafter routed to the
Cogens for steam generation. During the start-up, an external source of water may be required to make
up for the short-fall. For this need, water disposed by previous production operations stored in the Leduc
deep aquifer will be back produced from newly drilled water production wells. This allows the Carmon
SPE-170879-MS 5

Figure 4 —Carmon Creek Subsurface Field Development Concept

Figure 5—CCP Process and Facilities

Creek Project to completely re-use the re-cycled water for its operation and vitually eliminates the use of
fresh water supply. This is a significant contribution to the sustainable development of the project as the
Peace River as river is the main source of fresh water for the local communities nearby the CCP
development area. An overview of CCP process and necessary facilities is shown in Figure 5 with further
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Figure 6 —Illustration of streamlined well delivery utilizing task-specific rigs for CCP.

Figure 7—Schematic of Central Processing Facilities.

details in Ref.[3].

Wells and Facilities

A critical aspect of Carmon Creek Project, reoccurring in many diverse areas, is standardization and
repetition.
The areas of wells and pad delivery have been extensively reviewed to meet these criteria. Although
operated differently during the steam drive period a conscious effort has been made to share a common
well design between the producers and injectors. In this manner much of the drilling and completion
activities can be standardized for all wells. Delivery of a completed well roughly every two days for a
large number of total wells also necessitates a step-change from traditional drilling to ‘well manufactur-
ing’ and dedicated rigs will be utilized for Carmon Creek (see Figure 6).
A similar standardization approach has been employed for the pad facilities design that combines
replication (identical layout and dimensions for each pad) and simplicity. On the latter, connectivity of the
subsurface development pattern at surface is such that the pad facilities consist of identical modules
servicing a repeating well pattern of producer-injector-producer wellheads all along each pad. These
modules are designed as very high tolerance bolt-together units to minimize on-site construction
requirements. The same technology is successfully used by Shell in the Gulf of Mexico for the
development of Deepwater plateforms and facilities.
SPE-170879-MS 7

The Central Processing Facilities (CPF) for the project will be located approximately 40 kilometres
northeast of the town of Peace River. The CPF contains the bitumen, gas and water treatment trains, the
Cogens and the gas compression facilities as depicted in Figure 7.
For Carmon Creek, Shell is taking the role of EPCM (Engineering, Procurement and Construction
Manager). This eliminates third party fees and helps to avoid “scope” creep leading to later increases in
costs. There has also been a focus on ordering material and equipment as long lead items and developing
partnerships with major contractors to control schedule and costs.
Conclusions
With the Carmon Creek Project, Shell is planning to significantly increase its heavy oil footprint in
Canada. The project is expected to be a key contributor to Shell Canada’s production by providing
significant volumes at affordable costs for a period extending well over the next 35 years. For this, the
project will experience a un-precedented level of standardization and replication. It will also leverage from
the learning and global expertise of Shell.
Shell’s aspiration is to combine these strong business deliveries with best in class environmental and
sustainable development contributions. This will be achieved by having full water re-cycling for its
operations, managing green house gas emissions by disposing the acid gas produced, and minimizing the
project footprint (less than 5% of the total lease area with all surfaces to be reclamed).
In addition to the bitumen produced, the surplus of electricity generated by the Cogens will be exported
to Alberta power grid. This represents enough electricity to power half a million homes.

Acknowledgements
The authors thank Shell Canada Limited for permission to publish this work.
The Carmon Creek project would not be possible without a lot of hard work from a very large and
diverse group of people. The authors would like to thank all of Shell’s staff, pass and present, for making
the project a reality.

References
1. P. Koci and J. Mohiddin, Peace River Carmon Creek Project – Optimization of Cyclic Steam
Stimulation Through Experimental Design, SPE 109826, SPE Annual Technical Conference and
Exhibition, Anaheim, 11-14 November, 2007.
2. P. Koci and J. Mohiddin, Realistic History Matching of Cycle Steam Stimulation Performance of
Several Groups of Multilateral Wells in the Peace River Field, Canada, SPE 107201, SPE
Europe/EAGE Annual Conference and Exhibition, London, 11-14 June, 2007.
3. B. Howell, F. Van Beek, C. Shen, N. Esho, Y. Liu and I. Lampreia, Integrated Development of
Shell’s In Situ Peace River Oil Sands Asset, World Heavy Oil Congress 2014, New Orleans, USA
2014.