Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 186 (2020) 106704

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/petrol

Detailed analysis of Toe-to-Heel Air Injection for heavy oil production

Wei Wei a, Jingyi Wang a, Seta Afshordi b, Ian D. Gates a, *
a
Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
b
Proton Technologies Inc., Calgary, Alberta, Canada

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The Toe-To-Heel Air Injection (THAI) operation at Kerrobert, Saskatchewan proved that commercial oil rate is
Heavy oil possible together with production of partially upgraded heavy oil. Despite physical model experimentation and
In situ combustion simulation investigations of THAI, no detailed analysis has been conducted on a THAI field operation to resolve
Air injection
recovery mechanisms and the strengths and limitations of the process. Here, we present, for the first time, a
Toe-to-heel air injection
THAI
detailed evaluation of the Kerrobert THAI field operation to find causal relationships between injectants and
Production analysis production rates, gas composition, and temperature rise within the reservoir and which downhole reactions are
key in the process i.e. low temperature oxidation, high temperature oxidation, thermal cracking/thermolysis,
coke gasification and aquathermolysis. The results demonstrate that there is a competition between oxygen
injection for heat generation via oxidation reactions versus air injection leading to cooling of the system which
limits the peak oil rate. General comparisons are made to a neighboring Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD)
operation in the same formation. A comparison of THAI and SAGD in the formation indicates that although THAI
yields significantly lower normalized oil rates than SAGD, it is more energy efficient than SAGD.

1. Introduction
Recovery of heavy oil and oil sands reservoirs is complex and often
energy intensive due to the elevated viscosity of the oil (Gates et al.,
2008; Speight, 2013). With oil viscosities in the thousands and hundreds
of thousands of centipoise or above, these oils are not typically mobile at
original reservoir conditions. In typical practice, heat, often in the form
of steam, is injected into the reservoir which in turn raises the temper­
ature of the oil which lowers its viscosity. An alternative to the injection
of steam is the injection of oxygen into the reservoir. In this case, when
the oxygen reaches the oil, under the injection pressure, combustion
occurs generating heat within the reservoir. This consequently raises the
temperature of the oil leading to oil mobilization and production. One
such process where air is injected into the reservoir is the Toe-to-Heel
Air Injection (THAI) process.
In THAI, displayed schematically in Fig. 1, air or oxygen is injected
into a vertical well that is offset from the toe of a horizontal production
well. As in situ combustion occurs, the fire front advances along the
trajectory of the horizontal well. The mobilized heavy oil then drains
down the combustion front under gravity to the horizontal well at the
bottom of the depletion zone. This process has been demonstrated in
both laboratory and simulation studies that it can produce oil (Greaves
et al., 2007, 2012, 2011; 2001; Xia et al., 2003, 2002; Xia and Greaves,
2006) as well as previous field trials (Ayasse et al., 2005; Petrobank,
2012; Turta and Greaves, 2018). In general, laboratory experiments and
simulation studies have demonstrated high oil recovery and partial
upgrading of heavy oil: Xia and Greaves (2006) used virgin Athabasca
tar sand in a 3D combustion cell experiment which demonstrated >80%
oil recovery and more than 8� API upgrading from THAI process, the oil
viscosity was lowered by four orders of magnitude and the upgraded oil
contained about 70% saturates compared to 14.5% in original bitumen.
Other 3D combustion experiments (Greaves et al., 2001; Xia et al., 2002,
2003) of THAI process using various oils (Wolf Lake oil, Lloydminster
oil, medium heavy and light oil) all showed high oil recoveries (>80%),
partially upgraded oil and drastic reduction of the oil viscosity. Despite
encouraging results from laboratory testing, a detailed analysis of the
process at field scale has not been reported. Here, we focus our attention
on the Kerrobert THAI operation that started in 2009.
The Kerrobert THAI project, located in Saskatchewan, Canada, tar­
geted heavy oil in the Waseca sandstone Formation within the Mannville
Group. The Waseca channel is Albian age and was deposited in a tidally-
influenced estuarine environment. It is overlain by interbedded shaly
sandstones of the McLaren member, and overlies the silty shales of the
Sparky member (Hill, 2017). The Waseca Formation consists two types

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ian.gates@ucalgary.ca (I.D. Gates).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2019.106704
Received 18 September 2019; Received in revised form 30 October 2019; Accepted 14 November 2019
Available online 19 November 2019
0920-4105/© 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
W. Wei et al.
Fig. 1. Schematic of toe-to-heel air injection (Thai).
of facies: 1) Regional facies sandstone-two oil-producing sandstone beds
according to Van Hulten (1984): Upper and Lower Waseca, both are 1–4
m thick sands separated by a thin (1 m) layer of shale; 2) Channel facies
sandstones – up to 30 m thick fining upward sandstones (Putnam and
Oliver, 1980). The channel extends in a NW-SE direction across the re­
gion. Based on the reservoir properties provided by Wikel and Kendall
(2012), the current study reservoir oil pay thickness varies between 15
and 20 m in the West pad and 25 and 30 m in the East pad. For both pads,
the average porosity and oil saturation are 32% and 80%, respectively.
The sand generally exhibits a fining upward sequence, well sorted with
fine to medium grain size (Mahbub, 2012; Van Hulten, 1984). The
reservoir permeability lies between 2 and 6 D and the sand is uncon­
solidated with grains ranges between 75 and 212 μm in diameter. At
original reservoir conditions, the oil is 10.5� API at 15.6 � C. The initial
reservoir pressure ranges from 3500 to 4000 kPa. There is also a
discontinuous bottom water zone with thickness ranging from 10 to 20
m.
The Kerrobert project consists of twelve THAI well pairs as illustrated
in Fig. 2; seven well pairs (well pairs 1–7) are within the East pad and
five well pairs (well pairs 8–12) are within the West pad. As summarized
by the project operational history in Table 1, well pairs 1 and 2 started
operation as pilot wells in 2009. The averaged field air injection and oil
production rates for the first two years were 46,908 m3/day and 9.96
m3/day, respectively. The remaining well pairs were drilled and
commenced production in 2011. From 2012 to 2013, there were ten well
pairs producing on average, and the yearly averaged field air injection
and oil production during this time were about 136,707 m3/day and
35.56 m3/day, respectively. The project ownership changed multiple
times in 2015, 2016 and 2017 which impacted production with most of
Fig. 2. Kerrobert toe-to-heel air injection (Thai) project well layout.
2
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 186 (2020) 106704
the wells down throughout this time. To date, after 10 years of opera­
tion, the total oil recovery factor from the field is ~2.5%.
According to Petrobank (2012), the produced oil from Kerrobert
project is partially upgraded to an average 14� API compared to the
original oil of 10.5� API. The oil production per well is generally in the
range of 10–30 m3/day. As indicated by Turta and Greaves (2018), the
volume of oil produced is not proportional to the amount of air injected.
This is a bit surprising since the rate of (combustion) reactions would be
expected to be proportional to the amount of air injected which in turn
generates the heat in the reservoir. This, in turn, is what mobilizes the oil
enabling gravity drainage down the front to the horizontal production
well. In this research, we examine, for the first time, the Kerrobert THAI
operation field data to better understand relationships between injectant
(air) rate and produced fluids rate (oil, gas, water), and gas composition
as well as temperature and pressure change.
2. Analysis of field data
We have divided the field data analysis into three parts: (1) fluid
production analysis; (2) temperature and pressure analysis, and (3)
produced gas composition analysis. The data used in this study are from
November 2009 to May 2018.
The data available at the Kerrobert THAI project consist of air in­
jection and fluid production (oil, water and gas), temperature and
wellhead pressure data, and produced gas compositional data. The
injector and producer bottom hole pressure are estimated by using the
equation proposed by Feng et al. (2016):
�
0:03415γ g H
�
Pbh ¼ Pwh exp
TZ
where Pbh is bottom hole pressure; Pwh is wellhead pressure; γg is relative
density of gas; H is the depth; T is wellbore temperature and Z is gas
deviation factor. There are also thermocouples installed along the hor­
izontal section of the producers for downhole temperature measurement
(pressure and temperature measurement did not start until July 2011).
The highest temperature that these thermocouples can measure is ~600
�
C. Since there are no observation wells at the field site, temperature and
pressure analysis of the combustion zone itself and fire front movement
information within the reservoir are not available. Thus, the reactions
involved during the combustion process are deduced from produced gas
compositional analysis and producer bottom-hole temperature changes.
W. Wei et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 186 (2020) 106704

Table 1
Kerrobert Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI) project operational history.
Year Events Average No. Field Air Field Oil
of Wells Injection Production
Producing m3/day m3/day

2009 Pilot wellpairs 1 and 2 2 48,274 7.14

drilled and started
operation in November
2009
2010 2 45,542 12.78
2011 East pad wellpairs (3–7) 5 129,228 11.00
started operation in May
2011
West pad wellpairs
(8–12) started operation
in August 2011
Temperature and
pressure instrumentation
installed and started
measurement in July
2011
2012 10 103,045 41.27
2013 10 170,368 29.85
2014 8 97,565 51.60
2015 Petrobank Energy and 4 70,538 23.08
Resources Ltd merged
with Touchstone
Exploration Inc
Gas chromatography
measurement stopped
2016 Quattro Exploration and 5 88,695 34.71
Production Ltd acquired
the project in January
2016
2017 Proton Technologies 5 108,868 33.15
acquired the project in
August 2017
2018 Gas chromatography 5 118,953 25.29
measurement resumed

2.1. Fluid production analysis

Figs. 3–5 display plots of the fluid production (oil, water and gas,
respectively) rates versus injectant (air) rate for the entire operation,
East pad, and West pad. The results shown in Fig. 3 show that the
relationship between the oil production rate and the air injection rate is
complex and that a clear trend is not well established. However, the data
does suggest that there is a peak oil production rate across the spectrum
of air injection rates. For the East pad, the peak oil rate, just above 45
m3/day, occurs between 70,000 and 100,000 m3/day air injection rate
whereas for the West pad, the oil peak rate is above 35 m3/day with air
injection rate between 40,000 and 70,000 m3/day. The results demon­
strate that there appears to be a maximum in the oil production rate and
that high air rates are not beneficial for oil recovery. From the data
plotted in Fig. 4, the relationship between the water production rate and
air injection rate is also complex but similar to the oil production rate, Fig. 3. Oil production versus air injection for Entire Field, East Pad, and West
there is a range of air injection rate over which the water production rate Pad. Red arrow lines and blue shaded regions are shown to highlight the gen­
is maximal. The gas production rate versus the air injection rate, plotted eral trend. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend,
the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)
in Fig. 5, displays a general trend where the higher the air injection rate,
the higher is the gas production rate and the overall trend is linear. This
makes sense for two reasons. First, the greater the gas flow into the
reservoir, given containment of the fluids in the depletion zone, gas cumulative produced oil (cGOR), and cumulative produced water to
production rate must also rise. Second, as gas saturation builds in the cumulative produced oil (cWOR) for the entire field and the East and
reservoir due to higher gas injection rate, the relative permeabilities West pads. For the East pad, the profiles demonstrate an oscillatory
with respect to liquid goes down and with respect to the gas goes up. behavior over the first four years and then approach a near uniform
Thus, the liquid production rate reaches a maximum value and then profile. The cAOR and cGOR for both pads is quite different over the first
drops as the air injection rate continues to rise whereas the gas pro­ few years but then evolve to the same value – this reflects that the gas
duction rate exhibits a monotonic rise. injected is equal to the gas produced as the process evolves; by the end of
Fig. 6 displays the evolution of the ratios of the cumulative air the period studied the cAOR and cGOR for the East pad is ~3600 m3/m3,
injected to cumulative oil produced (cAOR), cumulative produced gas to whereas for the West pad, they are ~2800 m3/m3. The cWOR profiles

3
W. Wei et al.
Fig. 4. Water production versus air injection for Entire Field, East Pad, and
West Pad. Red arrow lines are shown to highlight the general trend. (For
interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is
referred to the Web version of this article.)
tend to fall from a high value (due to low cumulative oil production
earlier in the process), but as the cumulative oil volumes grow, the
WORs are ~2.0 and ~1.6 m3/m3 for the East and West pads,
respectively.
2.2. Temperature/pressure analysis
Since there are no observation wells between injectors and pro­
ducers, the toe section of the horizontal producers are closest to the
reaction zones between the injectors and producers, thus the toe
4
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 186 (2020) 106704
Fig. 5. Gas production versus air injection for Entire Field, East Pad, and West
Pad. Red arrow lines and are shown to highlight the general trend. (For
interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is
referred to the Web version of this article.)
temperature data from the horizontal producers were used in this study.
The pressure data used was obtained from the heels of both injectors and
producers. Furthermore, since well pair 4 of the East pad and well pair
12 of the West pad were only operated for a short period of time, their
data was not used.
Fig. 7 displays the temperature data obtained from the toes of each
individual producer versus air injection rate. The data makes it clear that
there are no obvious correlations. If ones believes that the higher the air
injection rate, the greater is the oxygen delivered to the reservoir, and in
turn, the greater is the combustion zone, and thus, in turn, the higher is
W. Wei et al.
Fig. 6. Cumulative air-oil ratio (Cum AOR), gas-oil ratio (Cum GOR) and
water-oil ratio (Cum WOR) for Entire Field, East Pad, and West Pad (e3m3
stands for 1000 m3).
the temperature of the depletion zone in the reservoir. However, the
data does not clearly demonstrate this trend. The data shows that large
variability exists in the temperature versus air injection rate. Further­
more, the data exhibits a horizontal segregation where there appears to
be clusters that are independent of air injection rate (shaded in red oval
in Fig. 7). In some wells, there appears to be a low temperature regime,
typically between 175 and 200 � C, and a high temperature regime,
typically 350 � C and higher with some temperatures reaching as high as
5
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 186 (2020) 106704
550 � C. In most well pairs, there appears to be several of these tem­
perature regimes. One consistent result is that at the highest air injection
rates, the temperatures at the toes of the production wells are in the low
temperature regime (shaded in green oval in Fig. 7). The different
temperature regimes are resulted by dynamic combustion front during
the THAI process and the toe section of the well can experience different
temperature gradient depending on the operation and combustion front
location. On the other hand, the correlation between the toe tempera­
tures versus oil production in Fig. 8 exhibit a distinct difference between
the East and West pad. The East pad wells display two types of behav­
iors: (1) at low oil rates, the toe temperature span is large (~150–550
�
C), at high oil rates, this range becomes narrower and concentrated
around 170–200 � C (highlighted by orange shades for wells KP01, KP03
and KP05); (2) toe temperatures are mainly concentrated around
150–200 � C regardless the oil rates (wells KP02, KP06 and KP07). The
West pad wells display a more scattered behavior, low temperature and
high temperature regimes are easily distinguished for wells KP08, KP09
and KP11 (highlighted by rectangle oranges shades). Overall, all wells
seem to have produced maximal oil rates at toe temperature range be­
tween 150� C and 200 � C, whereas West pad wells also produced
maximal oil rates at temperatures above 250 � C.
As displayed in Fig. 9, the injection pressures of the well pairs range
from 2500 to 4500 kPa with most tending to have a large degree of
variability often centered around a dominant trend that shows the
higher air injection rate, the higher is the injection pressure. In some
well pairs, the variability is smaller e.g. well pairs KP01, KP07, KP08,
KP09, and KP11, whereas others exhibit larger variability. The bottom
hole pressure at the heels of the horizontal producers, shown in Fig. 9,
tends to range from 2200 to 2800 kPa and exhibit smaller variability
than that of the injector pressures. The differences of the pressure be­
tween the injectors and producers, with regard to the dominant trend, is
typically of the order of a few hundred kPa. The interesting observation
is that the injection pressure variability is large suggesting that during
the recovery process, the pressure built up and then there were times
where the pressure fell to a few hundred kPa above the production
pressure. This suggests that on production, the mobilized oil and water
build up at the well leading to a liquid-trap and then the pressure at the
injector builds up and after it is sufficiently large, the liquid trap is
produced and the pressure is relieved.
The high temperature regime observed in the horizontal wells sug­
gests that high temperature oxidation is occurring. However, it is not
sustained through the entire process and thus, the temperature falls to a
temperature range which is below the corresponding steam saturation
pressure of the prevailing pressure. This is understandable since the gas
phase within the reservoir is largely composed of the air components (N2
and O2) and the produced gases from combustion (CO2, CO, etc.) as well
as steam. Thus, the partial pressure of the steam in the reservoir is likely
to be much lower than the total pressure given the presence of the other
gas components, especially N2.
2.3. Produced gas composition analysis
In the analysis of produced gas compositions, only the data from
2009 to 2015 were used due to the continuity of operation. Averaged gas
compositions from each individual well are summarized in Table 2. It is
evident that the difference of the produced gas contents between the
East pad wells and West pad wells is small. The produced gases consist of
mainly nitrogen (~74%) which originates from the injected air. The
produced oxygen was only 0.4% indicating either combustion occurred
or oxygen remained in the reservoir. Aside from nitrogen gas, the
highest produced gas components were carbon dioxide (~12%) and
methane (~9.9%). The remaining produced gas compositions consisted
of ~1.15% hydrogen, ~0.96% high molecular weight gas (HMWG),
~0.37% hydrogen sulfide and ~0.3% carbon monoxide. Different gas
component ratios were also evaluated against with toe temperature and
air injection and oil production rates.
W. Wei et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 186 (2020) 106704

Fig. 7. Toe temperature versus air injection for each individual well.

6
W. Wei et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 186 (2020) 106704

Fig. 8. Toe temperature versus oil production for each individual well.

7
W. Wei et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 186 (2020) 106704

Fig. 9. Well pressures versus air injection for each individual well.

8
W. Wei et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 186 (2020) 106704

Table 2
Summary of averaged gas compositions (2009–2015) from each producer well.
H2 (Mol%) O2 (Mol%) N2 (Mol%) CO (Mol%) CH4 (Mol%) CO2 (Mol%) H2S (Mol%) HMWGa (Mol%)
East Pad
KP01 1.22 0.45 73.71 0.29 9.71 12.69 0.35 1.19
KP02 1.33 0.40 73.85 0.35 9.26 12.71 0.41 1.10
KP03 1.38 0.34 74.03 0.19 8.00 13.37 0.58 1.10
KP05 0.94 0.32 72.36 0.16 14.49 10.45 0.25 0.57
KP06 1.51 0.27 72.52 0.28 8.76 13.71 0.65 1.77
KP07 1.10 0.32 72.23 0.28 13.15 11.18 0.46 1.07
West Pad
KP08 1.19 0.55 72.55 0.24 11.26 12.40 0.33 0.87
KP09 0.94 0.59 75.13 0.18 9.00 12.42 0.22 0.54
KP10 0.96 0.43 75.20 0.46 7.08 13.50 0.26 0.76
KP11 0.96 0.39 75.15 0.26 8.57 12.33 0.25 0.66
a
HMWG: High Molecular Weight Gas.

Fig. 10. Produced gas ratios (a) H2/CO, (b) H2/CO2, and (c) H2/(CO þ CO2) versus toe temperature, air injection rate, and oil production rate.

Gas ratios of each individual well were plotted from Figs. 10–12. 20,000 m3/day, and oil production rate up to about 15 m3/day. The H2/
Fig. 10(a) shows the H2/CO ratio versus toe temperature, air injection CO2 ratio is plotted in Fig. 10(b). The ratio averages at 0.1 m3/m3 at all
and oil production, respectively. The ratio peaked at 100–200 � C and temperature ranges. Similar to H2/CO, the H2/CO2 ratio peaks at around
~400 � C. The peaks are only evident at low air injection rate, up to about 15,000 m3/day of air injection and 5–10 m3/day of oil production.

9
W. Wei et al.
Fig. 11. Produced gas ratios (a) CH4/H2, (b) H2S/H2, and (c) CO/(CO þ CO2) versus toe temperature, air injection rate, and oil production rate.
Fig. 10(c) plots the H2/(CO þ CO2) ratio, the correlations trend are same
as ratio of H2/CO2. Fig. 11(a) indicates the peak of CH4/H2 ratio is
around 100 � C. Beyond 200 � C, the ratio is lower than 20 m3/m3. The
peak ratio is also associated with air injection rates of lower than 40,000
m3/day and oil production of less than 10 m3/day. The ratio of H2S/H2
spans between 0.1 and 0.6 m3/m3 for all temperature ranges as shown in
Fig. 11(b). It possess the same wide range at air injection rate below
20,000 m3/day and oil production rate below 5 m3/day, beyond those
rates, the ratio range start to decline and become narrower. Fig. 11(c)
shows that the ratio of CO/(CO þ CO2) is generally quite low at around
0.02 m3/m3 to 0.04 m3/m3, some scattered peak ratios above 0.08 m3/
m3 is observed at temperatures lower than 300 � C. The peak ratios is also
observed at air injections lower than 30,000 m3/day; it is also worth
noting that both well pairs 1 and 2 have a higher peak CO/(CO þ CO2)
ratio compared to the other well pairs. The data shows the peak ratio for
well pairs 1 and 2 are at oil rates above 15 m3/day whereas the peak
ratio for other well pairs are at oil production lower than 15 m3/day. As
shown in Fig. 12(a), the majority of the CH4/(CO þ CO2) peak ratio are
observed at toe temperature below 300 � C, and air injection of less than
10
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 186 (2020) 106704
30,000 m3/day. The ratio is highest when oil production is less than 5
m3/day and starts to decline as oil rate ramps up. In Fig. 12(b), the
change in toe temperature does not have significant effect in changing
H2S/(CO þ CO2) ratio. The ratio is highest at air injection around
15,000 m3/day, and gradually decreases as air injection increases. The
ratio is quite constant as oil rate changes. The ratio of HMWG to (CO þ
CO2), plotted in Fig. 12(c), are mostly scattered around the toe tem­
perature of 150–250 � C, 10,000 m3/day of air injection and oil rate of
less than 15 m3/day.
Fig. 13 plots the oxygen utilization, CO/(CO þ CO2) and N2/(CO þ
CO2) ratios for well pair KP01. Fig. 13(a) indicates that oxygen utiliza­
tion is mostly between 93 and 100%, and it appears that at 96–98%
oxygen usage, the oil rate is higher. In general, the CO/(CO þ CO2) ratio
ranges between 0.001 and 0.1 and it is about 0.01–0.1 at high oil rates.
In comparison, previous 3D cell experiments on Wolf Lake and Atha­
basca oil reported ratios are 0.243 (Greaves et al., 2007) and 0.248 (Xia
and Greaves, 2002), respectively. The vast difference in the results
suggest that the lab experiments are not good representations of what
happens in the field. This may due to the fact that the combustion tube
W. Wei et al.
Fig. 12. Produced gas ratios (a) CH4/(CO þ CO2), (b) H2S/(CO þ CO2), and (c) HMWG/(CO þ CO2) versus toe temperature, air injection rate, and oil produc­
tion rate.
experiments are tested under idealized conditions in enclosed system
with homogeneous properties and minimal heat losses, whereas in re­
ality the combustion is carried out in an open space of heterogeneous
reservoir system, The better controlled operation of consistent air in­
jection and uniform heating in lab setting also leads to better perfor­
mance than what was realized in the field. The ratio of N2/(CO þ CO2)
shows a range mainly between 5 and 10 with some higher values at
lower oil rates. The remaining well pairs exhibit similar trend to that of
well pair KP01.
2.4. Kerrobert Thai versus kerrobert SAGD
There is a Kerrobert Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) project
located about 3 km to the south of the Kerrobert THAI project, operated
by Baytex, displayed in Fig. 14, in the same formation as the THAI
operation. Four SAGD well pairs were drilled and started operation in
2010 (open red circles on Fig. 14), and three infill wells started opera­
tion in 2013 (solid red circles on Fig. 14). The well lengths are ~700 m
11
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 186 (2020) 106704
with interwell spacing of ~100 m. A general comparison of reservoir
and well properties between the Kerrobert THAI and SAGD projects are
listed in Table 3.
To compare well performance between SAGD and THAI processes, a
normalized oil production rate is calculated by dividing the oil rate by
the perforated lengths of the wells. Fig. 15 shows that THAI wells yiel­
ded a peak oil rate of about 0.06 m3/day/m whereas the SAGD wells
yielded a peak oil rate of about 0.3 m3/day/m. The SAGD operated wells
demonstrated significantly higher oil production rate compared to the
THAI operation. Since steam is injected in the SAGD process, a cumu­
lative injected energy to cumulative produced oil (cEOR) comparison is
also performed as illustrated in Fig. 16. The results reveal that the THAI
wells demonstrate lower cEOR than that obtained in the SAGD opera­
tion. This suggests that despite lower oil rates, the THAI process is more
energy efficient than the SAGD process. The THAI process also partially
upgrades the oil by up to 5� API whereas SAGD process does not upgrade
the oil to any measurable extent.
W. Wei et al.
Fig. 13. Gas ratio plots for well pair KP01.
3. Discussion
The results from the analysis of the Kerrobert THAI field operation
reveals that there is no clear relationship between the oil production rate
and air injection rate. The Kerrobert field oil production reached peak
rate of 70 m3/day when air injection is around 80,000–130,000 m3/day,
any extra air injected beyond this point does not enhance liquid pro­
duction, and this trend is consistent at both pads. This limitation may
relate to the fuel availability and development of combustion zone, as
lack of deposited coke would limit the combustion reaction and higher
air injection promotes greater cooling of the system. In addition, at
higher air rate, gas saturation rises in the reservoir which increases the
gas relative permeability, thus air is the preferential fluid to be flowing
between injector and producer. The large amount of air in the reservoir
12
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 186 (2020) 106704
Fig. 14. Kerrobert SAGD well pair layout. Open red circles represent SAGD
well pairs, solid red circles represent infill wells. (For interpretation of the
references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web
version of this article.)
would also push liquids away from producer which delayed liquid
drainage and production. The measuring point at the toe of the producer
well only indicate the produced fluid temperature change, it does not
represent temperature change of the combustion reaction zone, thus
there is no clear trend found with air injection. The pressure change by
air injection is not substantial which indicates high permeability
W. Wei et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 186 (2020) 106704

Table 3 carbon dioxide including the thermal cracking/thermolysis, aqua­

General comparison between Kerrobert Thai and Kerrobert SAGD projects.
Average Oil Saturation
Average Porosity
Average Pay Thickness
Well Configuration
Average Well Length
Interwell Spacing
Injectant
Average Injection Rate
Average Oil Rate
Original Oil In Place (OOIP)
Recovery Factor
a
Infill wells production are included.
thermolysis and water-gas shift reactions. According to Kapadia et al.’s
Kerrobbert-THAI Kerrobert-SAGD (2013) reaction scheme, the H2S gas is mainly produced by thermolysis
and aquathermolysis reactions, and the H2S/(CO þ CO2) ratio for both
80% 80%
30% 30% aquathermolysis and pyrolysis are 0.5 with complete reaction. However,
25 m 22 m the averaged H2S/(CO þ CO2) ratio based on Table 2 and Fig. 12(b)
Injector - Vertical Injector - Horizontal showed a lower value which suggest that reactions other than thermal
Producer - Horizontal Producer - Horizontal cracking/thermolysis and aquathermolysis have occurred to produce
800 700
100 100
more carbon oxides such as high temperature oxidation and the
Dry Air >90% Quality Steam water-gas shift reaction. On the other hand, the high molecular weight
14,000 m3 300 m3 gas (HMWG) to carbon oxide ratio, HMWG/(CO þ CO2), is higher at low
5 m3 56 m3 temperature compared to high temperature as shown in Fig. 12(c). This
5.760 MM m3 1.48 MM m3
is due to the generation of HMWG at lower temperature (<300 � C) by
2.5% 38%a
aquathermolysis, and consumption of HMWG as well as generation of
carbon oxide at higher temperature (>380 � C) during HTO reaction.
The remaining component ratios such as H2/(CO þ CO2) in Fig. 10
(c), CH4/(CO þ CO2) in Fig. 12(a) also showed a trend of higher peak
ratio at low temperatures (<300 � C) compared to at high temperatures
(>300 � C), which suggest that HTO reaction have a higher dominance
compared to LTO reactions, due to the fact that higher carbon oxide
generation and O2 consumption during HTO compared to the case
during LTO reactions. Fig. 11(a) illustrated peak ratio of CH4/H2 around
130 m3/m3 at low temperatures (<300 � C), and the averaged CH4/H2
ratio on Table 2 is around 8.6 m3/m3 which is higher than 0.13 m3/m3
based on complete aquathermolysis reaction scheme (Kapadia et al.,
2013). This indicate that methanation has also occurred to consume
more hydrogen and generate more methane gas. This is also consistent
with Hajdo et al. (1985)’s conclusion of significance of methanation
reaction at Marguerite Lake.
THAI process demonstrated that it is more energy efficient and less
energy intensive compared to SAGD as shown in Fig. 16. However, the
drainage area in THAI is much smaller than that in SAGD due to it is
limited to the combustion front zone and drainage only occur as front is
pushed towards to the heel section of the production well. Whereas in
SAGD process, the drainage area extends to the entire horizontal section
where the heat exposure is. Thus, the normalized fluid production of
SAGD process is much higher than that in THAI process.

4. Conclusions

In this study, we have analyzed the causal relationship between fluid

production and air injection at the Kerrobert THAI facility. The results
show that the relationship between air injection and oil/water produc­
tion are not linear and that the peak oil production is reached at 70 m3/
day when air injection is around 80,000–130,000 m3/day; any excess air
injected does not enhance greater liquid production. This is likely due to
Fig. 15. Normalized oil production rate comparison between (a) Kerrobert
the competitive actions of greater oxygen availability means more
THAI and (b) Kerrobert SAGD operation.
oxidation and heat generation but greater air flow leads to greater
cooling of the system. Fuel availability also limits combustion zone
reservoir property, and therefore, should allow higher air injectivity.
development and hence the heat generated is insufficient to overcome
Fig. 10(a) H2/CO ratio versus temperature figure demonstrated an
the cooling effect of increased air injection. The highest oil production
obvious negative temperature gradient region (NTGR) between 250 and
rates are observed at well toe temperatures ranging between 150 and
350 � C, that is, a region where oxygen uptake rate declines as temper­
200 � C in all wells – this implies that the fluids that reach the toe of the
ature increases (Moore et al., 1999). All other gas ratios versus tem­
well are not at the combustion temperatures (typically >350 � C) and
perature also show a similar trend but are less noticeable. The low gas
that the oil is likely exposed to saturated steam at the prevailing partial
ratio value around 300 � C suggests decreased oxidation reactions and pressure of the steam in the reservoir. The produced gas component
therefore less combustion-based produced gases. The gas ratios versus
ratios, with the high production of carbon oxides and consumption of
oil production plots in Figs. 10(a), 11(a) and 12(a) show a production oxygen gas, indicate that high temperature oxidation is more dominant
trend of methane < hydrogen < carbon oxides at high oil rates.
than low temperature reactions within the reservoir. The gas component
From Table 2, the produced oxygen gas from each well is only ratios also suggest that the methanation reaction also plays significant
0.3–0.6% which indicates that combustion (oxidation) reactions were
role in the process. A comparison of the THAI operation with a neigh­
taking place within the reservoir. Based on the reaction schemes sum­
boring SAGD operation reveals that the THAI operation achieves a lower
marized by Kapadia et al. (2013), oxygen is consumed during both low
normalized oil rate but its thermal efficiency is greater. This is likely due
temperature oxidation (LTO) and high temperature oxidation (HTO)
to the smaller drainage front that occurs in the THAI process.
reactions, and carbon oxides are mostly produced during high temper­
ature oxidation reaction. There are other reactions that also produce

13
W. Wei et al.
Fig. 16. Cumulative injected energy to cumulative oil ratio comparison between THAI and SAGD wells. Injected energy is the energy to compress the air in the THAI
process whereas in SAGD, it is the enthalpy of the injected steam.
Declaration of competing interest
None.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Proton Technologies for permission
to present this work. The authors also acknowledge support from Mitacs
(Canada) and the University of Calgary Beijing Research Site, a research
initiative associated with the University of Calgary Global Research
Initiative in Sustainable Low Carbon Unconventional Resources, and the
Kerui Group.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data to this article can be found online at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.petrol.2019.106704.
References
Ayasse, C., Bloomer, C., Lyngberg, E., Boddy, W., Donnelly, J., Greaves, M., 2005. In:
First Field Pilot of the Thai TM Process. Paper PETSOC-2005-142 Presented at the
Canadian International Petroleum Conference, 7-9 June 2005, Calgary, Alberta.
Feng, Q.-H., Gao, S.-C., Zhang, J.-C., Ye, X.-C., 2016. Well Bottom-Hole Flowing Pressure
Evaluation Method in 48 Block of S Gas Field, pp. 186–189. https://doi.org/
10.2991/iceep-16.2016.31.
Gates, I.D., Adams, J., Larter, S., 2008. The impact of oil viscosity heterogeneity on the
production characteristics of tar sand and heavy oil reservoirs. Part II: intelligent,
geotailored recovery processes in compositionally graded reservoirs. J. Can. Pet.
Technol. 47 (9), 40–49, 2008.
Greaves, M., Dong, L.L., Rigby, S., 2012. Validation of toe-to-heel air-injection bitumen
recovery using 3D combustion-cell results. SPE Reserv. Eval. Eng. 15, 72–85. https://
doi.org/10.2118/143035-pa.
Greaves, M., Dong, L.L., Rigby, S.P., 2011. Upscaling Thai: experiment to pilot. In:
Canadian Unconventional Resources Conferences. Paper Presented at the Canadian
Unconventional Resources Conference 2011, 15-17 November 2011.
Greaves, M., Saghr, A.M., Xia, T.X., Turta, A.T., Ayasse, C., 2001. Thai - new air injection
technology for heavy oil recovery and in situ upgrading. J. Can. Pet. Technol. 40,
38–47.
14
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 186 (2020) 106704
Greaves, M., Xia, T., Ayasse, C., 2007. Underground upgrading of heavy OIl using Thai-
“toe-to-heel air injection. https://doi.org/10.2523/97728-ms, 1–3.
Hajdo, L.E., Hallam, R.J., Vorndran, L.D.L., 1985. Hydrogen generation during in-situ
combustion. In: SPE California Regional Meeting. https://doi.org/10.2118/13661-
MS.
Hill, P., 2017. Hydrocarbon distribution in the Mannville Waseca member Edam oil field,
west central Saskatchewan. In: Summary of Investigations 2017, Volume 1,
Saskatchewan Geological Survey, Saskatchewan Ministry of the Economy, p. 21.
Miscellaneous Report 2017-4.1, Paper A-3.
Kapadia, P.R., Wang, J.J., Kallos, M.S., Gates, I.D., 2013. Practical process design for in
situ gasification of bitumen. Appl. Energy 107, 281–296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
apenergy.2013.02.035.
Mahbub, A., 2012. Estimation of Reservoir Heterogeneity from the Depositional
Environment in Reservoir Characterization of a CHOPS Field. MSc Thesis.
Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary.
Moore, R.G., Ursenbach, M.G., Laureshen, C.J., Belgrave, J.D.M., Mehta, S.A., 1999.
Ramped temperature oxidation analysis of Athabasca Oil Sands bitumen. J. Can. Pet.
Technol. 38, 52. https://doi.org/10.2118/99-13-40.
Petrobank, 2012. In: Petrobank Annual Report Presentation.
Putnam, P.E., Oliver, T.A., 1980. Stratigraphic traps in channel sandstones in the upper
Mannville (Albian) of east-central Alberta’. Bull. Can. Petrol. Geol. 28 (4), 489–508.
Speight, J.G., 2013. Heavy Oil Production Processes. Gulf Professional Publishing.
Turta, A., Greaves, M., 2018. Toe-to-Heel air injection (Thai) [WWW Document]. URL.
http://www.insitucombustion.ca/docs/Advanced_THAI_Brochure.pdf. (Accessed 8
April 2018).
Van Hulten, F.F.N., 1984. Petroleum geology of pikes peak heavy oil field, Waseca
Formation, lower cretaceous. In: Saskatchewan. Mesozoic Middle North Am. A Sel.
Pap. From Symp. Mesozoic Middle North Am. - Mem., 9 9, pp. 441–454.
Wikel, K., Kendall, R., 2012. 4D study of secondary recovery utilizing THAI® from a
Saskatchewan heavy oil reservoir. In: Paper presented at the GeoConvention 2012
conference held in Calgary, Alberta, May 14–18, available at AAPG Datapages/
Search and Discovery. Article #90174.
Xia, T.X., Greaves, M., 2006. In situ upgrading of Athabasca Tar Sand bitumen using
Thai. Chem. Eng. Res. Des. 84, 856–864. https://doi.org/10.1205/cherd.04192.
Xia, T.X., Greaves, M., 2002. Upgrading Athabasca tar sand using toe-to-heel air
injection. J. Can. Pet. Technol. 41, 51–57.
Xia, T.X., Greaves, M., Turta, A.T., Ayasse, C., 2003. Thai-A “SHORT-DISTANCE
displacement” IN situ combustion process for the recovery and upgrading OF heavy
oil. ICHEM 81. https://doi.org/10.1205/02638760360596847.
Xia, T.X., Greaves, M., Werfilli, W.S., Rathbone, R.R., 2002. Downhole conversion of
lloydminster heavy oil using Thai-CAPRI process. In: Paper SPE/PS-CIM/CHOA 1–16
Presented at the Canadian Petroleum Society and Canada Heavy Oil Association
Conference, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.