CSUG/SPE 148989

Upscaling THAI: Experiment to Pilot

M Greaves SPE, University of Bath, L L Dong, University of Bath,
S P Rigby, University of Nottingham

Copyright 2011, Society of Petroleum Engineers

This paper was prepared for presentation at the Canadian Unconventional Resources Conference held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 15–17 November 2011.

This paper was selected for presentation by a CSUG/SPE program committee following review of information contained in an abstract submitted by the author(s). Contents of the paper have not
been reviewed by the Society of Petroleum Engineers and are subject to correction by the author(s). The material does not necessarily reflect any position of the Society of Petroleum Engineers,
its officers, or members. Electronic reproduction, distribution, or storage of any part of this paper without the written consent of the Society of Petroleum Engineers is prohibited. Permission to
reproduce in print is restricted to an abstract of not more than 300 words; illustrations may not be copied. The abstract must contain conspicuous acknowledgment of SPE copyright.

Abstract
Numerical simulation of the insitu combustion process is complicated by sharp gradients, with different temporal and special
regimes applying to the reaction front and diffusional transport. It is not possible to achieve fine scale solutions at field scale
in a reasonable time, owing to the onerous computer requirements. Instead, grid coarsening procedures were used.
Simulation solutions were obtained for a homogeneous reservoir section of the THAI® field pilot, near Conklin, Alberta,
Canada. The reservoir model did not include an interbedded shale layer, or bottom water layer, and the study therefore
represents a non-optimal, first stage simulation of the THAI process, prior to incorporating more reservoir complexities. The
results show that the process is inherently stable over a six year operating period, since there was no oxygen in the produced
gas. High temperatures are generated in the narrow combustion front zone (900 ºC) but 60 m ahead the temperature is 500 -
600 ºC. Rapid desaturation of reservoir water takes place ahead of the combustion front, allowing combustion gases to enter
into the colder bitumen layers, thereby creating some oil mobility. Of particular significance, is the existence of a narrow,
high saturation, Steam Zone, extending to more than 15 m, and up to 30 m during later stages of production. The steam zone
propagates at up three times faster than that of the combustion front. Also, the Mobile Oil Zone (MOZ) is very significant
characteristic of the THAI process throughout the whole production period. However, the temperature in the MOZ, close to
the horizontal producer well, is quite low, around 150-180 ºC. The oil recovery factor was approximately 60 % in the zone
swept by the gas-steam front. Oil production peaked at 69 m³/day rate, averaging 350 barrrels per day for the single well
pair.

Introduction
The conventional ISC process, as applied to heavy oil recovery, was widely operated during the 1970-80’s. It achieved
varying degrees of success, but there were also some failures. It is generally considered to be a difficult process to control
and operators have therefore been somewhat reluctant to treat conventional ISC as main stream thermal heavy oil technology.
Yet, the theoretical promise remains very high. Most heavy oil and bitumen reservoirs do not often possess all of the
desirable characteristics for successful operation of conventional ISC. Therefore, new, integrated – horizontal wells
processes, like THAI, are needed. THAI operates via ‘short-distance displacement’ (Xia 2003, Turta 2004) as depicted in
Fig. 1. The advantage is that mobilized oil ahead of the combustion front only has to travel a few metres to the horizontal
production well, instead of many tens, or hundreds of metres.

The THAI process, or Toe-to-Heel Air Injection, was developed from an understanding of the difficulties experienced over
three or four decade, of operating conventional in-situ combustion (ISC). The schematic in Fig. 2 shows, in very simple
terms, the basic details of the THAI process, as derived from an understanding of many in situ combustion experiments
carried out by the Improved Oil Recovery Group at the University of Bath, over the period 1990 to 2002. These experiments
were performed using a 3D combustion cell, in order to capture more of the reservoir process behaviour, not easily
interpretable from 1D or 2D experiments. The experiments were conducted at low pressure, and remarkably, they were able
to predict most of the main features observed in the THAI pilot operated by Petrobank, at their Athabasca Oil Sands site,
nr.Conklin, Alberta, Canada.

During the 1970-80s, when many pilot and field development ISC projects were carried out, a number of pioneering
simulation studies were conducted; notably by Grabowski et al. (1979), who simulated Cold Lake Oil Sands bitumen. They
used six components: two oil pseudocomponents, heavy oil, light oil, plus inert gas, oxygen, water and coke. Four chemical
2 CSUG/SPE 148989

reactions were simulated, including heavy oil pyrolysis, heavy oil combustion, light oil combustion, and coke combustion.
However, the coarse-scale approximations used - necessary at the time, due to the limited computer power available,
generally led to serious under-prediction of the combustion temperature and a false understanding, therefore, that very high
combustion temperatures were not necessarily essential for successful operation of the (conventional) ISC process. However,
operation in a stable high temperature oxidation (HTO) mode is vitally important for successful operation of any heavy oil in
situ combustion process. This was first recognized by Moore et al 1998, and subsequently confirmed by other workers. It is
now generally considered that combustion front temperatures in excess of 500 ºC are essential if the ISC process is to operate
stably in a heavy oil reservoir.
Coates and Zhao 2001 were the first to simulate a field scale section of the THAI process, using CMG’s STARS reservoir
simulator. They used the Belgrave kinetics scheme for Athabasca and Lloydminster crudes, and found that the process had
good areal and vertical sweep, producing high oil recovery. The combustion front velocity was highly dependent on the air
injection rate, but predicted combustion front velocities were as low as 0.05 m/day, up to 0.1 m/day. Because only a short
section of the production well was used, they obtained very low oil production rates, as low as 4.5 m³/day. The highest
combustion temperatures were around 450 ºC, over a very limited zone, and generally significantly lower than this towards
the outer edges. They also concluded that there was little heating or mobilization ahead of the combustion front. One factor
that may have constrained the results was the selection of a quite low, uniform permeability, of 1 Darcy. Card et al 2005,
through their study of the in situ combustion process, have suggested (from experience) that the largest size of grid block that
can be used in the vicinity of the combustion front is 2m x 2m, and preferably 1m x 1 m. Typically, this will require use of
advanced processer options like CMG’s ‘DYNAGRID’ and parallel processing, if very large computing times are to be
avoided. In their design study for an in situ combustion pilot in Venezuela (Anaya, eta al 2010), the authors were able to use
kinetic and relative permeability parameters from a combustion tube simulation, directly in the field pilot simulation.
Interestingly, their selected well configurations were vertical injection and horizontal producer well combinations, with the
injector located in the centre of a 5-spot pattern. Although showing a vague similarity to THAI, the separation distance
between the air injection well and the horizontal producer well was quite large, up to 200 m. High oil recovery was claimed,
but only in the range 30-43 %, and the highest value was obtained using two horizontal producers. The grid block size was
chosen to be 16 m. Mamora et al 2010, simulated a field section with a 500 m long horizontal well, to compare the
performance of SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage), CAGD (Combustion assisted Gravity Drainage) and THAI
processes. Using the STARS simulator, they predicted that THAI only achieved an oil production rate of 4.5 m³/day,
compared with approximately 37.5 m³/day for CAGD and 50 m³/day for SAGD. It appears from their description that their
model used 32 x 30 x 4 = 3840 grid blocks. However, their diagrams show that they also used grid refinement in the blocks
above the horizontal producer and also around the injection well. They employed Belgrave kinetics, allowing LTO (low
temperature oxidation) reactions to produce much more coke than is indicated by thermal cracking alone. It is generally
agreed, that LTO is undesirable in the ISC process, since it can lead to oil viscosification and reduced gas relative
permeability, which can seriously reduce the air injectivity, causing the process to fail. Operation in an HTO mode, to ensure
vigorous combustion, is absolutely vital to avoid this situation developing. The predicted temperature profiles for THAI
showed reasonably high values after 2 years (ca. 450 ºC), but then decreased to 300 ºC after 5 years, and ca. 275 ºC after 7
years. This indicates a lack of air injectivity and that the process was therefore dying. This result does not appear to be fully
consistent with the air injection rate of 200,000 m³/day (injection flux = 3 m3 h-1m-2) which should be sufficient to achieve
vigorous combustion, unless oxygen was channeling through the front.
The starting point for the current investigation was an accurate simulation model of the THAI process, at the experimental,
using results obtained from a 3D combustion cell test on Athabasca Oil Sands test (Greaves et al 2011a, Greaves et al 2011b).
Phillips et al 1985 kinetics was used to model the thermal cracking process. The predicted accuracy of a number of dynamic
parameters, including the oil production rate, peak combustion temperature profile, level of CO2 in the produced gas, and the
degree of thermal upgrading, was either excellent, or very good. Robust stability in these experiments was achieved, despite
the very high air injection rates used, much larger than would be employed in the field. There was also excellent agreement
for the level of produced oxgen (actually zero during the first period of dry combustion), but following a step increase of 33
% in the air injection rate, there was a significant delay before the predicted value began to increase in line with the
experiment. However, the produced oxygen level still remained at a safe level. Oil was produced mainly by gravity
drainage, with about one-quarter coming from the MOZ, including a significant amount from below the horizontal production
well.

Reservoir Model:
The simulated reservoir section (Conklin Pilot) is shown in Figure 2. The well arrangement is direct line drive (VIHP), using
a single vertical injector (VI) and a single horizontal producer well (HP). The interwell spacing is 100 m, and the air injection
well is inset 1 metre from the inlet end of the reservoir section. The offset distance of the vertical injection well from the toe
of the horizontal well is 14 m. The simulation was made for a homogeneous oil layer, without any interbedded shale layer or
bottom water layer. Details of the numerical model are given in Table 1. The parallel computing option in STARS was used
for all of the simulation runs, as described in Table 1, but DYNAGRID was only employed in the refined coarse mesh
(RCM).
CSUG/SPE 148989 3

Reaction Model:
The reaction kinetics is described by Eqns. 1-3. The thermal cracking kinetics of Athabasca bitumen, as represented by Eqn.
(1), was proposed by Phillips et al. (1985). Asphaltenes and heavy oil in Eqn. (1) are grouped together as a single pseudo-
component to represent the heavy fraction of the bitumen. The heavy fraction of the bitumen is designated as “Heavy Oil in
Eqn. 2. The Distillables in Eqn, (1) are designated as “Light Oil”, and include, medium oil, light oil and gases. The
combustion of coke (Eqn. (3)),

k1 k2 k4
Coke (A 1 ) ← Asphaltene (A 2 ) ↔ Heavy Oils (A 3 ) ↔ Distillables (A 4 ) (1)
k3 k5
Heavy Oil → 0.53 Light Oil + 60.61 Coke (2)

coke + 1.225O 2 → 0.95CO 2 + 0.05CO + 0.5H 2 O (3)

The stoichiometric coefficients in Eqn. (2) were obtained by tuning the model (thermal cracking kinetics) using a trial and
error procedure, aligned to oil production rate. Data submitted by Petrobank to the Energy Utilities Board (Alberta, Canada),
stated a target value of 490 bopd for their projected commercial May River project. The May River project design is based on
the Conklin pilot production performance, since it commenced operation in June 2006. This level of oil production was used
only as a guide as to what might be expected from the simulation. Alternatively, upscaling oil production from the 3D
combustion cell experiment (Xia and Greaves 2002), to a reservoir volume of 1.25 x 106 m³ for the Conklin Pilot, over a 6
year production period, gives a uniform rate of 129 m³/day, or 65 m³/day over 12 years. The latter figure of 400 barrels per
day, although lower, is more in line with the May River target value.

The activation energy and the frequency factor for Eq. (2) were obtained from Phillips et al. 1985, whilst those for Eq. (3) are
obtained from Xia and Greaves 2002. Combustion of heavy oil and light oil was found not to be significant in the previous
3D combustion cell simulation study, and LTO reactions (low temperature oxidation) were not included, as HTO (high
temperature oxidation) predominates in THAI.

Simulation Results:
Air injection was started as soon as the steam pre-heating cycle was completed, after 90 days of steam injection. The fine
mesh (FM) simulation terminated after 40 days, due to lack of convergence. However, the simulation did show that the
thickness of the combustion zone was approximately 0.6 to 1.2 m. Coarsened mesh simulations (CM, RCM, VC, Table 1)
were run to determine what number of grid blocks could be employed to obtain an approximate, but computationally efficient
solution, and to give a reasonable level of oil production which was consistent with a valid representation of the THAI
process. This was guided to some degree by knowledge of how THAI operated in 3D combustion cell experiments and the
corresponding simulation analysis. The VC simulation (1440 GB) predicted a similar shape production profile to that in Fig.
3a (CM 2880 GB), but the oil rate was significantly higher. In Fig. 3b (RCM 25,920 GB), there are two distinct main periods
of constant production. The first is lower than that observed in Fig. 3a, but the period of constant production is at a slightly
higher rate. All three cases predited that oil production continues until the end of the simulation period (6 years), without
any falling trend. The average oil production rate is 56,000, 44,000 and 40,000 cm³/minute, respectively, for the VC, CM,
RCM simulations, equivalent to 80, 63 and 58 m³/day. The RCM result is less than the May River target design value (78
m³/day) but it is close to the rate estimated previously by direct scaling of the 3D experiment (65 m³/day), for a field
operation time of 12 years. The level of oxygen and CO2 in the produced (dry) gas are, respectively, zero (Fig. 4) and 17.8 %
(Fig. 5). These values are in very good agreement with the 3D experiment. It has also been reported by Petrobank that there
is virtually no oxygen in the produced gas from the Conklin pilot. It was decided, therefore, to use the RCM for the
simulations. The water production rate (Fig. 6) shows that most of the reservoir water is produced quite early during the
production period, and the rate then drops to less than a tenth of its peak value (178 m³/day) after 2 years. During the rest of
the production period, water production is steady at about 17 m³/day, and
is mainly the product of combustion.

Temperature and Coke Profiles:

The temperature profiles in Fig. 7 show that the combustion front is essentially vertical. It propagates in a stable manner, but
after 6 years of production it has only advanced about 50 m into the oil layer from the inlet end. This is equivalent to about
2.4 cm/day, compared to ca. 1.0 m/day in the experiment. In the pilot, the air injection flux is 2 m³ h-1m-2 compared to 12 m3
h-1m-2 in the experiment, and this should, without other factors being considered, reduce the combustion front velocity down
to ca. 0.15 m/day. However, this is still five times larger than predicted. It is possible that vigorous combustion is occurring
further out, up to 70-80 m, where the temperature is approximately 600 ºC. Pure carbon burns at this temperature. However,
the combustion front velocity, is still quite low, compared with what is usually assumed to be the case. Most importantly,
however, almost 40 % of the reservoir has been heated to 170- 200 º, so the bitumen viscosity at the edge of the thermal front
is about 10 mPa s, and probably less, because of thermal upgrading. The combustion zone temperature is close to 900 ºC, but
4 CSUG/SPE 148989

in the central region of the oil layer it reduces to nearer 720 ºC. Laterally out into the oil layer there is significant local
broadening of the combustion zone.

The combustion temperature profiles are consistent with the coke profiles shown in Fig. 8. There is also extensive and
significant coke deposition ahead of the main coke zone (Fig. 8a), where the concentration of coke is in the range 0.014-0.18
gmole/cm³. The predicted range of coke concentration is similar to that seen in the 3D combustion cell experiment. However,
the highest coke concentration is around the horizontal well (Fig. 8b). Coke deposition around the horizontal well expands
gradually along the well from the toe end over the nearly 6 years of production. The coke does not represent any barrier, or
impedance to oil draining into the well because the coke is deposited in the pores as thin layer, approximately 10 microns
thick. The preponderance of coke in the bottom of the oil layer extends outwards to the boundaries of the oil layer section.

Combustion Gas and Oxygen Profiles:

The oxygen profile shown in Fig. 9a indicates that the leading edge of the oxygen front only extends about 30 m in to the
reservoir, after nearly 6 years of production. The distribution of oxygen along the maximum concentration contours (ca. 13
%) covers about half the width of the oil layer, but there is no indication that oxygen is present at lower concentrations
further out into the reservoir section. In Fig. 9b, oxygen is present just upstream of the toe of the horizontal well, but there is
no oxygen along any part of the well downstream of this. Tranverse profiles suggest that coke in the lower levels of the oil
layer are consuming oxygen in the vicinity of the well, creating high temperatures there.

The gas saturation profiles in Fig. 10 are very interesting, because they show that the combustion gas front has developed
over more than 40 % of oil layer. In Fig. 10a, the horizontal producer well is completely surrounded by gas for one-third of
the well length from the toe, but downstream of this there is no gas around the well. At least in the central section, significant
gas saturation has developed in the oil layer, heating and displacing oil there. A fuller picture can be seen in Fig. 9b which
shows a total sweep out of oil, and also, that that the gas front has started to channel towards the production end. A narrow
channel of lower gas saturation now exists all the way to through the rest of the oil layer. There is no indication in Fig. 2 that
the rate of oil production at this stage is diminishing due to this effect.

Steam Zone:
Fig. 11 shows that, a partial, but very distinct Steam Zone is generated ahead of the combustion front. After 2 years, it it
extends vertically across two-thirds of the oil layer (Fig. 11 a). In the central region of the oil layer, the concentrated part of
the steam zone (SSteam = 0.75) is about 10 m wide, extending to 15 m at the base. The boundary of the steam zone (SSteam =
0.25) extend to more than double these widths. The steam zone tends to diminish in size in the centre of the oil layer at later
times. However, the areal extent of the Steam Zone is much more significant, as shown in Fig. 11b. The saturation level has
also increased significantly, to SSteam = 0.90. The steam zone is the major heat transport mechanism in the THAI process,
transporting large amounts of energy from the the combustions gases into the downstream, colder sections of the oil layer, so
mobilizing the viscous bitumen. The rate of advance of the steam front is much faster than that of the combustion front and
is approximately 0.08-0.01 m/day.

Oil and Water Saturation Profiles:

Along the centre of the oil layer (Fig. 12a) the oil has banked ahead of the combustion front, or more correctly, it has banked
ahead of the the steam front. As can be seen from the oil rate vectors in Fig. 12a, approximately two-thirds of the oil is
produced from this zone. This is the Mobile Oil Zone (MOZ) which remains a distinctive feature of the THAI process for
the whole production period (up to 6 years). However, its contribution to the total oil production declines relative to that
produced from the rest of the remaining oil layer. After 6 years, oil production is split approximately 50:50 between the
MOZ and the oil region downstream. After 2 years (Fig. 12b), there is a very substantial oil bank across the whole width of
the oil layer, indicating that the width of the MOZ is about 20 m. At later times, the MOZ tends to broaden, and its width
increases up to 40 m. After 2 years, the desaturation ahead of the oil bank in the centre of the oil layer becomes more
pronounced, and the gas/steam front is beginning to channel through to the production end. However, this does not appear to
be very severe, since the oil production rate (Fig. 2) does not show any marked tendency to decline after 6 years.

It is clear that the oil saturation surrounding the horizontal producer well remains high (So~0.80) along its whole length for
the entire production period. The ‘Cold Oil Zone’ ahead of the MOZ remains largely intact during the first 2 years of
operation, except for some oil drainage in the lower one-third of the reservoir. However, this situation changes considerably
at later times, as heat is transported into this zone, and oil drainage becomes more extensive After nearly 6 years (Fig. 12c)
approximately 45 % of the oil has been produced, leaving some 55 % of the original oil in place (OOIP) to be produced. If
oil production was to continue at the same rate, then it would require a similar operating period to produce the remaining oil.
The residual oil in the zone swept by the gas-steam front is zero, so the oil recovery factor after 6 years of operation is
approximately 60 % OOIP.
CSUG/SPE 148989 5

After just 0.6 years (Fig.e), rapid water desaturation occurs ahead of the combustion front Fig. 13a). The desaturation front
advances 60 m into the reservoir, equivalent to nearly 0.3 m/day. This is 10 times faster than the combustion front advance.
After 2 years, the rate of advance slows down greatly, to 0.11 m/day. The very high water mobility, compared to the
bitumen, is highlighted by strong channelling, initially, but this effect reduces considerably at later time (Fig. 12b). This is
because most of the original reservoir water has already been produced. After two years, about half the original water in the
reservoir has drained, so that Sw = 0.09-0.11. Drainage of reservoir water from within the oil layer is a principal reason why
gas (and heat) is able to enter this region, aiding oil displacement. The water saturation around the producer well is in the
range 0.20-0.25 for the first two years, but then falls to 0.10.

Conclusions:
A coarsened mesh simulation was tuned by a trial and error adjustment of the thermal cracking kinetics parameters, to align
with a range of possible oil production rate (a) reported from field experience and (b) upscaled directly from the 3D
combustion cell experiment. The following conclusions are drawn about the performace of the THAI process in a
representative, homogeneous full-section of the Conklin field pilot.

1. Oil production peaks at 69 m³/day. The main production period included an initial, lower rate period (43 m³/day) followed
by a higher rate period (62 m³/day). The average oil production rate was 58 m³/day.

2. The combustion front was essentially vertical and propagated about 50 m in to the oil layer after 6 years of production.
The combustion front temperature was close to 900 ºC in the narrow combustion zone, but the main heated zone ahead of this
is nearer 600 ºC. These high temperatures are consistent with a constant high level (17.8 %) of CO2 in the produced gas –
attesting to vigorous combustion. Most significantly, also, about 40 % of the reservoir section is heated to 170-200 ºC.

3. No oxygen was predicted in the produced gas, confirming that the operation of THAI is completely stable. After 6 years,
the combustion gas front has developed over more than 40 % of the oil layer, with no residual oil left behind. Although a
narrow gas channel developed in the centre of the oil layer, extending all the way to the production end, there is no indication
this significantly affected oil production.

4. A very distinct Steam Zone is generated ahead of the combustion front, and after 2 years of operation it extends across
two-thirds of the oil layer. It is approximately 10 m wide, but is more than double this width towards the boundaries of the
section. The rate of advance of the Steam Zone is much faster than the combustion front, and is approximately 0.08-0.10
m/day. The Steam Zone is a major mechanism for transporting heat from the combustion gases into the colder parts of the oil
layer. The residual oil in the zone swept by the combustion gas-steam front is zero, so the oil recovery factor is
approximately 60 % of the original oil in place (OOIP).

5. The Mobile Oil Zone (MOZ) is a characteristic feature of the THAI process during the whole oil production period. The
width of the MOZ is approximately 20 m. Approximately two-thirds of the oil is produced from the MOZ, but its
contribution eventually reduces to give a 50:50 split between the MOZ and oil draining from the remainder oil layer. Oil
production occurs mainly by gravity drainage.

6. Rapid water desaturation of the oil layer occurs ahead of the combustion front, advancing over 60 m in 0.6 years. This is
equivalent to nearly 0.3 m/day, but after 2 years it slows to 0.11 m/day. Drainage of reservoir water is a principal reason why
gas and steam can enter colder parts of the oil layer, aiding drainage of oil.

References:
Anaya, I., La Cruz, R.E., Alvarez, A.J., Gutierrez, D., Skoreyko, F.A., Card, C., CSUG/SPE 137491: “Simulation Study for
Designing an In-Situ Combustion Pilot in the Orinoco Belt of Venezuela: Form Laboratory to Pilot”, Canadian
Unconventional Resources and International Petroleum Conference, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, 19-21 October, 2010.

Card, C.C., Close, J. C., Collins, D.A.C., Sammon, P.H., Wheeler, T.J., SPE 97476: “Numerical Modelling of Advanced In-
Situ Recovery Processes in Complex Heavy Oil and Bitumen Reservoirs, 2005 SPE International
Thermal Operations and Heavy Oil Symposium, Calagary, Alberta, Canada, 1-3 November 2005.

Grabowski, J.W., Vinsome, P.K., Lin, R.C., Behie, A., and Rubin, B., 1979. “A Fully Implicit General Purpose Finite-
Difference Thermal Model for In Situ Combustion and Steam”, SPE No. 8396, presented at 54th Annual Fall Technical
Conference and Exihibition of SPE, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Greaves, M. Dong, L.L., Rigby, S.P., “Understanding the Mobile Oil Zone in the Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI) Process”,
16th IOR Symposium, Cambridge, England, 12-14 April 2011.
6 CSUG/SPE 148989

Greaves, M., Dong, L.L., Rigby, S.P., SPE 143035: “Validation of THAI Bitumen Recovery Using 3D Combustion Cell
Results”, SPE EUROPEC/EAGE Annual Conference and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria, 23-26 May 2011.

Moore, R.G., Mehta, S.A., Ursenbach, M.G., Laureshen, C.J., “Strategies for Successful Air Injection Projects”, Proceedings
7th UNITAR International Conference on Heavy Oil and Tar Sands, Beijing, China, 27-30 October, 1997.

Philliips, C.R., N.I. Haidar and Y.C. Poon, Kinetic Models for the Thermal Cracking of Athabasca Bitumen, Fuel, vol. 64,
1985, 678.

Rahnema, H., Mamora, D., CSUG/SPE 135821: “Combustion Assisted Gravity Drainage (CAGD) Appears Promising”,
Canadian Unconventional Resources and International Petroleum Conference, Calgary, Alberta, Caanda, 19-21 October,
2010.

Turta, A.T, Singhal, A.K., “Overview of Short-Distance Diplacement Processes”, Journal of Canadian Petroleum
Technology, February 2004, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp 29-38.

Xia, T. X. and Greaves, M.., Upgrading Athabasca Tar Sand Using Toe-to-Heel Air Injection, Journal of Canadian
Petroleum Technology, August 2002, Volume 41, No.8, pp 51-57.
Xia, T X, Greaves M, Turta, A T, Ayasse, C, “THAI – A ‘Short-Distance Displacement’ In situ Combustion Process for the
Recovery and Upgrading of Heavy Oil”, Trans IChemE, Vol. 81, Part A, March 2003, pp 295-304.
CSUG/SPE 148989 7

3D Cartesian System
FINE CM RCM VC
Total number of grid blocks 800,000 (max) 2800 25,920 1440
x-dimension, m 0.67 12.5 4.0 24.0
y-dimension, m 0.67 11.1 3.7 11.1
z dimension, m 0.67 3.1 3.1 6.8
well length, m 480

Reservoir simulator – STARS, Version 2009, with DYNAGRID and Parallel

Processing options. CM- coarse mesh, RCM = refined coarse mesh, VC = very
coarse mesh.

Reservoir Properties
Initial pressure, kPa 2600
Initial temperature, oC 12
Initial oil saturation, Soi % 80
Initial water saturation, Swi % 20

Rock properties

Porosity, % 34

Horizontal permeability, kh, mD 6700

Vertical permeability, kv, mD 5360

Effective formation compressibility, 1/kPa 14 x 10-6

Rock heat capacity, J m-3 ºC-1 2.6 x 106

Rock thermal conductivity, J m-1 h-1 ºC-1 6.6 x 105

Operating conditions for THAI process:

Air injection flux, m³ day-1 10,000 – 80,000
Method of heating sandpack and ignition: steam, 6.8 m³/minute
Heat loss to surroundings: set using STARS default values
Injection well maximum pressure constraint, kPa 5,200
Production well minimum pressure constraint, kPa 2,500
8 CSUG/SPE 148989

Table 1 continued:

Number of components: 6 - water, heavy oil, light oil, inert gas, oxygen, coke
Well configuration: single horizontal injection well and a single horizontal
producer well arranged in direct line drive. Discretized Wellbore Model.

Short -Distance Displacement vs Long-Distance Displacement

Injection well

Vertical
producer well

Long-distance displacement, the conventional IOR/ISC (VIVP)

Injection well
Horizontal
producer well

Short-distance displacement, SAGD and VAPEX

t1 t2 t3 t4
Injection well

Horizontal
producer well

Short-distance displacement-THAI (‘Moving window’ effect)

IOR Group

Figure 1 Short-distance displacement and long-distance processes

CSUG/SPE 148989 9

Injector
Producer

3m
10 mm
m
0
10

25 m
15 m
2m

m
50
500 m

Fig. 1. Schematic of the Simulated Oil Reservoir

Figure 2 Dimensions of reservoir section

a. CM (1440 GB)

b. (CM - 2880 GB)

10 CSUG/SPE 148989

b. (RCM – 25,920 GB)

Figure 3 Oil production rate versus time

Figure 4 Production rate of inert gas and oxygen versus time

CSUG/SPE 148989 11

CO2 Production Rate

16000000
CO2 Production Rate (cm3/minute)

14000000

12000000

10000000

8000000

6000000

4000000

2000000

0
0 500000 1000000 1500000 2000000 2500000 3000000 3500000

Time (minutes)

Figure 5 CO2 production rate versus time

Figure 6 Water production rate versus time

12 CSUG/SPE 148989

(a) vertical mid-plane

(b) horizontal mid-plane

Figure 7 Temperature profile versus reservoir distance (500 m)
CSUG/SPE 148989 13

(a) horizontal mid-plane

(b) vertical mid-plane

Figure 8 Coke profile versus reservoir distance (500 m)
14 CSUG/SPE 148989

(a) horizontal mid-plane

(b) vertical mid-plane

Figure 9 Oxygen profiles versus reservoir distance (500 m)
CSUG/SPE 148989 15

(a) vertical mid-plane

(b) horizontal mid-plane

Figure 10 Gas saturation profile versus reservoir distance (500 m)

16 CSUG/SPE 148989

(a) vertical mid-plane

(b) horizontal mid-plane

Figure 11 Advancing Steam Zone in the oil layer
CSUG/SPE 148989 17

(a) vertical mid-plane

(b) horizontal mid-plane

18 CSUG/SPE 148989

(c) horizontal mid-plane

Figure 12 Oil saturation profiles versus reservoir distance (500 m)

(a) vertical mid-plane

CSUG/SPE 148989 19

(b) horizontal mid-plane

Figure 13 Water saturation profiles versus reservoir distance