Numerical assessment of the maximum operating pressure for SAGD projects considering the effects of anisotropy and natural fractures

摘要

There has been an increasing awareness of the importance of caprock integrity during Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) operations. However, mathematical tools that have been developed for caprock integrity studies have not incorporated an important characteristic of cap shales, which is the intrinsic anisotropy and structural anisotropy caused by the natural fractures (NFs) in the cap shale. This paper addresses the effects of the intrinsic anisotropy of the shales and also the existence of NFs on the Maximum Operating Pressure (MOP) in SAGD projects.