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Second Wave Petroleum Inc. has announced preliminary results from its carbon dioxide pilot flood at Battle Creek, Saskatchewan.
The CO2 stage one flood has to date resulted in a production increase within the pilot area from 48 bbls a day of oil to 200 bbls per day. Total field production has increased to 220 bbls a day over a 60 day period.
Full CO2 flood injection is scheduled to occur in second half of 2010.
Second Wave owns a 100% working interest Madison oil reservoir at Battle Creek in southwest Saskatchewan. It is a porous carbonate formation containing heavy oil (11 degrees API) and associated solution gas.
It also owns a 100% working interest in a gas reservoir in the Duperow formation which produces high rates of natural gas with a CO2 concentration of 84%. The company has an extensive data site over the area with proprietary 3-D seismic data covering both of the pools and information from 21 wells drilled and tested in the Madison oil reservoir to date and four wells drilled and tested in the Duperow reservoir.
Production from the Battle Creek Madison oil pool was initiated in 1995 with a maximum production rate of 547 bbls a day of oil in 2004 from 15 producing well bores. Production from the Madison formation is typically characterized by high water cuts as the produced oil has a substantial higher viscosity than the formation water at reservoir temperatures and pressures.
The Battle Creek Madison pool had an average annual production rate of 30 bbls per day of oil in 2009 prior to the initiation of the CO2 pilot flood.
In late 2009 the company applied for and received approval to initiate an immiscible CO2 pilot flood in the Madison formation whereby the carbon dioxide gas from the Duperow formation would be used to flood the pool.
The company is not aware of any other immiscible CO2 flood using a natural source of CO2 in Western Canada at this time.
Second Wave initiated its pilot CO2 flood in the first quarter of 2010 with the pilot area containing one injection well surrounded by four producing wells. As part of the pilot project, three suspended wells were reactivated and pool oil production was increased to 66 bbls a day from the 2009 average of 30 bbls per day. Production from the four producing wells within the pilot area was 48 bbls a day prior to the initiation of CO2 injection.
To date the company has injected 1,000 tonnes of CO2 within the pilot area with the first pressure response seen in early May of 2010. Since injection was initiated, the production within the pilot area has increased from 48 bbls per day to 200 bbls a day of oil with the total pool production now at 220 bbls per day of oil.
Since existing wellbores and infrastructure were used for the pilot, the first phase has involved total capital expenditures of only $1.3 million to date.
If production rates continue at current levels, payout on this project will be reached in approximately 175 days, Second Wave said.
The company said it remains cautiously optimistic on the results to date as this project is the only immiscible heavy oil CO2 flood in Western Canada and therefore there is no true analog to measure these early results against.
Based on the results to date on this project the company is moving ahead with the second and third stage which will involve setting up two additional pilot areas for CO2 injection.
Costs are expected to be lower for each subsequent injection phase as existing infrastructure will be utilized.
The company believes that it has substantially more CO2 gas in the Duperow formation than what is required to fully flood its Madison oil pool in Battle Creek.
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