In-situ production of Utah oil sands bitumen

In-situ production of oil-sand bitumen offers an excellent alternative to the ex situ processes that are based on strip-mining and surface extraction. In addition to leaving the landscape relatively undisturbed, in situ processes allow for partial upgrading of oil sands, leaving heavier, less profitable components of the bitumen in the subsurface. Some in situ methods use much less water and generate less CO2 than ex situ methods. In addition, in situ approaches allow for the exploitation of much deeper oil sand formations where the cost of removing the overburden is prohibitively expensive. In this paper, available geologic and reservoir information on two oil-sand deposits within the Uinta Basin, Utah were collected. Conceptual reservoir models were created in order to characterize these deposits and to determine which are the most promising for in-situ production techniques. Various in-situ production approaches were then examined for each of the candidate deposits using state of the art reservoir simulation technology in order to determine the most promising in-situ production method for each of the reservoirs.