The Challenge
Strathcona Resources Ltd.’s Orion asset is a steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) project consisting of a central processing facility and well pairs located in the Cold Lake oil sands region of Alberta.
Between 2016 and 2019, Orion’s facility nearly tripled its production through a series of phased brownfield expansions. Today, the Orion facility has the capability to produce more than 20,000 barrels per day.
Strathcona Resources Ltd. (Strathcona) developed a well pair addition project at the Orion facility targeted at sustaining oil production near the plant capacity limits. The scope included the addition of four new well pairs drilled into the Pad 206 reservoir and tied into the existing Pad 106 surface facilities to minimize surface disturbance and infrastructure costs.
The Approach
Strathcona contracted Scovan to refine their standard well pair module design for Orion and procure long-lead components to deploy with the next well pair development. With the sanction of the Pad 206 4-well pair project, the standard well pair module design was integrated into the Pad 106 surface footprint to leverage the existing facilities infrastructure and tie in the newly drilled and completed wells.
Scovan successfully delivered this lumpsum, turnkey EPFC project with a fixed price project and zero change orders outside of client-initiated scope additions.
The Design
Scovan has taken over two decades of oil sands experience to create and improve upon a templated well pad design that is built for flexibility, operability, and maintainability. It utilizes quality industry accepted equipment, is a reliable field-proven design, and is flexible to various production methods. The standardized well pads were designed with constructability in mind, resulting in an accelerated execution schedule from design to installation.
The Outcome
Creating Value for Strathcona’s Orion Asset with Lump-Sum, Turnkey
Scovan was able to drive-down capital for the project. Scovan provided capital cost reductions and improved schedule to the client with four new well pairs added, successfully increasing production capability by 2000 BBL/day. The project was completed within days of the original project schedule target, providing quick turnaround to steam in just over five months. Using lessons learned as part of our project post-mortem, Scovan continues to improve our quality and value add for clients in current and future projects.
