Since approximately 80% of Alberta’s bitumen reserves are too deep to be mined, they must be extracted in-place (or in situ) using steam. SAGD uses a dual-pair of horizontal wells drilled approximately five meters apart, one above the other. Well depth can vary anywhere from 150 to 450 meters and horizontal lengths can be over 1,600 meters. High pressure steam is injected into the top well, or the injection well, and the hot steam heats the surrounding bitumen. As the bitumen warms up, it liquifies and begins to gravity flow to the lower well, or the producing well.

In the case of Greenfire’s Tier-1 SAGD reservoir, the bitumen and condensed steam emulsion contained in the lower well flow to surface naturally. This emulsion is then sent to a processing plant, where the bitumen and water are separated. The recovered water is treated and recycled back into the process and the produced bitumen is typically diluted with condensate and sold to market.