Oilsands Quest (OQI) said it is assessing the potential to develop its Axe Lake oil sands discovery in northwestern Saskatchewan, Canada, through steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) technology.
OQI has drilled 16 core holes in the area to further understand the overburden characteristics and test the potential for the overburden as a cap rock to contain steam within the reservoir.
Results of overburden testing show that OQI may be able to produce bitumen using either a typical SAGD configuration or through bottom-up recovery process.
Axe Lake reservoir with its high porosity, permeability and homogeneity is suited for low power thermal recovery and OQI plans to use the SAGD bitumen recovery processes on the reservoirs.
OQI said it is correlating core samples with the Axe Lake 3D seismic data to determine the extent and continuity of this cap across various reservoirs.
