Deep Well Oil & Gas, Inc. has announced the results of its one-well-pair SAGD pilot at Sawn Lake in north-central Alberta. The well pair was drilled in the fourth quarter of 2013 to a depth of 650 metres and a horizontal length of 780 metres. After steam-generation, water-handling and oil-treating facilities were installed in 2014, steam injection began on May 21.

Bitumen production began on Sept. 16. Results to date indicate that the SAGD production process works in this Bluesky formation reservoir.

The company said bitumen sales averaged 221 bbls a day halfway through the third 30-day period since SAGD startup. The company expects production to increase over the next several months. The pilots objective was to establish that SAGD works in the Bluesky formation, and Deep Well said results to date support this.

The company expects to achieve commercial rates in early March 2015, when reservoir modeling predicts the steam chamber will reach the top of the Bluesky sands. Deep Well said maximum production is expected to occur around September 2015 which would be the end of the first 12 months of production.