RE: Cost of SAGD operationspulled this off the World Energy Council website. In order to convert cubic meters to barrels you divide roughly by 6. According to this study SAGD is lowest cost @ about $5/bbl.
https://www.worldenergy.org/wec-geis/publications/default/tech_papers/17th_congress/2_1_03.asp
7.2 Recent Cost Studies
Since 1991, there have been few economic studies on bitumen production available, partly because of a downturn in the heavy oil industry and partly due to the development of new technologies that did not have sufficient production history to do such an analysis. The available data was converted to 1997 US dollars, as follows:
Surface mining supply costs: The 1991 study [8] estimated the existing surface mining costs, suitably updated to 1997 US dollars, to be $102 per cubic meter ($16/bbl). A recent estimate by Suncor [14] stated the cash costs (including operating costs, sustaining capital and reclamation) to be $72 per cubic meter ($11.40/bbl) and were expected to drop below $57 per cubic meter ($9/bbl) within three years. At Syncrude, the operating costs have steadily declined to around $60 per cubic meter, due to the use of `less-mechanical' devices such as inclined-plate separators and less downtime in its upgraders.
VAPEX supply costs: A detailed spreadsheet field optimization model was used to estimate the economics of gas and solvent stimulation, based on ARC lab experiments, for the recovery of heavy oil from various western Canadian reservoirs [15]. An ethane-based process was shown to have the lowest supply cost of $42 per cubic meter. This is for now an optimistic scenario that assumes full wellbore utilization.
SAGD supply costs: The 1991 study [8] estimated the SAGD (with underground access) costs, suitably updated to 1997 US dollars, to be $56 per cubic meter ($9/bbl); this cost estimate was based on the UTF, which involved the construction of a shaft and tunnel system. The more recent SAGD processes will not use such a system; reservoir access will be from the surface. These processes should have a lower supply cost than the UTF. The only cost data available was for the Gulf Surmont project [16]. The capital costs for this 30-year project will be $560 million, with a further $210 million to be spent during the project life. The annual operating costs will be $105 million. Daily production will be 15,900 cubic metres. Assuming a discount factor of 10 percent and calculating the supply costs by dividing the discounted capital and operating costs by the discounted bitumen production volume, the supply cost of this process will be $29.36 per cubic meter.
Combining the updated results from [8] with the above data, the recovery technologies can be ranked in terms of their supply costs and ultimate recovery, as follows:
The lowest-cost technology will be SAGD ($29 per cubic meter). The ultimate recovery is 60 to 70 percent of the oil-in-place.
The supply cost of VAPEX processes will be reservoir- and solvent-specific. The `best' supply cost will be $42 per cubic meter. The ultimate recovery is similar to SAGD.
Cold Production will have almost the same supply cost as the best VAPEX process ($42.30 per cubic meter). The ultimate recovery is around 10 percent.
The most established in situ technology, CSS, has a supply cost of $54 per cubic metres. The ultimate recovery is around 17 percent.
The newer surface mining processes will have a supply cost of $82 per cubic meter. The ultimate recovery is more than 90 percent.
In recent years, bitumen prices have been volatile - between $100 per cubic meter and $42 per cubic meter [17]. The supply costs of all the in situ processes and existing surface mining projects are at or below this price; however, grass-roots surface mining projects are at best marginal.