History: Case Studies The cyclic steam injection process was first implemented in 1959. By this time, the steam injector wells were already in place and had begun production. Soon after the technique was being deployed for extraction of oil, many oil exploration companies started using this method despite being considered old-fashioned. However, owing to its operational efficiency the method was used without a scientifically established basis or precedent. There was very little literature evidence available regarding its potential uses and cost efficiencies as weighed against other methods on oil exploration companies across the CSI was deployed after successful trials and subsequently refined to be used for commercial scale oil extraction in rigs where other methods had failed or were seemingly ineffective. The Russian Case Study After this initial period, there has been substantial advances in the oil extraction process. However, it was established by scientific research that CSI was far superior than any other method for the extraction of vicious crude oil from horizontal wells. Chemical additives further enhance its capacity and potential to extract oil and the repeated steam injection results in extraction of large volumes of oil. The efficiency of this method also increased with time as a result of improvement in underlying technology and steam producing equipment. Co-injection of steam with surfactants and foams reduce water production and consequently increases the oil production. For instance, in Russia, oil exploration companies use foams and gels to maximize efficiency. In this case, this resulted in a 33% decrease in the amount of water used and a corresponding increase of 25% in the oil rate of production (Sheng 2013). The number of stimulation cycles also increased with advancement in technology. It started with only 3 cycles which grew to 30 cycles as a result of a greater understanding of steam usage, its properties and injection conditions (Alvarez & Han, 2013). The Canadian Case Study Canada also deployed this system with certain changes to improve the overall efficiency of the process. The Canadian oil exploration sector worked extensively to improve upon the steam distribution mechanism to improve efficiency. Screen sections were used to improve contact between the well and the reservoir (Alvarez & Han, 2013). Additionally, small flow vents were used to control flow of water and enhance oil production. Liquid has also been added to steam in order to increase the recovery factor. It has been noted that the recovery factor increases by 3-6% (Alvarez & Han, 2013). Other methods have also been deployed to increase efficiency of CSI process which include air injection, and use of biodiesel. Both methods have shown to result in greater efficiency and approximately 20% increase in recovery. (Abidin, Puspasari & Nugroho 2012). The Chinese and American Case Studies China uses state of the art and novel techniques to ensure maximum efficiency while using CSI for oil extraction. A few of the parameters include controlled steam generation, insulating surface pipeline, multi-zone steam injection and use of chemical additives (Alvarez & Han, 2013). Other measures such as use of process control systems have also served to maximize output (Haiyan et al., 2005). Furthermore, the process of steam injection has been improved by the using separated-zone injection methods (Sheng 2013). Primarily, these techniques have been observed to increase to up to 70% of the s