Once the oil comes forth to see the sun what is the projected recovery rate with todays technogoly? If I remember correctlly it used to be said that we only recovered something like 15 % or so of the oil from the well. The remainder stayed down hole.
What's the price/bbl needed to make steam injection a viable recovery method today?
Recovery rate varies by the type of rock that is the oil reservoir. But if you can produce 50% of the original oil in place in the rock, you're doing about average.
Steam isn't the only way to coax out more oil. You can try to flush it with water, carbon dioxide, reinjected natural gas, and even fire.
I'm not sure there's any rule of thumb for deciding whether or not an enhanced recovery method will be economic. It depends so much on the particular circumstances.
The recover rate depends on too many factors to list here and the explation of each. These factors range from geological to financical. The initial recovery cannot be determined until all the aspects of the reservoir are known.