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Thermal Recovery of Oil and Bitumen Roger M. Butler
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In situ projects heat steam to high temperature to inject into bitumen reservoirs that are too deep to mine. If successful, a commercial project would begin in 2014 with expected production in 2016. There are approximately 2.5 trillion barrels of the stuff, the largest figuring out how to get the dirtiest possible oil out of the hardest-to-reach places. Regulatory approval has been received for the construction and operation of a two-stage bitumen recovery scheme using steam-assisted gravity drainage. The company, through a secretive Calgary-based subsidiary called Sure Northern Energy Ltd., is working to unlock an estimated 60 billion barrels of raw bitumen — more than 100 kilometres west of the oil sands epicentre around Fort McMurray in northeastern Alberta. Image I recently got the chance to tag along with a group of journalism fellows on a tour of some oil sands production sites in Alberta, which is home to almost all of Canada's oil sands reserves.The Canadian oil They are a mix of naturally occurring bitumen, sticky oil and abrasive sand. Baytex plans a pilot study in 2013. Genalta Power and Shell Canada have agreed to build a produced-gas-to-power plant that will make use of the gas associated with Shell's bitumen production in an effort to reduce gas flaring at its Peace River oil sands leases. Operators have implemented a wide range of methods to improve these operating efficiencies, applying improved technologies, heat recycling equipment, and solvent assisted recovery. A project's steam to oil ratio (SOR) measures the amount of steam that is required to be injected so as to produce one barrel of bitumen. Shell, for instance, is working on a "novel thermal recovery process" - embedding large electric heaters in the deposits and literally cooking the earth. In situ (in place recovery or without excavation) is currently being done using steam injection with well recovery to heat and mobilize the goo. Baytex's current asset portfolio includes thermal recovery projects at Seal in the Peace River Oil Sands and at Kerrobert in southwest Saskatchewan. Jen-Russel-Houston held up a half-tube of core of high-density fractures riddled throughout bitumen saturated rock. Facilities on its Peace River oil sands leases: the Cliffdale Battery, which uses cold or primary recovery methods, and the Peace River Complex which uses thermal or enhanced oil recovery techniques to extract bitumen from underground. Albertans have always known that in the northern part of their province there are vast deposits of bitumen - black, tarlike goo that is mixed up with sand, clay, water and oil. The prize Royal Dutch is chasing is The firm is trying to commercialize what it calls a "novel thermal recovery process" invented by Shell's technology arm.