Non-thermal oilsands process ‘game changer’
New technolog y would eliminate tailings ponds, reduce emissions
CALGARY — A new oilsands recovery technology envisions injecting cold water to mobilize whole sections of an underground formation — sand and bitumen alike — so it can be pushed to a well and sucked up to the surface.
Once there, the heavy oil would be separated using mining techniques and the cleaned sand reinjected into the formation to maintain pressure and continue to push the resulting slurry into a central producer well.
T he process dubbed SHORE, for slurrified heavy oil reservoir extraction, is touted as a potential “gamechanger” in a report by investment bank Peters & Co.
“The process is potentially capable of being applied in thinner and more geologically complex reservoirs that cannot be economically exploited by existing thermal processes,” Peters’ analysis reads. “This could provide an option for development of shallow-to-intermediate depth bitumen resources.”
The report cautions it will take “substantial time and capital” to prove commerciality and that it can be done safely and with acceptable levels of water use.
The technology is one of dozens being monitored by the energy technology branch of Alberta Innovates. Project specialist Bruce Duong said Wednesday the ideas come from big and small players but all aim to improve economics and reduce adverse environmental affects of oilsands development.
“This technology is a bit unique,” he said. “Most of the in situ technologies are dealing with solvent additions to a steam process ... then there are some ideas around pure solvents to remove steam completely. The big driver here is moving toward improving resource recovery and reducing GHG emissions. There really have to be a wide array of different technologies to tackle different problems in different reservoirs.”
SHORE has been developed by U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil Corp.andCalgary-basedImperial Oil Ltd. (70 per cent owned by ExxonMobil). The two share ownership of the Kearl oilsands mine which began production last year and Imperial is one of the largest producers of heavy oil in the Cold Lake region.
“The technology is still in the early stages of development, but the laboratory and numerical modelling has demonstrated promising technical potential of the process at a field scale,” said Pius Rolheiser, a spokesman for Imperial Oil. He said there are currently “no specific plans” for field tests.
A paper presented at the 2013 Society of Petroleum Engineers conference in Calgary referred to SHORE.
“We have found that the process is likely to operate with significantly smaller CO2 footprint than thermal recovery processes, with complete disposal of tailings back to the subsurface and has the potential for zero fresh water use,” the paper notes. “Recovery factors are likely to be in excess of 50 per cent with bitumen production rates per well in the range of 1,000 to 2,000 barrels per day.”