How Technology Has Unlocked A 160 Billion Cubic Metre Resource: The Oil Sands Of Alberta, Canada
Don Towson
D.E. Towson and Associates Inc
The Oil Sands deposits in Alberta, Canada are a vast resource containing an estimated 160 billion cubic metres of oil-in-place. The resource consists of a number of deposits of uncemented sand, bitumen, water and clay. Approximately ten percent of the resource is accessed with open pit mining methods while the remainder requires some form of insitu recovery. Recovery has been inhibited by the 1 million cp viscosity of most of the bitumen.
Commercial development of the oil sands was a long, slow process. Exploration took place in about 1885, with laboratory experimentation beginning about 1913 to find a means of separating the bitumen from the sands. The first pilot plant was not constructed until 1930 and commercialized in 1967 by the Great Canadian Oil Sands (now Suncor) plant. Imperial Oil began experimentation on in-situ recovery processes in 1964, and first commercialized an in-situ operation in 1985. The pace increased dramatically in the last 15 years. A second mining and second in-situ operation was started, and five more have been approved. Operating costs for the mining projects were cut in half, operating cost were also reduced for the in-situ operation and recovery levels were increased from 12 percent to 25 percent or more.
This dramatic development pace, the increase in recovery and the decrease in operating cost can all be attributed to technological advances. These include increased equipment capacity, slurry pipelining, deviated wells, horizontal wells, CSS (Cyclic Steam Stimulation), SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage), 3D seismic, improved reservoir simulation and reservoir geomechanics. Upcoming technologies include VAPEX (a solvent based non-thermal recovery process) and improved monitoring processes. This presentation will look at the role played by technology in the commercial development of the Oil Sands and give a brief look at some upcoming technologies.
Biography
Don Towson received a B.A. Sc. in chemical engineering from the University of British Columbia in 1961 and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of Birmingham, England in 1964. Don joined Imperial Oil Limited Production Research Department in Calgary working as a research engineer and supervisor on thermal recovery processes, and was involved in conventional reservoir engineering and in-situ, bitumen recovery pilot projects. In 1977, Don joined Petro-Canada holding engineering management positions relating to heavy oil and oil sands development and was appointed Senior Technical Advisor, Thermal Recovery in the Technology Improvement Department, in 1989. In 1992, he joined PHH Petroleum Consultants as an Executive Consultant. In 1994 Don established an independent heavy oil and oil sands consulting practice. Don is a Past President and Director of the Canadian Heavy Oil Association. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum, a past Society Chairman and Distinguished Lecturer for the Petroleum Society and a member of SPE and APEGGA.
Don Towson, D.E. Towson and Associates Inc.
832 Cannell Road, SW, Calgary, AB T2W 1T4, Canada
Phone: 403-281-2855 or 403-213-2795, Fax: 403-281-2498, Email: detowson@worldweb.com
Picture from SPE Evening
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