Canadian Heavy Oil Field Could Be Exploited Using U.K. Extraction System

November 29, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS

Duvernay Petroleum will use the toe-to-heel air injection (THAI) system developed at the University of Bath at its site at Peace River in Alberta, Canada.

Unlike conventional light oil, heavy oil is very viscous, like syrup, or even solid in its natural state underground, making it very difficult to extract.

But heavy oil reserves that could keep the planet's oil-dependent economy going for 100 years exist beneath the surface in many countries, especially in Canada.

Although heavy oil extraction has increased over the last 10 years, the processes used are energy intensive, especially of natural gas and water.

But the THAI system is more efficient, and, according to the University of Bath, this, and the increasing cost of conventional light oil, could lead to the widespread exploitation of heavy oil.

"The world needs to switch to cleaner ways of using energy such as fuel cells," said professor Malcolm Greaves, who developed the THAI process.

"But we are decades away from creating a full-blown hydrogen economy, and until then we need oil and gas to run our economies. Conventional light oil such as that in the North Sea or Saudi Arabia is running out and getting more expensive to extract. That's why the pressure is on to find an efficient way of extracting heavy oil," Greaves said.

THAI uses a system whereby air is injected into the oil deposit down a vertical well and is ignited. The heat generated in the reservoir reduces the viscosity of the heavy oil, allowing it to drain into a second, horizontal well from where it rises to the surface.

THAI recovers 70% to 80% of the oil, compared with only 10% to 40% using other technologies.

The Duvernay Petroleum heavy oil field in Peace River contains 100 million barrels, and this will be a first test of THAI on heavy oil.

Petrobank, which owns THAI, first used the process at its Christina Lake site in the Athabasca Oil Sands, Canada, in June 2006 in a pilot operation that is producing 3,000 barrels of oil a day. This was on deposits of bitumen - similar to the surface coating of roads - rather than heavy oil.

Petrobank is applying for permission to expand this to 10,000 barrels a day. Petrobank said there is a potential for this to rise to 100,000 barrels a day.

The 50,000 acre site owned by Petrobank contains an estimated 2.6 billion barrels of bitumen.

"When the Canadian engineers at the Christina Lake site turned on the new system, in three separate sections, it worked amazingly well, and oil is being produced at twice the amount that they thought could be extracted," Greaves said.

"… [W]ith light oil now hitting around $100 a barrel, it's economic to think of using heavy oil, especially since THAI can produce oil for less than $10 a barrel," Greaves said. "We've seen this project go from something that many people said would not work into something we can have confidence in, all in the space of the last 18 months."

Greaves is looking at using THAI with a catalyst add-on process called CAPRI. This process was also developed by Greaves' team at Bath and is intended to turn heavy oil into light while still in the reservoir underground.

Source: University of Bath.