Government of Canada Invests in Clean Heavy Oil Recovery TechnologyCALGARY, Alberta, April 1, 2005 — The Honourable David L. Emerson, Minister of Industry, today announced a $9-million investment that could revolutionize heavy oil production in Canada and around the world with increased resource recovery and significantly decreased environmental impact.
This Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) investment is part of a $44.7-million development and demonstration project being undertaken by Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd. of Calgary. The WHITESANDS pilot project will field demonstrate Petrobank's patented THAI™ (Toe-to-Heel Air Injection) heavy oil recovery process in the Christina Lake area, south of Fort McMurray.
"The government's investment in the WHITESANDS project has the potential to promote the kind of innovative, radical development required to move forward and succeed," said Minister Emerson. "Above all, it highlights an environmentally positive approach to a solution that dramatically increases production."
The Canadian oil sands are a strategic resource of North American energy. However, current technology for in situ production consumes large volumes of natural gas, fresh water or hydrocarbon solvents, thus providing an opportunity for new technologies to advance and sustain oil sands development.
Petrobank's project will use a new combustion process that combines a vertical air injection well with a horizontal production well. The THAI™ technology offers a number of advantages over the current steam-assisted gravity drainage system for heavy oil recovery, including higher potential resource recovery (70-80 percent), lower production and capital costs, minimal usage of natural gas and fresh water, the possibility of a partially upgraded crude oil product and significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Technology Partnerships Canada is a key instrument for advancing research and development toward commercialization. Working in partnership with innovative companies across Canada, TPC shares in the cost of private sector technology projects in aerospace and defence, in environmental technologies, and in enabling technologies like information and communications technologies and biotech.
For more information, please contact:
Christiane Fox
Office of the Honourable David L. Emerson
Minister of Industry
(613) 995-9001
Media Relations
Industry Canada
(613) 943-2502
The news release and other documents are available on the Technology Partnerships Canada Web site at http://www.tpc-ptc.ic.gc.ca.
Backgrounder
Government of Canada Invests in Clean Heavy Oil Recovery Technology
The Government of Canada will invest up to $9 million in Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd.'s $44.7-million WHITESANDS development and demonstration project.
The WHITESANDS project will culminate in a field demonstration of the THAI™ (Toe-to-Heel Air Injection) oil sands recovery process, building on bench-scale and computer simulation work. The process combines a vertical air injection well with a horizontal production well. The well bores will be pre-heated with steam. When air is injected, spontaneous combustion will occur. This will generate heat that reduces the viscosity of the oil, allowing it to flow by gravity to the horizontal production well. The combustion front sweeps the oil from the toe to the heel of the horizontal producing well. This results in an estimated 70-80 percent recovery rate of the original oil in place, while partially upgrading the crude oil in situ.
This new oil recovery process is different from all other oil recovery processes in that it does not require a fresh water source or consume natural gas — both of which are barriers to the extensive development of Canada's heavy oil and bitumen resources. All necessary heat is generated within the reservoir rather than being introduced via steam generated at the surface using expensive natural gas and thereby emitting carbon dioxide.
Petrobank acquired the intellectual property rights to the THAI™ technology in 2003 and received regulatory approval in 2004 to proceed with a pilot project to further develop and field test the technology.
Petrobank Energy and Resources Ltd. is a Calgary-based oil and natural gas exploration and production company engaged in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin and Colombia, South America. Petrobank is a public company with 42 employees in Canada and 35 in Colombia. The heavy oil division of Petrobank is comprised of the holding company, Orion Oil Canada Ltd.; the operating company WHITESANDS In situ Ltd., which will execute the WHITESANDS pilot project; and Archon Technologies Ltd., which holds the intellectual property rights to the THAI™ technology.
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