Alberta’s Oil Sands:
Challenges
and Opportunities
Imperial Oil’s large-scale insitu bitumen recovery at Cold
Lake, Alberta, on Thursday,
August 5, 2010 (source: Epic
Photography Inc.)
New technologies could expedite access to Alberta’s
currently unexploited reserve of more than 1.7 trillion
barrels of oil. The technical challenges of the oil sands
represent a tremendous opportunity for innovators,
who could reap enormous returns for new discoveries
and practices
Government of Alberta
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Impiantistica Italiana - Settembre-Ottobre 2013
T
he world’s third-largest proven reserves of oil may represent both the
greatest natural resource technology
achievement of the modern age, and
the greatest remaining technical challenge.
The reserve is the vast oil sands in the Canadian
province of Alberta, where heavy oil underlies more
than 142,000 km2 in three non-contiguous areas
of the province. Alberta is more than twice the size
of Italy.
The world’s thirdlargest proven
reserves of oil may
represent both the
greatest natural
resource of the
modern age and the
greatest remaining
technical challenge
With current technology, the independent
Oil & Gas Journal recognizes that there
are about 168 billion
barrels of oil that can
be recovered from
the oil sands fields.
But if new technologies can be brought
to bear, it is known that there are more than 1.7
trillion barrels of oil in the ground.
Today, most of the world’s major oil companies are
producing from the oil sands: a total of 1.9 million
barrels a day. Since
The provincial
commercial
production from the oil
government’s energy
sands deposits beregulator has forecast
gan in 1967, about
that production of oil
9 billion barrels have
from the oil sands
been extracted.
will
reach 3.8 MBSD,
Based on current
and expected opea decade from now,
rations, the provinfrom 1.9 MBSD today
cial
government’s
energy regulator has forecast that production of oil
from the oil sands will reach 3.8 million barrels per
day, a decade from now.
But there was a day when few expected a single profitable barrel of oil would be produced from this resource and there is a fear today that, without new innovations, future production growth will be curtailed.
What are “oil sands”?
Oil sands are a natural mixture of sand, water, clay and a
type of heavy oil called “bitumen”.
Bitumen must be removed from the sand and water before being upgraded into crude oil and other petroleum products. Bitumen will not flow unless heated or diluted – at
room temperature, it acts much like cold molasses.
The oil sands are also mistakenly referred to by some as
“tar sands,” as bitumen can have a similar consistency to
tar, a human-made product.
Where are the
“oil sands”?
This map shows that, while the oil sands underlie a 142,200 km2 area in north and eastern
Alberta, the surface mining area is limited to a
4,800 km2 region directly north of Fort McMurray, 715 km2 of which has been disturbed by oil
sands operations to date.
In situ oil sands operations – where bitumen
is separated from the sand underground and
pumped to the surface – are situated throughout the three deposits, and account for about
8% of the accessible resource.
Impiantistica Italiana - Settembre-Ottobre 2013
33
The story of the world’s third-largest proven reserve of oil is a story of technology: past and future.
“The first decades of oil sands development have
been about trying to produce a resource and make
it competitive in world markets”, said Dr. Eddy Isaacs, CEO of the research organization Alberta Innovates - Energy and Environment Solutions. “The
next decades are going to be about trying to make
that resource more sustainable in its development”.
The story of oil sands
in Alberta
Knowledge of the existence of the oil sands
stretches back beyond any memory or record – it
is known that the indigenous people of the region
used the resource – which in some sites can be
found seeping from river banks and on the surface of the ground as a waterproofing material. Government acknowledgement of its potential as an
energy resource dates to the 1890s.
That acknowledgement was followed by over 50
years of scientific study and failed commercial
attempts to extract the resource. In the first of
those years, there was a widespread mistaken
belief that the tarry ground just meant that vast
pools of light oil were just somewhere below the
surface. Attempts to drill wells ended in a series
of failures. Then came attempts to use the oil
sands in other applications, such as road paving. Given the remote location of the resource
– which is known as bitumen - and its own cha-
racteristics, this too was unprofitable.
In 1928 chemist Karl A. Clark, building on work
by researcher Sidney Ells, published an analysis
of the chemistry and geology of the oil sands and
prepared a patent application for the “Process and
apparatus for separating and treating bituminous
sands.”
However, commercial application of Clark’s process – even as refinements to it stacked up - remained elusive for another two decades.
In 1948 the provincial government of Alberta made
its first serious attempt to kick start development
of the oil sands resource, funding a pilot extraction
project called Oil Sands Limited at a location called
Bitumount. But the discovery of far less expensive conventional oil resources in other areas of the
province would ultimately doom that experiment.
It would again be another 20 years before the
launch of the next serious attempt at oil sands
development. J. Howard Pew’s Sun Oil of Philadelphia opened the Great Canadian Oil Sands
plant on September 30, 1967. It remains in operation today, known as Suncor.
Commercial development continued to grow slowly
but steadily as mining techniques and equipment
have been refined. Today, five operators are mining
oil sands at seven sites in the Athabasca region.
But mining can only be carried out in areas of the
deposit where the oil sands are close enough to
the surface. That’s in only about 4% of the deposit area, accessing between 10 and 20% of the
resource.
Research on extraction of the more deeply-buried
oil sands resource had stalled. In 1975 the Government of Alberta established the Alberta Oil
Sands Technology Research Authority, with a 100
million Cdn dollars start-up fund. Technologies and
techniques refined by AOSTRA and demonstrated
to industry operators led to the development of in
situ (in place) extraction methods, in particular the
process known as SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage). Simply put, in this process steam is
injected into the deposit to melt the bitumen until
it flows into a lower, parallel well and is extracted.
Technical and commercial oil
sands operations
Imperial Oil’s large-scale insitu bitumen recovery at Cold
Lake, Alberta, on Thursday,
August 5, 2010 (source: Epic
Photography Inc.)
34
Impiantistica Italiana - Settembre-Ottobre 2013
Today, there are more than twice as many in situ
sites in operation in the Athabasca region alone, as
there are mine operations. Additional in situ extraction is occurring in the other two oil sands regions
as well, at Cold Lake and Peace River.
But the technical challenges of the oil sands are
not over and innovators have the potential to reap
tremendous returns for new discoveries and practices.
These opportunities are generally viewed as falling
into two distinct categories, but are in fact inex-
Major areas of study
in the oil sands’s industry
even “fire flooding”, and heating
with electrified rods inserted into
the earth.
***
Coincident with the areas of study
above is on-going effort directed
at continuing to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from the
industry. Specific projects are
underway to improve energy efficiency in all aspects of oil sands
Fresh, consolidated tailings are converted to a functioning wetland six years later. The Alberta government has allocated 7
million dollars to support tailings research underway at the University of Alberta (courtesy of Suncor Energy Inc)
Tailings produced by the mining process are a major area of
research in the oil sands industry. Tailings are the sand, silt, clay
and water found naturally in oil sands that remain following the
mining and bitumen extraction process.
The operators that extract oil sands using the mining method
are under regulatory pressure to dramatically reduce the large
impoundments of mine waste that result and to speed the
reclamation of the large tailings ponds created.
There are at least four major areas of study in this area:
• thickeners capable of producing paste;
• consolidated tailings additives capable of solidifying fluid
tailings;
• a centrifuge capable of producing waste that approaches
a solid state;
• a centrifuge treatment followed by the addition of “dry
swelling clay” to provide final drying.
• Other approaches include mechanical filters of varying
styles and microbial or other biological processes.
Tailings are also being studied for the potential of recovery of
valuable, naturally occurring materials that become concentrated in the mine waste; some believe to the point that otherwise
uneconomical harvesting may be feasible with the right methods designed.
***
Reduction of the amount of water used in both mining and in
situ extraction is another major area of study in the industry.
There are at least nine different water treating configurations in
terms of water use, water recycle, energy consumption, GHG
(GreenHouse Gas) emissions, and waste generation.
The in situ methods of oil sands extraction have also attracted
significant research into using solvents to increase the efficiency of the steam chambers, or the amount of bitumen recovery achieved, as well as alternative heating methods to loosen
and flow the bitumen, including but not limited to underground
combustion (often called THAI (Toe-to-Heel Air Injection) or
operations, including:
• the production of steam for in situ recovery of bitumen;
• recovering waste heat for reuse;
• design and operating best practices;
• measurement, monitoring and verification;
• reducing flaring, venting, and fugitive emissions;
• carbon capture and storage and producing alternative
energy.
Methods to accelerate reclamation of disturbed land in the
industry and improve the resiliency and vigour of restored natural areas are also a significant area of research with a very
broad number of approaches. Projects are examining the optimal preparation of the ground, plants and other vegetation,
pace and timing of different activities involved, the impacts of
weather events and birds and wildlife. Techniques to recreate
critical landscape features such as watercourses and wetlands are emerging as a special area of study within this context
as well.
***
Environmental monitoring of impacts of the industry is also
subject to major investment in research and development.
With both the national and provincial governments poised to
dramatically increase the requirements for monitoring and public reporting of cumulative effects of the industry, researchers
are establishing the optimum approaches to efficiently gather
the information needed, analyse its implications and present it
most accessibly and quickly to the public and other interested
parties.
Impacts to be more transparently monitored and publically reported under the governments’ initiative include among others:
air, land and water contaminants; biodiversity changes including impacts on wildlife, fish and birds; rates of disturbance
and reclamation.
It is estimated that enhanced monitoring activities will cost the
industry 50 million Cdn dollars per year for information gathering and reporting alone.
***
Beyond the purely industrial and environmental research areas,
there is considerable work occurring in areas of social and economic effects of the very large industry.
tricably linked. The energy-intensive nature of oil
sands extraction means the process has a greater
environmental footprint than some conventional oil
production, meaning opportunities exist to lower
costs, reduce environmental impacts and increase
recovery.
The industry as a whole has pursued such technologies diligently (for example reducing the per-barrel greenhouse gas intensity of oil sands by about
26% since 1990) and remains heavily invested in
research and development.
While clearly in competition for investment and
profit, industry operators have nonetheless established collaborative research organizations and joint
ventures to share technologies and improvements
in process. These cooperative efforts include the
Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA),
Petroleum Technology Alliance of Canada (PTAC)
Impiantistica Italiana - Settembre-Ottobre 2013
35
shared 446 distinct technologies and innovations,
that cost over 700 million Cdn dollars to develop.
The Canadian Oil Sands Innovation
Alliance (COSIA) states that its member
companies shared 446 distinct
technologies and innovations, that cost
over 700 million Cdn dollars to develop
Scientists work at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Alberta, on Thursday, August 6,
2010 (source: Epic Photography Inc.)
Imperial Oil’s large-scale in-situ bitumen recovery at Cold Lake, Alberta, on Thursday, August 5, 2010 (source: Epic Photography Inc.)
and the Canadian Society of Unconventional Resources (CSUR).
COSIA alone states that its member companies
Government also invests in research through Alberta Innovates Energy & Environment Solutions,
and Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures.
Alberta Innovates is the province’s strategic hub
for research and technology innovation. It coordinates the efforts of government, post-secondary
institutions, industry and funding organizations that
are committed to working cooperatively to reduce
environmental impacts of energy development. All
non-proprietary knowledge is shared to help speed
up clean energy technology development worldwide.
Researchers
and
Researchers and
entrepreneurs
loentrepreneurs looking
oking for opportufor opportunities may
nities may wish to
wish to look to the
look to the CanaCanadian province
dian province, said
Paul Haggis, chairman of the Alberta Enterprise Corporation, which
invests in Alberta-focused venture capital funds
that finance early stage, technology start-ups in
Alberta and beyond.
“Alberta is unique in Canada, arguably in the world,
when it comes to attitude, attributes, environment,
resources, money and entrepreneurial spirit” Haggis said.
“Oil sands” in Alberta (Canada):
sfide e opportunità
In Alberta (una provincia del Canada) si trova un giacimento di “oil sands” (sabbie bituminose), il cui sfruttamento è iniziato sin dal 1967. La produzione attuale
di petrolio è di circa 1,9 milioni di barili/giorno, ma tra
una decina di anni dovrebbe arrivare a 3,8 milioni di
barili/giorno.
La produzione di petrolio dale oil sands, seppur molto
promettente, comporta la soluzione di problemi tec-
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Impiantistica Italiana - Settembre-Ottobre 2013
nologici, economici e ambientali.
Benché in competizione tra loro, gli operatori attualmente impegnati nello sfruttamento di questo giacimento, hanno avviato una collaborazione in progetti
di ricerca attraverso tre istituti canadesi: il COSIA (Canadian Oil Sands Innovation Alliance), il PTAC (Petroleum Technology Alliance of Canada) e il CSUR (Canadian Society of Unconventional Resources).