Turning up the heat in the oil sands

Bitumen extraction with electromagnetic heat field tested; plan for electrical current in commercial in-situ project turned down

Gary Park

For Petroleum News

The search for the magic solutions that will reduce greenhouse gases, water consumption and high capital costs in the Alberta oil sands have made one gain and one setback in June.

A consortium led by the Florida-based Harris Group has reported successfully field testing the use of electromagnetic heat to extract bitumen, but another plan by E-T Energy for using electrical current in a commercial in-situ project was turned down by the Alberta Energy Resources Conservation Board, ERCB.

The Harris partnership, with oil sands producers Suncor Energy, Nexen and Laricina Energy as partners, said its microwave method could overcome the industry’s greatest hurdles based on preliminary results from a C$33 million trial that could lead to a pilot project in 2013.

However, the group conceded it is likely years away from a commercial operation.

Although Harris claims the technology could lower greenhouse gas emissions by one-third, Laricina Chief Executive Officer Glen Schmidt said there is no solid indication yet how much costs might drop from the use of steam-assisted gravity drainage, the most popular technology for accessing deeply buried bitumen.

The electromagnetic heating method is similar to SAGD, which uses two wellbores — one to inject steam to melt the viscous bitumen and one to force the bitumen to the surface.

The Harris group, which operates in 150 countries, sends an antenna down one well and radiates electromagnetic energy to heat the bitumen. Solvents such as propane or butane are then pumped down to combine with the bitumen.

It believes there is a chance to eliminate the use of water from in-situ operations, thus eliminating one of the most controversial aspects of oil sands development.

Derik Ehresman, senior manager of energy projects at Harris, said using less energy, cutting greenhouse gases and ending the need for water could shrink the environmental footprint.

The test, approved by the ERCB, confirms the ability to successfully generate, propagate and distribute electromagnetic heat in the oil sands formation, the consortium said.

The C$33 million evaluation program was financed jointly by the consortium partners and the Alberta government’s Climate Change and Emissions Management Corp. which issued a challenge in 2009 to expand climate change knowledge, develop new “clean” technologies and explore practical ways to implement them.

However, the ERCB turned down an application by E-T Energy for a commercial in-situ project using an electrical current.

In response to the ruling and in light of weak capital markets, the company said it might consider a smaller project building on an electro-thermal dynamic stripping process to modify its plans for a proposed 10,000 barrels per day commercial operation on 10,560 acres of lease.

“We’re really comfortable that with the 10,000 bpd the economies of scale are there,” said E-T Chief Financial Officer Peter Johanson.

The company said it is hopeful it can refile an application as more test data becomes available, including the recovery factor and the energy/oil ratio needed to produce bitumen which is expected later this year.

E-T is now testing the commercial viability of a 250 bpd field test, which is designed to allow more definitive heat and material balances to be determined.

It believes there is great potential for the technology, which can access stranded bitumen resources at depths of 165 feet-500 feet — too deep to mine and too shallow for other in-situ methods, Johanson said.

He said McDaniel & Associates Consultants estimated that the Alberta oil sands have 150 billion barrels of oil in place that would fall within that range.

E-T said France’s Total is closely tracking the results and contributed C$2 million last year for field testing.