Posted on 01/27/2010 9:59:17 AM PST by thackney
A small Alberta energy company sitting on a rich bitumen deposit south of Fort McMurray is hoping to break the mould -- and not begin routine in situ production.
Excelsior Energy believes it has a better idea: a method that will recover 65 per cent of the frozen molasses-like oil, about twice the recovery rate of the industry standard -- steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD).
And even better, Excelsior's method will use virtually no water, and just 20 per cent of the energy needed by its SAGD neighbours.
"We think combustion overhead gravity drainage (COGD) is an evolution for this business, an advance over SAGD," said Robert Bailey, vice-president of engineering for the company.
To understand COGD, think of a bathtub-shaped area with plumbing on the inside. Injection wells are drilled down the centre of the deposit and primed with steam to loosen the bitumen. After that, air is pumped down and ignition begins.
Vent wells along the side collect the ignition gases, and a long horizontal well at the base of the deposit collects the slowly flowing bitumen.
"Combustion in the ground offers so many advantages, but different combustion methods have been used over the past 30 years, all unsuccessfully," said Bailey, who has worked on a few of the them.
But the development of horizontal wells, used in SAGD, has ushered in a new way to do combustion.
The first of this new class of project is Petrobank Energy's Whitesands THAI (toe-to-heel air injection) pilot, which is now being tested in different types of bitumen, and on the verge of commercial acceptance. THAI uses a moving wall of combustion to melt the bitumen, while COGD is top down.
"Petrobank has helped us, and what they have done has taken a lot of risk out of these projects. I would have a much harder sell if THAI didn't exist," said Bailey.
For now, Excelsior is out beating the drum and raising its profile. In late 2009, the company began the search for a joint partner that could benefit from a $10-million royalty credit Excelsior is seeking under the government's Innovative Energy Technologies Program.
A trillion barrels of oil....
![](http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:R8sR7daexSBGmM:www.ted-kyte.com/3D/Pictures/Spark%2520Plug.jpg";)
Rest In Peace, old friend, your work is finished.....
If you want ON or OFF the DIESEL ”KnOcK” LIST just FReepmail me.....
This is a fairly HIGH VOLUME ping list on some days.....
are they traded in the US?
Thanks. They are at < $0.20/share now, might be interesting to get a piece of it, at a relatively low risk. Specially if this is all they say it is.
But, but, but, that is only 135 years of US demand.
It is hardly worth.... wait.... uhmmm.... never mind.
intentionally lighting an underground tar fire... what could possibly go wrong with that plan?
two words: Centralia Pennsylvania
Make sure you have the right company before investing.
http://www.excelsior-energy.com/
http://www.excelsiorenergy.com/
Being far below the water table tends to make a difference.
I wish we did not have to burn ANY of it just to get a smallt of what’s left unburnt underground out of the ground as fuel.
I’d rather wait - leave this resource in place for while. Something tells me - and I have no reason for this but a gut-level feeling - that this resource can be better used sometime in the future with a future technology.
Most definitely.
“Being far below the water table tends to make a difference.”
This sounds great, actually, and I’m praying they pull it off.
Question, however: Being below the water table, what’s the chances of combustion combining with water to make steam under pressure resulting in rapid expansion of the same somewhere else?
I imagine they’ve already thought of this.
Where? I know we have that in shale oil near CO, UT and WY.
Ah... no. The Saudis and Islam have gained control over Europe with petro money and they are working on the USA,AU and NZ. The Saudis also own DC, London, Brussels and a few others.
The earth’s core is a hot reactor making oil and nat gas every day. Eventually solar and other forms of energy will improve. Plus we have coal, nuke and tons of nat gas.
I am not familiar with their specific details.
But I do know something similar is done with coal in several locations. And that oil companies sometimes handle production from fields at up to 10,000 psi.
It is called the Bakke formation here in the US, but Canada’s Alberta tar sands also hold monstrous reserves of oil that are becoming more and more recoverable. Every year the fraction rises.
Exactly; every year new technology increases the amounts available from current fields, often makes “depleted” fields productive again and finally makes uneconomic deposits a winning proposition. We have taken far more oil from Prudhoe than was first estimated.
Long long time ago, I read something about this*, and think I know how it all turns out...
The socialist government decides this is such a great idea they're going to take it over, and collect the revenues directly -- no more of those fat-cat profits.
Unfortunately, as soon as bureaucrats take over, the process quits working and bureaucrats can't figure out how to get it started again. So instead of "free money," all they got was some hope and change.
Plus, I guess we could add -- a great victory in the war on "global warming." Now the oceans will begin to recede again... ;-)
*Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
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