Posted on 03/08/2007 5:37:02 PM PST by thackney
Privately owned energy company Value Creation Inc. announced plans Wednesday for a $4-billion oilsands project in the oilsands, using new upgrading technology that promises to slash operating costs.
The Calgary company’s Terre de Grace project will be developed in two 40,000 barrel-a-day phases, with first production coming onstream by the 2011, subject to regulatory approval.
The company owns a large block of oilsands leases west of Canadian Natural Energy’s Horizon mine and Total’s Deer Creek operation, Chairman Columba Yeung said in an interview this morning.
It is the latest of a flood of oilsands projects eager to capitalize on the growing demand for North American sources of crude. While some may feel the project is modest compared to other massive, multibillion dollar expansions, compared to Shell Canada’s announcement of a $1 billion project for this region in 1997, it’s huge. Shell and partners eventually spent much more on the Athabasca Oilsands project.
“We don’t have to compete with them because there’s a market for our product, there’s more demand than supply,” said David Tuer, a Value Creation advisory board member.
Sitting on 290 sections of oilsands, the Terre de Grace block has 2.45 billion to 2.77 billion barrels of exploitable bitumen in place. Value Creation plans on developing at least of third of its lease in eight phases.
Value Creation said the project will combine in situ recovery -- pumping steam underground and bringing oil to the surface -- and the company’s proprietary bitumen upgrading technologies to reduce costs.
The Heartland upgrader, being built by BA Energy Inc., a unit of Value Creation, will have an approved capacity of about 260,000 barrels a day. The first phase of the upgrader is planned for startup in 2008 and will refine 77,500 barrels of tar-like bitumen blend.
The upgrader will use the hot water from the produced bitumen, and the separated largest particles of the bitumen, asphaltenes, to fuel operations. Once the process has passed the start-up phase, the upgraded bitumen will be able to flow through pipelines without costly diluent.
“That obviously has quite a significant impact on operating cost, that and the fact that we will be displacing natural gas over time,” Tuer said. “Those two factors will have quite an impact on operating costs.”
In late 2005, Value Creation and Calgary-based energy giant Enbridge Inc., which operates the major oil pipeline between Western Canada and eastern markets, announced a strategic alliance to pursue oilsands development.
As part of that deal, Enbridge invested $25 million for a minority equity stake in the company.
I stumbled across some interesting reading on the net that in the 1960's Edward Teller proposed setting off underground nukes to free the oil from the Tarsands in Alberta. The Alberta gov't was for it but the National Government quashed it. We could solve all of our energy problems right now by going ahead with the plan. The problem with the tar sands is that if we're lucky we'll get 20% of the oil out of them. And then, we use a huge amount of natural gas in doing so. The Teller plan would allow the removal of much more oil and at a much lower cost.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!
I saw a Science Channel show on the oil sands mining project. If there ever was an environmental concern about extracting oil from "Mother Earth," this would be it. They literally tear up vast streches of earth, put it through the grinder, extract the oil, and then spit it out in a big pile on the other side.
Yes, getting oil out of tar sands is more akin to coal mining than to normal oil drilling and extraction.
The Oil Sands Story: In situ
http://www.oilsandsdiscovery.com/oil_sands_story/insitu.html
About 80% of the oil sands in Alberta are buried too deep below the surface for open pit mining. This oil must be recovered by in situ techniques. Using drilling technology, steam is injected into the deposit to heat the oil sand lowering the viscosity of the bitumen. The hot bitumen migrates towards producing wells, bringing it to the surface, while the sand is left in place ("in situ" is Latin for "in place"). Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) is a type of in situ technology that uses innovation in horizontal drilling to produce bitumen.
Evidently, folks have a lot to learn regarding oilsands and recovery.
Recovery rates are above 50% in most situations, and rising. New techniques are being tested today that provide over 80%.
The removal of the oil from the tarsands results in a cleaner, "usable" span of earth, rather than "piles" being spit out on the other end.
I suggest a visit to www.oilsandsquest.com for some great pictures and info.
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