Edmonton December Luncheon: Primary Heavy Oil and Oil Sands – Still Venting After All These Years

CPANS is pleased to announce the December Edmonton Luncheon Topic – Heavy Oil and Oil Sands, Still Venting After All These Years.

In 2000, the Alberta Government, due to rising prices for natural gas, began to require measurement and capture of methane being vented from heavy oil and primary (cold produced) oil sands wells. Saskatchewan tended to follow Alberta’s lead, although results are harder to track.  While this had some initial impact on total vented volumes in the province (mainly due to better economics with high gas prices), and there has been some reduction in venting intensity per barrel, there are still systemic issues which result in over 4-5 MtCO_2eq/yr of GHG emissions from venting produced solution gas from these types of wells in Alberta.  The GHG emissions are considered a global issue and unnecessary venting reduces the industry’s credibility as environmental stewards, however, a greater potential loss is the loss of a valuable local energy source which could be used to increase heavy oil recovery in those same regions.

This presentation will discuss how primary heavy oil/oil sands has changed over the last 15 years and how those changes should have greatly reduced methane venting from production operations. Examples will be covered of some areas where operations in some township are emitting over 5 million m³/yr of natural gas vs. other areas with low vent emissions, and highlight the differences in the properties of those resources, the differences in well configurations and the attitudes of the producers which motivate conservation.

Presenter: Bruce Peachey, FEIC, FCIC, P.Eng., President of New Paradigm Engineering Ltd, in Edmonton

Bruce has over 35 years experience in the upstream oil and gas industry. BSc in Chemical Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan. He spent 16 years with Imperial Oil including testing and commercial implementation of vent gas compression for Cold Lake 1981-85. Bruce formed New Paradigm in 1991 to address chronic problems in the oil and gas industry. He is a founding member of Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada (PTAC) and instructor at U of A “Oil and Gas Property Evaluation” to 4^th year Petroleum Engineering and “Environmental Stewardship – Energy, Carbon and Water” for the Faculty of Extension. He is involved in assessments of new technologies, providing input to entrepreneurs, gathering information on regional level oil and gas impacts.

Location: The University of Alberta Faculty Club (11435, Saskatchewan Drive), Papaschase Room (upstairs, right)
Time: 11:30 to 1:00 p.m. (registration starts at 11:30)
Cost: $30 – A&WMA Members / $40 – Non-Members / $15 – Students (includes hot lunch & coffee). All prices include GST.

The U of A campus is accessible by light rail transit and bus. A map of the campus is available at: http://www.campusmap.ualberta.ca/. You are encouraged to use public transit or ride-share. Parking is available in the V-Lot (coin and credit card, $2 for the lunch hour) and Windsor ($1 for 15 minutes).