New Petroleum Technologies

Technology


The world needs energy. Lots of it. Technology enables us to deliver more energy and more jobs, royalties and taxes with fewer impacts on the planet.



Alberta is uniquely positioned to provide safe and secure energy to customers across North America. With conventional oil and gas deposits declining, we must pursue new resources such as oil sands and shale gas. Technology and innovation gives Alberta the edge.



Alberta pursues new technologies to improve environmental performance - reduce water use, reduce land use, restore and reclaim areas - as well as drive down operational costs to make Alberta’s far away resources competitive in major markets.



From the Duvernay and Pembina/Cardium to Viking, bringing technology to bear in responsible energy development creates opportunities for Albertans and makes the province an attractive place to invest.



Some of the technologies currently being employed are:



Fracking
Horizontal Drilling
Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI)
Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS)
Fugitive Emissions
Geothermal Energy
In Situ Drilling



Fracking
Hydraulic fracturing makes it possible to produce oil and natural gas in places where conventional technologies are ineffective. It uses water pressure to create fractures in rock that allow oil and natural gas to escape and flow out of a well.



Hydraulic fracturing is well-regulated and safe, and it has a proven track record. The oil and natural gas produced thanks to this technology helps fuel our nation’s economy, and the energy needed to heat our homes, fill-up our cars, generate electricity and create fertilizers and plastics.














Horizontal Drilling
Horizontal drilling is an advanced technique of drilling down to reservoirs vertically, then gradually turning the wellhead horizontally to run down the length of the reservoir like a small tunnel.



These thin reservoirs would require dozens of vertical wells to be drilled, but with this technique, can be reached through one well. This lowers the environmental impact, reduces drilling costs and increases production.








Toe-to-Heel Air Injection (THAI™)
THAI™ is an oil sands technology that uses combustion instead of steam to liquefy the sticky bitumen deep underground, allowing it to be pumped to the surface. This technology helps reduce GHG emissions because it requires less energy than heating water to make steam.



FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HOW THAI™ WORKS >




Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS)
CCS is a promising option to reduce our GHG emissions in the near future. Companies are beginning to capture CO2 and store (sequester) it underground or transport it to conventional oil and gas wells to help recover more resources from those wells. Several companies are also considering pipelines to connect sources of CO2 with older oil reservoirs and other sequestration sites. There are several CCS projects currently operating in Canada.



FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THESE PROJECTS >




Fugitive Emissions
Alberta’s energy industry is working hard to be more efficient in operations by reducing the GHGs emitted per barrel of oil and unit of natural gas produced. This is done in a variety of ways, like minimizing small leaks in equipment – also known as fugitive emissions. In cases like these, small steps can have big results.



FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HOW WE WORK TO REDUCE OUR FUGITIVE EMISSIONS >




Geothermal Energy
Further research into reducing emissions has lead the oil sands industry to research how geothermal energy from deep in the earth could provide a low-emission alternative to provide heat and steam in the oil sands production process.




In Situ Drilling
80 per cent of oil sands reserves (which underlie approximately 97 percent of the oil sands surface area) are recoverable through in situ technology, with limited surface disturbance.



Advances in technology, such as directional drilling, enable in situ operations to drill multiple wells (sometimes more than 20) from a single location, reducing the surface disturbance.



The majority of in situ operations use steam-assisted gravity drainage, or SAGD. This method involves pumping steam underground through a horizontal well to liquefy the bitumen that is then pumped to the surface through a second well.






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We have a good story to tell about our oil and gas sector - your participation is important, so please join the discussion.