Extraction technologies
and giving us a decent recovery factor, we substantially to its CHOPS production base,
tend to create a remolded and purchasing Cdn$200 million of properties
disaggregated zone only, and there is a in the Cold Lake area from ExxonMobil
greatly increased risk of collapse of the Canada, an acquisition designed to
overburden shale, plugging the production complement and significantly enhance the
well,” Dusseault explains. “This seems to company’s production in the region. The
have happened in the three to four cases new properties are adjacent to lands
where CHOPS was tried in reservoirs in the already owned by Devon and will receive
range of 50,000 to 80,000 cP.” about 800 new wells before 2010,
increasing production from 3,000 barrels He says CHOPS is used occasionally in per day to 20,000 to 25,000 barrels per day. No matter what
China and Kazakhstan, and there are plans to try it out in places like Venezuela and “It’s a pretty aggressive program,” says CHOPS will be used
Oman. In Canada, there appears to be Devon representative Diane Hickie. “The much potential for it as a “first” extraction wells are relatively shallow at a depth of for in the future,
phase. about 500 metres, and, due to the large number of previously drilled wells, the there is certainly
resource is very well defined.”
“It alters the properties of the reservoirs
favourably, making the zones more
permeable, porous and compressible.
These are favourable for the later
application of thermal methods, as the
thermal methods will then proceed more
rapidly, with lower heat losses per barrel.”
much more work for
Hickie says companies have been actively drilling in the area since the late 1960s, and it to do in its
that makes the exploitation job a little
easier today.
conventional form
No matter what CHOPS will be used for in
the future, there is certainly much more
work for it to do in its conventional form.
Companies like CNRL, Devon Canada and
Husky Energy are hard at work using the
technology. In 2005 Devon added
“So many wells have been drilled that you
really know where the reserves are.”
The progressing cavity pump has made
CHOPS more efficient, and, as technology
evolves over time, the process is only likely
to get better and produce more. ■
