attempting the use of combustion for oil
recovery in Azerbaijan and other regions.
The United States started examining the
technology in the late 1940s, and four
major field tests were performed by 1958.
Wright. “We think with THAI we can target temperature, while the other two will
the huge majority of the remaining monitor pressure. The well pairs will be
resource here.” started up one at a time in order to reap
the benefits of incremental learnings.
The process of pulling the pilot together
started in 2003, when Whitesands “We’re going to take our time with this
“The first full-scale commercial application completed a 20-square-kilometre first well pair,” Bloomer says. “We want to
of the process was started in 1959, and two three-dimensional seismic survey and enhance, improve and optimize the
of the original projects were soon expanded cored three stratigraphic test wells in the process.”
to commercial scale,” the company says, area of the project. It is located in the
adding that the first openly documented in same oil sands fairway as SAGD
situ combustion project in Canada was operations belonging to EnCana and
attempted in 1920 in the Athabasca oil Devon Canada.
sands region near Fort McMurray, Alberta.
At peak production, the pilot is expected
to pump out about 1,800 barrels per day
of partially upgraded bitumen, or about
600 barrels per day from each horizontal
“When we did the drilling, we found some well. It will take about three million cubic
Since the 1950s, Canada has seen about 30 really good reservoirs,” Bloomer says. feet per day of air to keep the process
oil recovery combustion projects, but none going, and each day about 190 barrels of
quite like the Whitesands pilot. The project received regulatory approval water will be produced. Bloomer says the
from the Alberta Energy and Utilities results should start coming in soon after
“THAI is a huge leap for the effectiveness of Board, and Alberta Environment in early the process begins.
combustion processes,” Bloomer explains. 2004, and operations have commenced.
Bloomer says in the oil and gas industry,
When Petrobank first acquired its oil sands that’s a pretty fast development.
leases about 120 kilometres south of Fort
“It’s designed as a five-year project, but
we will know what is happening in the
reservoir fairly quickly,” he explains.
McMurray in 2000, the company considered “To go from approval to starting up a
executing a Steam Assisted Gravity plant within two years is lightspeed.”
Drainage (SAGD) project but instead opted
to try something new. The pilot consists of three horizontal
wells, three vertical wells and 19 vertical
“This is prime SAGD property, but we think observation wells. Seventeen of the
it is better to use this technology,” says CEO observation wells will monitor
Petrobank’s original oil sands leases held
an estimated 1. 3 billion barrels of
bitumen in place. The company has since
expanded its land base south of Fort
McMurray by one-third, acquiring 15 new
sections in early 2006.
