No matter how efficient bitumen and
heavy oil production becomes, there is
always room for improvement. That’s why
there are always new technologies being
tested in Western Canada in an effort to
minimize environmental impacts, reduce
costs and improve recovery rates. Many
say one of the most promising new
technologies under pilot is vapour
extraction (VAPEX). It’s a non-thermal
method that, if successful, could take
away a giant part of current operating
costs—the need for natural gas to
generate steam for the Steam Assisted
Gravity Drainage (SAGD) process.
“If [VAPEX] works out well, it will work out
really well. Fuel gas eats our lunch,” says
Susan MacKenzie, general manager of
Petro-Canada’s in situ oil sands business
unit. But, she explains, VAPEX is in the
very early stages of development. “It is a
baby. The cycle time to make [a new
technology] commercial is many, many
years. SAGD started that way too.”
Petro-Canada is the owner and operator
of the Underground Test Facility (UTF) at
Dover, in the Athabasca oil sands. SAGD
was largely developed at the UTF, and
now the test site is home to a VAPEX pilot
called the DOVAP project.
“We can play around with things in there
without putting commercial reserves at
risk,” MacKenzie says.
SAGD was piloted at the UTF through
collaboration of government, industry
and the Alberta Oil Sands Technology
and Research Authority (AOSTRA), and
the group effort continues with VAPEX.
However, the AOSTRA presence in DOVAP
has been replaced by the Alberta Energy
Research Institute (AERI), as AOSTRA no
longer exists.
“[ The project] is owned as a consortium,”
says Devon Canada representative Dean
Britton. Devon owned the UTF from 1998
to 2005, when the asset was divested to
Petro-Canada. Britton says it is still viewed
as a valuable testing ground. “We retain
an interest in the DOVAP project.”
There are nine companies with interests
in DOVAP, including Canadian Natural
Resources, Chevron Texaco,
ConocoPhillips, Imperial Oil, Japan
Canada Oilsands, Nexen, Suncor and
Total. It is also supported by Natural
Resources Canada.
Like SAGD, VAPEX was invented by Roger
Butler. The idea behind VAPEX is similar to
