Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

The increasing global energy demand and decreasing hydrocarbon production from conventional resources have motivated the industry to produce hydrocarbons from unconventional resources. As hydraulic fracturing operations in Canada increase, it is becoming important to enhance the efficiency of these operations. Canada has massive unconventional resources with an estimated 425 billion barrels of shale and tight oil in-place in Alberta alone. Although horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing have boosted hydrocarbon production, primary oil recovery factors from unconventional resources is very low (5-10% of the original oil in-place). The oil industry needs to apply enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques to improve this recovery factor. Surfactant solutions and natural gas have been considered as potential EOR fluids to improve oil recovery factors from unconventional reservoirs The proposed research aims to conduct systematic laboratory experiments for evaluating two different approaches to improve oil recovery factors from unconventional reservoirs. First is adding surfactants to fracturing fluids for EOR while fracturing. Second is cyclic injection of natural gas (Huff-n-Puff) after fracturing operations. One post-doctoral fellow, one PhD student, and one MSc student will conduct the three phases of this research, namely wetttability evaluation, surfactant EOR, and natural gas EOR. These phases involve systematic laboratory experiments on rock and fluid samples from East Duvernay and Eagle Ford Formations which are both carbonate-rich source rocks. The University of Alberta team will collaborate with industry experts in CNOOC International and Outlier Resources to: i) develop optimal formulations for fracturing and EOR fluids scenarios and ii) optimize operational parameters. The research team will acquire critical technical expertise to be well-poised to join the Canadian oil and gas industry, and continue the responsible development of the nation's unconventional oil and gas resources.