Grant: Industrial Research Chairs

Oil and natural gas are the largest natural energy resources in Alberta and Canada. Currently, Alberta produces70% of Canada's oil and 80% of its natural gas. The extraction and revenue from oil and natural gas is animperative component of the Alberta economy as one-third of the Alberta Government's revenue is generatedfrom oil and gas. As the demand and use for oil and gas increases globally and furthermore as oil pricesreached its lowest values, efficient recovery and extraction of heavy-oil and bitumen has become a priority forthe government, the oil industry, research centres and universities - especially the University of Alberta.The proposed NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Unconventional Oil Recovery is a major research initiativeundertaken by the University of Alberta in response to developing ecologically viable technologies forextracting or tapping unconventional oil reserves and resources. For the most part, the oil industry has beentechnologically unprepared to meet the high demands of heavy oil and bitumen production and consumptionneeds. With Alberta having the second largest hydrocarbon reserves in the world (after Saudi Arabia'sconventional oil reserves) that are estimated at 1.7 trillion barrels, currently only 10% of these reserves (173billion barrels) is recoverable using existing technologies.Heavy-oil and bitumen reserves deposited below minable depths require in-situ recovery techniques. Theselower-lying resources have considerably more potential than extractable oil sands. Only 15% of these oilreserves can be mined using existing techniques - leaving 85% of oil reserves untouched. While proventechnologies are successfully applied for surface extraction of mined oil sands, in-situ recovery of heavy-oiland bitumen is still a considerable challenge due to the technological and economic problems. Throughdevelopment of advanced and optimal in-situ recovery techniques under this proposed research program, thepotential to recover 85% of these reserves exists.