Grant: Idea to Innovation

The economy of Canada and that of the developed world is reliant on petroleum as the fuel for economic growth and prosperity. International demand for petroleum resources continues to grow, due in significant measure to the developing economies of Asia. This has lead to increased exploration for petroleum resources, and increased efforts to extract more of the petroleum resource from existing and future reservoirs. Traditional recovery rates are sadly often less than 50% of the oil in place. Increased scientific knowledge is required both to increase recovery rates and to aid in the development of new and more challenging petroleum reservoirs. This new knowledge is provided by core analysis and magnetic resonance is a technology increasingly embraced by leading core analysis laboratories around the globe. Green Imaging Technologies (GIT) is an award winning high technology firm from Fredericton N.B., spun off from the University of New Brunswick in 2005. They are commercializing Magnetic Resonance (MR) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technologies for evaluation of petroleum reservoir rock core samples. While still a small company, they are the leading company in this niche area world-wide. Primarily a software company, they nevertheless have a strong alliance with the dominant magnetic resonance hardware vendor in the magnetic resonance core analysis sector. This Idea to Innovation grant proposal is intended to commercialize a new patent pending MRI technology developed by the UNB MRI Research Centre. This methodology, Spin Echo Single Point Imaging, is a platform technology for MRI of petroleum reservoir core samples. This project will enhance the basic technology and help translate it to routine practice with tight integration into the suite of software products offered by GIT. The project will, in addition, develop two specific applications of the technology for reservoir core analysis and they will also be incorporated into GIT products.