Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

Canada's energy resources, in particular Alberta's large and challenging unconventional resources (including oil sands, coalbed methane, bitumen carbonates and more recently shale gas), have advanced significantly in their potential to supply energy to world markets. The need to protect the environment and reduce greenhouse gas emissions will severely test Alberta's ability to meet its and Canada's own power needs, expand export markets and ensure that it obtains maximum value from its resources. Development of these immense and unique resource deposits depends on efficient, economic extraction technologies; the reduction, storage and/or effective use of CO2; improved land restoration processes; and an improved understanding the environmental impact of resource development. The proposed Chair research program investigates the application of soil and rock mechanics in unconventional oil and gas production to advance our fundamental knowledge in these areas and to develop novel technologies and processes to optimize economic and environmentally sustainable recovery of unconventional resources. This proposed Chair program will provide world-class research training opportunities for Highly Qualified Personnel in the field of reservoir geomechanics. The research program will also explore the application of emerging technologies in digital fabrication techniques to create innovative pathways for assessing the impact of heterogeneity on the reservoir geomechanical behavior of unconventional resources, a key source of uncertainty constraining our understanding of how unconventional reservoirs behave. Improved understanding of reservoir-geomechanical behaviour of the oil sands, bitumen carbonates and shales is critical in the efficient, safe operation of unconventional resource recovery projects and will also assist in improving reservoir surveillance techniques and production optimization activities. This will ultimately lead to more efficient hydrocarbon recovery and potentially lower energy consumption and lower greenhouse gas emissions.