Technological innovation unlocks promise of resource
With its strong focus on innovation and technology, Cenovus Energy has been a pioneer in Canada's in-situ oil sands industry. "In situ" is Latin for "in place". Instead of using trucks and excavators to mine the country's vast oil sands deposits, in-situ producers use advanced drilling methods to recover oil from deep underground. Cenovus was the first in the industry to commercialise steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) in 2001, which has become the dominant form of oil sands drilling technology.
With its strong focus on innovation and technology, Cenovus Energy has been a pioneer in Canada's in-situ oil sands industry. "In situ" is Latin for "in place". Instead of using trucks and excavators to mine the country's vast oil sands deposits, in-situ producers use advanced drilling methods to recover oil from deep underground. Cenovus was the first in the industry to commercialise steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) in 2001, which has become the dominant form of oil sands drilling technology.
Since its origins in the late 1970s, SAGD has become a game-changer. By combining hi-tech drilling and steam injection, SAGD accounts for about half of Canada's oil sands production. Eventually, this type of technology will be responsible for about 80 per cent of the oil that flows from the oil sands.
The oil sands are known to contain about 173 billion barrels of oil recoverable using existing technology, but that's just the tip of the iceberg.
"It's estimated that today's techniques will capture about 10 per cent of the original oil in place in the oil sands," says Brian Ferguson, president and CEO of Cenovus. "That means there's still a 90 per cent opportunity. As the industry develops new and better technologies, we expect to unlock billions more barrels of oil reserves in the future."
Cenovus has more than 100 technology development projects on the go at any given time, three quarters of which could have an environmental benefit while also improving the company's efficiency at producing oil.
One innovation the company has been pioneering is a solvent-aided process (SAP). This involves using butane to help dissolve the thick oil underground. By injecting butane along with steam, Cenovus believes it can decrease the amount of steam needed to produce a barrel of oil by 25 per cent, while improving production by up to 30 per cent. Because steam is expensive to produce, this lowers costs and helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Cenovus plans to apply SAP commercially at its Narrows Lake project, which is under construction.
