heavy oil

Despite the recent downturn, a significant number of pilot- or demonstration-scale applications of existing technologies to develop new heavy-oil fields or new technologies to develop existing fields have been reported over the past year.

This paper presents the planning and execution of a matrix-stimulation pilot project in the heavy-oil Chichimene Field in Colombia.

Cyclic steam stimulation (CSS) is one of the principal enhanced-oil-recovery methods for heavy oil. CSS was performed in some of the wells of a heavy-oil field in Kuwait. Multiple cycles were applied in these wells. However, the total water produced in each cycle was much less than expected.

The appreciation of empirical realities permits the improvement of commercial depletion planning and enables a greater number of projects. This paper reviews the evidence for and against three doctrines in current use to develop depletion plans.

The Hebron field off the east coast of Canada has begun production 37 years after it was discovered. Production is expected to peak at 150,000 B/D and ultimately yield about 700 million bbl of oil over the field's life.

Researchers at the University of Calgary have developed a solid pellet that can transport bitumen and heavy oil by railcar instead of pipelines.

The authors discuss a new way of extracting deformation information from radar imagery, contributing to improved accuracy of InSAR surface-elevation monitoring.

Canada will become the world’s fifth-largest producer of crude oil in 2017. The solvent-assisted-SAGD poses the largest advancement in production techniques in the oil sands, and if scaled up, could further reduce extraction costs.

Getting a good well for a field test can make or break a new idea. A government backed research group in Saskatchewan is offering up to CAD 100,000 break on royalty payments to test ways to extend the life of conventional, heavy-oil fields.

The deal will transfer nearly 2 billion bbl of reserves to Canadian Natural Resources while bolstering Shell's downstream and carbon-capture role in support of oil sand development.