Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
8/12/2019 Have a Heart, Rex (Phase 4) 2014-03-08 SAGD
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/have-a-heart-rex-phase-4-2014-03-08-sagd 1/7
Dear Rex Tillerson,
The Alberta Energy Regulator is clamping down.Reservoir containment apparently does not havesufficient integrity to preclude leakage of thetoxic fluids from shallow resources that aresubjected to steam-assisted gravity drainage.You know from your 39 years of experience
that this will blow up in the faces Canadianoil men. You can take the lead. Compel themto abandon the tarsands in Alberta. Read this:
Example of large fractures that seeped bitumen at one of four well sites operated
Alberta Regulator Quietly Halts Steam Bitumen Mining Near Fort Mac
After several leaks, production frozen while technical review is conducted. By Andrew Nikiforuk, 5 Mar 2014, TheTyee.ca
by CNRL in September 2013. In January, the Alberta energy regulator suspendedthe fastest growing source of bitumen production around Fort McMurray due toconcerns about fracturing the region’s cap rock. Photo: CNRL.
Douglas Grandt <[email protected]>
Rex Tillerson <[email protected]>
Shane Steward <[email protected]>
Alberta Regulator Quietly Halts Steam Bitumen Mining Near Fort McMurray
13 Attachments, 87 KB
8/12/2019 Have a Heart, Rex (Phase 4) 2014-03-08 SAGD
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/have-a-heart-rex-phase-4-2014-03-08-sagd 2/7
The Alberta energy regulator has suspended the fastest-growing source of bitumenproduction around Fort McMurray due to concerns about fracturing the region’s cap rock.
Last January, the regulator quietly issued a bulletin announcing the freeze on development inthe Wabiskaw-McMurray deposit of the Athabasca Oil Sands Area while it completes “athorough technical review of the factors that affect reservoir containment of steam-assistedgravity drainage (SAGD) projects.”
The suspension affects the development of steam operations in one hundred townships wherebitumen developers plan to inject hot steam 100 to 150 metres into the ground to meltshallow formations of bitumen.
To date, five companies have been affected by the freeze including Silver Willow Energy andIvanhoe Energy, whose 7,520-acre Tamarack Project is valued at $1.8 billion.
“The [regulator] believes that the risk of steam and reservoir fluids being released at surface isgreater if reservoir containment is compromised in this area due to the shallow nature of theresource,” reported the bulletin.
A cap rock must have "sufficient thickness and competency and be continuous across theproject area to contain steam and heated reservoir fluids."
Review long overdue: critics
Geomechanical engineers have warnedfor years that steam plant operations that extractbitumen from formations just 100 metres from the surface are much riskier than deeperformations and require “more careful determination of maximum operating pressure” for thesteam.
Preventing bitumen blowouts to the surface cap rock integrity demands high degrees of
complexity, including “comprehensive field measurements, detailed laboratory measurementsand collation of all information in a geo-mechanical modeling exercise to determine the safemaximum operating pressure.”
Critics say the technical review is long overdue and highlights growing problems withdifferent kinds of in situ technology, including toxic air pollution in Peace River, dramaticbitumen releases in Cold Lake, groundwater depletion and contamination in Athabasca andrising steam-to-bitumen ratios, an indicator of extreme energy waste.
“Alberta’s review and permitting process for high-pressure bitumen extraction projects hasbeen overly permissive and risky for groundwater, surface lands and wildlife resources,” saysCarolyn Campbell of the Alberta Wilderness Association.
Campbell would like to see more restrictions on steaming projects “where cap-rock layers can
be fractured by geological weaknesses, such as the dissolving salts formation in the ColdLake-Conklin area or by poorly sealed, poorly documented well bore sites.”
Kevin Timoney, who co-authored a critical report on Canadian Natural Resources Limited’s hugebitumen-to-surface seepage event, said the bulletin "suggests that the regulator may have concernsthat the safety of in situ steaming operations may have been overestimated in the past.”
Production method increasingly used
Since 1998, the province has approved more than 50 steam plants. It has done so with no cumulativeimpact assessment on groundwater impacts, natural gas consumption or carbon emissions.
The freeze does not apply to high pressure cyclic steam operations in Cold Lake whereindustrial plants often blast steam to surface, groundwater and other company leases, andwhere steaming techniques not only heave the ground by 36 centimetres but damagehundreds of wellbores.
8/12/2019 Have a Heart, Rex (Phase 4) 2014-03-08 SAGD
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/have-a-heart-rex-phase-4-2014-03-08-sagd 3/7
Area affected by thebulletin. Source: AlbertaEnergy Regulator.
Last year, the federal government excluded oil-sands steamplants, which represent the future of oil-sands production,from federal environmental assessments.
In 2012, in situ oil-sands production, which includes threedifferent technologies, dethroned the open pit mines and nowaccounts for more than half of all production.
The steam operations vary in size and scale, and produceanywhere from 5,000 to 100,000 barrels of bitumen a day.
The bulletin, combined with Canadian Natural ResourcesLimited’s massive 12,000-barrel bitumen seepage, indicatesthat production dependent on fluid injection is not as safe orreliable as industry advertisements present.
Television ads by Cenovus, one of the largest steam plantoperators in the oil sands, suggest that thermal operationsare “a different kind of oil sands” and somehow cleaner thanopen pit mines.
But in recent years, petroleum and geo-mechanical engineershave raised repeated concerns about the dangers of high-pressurized steam operations.
They can experience the same sort of problems now plaguingthe hydraulic fracturing of shale gas and tight oil formations.
By pumping large amounts of steam at high pressures underground, operators have tocarefully consider rock formations around the bitumen deposit.
High-pressured blasts of steam can create fractures in the protective cap rock that keeps thebitumen from flowing to the surface or into aquifers. Fluid injection can also reactivateexisting faults or fractures and lead to leaks to the surface, other bitumen wells orgroundwater.
Review expected in months
Due to growing concern about cap rock integrity in the region, in 2009 the regulatorpromised a transparent “In Situ Oil Production Incident Review Database” that would reportuncontrolled releases of steam to surface and groundwater. To date, no such database hasbeen released.
Asked why the database had not been made public, the regulator’s senior public affairsadvisor Carrie Rosa replied that “the AER publishes all incidents on its Incident Reporting tool,on the AER website.”
The regulator did not explain why it chose to launch a review of shallow bitumen operationsnow, as opposed to 2006, when Total’s Joslyn project created a 300-metre hole in the boreal
forest after pressurizing a 70-metre-deep formation. The regulator did not report on the“catastrophic event” until four years later, and there is still no consensus on its cause.
“The AER continually assesses our rules to ensure they appropriately mitigate the risks ofdevelopment,” added Rosa in an email. “The regulator’s approach to reservoir containmenthas been a priority for several years.”
For more than three decades, petroleum engineers have known that fluid injection in shallowbitumen formations creates fractures that propagate primarily in the horizontal direction andtend to migrate upward.
8/12/2019 Have a Heart, Rex (Phase 4) 2014-03-08 SAGD
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/have-a-heart-rex-phase-4-2014-03-08-sagd 4/7
The regulator says the technical review for shallow deposits is unrelated to its investigation ofCanadian Natural Resources Limited’s chronic bitumen seepage, which forced the drainage ofa small lake and resulted in an ongoing clean-up that has cost $40 million to date.
“The regulatory focus in the Cold Lake area is to investigate the root cause of the [company's]Primrose and Wolf Lake incident and to use what is learned through the investigation toensure reservoir containment is maintained at [cyclic steam] operations.”
The regulator formed a cap rock integrity project in 2009, but doesn’t expect its complextechnical review to see the light of day for months.
http://thetyee.ca/News/2014/03/05/Alberta-Regulator-Halts-Steam-Bitumen-Mining/
12 Comments 11
! !
The Bridge !
Alberta is in serious trouble. Both Federal and ProvincialGovernments seem determined to lay waste to the province.Health issues are now becoming more apparent. They areassaulting the watershed with unrelenting attacks and thelandscape is changing to a Chinese type of destruction andpollution. They need to watch the Gasland Movies daily inschools there. Soon the Chinese will want to exercise theirFIPA rights where Harper sold your rights as a Canadian. As aBC Resident I only hope we can make them keep their filth ontheir side of the Rockies.What really gets me is how bad of a deal they have signedwith the Petroleum giants. Meanwhile Norway's deals with thesame companies are so much better for the country and the
people. Watch out people of Alberta, soon you will bewallowing in industrial waste and your children will need weara respirator just to play outside. Let alone what you are doingto your water. SCARY stuff. If Harper gets re-elected in 2015BC needs to separate immediately so we can close thatborder and put up a wall so the filth doesn't seep into ourwater.
! !
Talk !
This paragraph stood out for me: "Since 1998, the provincehas approved more than 50 steam plants. It has done so withno cumulative impact assessment on groundwater impacts,
natural gas consumption or carbon emissions."This is the type of thing responsible citizens in Harperspeak:"eco-terrorists" are upset about. The rush to develop, extract,sell out natural resources is streamlined at almost any cost tothe environment.
8/12/2019 Have a Heart, Rex (Phase 4) 2014-03-08 SAGD
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/have-a-heart-rex-phase-4-2014-03-08-sagd 5/7
! !
political ranger !
You are exactly right to note "the rush to develop" andthe easy approval process in Alberta, and now that BChas abandoned it's century old resource regulatorysystem in favour of the 'Alberta Way', also in BC. This,however , is only less than half the story.
Albaturda has been "disposing" (they don't lease, permitor license; they issue dispositions) natural resources andland base for decades now. In the case of oil and gaswells there are more than 400,000 in Alberta since thegood times began in 1914. Well over 10% of these havebeen 'abandoned'; in 2011 the Albaturda Environmentdepartment (AENV) estimated there were more than45,000 abandoned wells. In the same year ERCB(Albaturda's energy enabler) estimated that it would cost$21 billion to clean up all the petroleum development inthe province. This while the annual charge on many ofthese dispositions is $25 per year.In the land where time has stopped what it means to bean 'abandoned well' is a well that does not have a"reclamation certificate". To obtain a reclamationcertificate all the petro-corp needs to do is apply forone. They apply, they get. The downside is the risk thatsomeone from the muti-named, confused andschizophrenic regulatory agency (AENV, then AEP, thenSRD, now ESRD) will come out in the next 21 years toactually check the status of the reclamation on the site.So it's much cheaper to continue to pay $25 every yearand fuggetaboutit.So yes these elected corporate shills are tripping all overthemselves to promote each and every idea petro-corporations float. Then they turn their back on everyrepercussion that comes of it. The likelihood of thisparticular area being salvaged or restored to anysemblance of natural productivity is zero.
! !
anne cameron !
So when they suck out all the gooey black stuff...that shouldprobably leave an empty space, right? Are we going to getbig sink holes as the holes collapse?Thank you Andrew Nikiforuk for another intelligent articleinforming us of that which the mainstream media seems toprefer to ignore. And thank you Tyee for publishing Andrews'on-going expose of what I consider to be criminal behaviour.
! !
hil2 !
How about an ad on Television showing the ruin of thearboreal @ the oil sands saying: You have your _____(fill infavorite oil co. or oil funded politician) to thank for the latestimprovements in the wild & wonderful province of ______(fill in
Alberta or B.C.)
8/12/2019 Have a Heart, Rex (Phase 4) 2014-03-08 SAGD
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/have-a-heart-rex-phase-4-2014-03-08-sagd 6/7
! !
mk1313 !
Long past time.
! !
Sub-Boreal !
Even if these problems with faulty cap rock and leakage of
steam, gases, bitumen, and water hadn't happened, or wereamenable to easy technological fixes, and assuming that wecould magically make all of the eventual CO2 disappear,there's a much bigger problem lurking in the background. Andthat is that as the near-surface bitumen resource gets usedup and surface mining is replaced by in situ extraction, theover-all net energy return will get worse. That's because ofthe prodigious energy cost of creating the large amounts ofinjected steam needed to mobilize and extract the bitumen.
This was documented by Stanford U's Adam Brandt, whopublished an analysis last year of the 1970-2010 trends inenergy return ratios from the industry (Brandt et al., 2013.Energy. Vol. 55, pp. 693-702). Although it wasn't the mainpoint of the paper, it showed pretty clearly that in situmethods produced a net energy return which was only halfthat of conventional mining - or worse, depending on how youdo the accounting.
Of course, specialists can (and will) quibble 'til Doomsdayabout how to do these calculations, but there's a pretty clearmessage staring right at us: the more we have to depend onsuch energy sources, the less useful energy society will beable to count on. At some point, it becomes questionablewhether a complex technological society will be able tomaintain itself. [See Charles Hall's initial attempt to estimatethe minimum energy return needed to sustain
society:http://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/... ]
! !
hil2 !
We in the U.S. are working on Obama to veto the KXL. Iwish this poisoning of life would stop altogether.
! !
Jan Steinman !
"In 2012, in situ oil-sands production, which includes threedifferent technologies, dethroned the open pit mines and now
accounts for more than half of all production."
Worth repeating, while noting that such ops are excludedfrom environmental assessments.
So, over half of all tar sands production is excluded fromenvironmental assessment, then!
8/12/2019 Have a Heart, Rex (Phase 4) 2014-03-08 SAGD
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/have-a-heart-rex-phase-4-2014-03-08-sagd 7/7
