research and deveLopment
to support business development and growth. Finally, the organization’s Innovates Centre of Research Excellence works to attract top talent to focus and develop world-class research and knowledge capabilities in Alberta.
InduSTry FoCuS
CASE STudy Of course, as part of its initiative to make Alberta competitive, AITF participates in
funding projects. A case study from the University of Calgary illustrates the process. Three groups funded the study: the iCORE division of AITF and Foundation CMG contributed $1.25 million each to the study, while the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada provided another $1 million. The project was led by University of Calgary researcher Mario Costa Sousa, an associate professor who specializes in computer science. Stressing that “being able to correctly interpret and analyze complex technical data about oil and natural gas reservoirs is a critical skill for people in the energy industry,” Costa Sousa says interactive visualization “lets the user visually explore, analyze and interpret large, complex reservoir datasets and results at every stage of the oil and gas exploration and production cycle.... With quick visual information, you can explore various ideas and scenarios more rapidly and effectively, which means better decisions are made, technologically as well as environmentally and economically.” Costa Sousa’s research will ultimately influence decision making that will benefit the environment and the bottom line of companies in Calgary and around the world. It’s worth remembering that the beneficiaries of these projects won’t just be in Alberta. New production technologies like these will help boost business competitiveness around the world.
photo: joey podLuBny
The Heavy Oil & Oil Sands group at AITF is a recognized leader in research and development, as well as in cooperating with industry in technology deployment. Its reservoir engineers and scientists continue to improve relatively mature technologies such as steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) and enhanced heavy oil waterflooding. They also continue to create and develop newer technologies such as expanding solvent SAGD, which co-injects solvent with steam, and cyclic solvent injection, which is a solvent injection analogue to cyclic steam stimulation. Their Alberta Research Council Core Industry (AACI) Research Program focuses on in situ heavy oil and oilsands research and innovation. Consisting of 21 members from industry and three from the Alberta government, companies pay a fee to participate. According to John Ivory—AACI’s subsurface portfolio manager—“Consortium work is industry-focused. Technical committee members decide what projects go forward. As a researcher, I can put forth proposals, but the steering committee votes on which ones go ahead.” Ivory stresses that “mostly what
we do in the AACI program is develop new or improved recovery processes in the lab. The participants get our lab results and a royaltyfree licence to use any process arising while they are members.” Companies participate because they can gain a great deal in their understanding of new processes—steam/solvent injection, for example. “In those areas, we are likely to be ahead of the game because we have a great deal of experience in looking at recovery processes through experimentation and reservoir simulation. Our main expertise is in doing large-scale experiments and computer simulation. We like to back up our numerical models with experiments.” Ivory is just one of a great many people who work on oilsands research. “We have a lot of technical expertise,” he says. “We want innovative people from many backgrounds in addition to reservoir engineering, for example, from physics, chemistry, geology, etc. We choose in-house or contract personnel with the appropriate background for particular projects. A very important thing that we do in field projects, really, is to make sure that measurements are accurate as this is crucial in interpreting the performance of recovery processes.”
HE AV Y OIL & OIL S A ND S GUID EB O O K VIII
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