Saskatchewan
production from wells that were drilled in the fourth quarter of 2010. The remainder of the 2011 program is more explorator y in nat ure, and PetroBakken expects to drill between four and seven net wells. Two net wells will be drilled in northeastern British Columbia at Monias to preserve acreage, while the remaining wells will be drilled in other areas. The majority of the planned $45 million of capital spending for this program is for drilling
and completions, with approximately 10 per cent allocated to facility costs in northeastern British Columbia. These capital invest ments are planned to enhance the long-term value of the company’s drilling inventory by preserving its extensive natural gas options in northeastern British Columbia and evaluating new resource plays. Exit production for 2011 is expected to be between 46,000 and 49,000 boe a day, up from 42,500 boe a day for
year-end 2010 (based on field estimates), including replacing 2011 base production decline of approximately 40 per cent. Most of the production growth is expected to come from the Cardium area in central Alberta while t he compa ny ’s more mat ure assets i n sout hea ster n Sa sk atc hewa n a re ex pec ted to remain relat ively f lat. Approximately 85 per cent of production is light oil and natural gas liquids. — DAILY OIL BULLETIN
Researchers will study alleged carbon dioxide leakage into farm near Weyburn T he International Performance Assessment Centre for Geological Storage of CO2 (IPAC-CO2) is assembling a team of international experts to conduct an independent performance assessment of protocols and practices in the Weyburn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project following complaints from a Saskatchewan family about the possibility of CO2 leaks at their farm. The report, Geochemical Soil Gas Survey, was conducted by Paul Lafleur of Petro-Find Geochem, Ltd., and submitted to Cameron and Jane Kerr. That report is currently under review by Saskatchewan’s Petroleum Technology Research Centre. A response to this report will be provided once it has been thoroughly reviewed. I PAC - CO 2 i s a n env i ron ment a l, non-government organization created in 2009 to gain public and regulator confidence in the geological storage of CO2 as a sustainable energy and environmental option by providing independent performance assessments of the projects. “This will be a fact-based review,” said Carmen Dybwad, IPAC-CO2 ’s chief executive officer. “The object is not to determine fault or point fingers. It is simply an analysis of whether there is leakage and, if so, to discover its root cause. Results of this independent study will help establish the ‘best practices’ for future CCS projects that include an enhanced oil recovery component.” A detailed list of the team members will be released once all of the experts have been con f i r med. Pa r t icipa nts 58
MARCH 2011 • OIL & GAS INQUIRER
in the project, so far, include experts from the Gulf Coast Carbon Center at the Universit y of Texas and Carbon Management Canada Ltd., a network of 22 Canadian universities researching large-scale ways to reduce carbon emissions in the fossil fuel industry. To participate in the independent review, each expert must not have had any previous association with the Weyburn project, Dybwad said. “We will apply the nine-step protocol for site assessment we developed while working with the Canadian Standards Association to draft the world’s first standard for geologic storage of carbon dioxide,” Dybwad said. The draft, which establishes a binational standard, is being reviewed by a technical committee of almost three dozen experts from Canada and the United States. The new standard will also be used as a basis for international standards through the International Organization for Standardization. Cameron and Jane Kerr held a news conference on Jan. 11, 2011, in Regina demanding a full public investigation of problems at their farm located near the Cenovus Energy Inc. CCS site. The Kerrs said they had first noticed changes in surface water and well water on their property in 2004, one year after CO2 injection in the area had begun. About 17 million tonnes of CO 2 have been injected into the Weyburn oilfield over the past decade. It is recognized as the largest, commercial-scale CCS project in the world.
The International Energy Agency’s Greenhouse Gas Weyburn Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project has been involved in measuring and monitoring injection of CO2 into the Weyburn and Midale oilfields in southeastern Saskatchewan since the year 2000. As part of this research, an extensive program of sampling soil gases and shallow water wells across the CO2 injection area has been undertaken for almost 10 years. Baselines for CO2 in the soils and wells were taken in multiple locations starting in July, 2001, prior to any injection, and several surveys have been repeated periodically since injection began. The soil gas surveys were conducted by independent research organizations including the British Geological Survey, the French Geological Survey and the Italian Geological Survey. These tests all have indicated that soil gases sampled are in the normal range for these soil types given variations in organic matter content, moisture, temperature and seasonal variations. No evidence of CO2 originating from the 1.5-kilometre deep Midale reservoir (the geological unit at the Weyburn f ield) has been obser ved in a ny of t hese sur veys under ta ken by t hese international scientific organizations. Similarly shallow well water samples taken repeatedly throughout this study over 10 years have not indicated any evidence of CO2 from the deep geological reservoir. — DAILY OIL BULLETIN