Petrobank's oilsands vice-president Chris Bloomer said the company is ready to proceed with a 100,000-barrel-a-day commercial project at May River, immediately south of Whitesands.
Bloomer predicted the fireflooding technique could unlock 70 to 80 per cent of the existing oil in place in Saskatchewan -- some 20 billion barrels -- compared with seven per cent using existing heavy oil techniques.
Petrobank has four projects currently underway to develop and commercialize the THAI and Capri oil recovery processes.
-The Dawson project will be Petrobank's first application of THAI™ in a more conventional heavy oil reservoir and will be an important step in the expansion of THAI™ as a heavy oil application that can be broadly applied in Canada and internationally.
- White sands project
- May River project
- Sutton (in Saskatechewan)
Output from Canada’s oilsands could rise to as much as 6.3-million barrels a day by 2035, a nearly fivefold increase above current levels, according to energy consultancy IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) in a study called Growth in the Canadian Oil Sands: Finding a New Balance.
To reach the theoretical level of 6.3 million barrels a day, the study assumes strong economic growth and robust oil prices over the long-term. If the global economy stagnates and oil prices remain weak, it is projecting daily production of 2.3 million barrels a day by 2035. That is still about one million barrels a day above current levels.
The numbers show just how important Canada’s oil will become to the United States, as the study predicts that Canada would account for 37 per cent of U.S. oil imports if production is ramped up to 6.3 million barrels a day. It was just 19 per cent in 2008.
Petrobank Presentation 2009
Q1 2009 Petrobank presentation
North Dakota's Bakken region remains active with drilling and exploration.
