Ikelic - Alliance Digital Repository

STATUS OF OIL SANDS PROJECTS (Underline denotes changes since June 1994)
COMMERCIAL PROJECTS (Continued)
- LINDBERGH COMMERCIAL PROJECT Amoco
Canada Petroleum Company Ltd. (T-120)
Amoco (formerly Dome Petroleum) began a commercial project in the Lindbergh area that would cover initially five sections
and was planned to be developed at a rate of one section per year for five years. It was to employ
"huff-and-puff steaming of
wells drilled on 10 acre spacing, and would require capital investment of approximately $158 million (Canadian). The project
was expected to encompass a period of 12 years. Due to the dramatic decline of oil prices, drilling on the first phase of the
commercial project was halted, and has forced a delay in the proposed commercial thermal development.
The company has no immediate plans for steaming the wells to increase production because this process is uneconomic at cur
rent prices.
The current focus has been development and optimizing of primary production. In 1990, 26 wells on 40-acre spacing were
drilled for primary production. Again, due to low heavy oil prices, some limited drilling will take place in 1991. Primary
production from the project is now averaging 6,200 barrels per day.
Project Cost: $158 Million
LINDBERGH COMMERCIAL THERMAL RECOVERY PROJECT -
Murphy Oil Company Ltd. (T-130)
Murphy Oil Company Ltd., has completed construction and startup of a 2,500 barrel per day commercial thermal recovery
project in the Lindbergh area of Alberta. Project expansion to 10,000 barrels per day is planned over nine years, with a total
project life of 30 years. The first phase construction of the commercial expansion involved the addition of 53 wells and con
struction of an oil plant, water plant, and water source intake and line from the North Saskatchewan River.
Murphy has beer) testing thermal recovery methods in a pilot project at Lindbergh since 1974. Based on its experience with the
pilot project at Lindbergh, the company expects recovery rates in excess of 15 percent of the oil in place. Total production over
the life of this project is expected to be in excess of 12 million cubic meters of heavy oil.
The project uses a huff-and-puff process with about two cycles per year on each well. Production is from the Lower Grand
Rapids zone at a depth of 1,650 feet. Oil gravity is 11 degrees API, and oil viscosity at the reservoir temperature is
85,000 centipoise. The wells are directionally drilled outward from common pads, reducing the number of surface leases and
roads required for the project.
The project was suspended for a year from September 1988 to August 1989 when three wells were steamed. The project
returned to production on a limited basis in the last quarter of 1989. Initial results were encouraging, says Murphy, but an ex
pansion to full capacity depends on heavy oil prices, market assessment, and operating costs.
The project was shut-in in late 1991. reviews Engineering of current and alternate technologies are under way.
In late 1993 a horizontal well was drilled, offsetting eight of the directionally drilled cyclic wells. Five of these were converted
to injection wells and a steam drive process using the horizontal well as a producer was tested until January 1994, when the
project was again shut down due to low oil prices. Restart of the project will be dependent on oil price projections.
Project Cost: $30 million (Canadian) initial capital cost
- MOBIL-ORINOCO HEAVY OIL PROJECT Mobil
and Lagoven (T-1351
Mobil and Lagoven have signed an agreement to conduct feasibility studies to develop and upgrade 100.000 barrels/day of
heavy oil from the Orinoco belt in Venezuela. If the study, focusing on technology, markets and economics, shows the
proposed heavy oil project to be feasible. Mobil and Lagoven plan to submit an association agreement to the Venezuelan
government in late 1995.
Project Cost: Unknown
-
NEWGRADE HEAVY OIL UPGRADER (THE CO-OP UPGRADER) NewGrade
Co-Operative Refineries Ltd. and the Saskatchewan Government (T-140)
Energy, Inc., a partnership of Consumers
Construction and commissioning of the upgrader was completed in October, 1988. The official opening was held
November 9, 1988.
3-37
SYNTHETIC FUELS REPORT, JANUARY 1995