Is Carmon Creek the next Seal Lake?

Ron Moggert, a public consultant for Shell Canada Energy in Calgary, discussed the technical aspects of the Carmon Creek Project, including bitumen and diluent.

Mac Olsen
South Peace News

High Prairie stands to benefit directly and indirectly from Shell Canada Energy’s proposed Carmon Creek Project near Peace River. Greg Radstaak, the director of the Lesser Slave Lake Region, Finance and Enterprise, Regional Development Branch in High Prairie, explains how this could happen. “The oilsands will be a major economic driver in the region and we should see increased activity in the long run for the community,” says Radstaak. Service-based companies in High Prairie would travel via the proposed Seal Lake connector road to the Seal Noel Road, which is part of the Peace River oilsands road network. This means High Prairie would have direct access to the oilsands. Indirect benefits include workers spending their money in High Prairie, so businesses would hire more staff. However, everything depends on external factors. For instance, the Carmon Creek Project would produce bitumen, which is correlated with world oil prices but they are fluctuating. Ken Zaitsoff, a public consultation officer for Shell Canada Energy in Peace River, is promoting the project in northern Alberta. He made a presentation at the Lesser Slave Lake Economic Alliance’s annual general meeting in High Prairie Oct. 9. “I want to introduce the Peace River Complex to those that don’t know much about our facility and talk about our future aspirations,” says Zaitsoff. The company is seeking regulatory approval from the provincial government, which includes consultations with stakeholders. The company must also decide which technologies to use for bitumen extraction. “Bitumen, associated with the reservoir where we are, has been a challenge to recover. It’s about finding the most effective, efficient form of recovery and believing you can take it from a pilot through to a commercial project.” Ron Moggert, the company’s Calgary consultant, later discussed the technology issues. He says the company considered two well designs: horizontal (cyclical steam simulation) and vertical (steam drive) wells and chose the latter. Moggert also explained the well designs. In horizontal wells, steam is injected to heat the reservoir. Once bitumen is fluid enough for pumping to the surface, steam injection stops and bitumen is produced. After a period of production, the reservoir cools and the cycle is repeated. Vertical wells use separate steam injection and producer wells. Steam drive uses dedicated injector and producer wells to drive the heated oil through the rock from the steam injector well to the producer well. Vertical wells require more well pads to efficiently develop the reservoir, but this results in substantially higher recovery. Two new processing facilities would be built, each with a capacity of 50,000 barrels of bitumen per day. There would be facilities for bitumen/water/gas separation, water recycling, gas treating and waste storage facilities. Approximately 170 well pads would be used for the life of the project. Cogeneration facilities would generate steam and electricity and a new above ground pipeline gathering system would connect the well pads to the processing facilities. A diluent supply infrastructure would be set up for the processing facilities. Bitumen has the consistency of a hockey puck in its natural state, which requires heat to bring it to the surface. On the surface, the heat is removed through a network of heat exchanges and diluent is added. Diluent - a byproduct of natural gas processing - is a substance similar to paint thinner and is used because it maintains low viscosity in oil. This ensures the oil flows smoothly through the pipeline. Zaitsoff says work on the Carmon Creek Project began in 2004 and regulatory approval could come in 2010.

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