Petroleum Technology Research Centre keeps Saskatchewan’s energy future bright
PTRC’S projects offer local benefits, provincial increases in royalty revenue, and international impacts on climate change
The last week of January, just outside Estevan, the Petroleum Technology Research Centre (PTRC) employed dozens of local and Canadianbased engineers, geophysicists and Saskatchewan oil patch workers to help its Aquistore project conduct its sixth seismic shoot. The data gathered in this “shoot” will be used to create a picture of the CO2 stored in the Deadwood Formation, a very deep sandstone and brine formation.
“Aquistore is the storage project that receives CO2 from Saskpower’s Boundary Dam capture facility,” notes Dan Maclean, the PTRC’S President and CEO. “The amount of CO2 that we have permanently stored there has surpassed 275,000 tonnes. That’s the same as taking 68,000 cars off the road for a year.”
But why should Saskatchewan care about what PTRC does? Because the world cares.
International research organizations like the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia, the IEA Greenhouse Gas Research Program, the United States Department of Energy have all played an active part in PTRC’S projects. Countless more research and private sector partners in Japan, Korea, Europe, Africa, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have sought out the PTRC’S operational expertise to assist in carbon sequestration and low energy fossil fuel extraction technologies in their own countries.
Yet despite the international attention, and international funding that PTRC projects attract, the direct impact of its projects remains squarely focused on Saskatchewan.
“All of our field projects – whether in CO2 storage, or enhanced oil recovery – have been based in Saskatchewan,” notes Erik Nickel, the Director of Operations. “And our focus remains on two things – lessening the environmental impacts of hydrocarbon extraction, and improving efficiencies and recovery rates from Saskatchewan’s oil reserves, while employing as many Saskatchewan-based workers and companies as we can.”
Aquistore is just one of the field projects that have led directly to reductions in Saskatchewan’s CO2 emissions. PTRC is working with its heavy oil research network (HORNET) partner companies – along with organizations like the Saskatchewan
Research Council and the province’s two universities – to develop heavy oil recovery processes that reduce the amount of energy and water. Cyclic solvent injection, the use of polymers and surfactants, and the use of CO2 in enhanced oil recovery are all lessening the environmental footprint of production.
“We’re proud that our field projects have a direct impact in terms of environmental sustainability, employment and businesses development in parts of the province that are experiencing challenges right now,” noted Maclean. “But we’re also delighted to see our local research has a global impact, and attracts investment and world-leading researchers to Saskatchewan who help in the training of qualified people.”