CO2 sequestration from Alberta's oil sands operations

Reuters article on Penn West Energy Trust’s ambitions to sequester and reuse carbon dioxide from their oil sands upgrading process.

Reuter’s reports in their recent article Penn West eyes upgrader for CO2 injection plans, that Penn West Energy is considering an upgrader to process tar-like bitumen from their northern Alberta's Peace River region into refinery-ready crude oil. The greenhouse gases produced by the plant would then be used to improve recovery in older conventional oil fields in Alberta's Pembina region. While CO2 injection may not be effective for heavy oil recovery as  CO2 tends to precipitate asphaltenes from the heavy oil and thus damages formation productivity, it is a proven EOR approach for conventional reservoirs. While there are a number of hurdles to implement and scale this approach, it is a great example of innovative process changes ongoing within our industry that will better enable oil sands and heavy oil reservoirs to be produced economically while minimizing GHG emissions.

Jorge.