A public open house was hosted Dec. 11 at the Grassland Community Centre for a proposed bitumen extraction project.
Representatives from BlackPearl Resources, the company facilitating the work, showcased their Blackrod Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) Commerical Project, which is currently in a conceptual stage and proposed for construction 50 kilometres northwest of Wandering River.
One of the common questions posed at the open house was from where the water used for the steam generation would originate.
The answer: “No water will be used from the Athabasca River, and no freshwater or drinking water is used in the SAGD process at the Blackrod Project,” according to Blackrod commercial project manager Mike Carteri.
“It’s all going to be deep saline water that will be used for steam generation,” said Carteri. The water will come from the Grosmont deep saline water formation, he added.
“Part of the open house process was to provide stakeholders the opportunity to learn more about the project and express any questions or concerns,” said Carteri, who facilitated the open house.
SAGD has been criticized by groups like the Pembina Institute for being greenhouse gas intensive and for producing sulphur dioxide emissions, among other concerns, but Carteri maintained the most common concern posed at the open house was about the source of water for the operation.
“The SAGD process is used to extract bitumen deposits from deeper resources,” according to Carteri, who said boilers and steam generators are used on the ground level as part of the process.
Steam is forced from a facility on the surface though piping to a well pad 500 metres to one kilometre away, then down an injection well into the oil reservoir.
SAGD utilizes two wells: a producer well and a second well (the injection well) located five metres above the producer well. The steam chamber where the injection happens is located 310 metres (1,023 feet) underground.
Steam is injected into the upper well to heat bitumen and decrease its viscosity. Thanks to gravity, the less viscous bitumen flows into the well below, where it is pumped to the surface facility.
“The water is separated, the oil is sent to market via pipeline, and the water is reused for steam generation,” said Carteri.
“It’s a very efficient process,” said Carteri as “you can recover up to 50 to 55 per cent of oil in place.”
The extracted bitumen would be exported using an area pipeline, but no deals have been struck with any pipeline companies yet.
