Innovation Anthology #105: Director, Land
Now that most of the easy to reach natural gas in Alberta has been tapped, industry is turning its attention to more challenging reservoirs.
One of these unconventional sources is called shale gas.
In the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin, the estimated amount of shale gas ranges from 86 trillion to over 1000 trillion cubic feet.
Current technology can only recover about 5 percent of that gas because the gas molecules attach themselves to the shale.
So the Alberta Research Council has teamed up with oilfield service giant Schlumberger to develop better and more cost effective technology. But as ARC’s Dr. Ian Potter explains, it won’t be easy.
DR. IAN POTTER: How do we actually permeate “break”, if you like, allow the crevices to open up so we can extract the gas, the natural gas, out of the shale? And what type of media is actually the best to fracture those geological formations in the first place? Is it a gas or type of gas? What pressure? Or is it a liquid? Those sort of things.
Dr. Potter’s group will evaluate extraction methods like horizontal drilling and should have a field trial operating in three to five years.
Thanks today to the Alberta Research Council.
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY, I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
Garry Scrimgeour, PhD,
COSIA, Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance, Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
Sponsor
Alberta Research Council
Established as the first provincial research organization in Canada, the Alberta Research Council is 85 years old. The Alberta Research Council (ARC) develops and commercializes technologies to give customers a competitive advantage. A leader in innovation, ARC provides solutions globally to the energy, life sciences, agriculture, environment, forestry and manufacturing sectors.
ARC performs about five per cent of the roughly $1.5 billion in R&D done in Alberta each year, and generates revenues of approximately $84 million per year. ARC operates from five sites across the province in Edmonton, Calgary, Vegreville and Devon and employs more than 600 highly-skilled people.
In January 2010, under the new Alberta Innovation Framework, the Alberta Research Council was restructured and incorporated into the new provincial agency Alberta Innovates Technology Futures.
Program Date: 2008-02-05