Other

Gushor, Inc.

Uti Limited Partnership

Suncor Energy Inc.

3m Innovative Properties Company

Exxonmobil Upstream Research Company

Ceda Services and Projects LP

Profero Energy Inc.

Mgm Energy Corp.

Proton Technologies Inc.

Imperial Oil Resources

Paramount Resources Ltd.

Ian Donald Gates

Stephen Larter

Jingyi Wang

Jennifer Jane Adams

Gary L Bunio

Lloyd Ross Snowdon

Barry Bennett

Todd Stewart Pugsley

Kimberley Jane Noke

Andrew Donald

Chunqing Jiang

Mikhail L Pekurovsky

Haiping Huang

Ian McCutcheon Head

Spencer Fried

Chunqing (Dennis) Jiang

Anthony Martin Harold Gutek

Paul J Toftness

Yi Su

Shannon D Sharp

James A Smart

Jacky Wang

Chris Leskiw

Thomas Bernard Paul Oldenburg

Anthony Marvin Gutek

Robert King Morse

Gary Bunio

Mark Conacher

Michael John Bidgood

Ryan Zahynacz

The invention provides methods for treating a source oil phase consisting of heavy oil, bitumen, a mixture of heavy oil and bitumen, a mixture of solvent and heavy oil or bitumen or both. The method comprises: introducing the source oil phase to a heated lower section of a device to provide an interior source oil phase; heating the interior source oil phase so as to thermally separate a light oil phase component therefrom and provide a vaporized light oil; and condensing the vaporized light oil phase on one or more internal cooling fins housed within the upper section of the device, to provide a condensed light oil phase liquid, wherein the internal cooling fins are angled so as to direct the condensed light oil phase liquid downwardly to a light end collection system.

Separation of viscous oils into components

The invention provides methods for treating a source oil phase consisting of heavy oil, bitumen, a mixture of heavy oil and bitumen, a mixture of solvent and heavy oil or bitumen or both. The method comprises: introducing the source oil phase to a lower reservoir section of a device, flowing the source oil phase through an array of vertically extending heated pipes with an inert gas so as to thermally separate a vaporized light oil phase component from a heated liquid source oil phase, and segregating fluid flows by density in an upper fluid separating manifold to provide a light product fluid and a heavy product fluid.

A hydrocarbon reservoir is treated with heat to induce gasification, water-gas shift, and/or aquathermolysis reactions to generate gases including hydrogen. The hydrogen alone is produced to the surface by using hydrogen-only membranes in the production wells.

In-situ process to produce hydrogen from underground hydrocarbon reservoirs

The invention provides methods for pelletizing bituminous liquids by inducing endogenous asphaltenes in the liquid to form a resilient external membrane on an aliquot of the bituminous liquid, optionally with simultaneous collection of light components that result from the process of inducing endogenous asphaltene formation.

Endogenous asphaltenic encapsulation of bituminous materials with recovery of light ends

A process to treat fines tailings generated from mining operations, wherein tailings material is sprayed onto a solid substrate as a thin layer and allowed to dry. The spray may be re-applied on top of the dried tailings film leading to multiple layers of dried tailings solids. The method may yield a solid, dry, and consolidated tailings material.

Process to obtain thin layers of dried and consolidated mature fines tailings

A Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) method for recovering hydrocarbons from a reservoir can include generating steam and COfrom feedwater, fuel and oxygen; transferring a steam-COmixture comprising at least a portion of the steam and at least a portion of the CO, to a proximate SAGD injection well; injecting the steam-COmixture into the SAGD injection well; obtaining produced fluids from a SAGD production well underlying the SAGD injection well; transferring the produced fluids for separation proximate to the SAGD production well; separating the produced fluids into a produced gas and a produced emulsion; transferring the produced emulsion for separation proximate to the SAGD production well; separating the produced emulsion to obtain a produced hydrocarbon-containing component and produced water; supplying at least a portion of the produced water as at least part of the feedwater; and supplying the produced hydrocarbon-containing component to a central processing facility.

Remote steam generation and water-hydrocarbon separation in steam-assisted gravity drainage operations

Methods for increasing the increasing the rate of methane production in a subsurface reservoir are provided, for example by identifying the petroleum components in the reservoir; identification of microbes and nutrients contained in the formation water; selection of additional nutrients shown to be effective for the particular microbial consortium in that reservoir and then enhancing and preferably maximizing the total amount of nutrients available to the microbes in a manner such that methane generation is maximized while at the same time ensuring that the concentration of nutrients in the well is non-lethal to the microbes.

Methods for increasing methanogenesis in subsurface reservoirs

This invention consists of a method to enable methane recovery from hydrate reservoirs. The invention, in particular, relates to a Saltwater Hydrate Extraction Process (SHEP) in which high salinity water is injected into a hydrate reservoir into a lower horizontal well to promote and control gas production by hydrate decomposition to an upper deviated production well.

In situ process to recover methane gas from hydrates

A system and method for using orthogonally-coded active source signals for reflected signal analysis, such as in seismic exploration, sonar, and/or ultrasound applications. One method comprises inputting an orthogonally-coded active source signal to a target site, where the orthogonally-coded active source signal is sufficiently random to not interfere with a delayed version of itself. A reflected signal is received from the target site, and based at least in part on the sufficiently random orthogonal coding of the active source signal, a determination is made whether the received signal is a reflection of the input active source signal.

System and method for using orthogonally-coded active source signals for reflected signal analysis

The invention relates to an apparatus and method to obtain a bitumen or heavy oil sample from an oil reservoir sample, such as a core sample, to enable measurement of physical properties such as viscosity, API gravity, or chemical properties such as sulphur content of the obtained bitumen or heavy oil sample. The analysis performed on the samples obtained in accordance with the invention are effective in assisting oil field operators in making timely drilling and production decisions at the oil reservoir or for routine laboratory extraction of oils and bitumens. The invention also permits the collection of samples from simulated thermal recovery operations and also allows the collection of bitumens and oils for online analysis of live oil physical properties.

Method and apparatus for obtaining heavy oil samples from a reservoir sample

Techniques for determining viscosity of oil in a sample include extracting the oil from the sample using a volatile polar first solvent; using a portion of the extracted oil to determine a concentration factor of oil in the sample; determining a dry weight of the extracted oil using the concentration factor; adding a second solvent to a remaining portion of the extract, where the second solvent is less volatile than the first solvent; removing the first solvent from the remaining portion of the extract; taking a series of sub-samples from the remaining portion of the extract and sequentially removing different amounts of the second solvent from each sub-sample; measuring solvent concentrations and viscosity values of the solvent-oil mixtures of each sub-sample; and based on the measured solvent concentrations and viscosity values of each sub-sample, determining the second-solvent-free viscosity of the oil in the sample.

Method for measurement of crude oil and bitumen dead oil viscosity and density

Techniques for preconditioning an oilfield reservoir including heavy oil and/or bitumen prior to production of a petroleum product are described. A preconditioning agent can be injected into a mobile water film included in the oilfield reservoir. The preconditioning agent preconditions the reservoir prior to production of the petroleum product.

Preconditioning an oilfield reservoir

The present invention is directed to an in situ reservoir recovery process that uses a horizontal well located near the top of a reservoir and an inclined production well to extract bitumen or heavy oil from a reservoir. In a first stage, the top well is used for cold production of reservoir fluids to the surface, in which, reservoir fluids are pumped to the surface in the absence of stimulation by steam or other thermal and/or solvent injection. A lower production well is drilled into the formation below the top well. The top well is converted to an injection well or, if no cold production then a top well is drilled as an injector well. A portion of the bottom well is inclined so that one end of the incline is closer to the injector well than the other end of the incline. In the process, steam circulation creates a heated zone at the point of the two wells that are closest together in the reservoir.

In Situ heavy oil and bitumen recovery process

A process is described for in situ recovery of bitumen or heavy oil from a reservoir having a horizontal injection well and a horizontal production well. The process includes a first phase in which steam and a heavy hydrocarbon solvent are injected into the reservoir, a second phase in which the steam and heavy hydrocarbon injections are transitioned to a light hydrocarbon solvent injection, and a third phase in which a light hydrocarbon solvent is injected without further steam or heavy hydrocarbon injection. A displacement gas may be added during any of the phases, and production of hydrocarbons continues throughout all phases. The process employs a high-production start-up phase, followed by lower cost phases which progress a depletion chamber within the reservoir.

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Calgary, Canada

Ian Donald Gates