The objective of this Joint Industry Project is to identify technically feasible processes for preparing and transporting heavy oil from a well lease to a battery that are cost competitive with the conventional means of transferring the oil, namely by tanker truck. The first step was identifying potentially viable concepts and processes, and developing appropriate economic and technical screening criteria to use in establishing the most viable options for further investigation.

• Phase I of this JIP, started in 1998, evaluated both the economic and technical feasibility of using different gathering system options in heavy oil operations.
• Phase II  was launched in 2000 to develop a software tool that the Project Participants could use to simulate transient operating conditions, such as startup after a shutdown, for their particular field applications. The resulting software is called HOGS™.
• Phase III of the project began in 2002 and consists of field trials to investigate issues related to operating heavy oil gathering lines including creating and maintaining unique flow regimes, developing startup procedures and using chemical additives to reduce flow induced pressure losses.

Contact: Peter Kis, Manager, Drilling & Completions

Tel: 780.450.8989 x284