Article contentCALGARY – Two years after a blue-ribbon panel referred to as on the Alberta government to encourage partial upgrading of bitumen from the oilsands to boost value and free up more pipeline room for exports, the thought remains years away from commercialization.
In its royalty evaluation report in January 2016, the panel LED panel lamp by ATB Financial CEO Dave Mowat identified that if heavy, sticky bitumen had been partly upgraded, there could be much less need so as to add light petroleum to dilute it so it’ll circulation in a pipeline – which means as much as 30 per cent more bitumen could be stuffed into current pipelines.
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Article content materialIt could also enhance earnings as a result of companies wouldn’t have to purchase diluent, which is mostly priced consistent with New York-traded West Texas Intermediate oil, the report stated.
Diluted bitumen as represented by Western Canadian Select crude at the moment sells for significantly less per barrel than WTI, a discount that has doubled in latest months from typical ranges due partially to pipeline capacity constraints. The wider differential means Alberta producers are missing out on a whole lot of thousands and thousands of dollars in revenue.
Last week, privately owned Fractal Systems Inc. announced that its Enhanced JetShear partial upgrading and acid discount technology had proved – throughout a year of testing – its potential to improve bitumen quality, increase bitumen volumes shipped in pipelines and reduce total greenhouse gasoline emissions.
Article content”We’re now ready for commercial deployment and we’re hoping we’re hitting the market at just the suitable time,” stated Fractal chairman Joe Gasca.
“An engineering examine is now underway with our oilsands companion for a big-scale Enhanced JetShear facility. We should know more in regards to the timing of an investment determination later this 12 months.”
The company is partnering with oilsands producer Cenovus Energy Inc., aided by a $3. If you have any concerns regarding where and ways to utilize led Lighting Panel, https://www.nintendo-master.com,, you could call us at the web-site. 7-million federal grant permitted in 2015 from Sustainable Development Technology Canada.
Cenovus is investigating several partial upgrading applied sciences for potential future investment, in line with CEO Alex Pourbaix.
“We’re seeing some positive indications but I believe we’re nonetheless in what I’d name the R and D stage,” he said. “It isn’t one thing we’re going to be rolling out on a business basis in the short term.
Article content materialFractal said it has processed greater than 225,000 barrels of diluted bitumen trucked to a 1,000-barrel-per-day pilot plant from steam-driven oilsands operations in northern Alberta. The facility succeeded in decreasing the need for diluent by as much as fifty three per cent while improving oil quality through the discount of olefins and acidity, the company said.
Fractal president Ed Veith stated a 50,000-barrel-per-day Enhanced JetShear facility at an oilsands venture is estimated to cost about $275 million to build. It will result in savings from decrease transportation and diluent prices of about $7.50 per barrel, based on 2017 common costs.
However, proving partial upgrading technology works is one thing, whereas placing it into apply is one other, said Kent Fellows, analysis affiliate at the college of Public Policy at the University of Calgary.
Article content”We’re in all probability looking at measuring in years, undoubtedly not in weeks or months,” he mentioned. “There is loads of danger nonetheless in this, which has the potential to kill it in the nest earlier than it will get out.”
Fellows mentioned producers trying to invest should guarantee positive outcomes from small pilot plants shall be duplicated on a bigger scale. In addition they want to make sure their prospects will probably be keen to pay to make use of the resulting crude in their refineries. And the initiatives have to have the ability to pass regulatory hurdles.
Alberta’s carbon tax creates one other potential downside, Fellows added.
Raw bitumen shipped to the U.S. Gulf Coast is processed in Texas, which has no carbon tax, he mentioned. If it’s partly upgraded in Alberta, the producer should pay Alberta’s carbon tax on any emissions from the method – even if, as know-how developers promise, the overall greenhouse fuel emissions wind up being barely lower.
Article content materialFractal has been in touch with the Alberta government in regards to the carbon tax issue, Gasca stated, but it’s unclear whether or not something will be completed to address it.
A college of Public Policy report funded by Alberta Innovates, the province’s applied analysis arm, advised a 12 months in the past that a 100,000-barrel-per-day partial upgrading facility might add $10 to $15 of value to each barrel of bitumen.
It listed 10 pre-commercial applied sciences that have been examined or proposed for deployment in Alberta.
Alberta Innovates has employed an engineering firm to produce a report to be delivered by the tip of February that may consider pre-industrial partial upgrading technologies.
About 60 per cent of Alberta’s oilsands manufacturing is shipped in its raw kind. The rest is typically upgraded into artificial crude oil, a gentle product that flows simply in a pipeline and usually fetches near-WTI prices.
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Companies talked about on this story: (TSX:CVE, TSX:SU)