• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.47 no.3
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• pp.281-286
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• 2009

Bitumen extraction and sulfur removal from Athabasca oil sand were conducted using water in sub- and supercritical condition. Bitumen yield in micro reactor was investigated in the pressure range of 15~30 MPa, the temperature of 360 and $380^{\circ}C$ and water density $0.074{\sim}0.61g/cm^3$ for 0~120 min. Bitumen yield increased with reaction pressure irrespective of temperature and dramatically increased in especially supercritical region due to hydrogen formed from water gas shift reaction. Total amount of gas product decreased with reaction pressure but the portion of sulfur and hydrogen increased a little with increasing pressure to 25 and 30 MPa. It is seen that supercritical condition was favourable to the hydrogen formation and sulfur removal. Bitumen yield and sulfur removal from original oil sand reached a maximum 22% and 40% respectively in supercritical condition(the reaction time of 60 min at $380^{\circ}C$ and 25 or 30 MPa).

• The Korean Journal of Petroleum Geology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-11
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• 2008

As conventional oil and gas reservoirs become depleted, interests for oil sands has rapidly increased in the last decade. Oil sands are mixture of bitumen, water, and host sediments of sand and clay. Most oil sand is unconsolidated sand that is held together by bitumen. Bitumen has hydrocarbon in situ viscosity of >10,000 centipoises (cP) at reservoir condition and has API gravity between $8-14^{\circ}$. The largest oil sand deposits are in Alberta and Saskatchewan, Canada. The reverves are approximated at 1.7 trillion barrels of initial oil-in-place and 173 billion barrels of remaining established reserves. Alberta has a number of oil sands deposits which are grouped into three oil sand development areas - the Athabasca, Cold Lake, and Peace River, with the largest current bitumen production from Athabasca. Principal oil sands deposits consist of the McMurray Fm and Wabiskaw Mbr in Athabasca area, the Gething and Bluesky formations in Peace River area, and relatively thin multi-reservoir deposits of McMurray, Clearwater, and Grand Rapid formations in Cold Lake area. The reservoir sediments were deposited in the foreland basin (Western Canada Sedimentary Basin) formed by collision between the Pacific and North America plates and the subsequent thrusting movements in the Mesozoic. The deposits are underlain by basement rocks of Paleozoic carbonates with highly variable topography. The oil sands deposits were formed during the Early Cretaceous transgression which occurred along the Cretaceous Interior Seaway in North America. The oil-sands-hosting McMurray and Wabiskaw deposits in the Athabasca area consist of the lower fluvial and the upper estuarine-offshore sediments, reflecting the broad and overall transgression. The deposits are characterized by facies heterogeneity of channelized reservoir sands and non-reservoir muds. Main reservoir bodies of the McMurray Formation are fluvial and estuarine channel-point bar complexes which are interbedded with fine-grained deposits formed in floodplain, tidal flat, and estuarine bay. The Wabiskaw deposits (basal member of the Clearwater Formation) commonly comprise sheet-shaped offshore muds and sands, but occasionally show deep-incision into the McMurray deposits, forming channelized reservoir sand bodies of oil sands. In Canada, bitumen of oil sands deposits is produced by surface mining or in-situ thermal recovery processes. Bitumen sands recovered by surface mining are changed into synthetic crude oil through extraction and upgrading processes. On the other hand, bitumen produced by in-situ thermal recovery is transported to refinery only through bitumen blending process. The in-situ thermal recovery technology is represented by Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage and Cyclic Steam Stimulation. These technologies are based on steam injection into bitumen sand reservoirs for increase in reservoir in-situ temperature and in bitumen mobility. In oil sands reservoirs, efficiency for steam propagation is controlled mainly by reservoir geology. Accordingly, understanding of geological factors and characteristics of oil sands reservoir deposits is prerequisite for well-designed development planning and effective bitumen production. As significant geological factors and characteristics in oil sands reservoir deposits, this study suggests (1) pay of bitumen sands and connectivity, (2) bitumen content and saturation, (3) geologic structure, (4) distribution of mud baffles and plugs, (5) thickness and lateral continuity of mud interbeds, (6) distribution of water-saturated sands, (7) distribution of gas-saturated sands, (8) direction of lateral accretion of point bar, (9) distribution of diagenetic layers and nodules, and (10) texture and fabric change within reservoir sand body.

• 한국지구물리탐사학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.81-82
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• 2011

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.541-549
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• 2011

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.80-87
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• 2010

This study was conducted to develop a reservoir modelling workflow to reproduce the heterogeneous distribution of effective permeability that impacts on the performance of SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage), the in-situ bitumen recovery technique in the Athabasca Oil Sands. Lithologic facies distribution is the main cause of the heterogeneity in bitumen reservoirs in the study area. The target formation consists of sand with mudstone facies in a fluvial-to-estuary channel system, where the mudstone interrupts fluid flow and reduces effective permeability. In this study, the lithologic facies is classified into three classes having different characteristics of effective permeability, depending on the shapes of mudstones. The reservoir modelling workflow of this study consists of two main modules; facies modelling and permeability modelling. The facies modelling provides an identification of the three lithologic facies, using a stochastic approach, which mainly control the effective permeability. The permeability modelling populates mudstone volume fraction first, then transforms it into effective permeability. A series of flow simulations applied to mini-models of the lithologic facies obtains the transformation functions of the mudstone volume fraction into the effective permeability. Seismic data contribute to the facies modelling via providing prior probability of facies, which is incorporated in the facies models by geostatistical techniques. In particular, this study employs a probabilistic neural network utilising multiple seismic attributes in facies prediction that improves the prior probability of facies. The result of using the improved prior probability in facies modelling is compared to the conventional method using a single seismic attribute to demonstrate the improvement in the facies discrimination. Using P-wave velocity in combination with density in the multiple seismic attributes is the essence of the improved facies discrimination. This paper also discusses sand matrix porosity that makes P-wave velocity differ between the different facies in the study area, where the sand matrix porosity is uniquely evaluated using log-derived porosity, P-wave velocity and photographically-predicted mudstone volume.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.275-291
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• 2023

Global warming has made the polar regions more accessible, leading to increased demand for the construction of new resource-development plants in oil-rich permafrost regions. The selection of locations of resource-development plants in permafrost regions should consider the surface displacement resulting from thawing and freezing of the active layer of permafrost. However, few studies have considered surface displacement in the selection of optimal locations of resource-development plants in permafrost region. In this study, Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) analysis using a range of geospatial information variables was performed to select optimal locations for the construction of oil-sands development plants in the permafrost region of southern Athabasca, Alberta, Canada, including consideration of surface displacement. The surface displacement velocity was estimated by applying the Small BAseline Subset Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar technique to time-series Advanced Land Observing Satellite Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar images acquired from February 2007 to March 2011. ERA5 reanalysis data were used to generate geospatial data for air temperature, surface temperature, and soil temperature averaged for the period 2000~2010. Geospatial data for roads and railways provided by Statistics Canada and land cover maps distributed by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation were also used in the AHP analysis. The suitability of sites analyzed using land cover, surface displacement, and road accessibility as the three most important geospatial factors was validated using the locations of oil-sand plants built since 2010. The sensitivity of surface displacement to the determination of location suitability was found to be very high. We confirm that surface displacement should be considered in the selection of optimal locations for the construction of new resource-development plants in permafrost regions.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.139-151
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• 2022

SAGD (Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage) method is widely used for oil recovery in oil sands regions. The SAGD operation causes surface displacement, which can affect the stability of oil recovery plants and trigger various geological disasters. Therefore, it isimportant to monitor the surface displacement due to SAGD in the oil sands region. In this study, the surface displacement due to SAGD operations of the Athabasca oil sands region in Alberta, Canada, was observed by applying Permanent Scatterer Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (PSInSAR) technique to the Sentinel-1 time series SAR data acquired from 2016 to 2021. We also investigated the construction and expansion of SAGD facilitiesfrom Landsat-7/8 time seriesimages, from which the characteristics of the surface displacement according to the oil production activity of SAGD were analyzed. Uplift rates of 0.3-2.5 cm/yr in the direction of line of sight were observed over the SAGDs and their vicinity, whereas subsidence rates of -0.3--0.6 cm/yr were observed in areas more than several kilometers away from the SAGDs and not affected by oil recovery activities. Through the analysis of Landsat-7/8 images, we could confirm that the SAGDs operating after 2012 and showing high oil production activity caused uplift rates greater than 1.6 cm/yr due to the subsurface steam injection. Meanwhile, very small uplift rates of several mm per year occurred over SAGDs which have been operated for a longer period of time and show relatively low oil production activity. This was probably due to the compression of reservoir sandstone due to continuous oil recovery. The subsidence observed in areas except for the SAGDs and their vicinity estimated to be a gradual land subsidence caused by melting of the permafrost. Considering the subsidence, it was expected that the uplift due to SAGD operation would be greater than that observed by the PSInSAR. The results of this study confirm that the PSInSAR can be used as an effective means for evaluating productivity and stability of SAGD in the extreme cold regions.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.15-22
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• 2008

This study was carried out to investigate physical and chemical characteristics of the distillates and residue of Athabasca oilsand bitumen obtained from Canada, using a vacuum distillation unit. The distillates and residue produced from the vacuum distillation were characterized through atomic analysis, SARA analysis, and measurement of boiling point distribution, molecular weight, and API gravity. The vacuum distillation equipment consisted of a 6-litter volume vessel, a glass-packed column, a condenser, a reflux device, a flask fer collecting distillates, and a temperature controller. The cutting of distillates was performed with four steps under the condition of full vacuum and maximum temperature of $320^{\circ}C$. The results showed that the sulfur amount and average molecular weight of the distillates were significantly reduced compared to those of oilsand bitumen. As the cutting temperature increased, the hydrogen amount decreased but the sulfur amount and average molecular weight increased in the distillates.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.38-45
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• 2008

In this work, we investigated the variation of physical and chemical characteristics of solvent-insolubles and solvent-solubles in Canada's Athabasca oil sands by solvent-insolubles experiments. N-Heptane, n-Hexane, and n-Pentane were tested for solvents and asphaltenes were separated from maltenes by using a modified ASTM D 3279 method. Elemental analysis, boiling point distribution (SIMDIS), molecular weight distribution, heavy metal contents, API gravity, viscosity and SARA fractions were measured for thorough samples. The asphaltenes-removed maltenes contained less sulfur and heavy metal amounts and had lower molecular weight than the original bitumen. N-Pentane solvent could lower sulfur and heavy metal amounts, molecular weight, and viscosity of maltenes compared to the other solvents. Eventually, we confirmed that the obtained experimental data could be used as basic informations of bitumen upgrading processes for the production of SCO (synthetic crude oil).

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.117.2-117.2
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• 2012

It is generally accepted that sudden compressions of the magnetosphere cause electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) wave growth by increasing the proton temperature anisotropy. These compression-associated EMIC waves are expected to be on higher latitudes (i.e., higher-L regions close to the magnetopause). In this study we examine Pc1 pulsations, which are believed to be generated by the EMIC instability, observed at subauroral latitude near the nominal plasmapause when the magnetosphere is suddenly compressed by solar wind dynamic pressure variations, using induction magnetometer data obtained from Athabasca, Canada (geomagnetic latitude = 61.7 N, L ~ 4.5). We identified 9 compression-associated Pc1 waves with frequencies of ~0.5-2.0 Hz. The wave activity appears in the horizontal H (positive north) and D (positive eastward) components. All of events show low coherence between H and D components. This indicates that the Pc1 pulsations in H and D oscillate with a different frequency. Thus, we cannot determine the polarization state of the waves. We will discuss the occurrence location of compression-associated Pc1 pulsations, their spectral structure, and wave properties.