ABSTRACTS
 2nd International Workshop on Oil Depletion
Paris, France, May 26-27 2003
Organised by the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas
The workshop was held at the  Institut Francais du Pétrole , Rueil Malmaison, Paris.

  Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Oil Depletion, Paris, France, May 26-27 2003,
Edited by K. Aleklett, C. Campbell and J. Meyer, www.peakoil.net/iwood2003 .

Extra Heavy Oil and Bitumen – The Challenges of Enhanced Recovery François Cupcic Extra heavy oil from the Orinoco belt in Venezuela and bitumen from the Athabasca oil sands in Alberta (Canada) represent the largest remaining resources of non-conventional oil in the world.  If they could be produced economically with recovery factors comparable to those currently obtained with conventional oil, they would represent as much reserves as those commonly acknowledged for conventional oil.   So far, only limited production of these extra heavy oil and bitumen resources has occurred, based on conventional recovery methods, such as cold production and huff & puff, with reasonably low costs but limited recovery efficiency. Nevertheless, the oil industry has been studying for years some new recovery methods that could result in much higher recovery factors.  Among those, one is emerging in Canada for specific application to bitumen based on an innovative steam injection process called SAGD (Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage). Despite the higher recovery expected from this emerging process, the huge amount of energy required results in major drawbacks, such as much higher greenhouse gas emissions and much higher production costs, when compared to conventional recovery methods.  The development and implementation of such new technologies is therefore a major challenge for the oil industry and can only result from an accurate evaluation and a balanced choice between various advantages and drawbacks. Back to Proceedings