RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:46% Fort Hills stake may end up costing Suncor near nothing- as far as I can tell, MEG Energy is the leader in the high-tech SAGD SOR reservoir optimization field
- Cenovus Energy Chistina Lake has the lowest SOR for any large SAGD operation in Canada just slightly ahead of MEG Energy Chistina Lake but the CVE reservoir is just a bit more saturated with bitumen (and bigger) than the MEG reservoir giving Cenovus an advantage in steam utilization
- from past MEG CCs, they were able to recover about 85% of the propane injected so 15% of the propane is a total loss and cost of business
* determining the percentages of propane and steam mix is a very secretive and proprietary knowledge to the respective companies
* MEG says that they could bring the SOR ratio to under 1.7 from 2.3+ during the trials and evaluation period when they got government funding to research the project
* however, MEG CEO cooled on the idea when the CTO and reservoir engineers told him that they would lose PEAK BOP production for the SAME steam input
* so YES, solvents work but you are PENALIZED with LOWER PEAK BOP production which is UNACCEPTABLE since this means LOWER REVENUES
- however, imposing a CARBON TAX on CO2 emissions from steam production moves the economics towards adopting solvents
- in other words, 100% STEAM GIVES YOU A NOTICEABLE SPIKE in BITUMEN PRODUCTION (after about a 6 to 9 month steam stimulation) but a mixture of steam and propane wins out in the LONG and STEADY BOP race
- you are right in that propane is a lot more expensive in 2023 than when they did the trials in 2019
z173