Oil

Colossal potential

Sizeable quantities of extra-heavy oil and natural bitumen - estimated at 2.6 trillion to 3.8 trillion barrels - lie beneath the Earth's surface. Although abundant, these resources are very hard to extract. Their extreme viscosity heightens their resistance to flow, meaning that they are nearly or completely immobile in their reservoirs. Unevenly distributed across the globe, most extra-heavy oil is found in Venezuela and Canada. Extracting it is a high-stakes game, since it represents 500 billion to 1 trillion barrels of potential reserves, or about 25% of the world's conventional crude oil reserves.

The challenge of canada's oil sands

Canada's oil sands consist of a mixture of natural bitumen, sand and clay, and lie a few dozen to several hundred meters underground. The reservoirs closest to the surface can be recovered using open pit mining techniques. Extracted by mechanical shovel, the ore is crushed then mixed with hot water and solvents to separate the bitumen from the sand. This process does not work, however, for deposits located deeper underground. They require thermal production methods, in which enormous quantities of steam are injected into the reservoirs to reduce the viscosity of the bitumen so that it can be pumped to the surface through wells.

Total operates the Joslyn and Northern Lights leases and is a partner in the Surmont project, all located in the province of Alberta.

On the Surmont lease, 27,000 barrels of bitumen a day are produced using a thermal production technology known as steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD). Two parallel horizontal wells, a production well at the base of the reservoir paired with a steam-injection well five meters above it, are drilled. Heated by the steam, the less viscous bitumen flows by gravity down to the production well. Developed in phases, the Surmont lease will see its production rise to 100,000 barrels a day in Phase 2 and 400,000 barrels a day in the longer run.

Joslyn's bitumen will be mined at some time in the future, with an estimated cumulative production of 2 billion barrels over 30 years.

Water and carbon dioxide, major process issues

Recovering more heavy oil less expensively is vital to our planet's energy future. But that won't be enough. R&D must also find ways to limit the environmental footprint of heavy oil production.

Bitumen production and processing currently require massive quantities of water. Optimizing water recycling to limit the amount siphoned from natural sources is a major research focus. Other, less water-intensive production processes are also under study, such as adding a solvent to the steam injected and even injecting a solvent alone; producing bitumen that is still mixed with sand; and heating the reservoir itself to a high temperature, to convert the bitumen into a lighter oil in situ.

Oil sands production and processing require a lot of energy, in the form of steam, power and heat, which generates substantial amounts of carbon dioxide emissions. That's why we are firmly committed to carbon capture and storage and are constructing an industrial pilot in Lacq, in southwestern France.

A pioneer in Venezuela

By the late 1990s, we had demonstrated our ability to develop the giant reserves of extra-heavy crude oil in Venezuela's Orinoco Belt through the Sincor, now Petrocedeño , project. Though highly viscous, this field's oil - warmer than in Canadian reservoirs - is mobile enough to be pumped out by long horizontal wells. Injecting a diluent into the wells ensures satisfactory productivity and has boosted output to around 180,000 barrels a day. The most daring and ambitious project in the Orinoco Belt, Petrocedeño is an international benchmark for the "cold" production of extra-heavy oil. But we hope to step up recovery - currently only about 8% of the oil in place - in the future, a challenge that will require deploying thermal production methods in the field. Three techniques will be tested as part of a pilot, scheduled for 2011, that aims to double the recovery rate.

From extra-heavy to light synthetic oil

Petrocedeño also showcases Total's ability to fully leverage the synergies between our expertise as a producer and as a refiner. This huge development spans the complete chain, from the extraction of extra-heavy oil through its conversion into light synthetic oil. Carried out in a gigantic conversion unit called an upgrader, the process employs a battery of technologies. Able to handle about 200,000 barrels a day of extra-heavy crude, it can deliver around 170,000 barrels a day of very light synthetic oil at the end of the line. The same recovery strategy will be used in Canada, after we build an upgrader in the Edmonton area big enough to accommodate our growing volume of bitumen production in the province.

A core development focus

Because it is essential for replacing oil reserves, heavy oil is a strategic priority for Total, as evidence by our growing portfolio. In Canada, we recently acquired the Griffon and Northern Lights leases in Canada, which will be mined. In 2008, we farmed into the Bemolanga license as operator in Madagascar. Appraisal work is being conducted to confirm that the license has sufficient resources to underpin a mining operation, starting in 2020, to produce a potential 200,000 barrels per day. Lastly, Total is a partner in the Qarn Alam and Mukhaizna fields in Oman, proving grounds for thermal production methods.