Designing a new steam technology
With our partners in our Canadian oil sands joint ventures we plan to use a steam-assisted method to heat up the heavy oil and reduce its viscosity, which allows it to flow. It is an effective method, but we believe the approach can be further improved as new techniques emerge and mature.
“To produce oil with steam takes energy in the form of fuel gas,” says West. “We’re interested in making that process as efficient and effective as we can – and that’s what the heavy oil research lab is focused on.”
A promising technology that is being tested and refined in the lab is BP Designer Steam™, which will use carefully selected chemical additives to improve the recovery rates of steam-based thermal methods. We see a valuable potential for this technology in our oil sands production activity, because the increased efficiency could reduce the amount of energy needed to recover each barrel of oil. We hope to be ready to apply this technology at our Canadian oil sands assets within two or three years of a successful trial.