NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Unconventional Oil Recovery

石油和天然气是阿尔伯塔和加拿大最大的天然能源。目前，阿尔伯塔生产加拿大70%的石油和80%的天然气。石油和天然气的开采和收入是阿尔伯塔经济的重要组成部分，因为阿尔伯塔政府收入的三分之一来自石油和天然气。随着全球对石油和天然气的需求和使用的增加，而且随着石油价格达到其最低值，重油和沥青的有效回收和提取已经成为政府、石油工业、研究中心和大学-特别是阿尔伯塔大学。拟议中的NSERC非常规采油工业研究主席是阿尔伯塔大学为应对这一挑战而采取的一项重大研究举措。开发生态上可行的技术，以提取或开发非常规石油储备和资源。在大多数情况下，石油工业在技术上还没有准备好满足重油和沥青生产和消费的高要求。阿尔伯塔拥有世界第二大碳氢化合物储量（仅次于沙特阿拉伯的常规石油储量），估计为1.7万亿桶，目前只有10%的储量（1730亿桶）可以利用现有技术开采。沉积在可开采深度以下的重油和沥青储量需要现场开采技术。这些地下资源比可开采的油砂有更大的潜力。这些石油储量中只有15%可以使用现有技术开采-剩下85%的石油储量未被开采。虽然成熟的技术已成功地应用于开采油砂的表面提取，但由于技术和经济问题，重油和沥青的原位回收仍然是一个相当大的挑战。在本研究计划下，随着先进和最佳原位开采技术的发展，存在开采这些储量的85%的潜力。

Oil and natural gas are the largest natural energy resources in Alberta and Canada. Currently, Alberta produces70% of Canada's oil and 80% of its natural gas. The extraction and revenue from oil and natural gas is animperative component of the Alberta economy as one-third of the Alberta Government's revenue is generatedfrom oil and gas. As the demand and use for oil and gas increases globally and furthermore as oil pricesreached its lowest values, efficient recovery and extraction of heavy-oil and bitumen has become a priority forthe government, the oil industry, research centres and universities - especially the University of Alberta.The proposed NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Unconventional Oil Recovery is a major research initiativeundertaken by the University of Alberta in response to developing ecologically viable technologies forextracting or tapping unconventional oil reserves and resources. For the most part, the oil industry has beentechnologically unprepared to meet the high demands of heavy oil and bitumen production and consumptionneeds. With Alberta having the second largest hydrocarbon reserves in the world (after Saudi Arabia'sconventional oil reserves) that are estimated at 1.7 trillion barrels, currently only 10% of these reserves (173billion barrels) is recoverable using existing technologies.Heavy-oil and bitumen reserves deposited below minable depths require in-situ recovery techniques. Theselower-lying resources have considerably more potential than extractable oil sands. Only 15% of these oilreserves can be mined using existing techniques - leaving 85% of oil reserves untouched. While proventechnologies are successfully applied for surface extraction of mined oil sands, in-situ recovery of heavy-oiland bitumen is still a considerable challenge due to the technological and economic problems. Throughdevelopment of advanced and optimal in-situ recovery techniques under this proposed research program, thepotential to recover 85% of these reserves exists.