Imperial Oil to construct new oil sands research facility in Calgary

Canadian petroleum firm Imperial Oil will construct a new oil sands research centre in southeast Calgary.

The new facility will continue the company’s progress in the development of next-generation resource recovery technologies for developing oil sands resources.

The design of the plant will incorporate new technologies and flexibility to accommodate future requirements.

Imperial Oil’s Calgary research centre presently occupies space within the University of Calgary’s Research Park, and was responsible for developing the two in situ oil-sands recovery technologies.

The new facility is expected to be completed in 2017.

Imperial Oil vice-president of oil sands development and research Rick Gallant said: "Imperial’s new state-of-the-art facility will support our oil sands research and build on decades of excellent work in making oil sands production economic and more environmentally friendly.

"Our new facility will house lab-scale experiments and specialized facilities to help expand knowledge, contribute to improving existing technologies, and continue our work on the safest and most efficient next-generation technologies for developing Canada’s vast oil sands resource."

The company is undertaking other technologies that would eliminate the use of water in oil-sands mining and reduce greenhouse gas emissions related with bitumen production processes.

Imperial Oil’s Cold Lake operations is claimed to be the largest thermal in-situ heavy oil operation in the world.

The company’s leases at Cold Lake cover about 780km² of oil sands and it operates four plants in the area that include Leming, Maskwa, Mahihkan and Mahkeses.