You don’t know Jackfish
Or I didn’t, anyway. Now I do:
Devon Energy Corporation announced today that it has received regulatory approval for the company’s second oil sands project in Canada. Construction of the 100 percent Devon-owned Jackfish 2 project will begin immediately.
Once fully operational in 2012, Jackfish 2 will produce about 35,000 barrels of oil per day through a recovery method known as Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage, otherwise known as SAGD. Over the life of the project, Devon expects to recover about 300 million barrels of oil from Jackfish 2.
SAGD requires two horizontal bores at different heights; steam is injected into one to heat the oil, which then begins to flow more readily from the other. If you read “steam” and think “Uh-oh, where are they getting all the water?” you’re not alone, but Alberta Environment isn’t worried:
Strict limits are placed on industry water use through Alberta’s Water Management Framework for the Lower Athabasca River. This leading-edge framework puts a weekly cap on how much water oil sands companies can remove, which is tied to the fluctuating flow of the river.
All existing and approved oil sands projects will withdraw less than three per cent of the average annual flow of the Athabasca River. During periods of low river flow, Alberta Environment has a plan that limits water consumption to 1.3 per cent of annual average flow.
The first Jackfish is about four miles away and is expected to produce 35,000 barrels a day (a common number, this) starting next year.
