Evidence of meeting #57 for Natural Resources in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was innovation.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Laricina Energy Ltd.
I'm not familiar with the geothermic fuel cells process for shale extraction.
12:55 p.m.
NDP
Jamie Nicholls NDP Vaudreuil—Soulanges, QC
Therefore, how can you present your idea as innovative if you don't know the other innovative players in your own market?
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Laricina Energy Ltd.
When you are referring to our own market—
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Laricina Energy Ltd.
—I assume you're referring.... We're not recovering oil from shale oil. We're recovering oil from conventional reservoirs that contain bitumen. They're not the same thing.
12:55 p.m.
NDP
12:55 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Laricina Energy Ltd.
I'll give you an example.
One of the largest shale plays in the U.S. that's been under development or active research for a number of years is in the Dakotas. Shell has had an active program of deriving kerogen from shale with hot rods, surrounded by a freezing structure to drive liquid hydrocarbon, which you're referring to, from shales to producing wells. That occurs in a reservoir that doesn't really produce oil very easily.
The difference with our reservoirs is that they're quite conventional in character. The Grosmont formation in particular is almost the same size as Ghawar and has a permeability that would be as large as the best conventional reservoirs, which would be about 100,000 times more capable of flowing oil than a shale reservoir would be. So they're not the same thing.
The innovation we're applying is to deliver energy specific to this type of reservoir to mobilize the bitumen and then to drain it. It's a recovery scheme specific to the characteristics of this geology, which is not the same as shale.
12:55 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Leon Benoit
Thank you.
Thank you very much, Mr. Nicholls.
Our time for questions is over. We have votes coming again, unfortunately, so we will end now.
I'd like to thank all of the witnesses from the Canadian Solar Industries Association, Himark bioGas Inc., and Laricina Energy Ltd. Thank you very much for your input. It is indeed helpful to the committee.
The meeting is adjourned.