The 24th World Petroleum Congress, taking place in Calgary, Canada from 17-21 September 2023, will feature four outstanding technical tours showcasing nine different sites.
The tours are designed to give delegates the opportunity to see various sites where new technologies are being deployed or tested in Alberta, with a particular focus on the theme Energy Transition: The Path to Net Zero. They all take place on Friday 22 September, following the last day of the Congress.
Tour #1
Imperial Research Lab, Exergy Solutions X-Lab, Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre and Flexpipe’s Calgary Manufacturing Facility
This tour will take in four sites and can accommodate up to 50 delegates. It is sponsored by the four companies hosting the tour and has no cost to delegates.
The Imperial Research Lab engages in heavy oil research with a focus on minimising the environmental footprint of oil sands production. Research areas include low-GHG in-situ recovery technologies, mining extraction methods, tailings management and reclamation best practices.
Exergy Solutions’ X-Lab takes client technology ideas and helps design, engineer and build them in real time. The firm offers a mix of rapid prototyping, field-scale piloting, digital solutions and advanced manufacturing, including 3D printing, that it uses to accelerate the R&D process.
The Alberta Carbon Conversion Technology Centre (ACCTC) is located at an 860MW natural gas-fired power plant in south Calgary where it captures 97% pure CO₂, which is provided to innovative companies to test new technologies, and new carbon utilisation products and processes using the stream of pure CO₂.
Flexpipe’s advanced manufacturing facility in south Calgary produces non-metallic spoolable composite linepipe, which is designed to provide unparalleled performance and flexibility for oil and gas gathering, CO₂ injection, enhanced oil recovery and water transportation applications around the world.
Tour #2
Alberta's Industrial Heartland
This day-long tour will take in three sites and can accommodate 50 delegates. There is a cost of US$500 per delegate for the charter flight to the Edmonton area.
The Quest Carbon Capture Facility (CCS) is located at Shell’s Scotford complex, which includes a refinery, upgrader and petrochemical plant. Since opening in late 2015, the facility has captured and stored over 6mn tonnes of CO₂ 2km underground at a rate now over 1mn tonnes/year.
Inter Pipeline’s Heartland Petrochemical Complex uses propane to produce 525,000 tonnes per year of polypropylene at North America’s first integrated propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and polypropylene (PP) complex with significantly reduced GHG emissions.
North West Redwater Partnership’s Sturgeon Refinery is the world’s only oil sands refinery equipped with CO₂ capture from the outset. It currently processes over 79,000bl/d of diluted bitumen feedstock and captures over 1mn tonnes/year of CO₂ for storage underground.
Tour #3
Oil Sands SAGD Facility
This day-long tour to Cenovus Energy’s Sunrise oil sands asset in northeastern Alberta is sponsored by Cenovus, with space for 30 delegates at no cost.
The firm’s 60,000bl/d steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) project uses industry-leading technologies and practices to help ensure the safe and environmentally responsible production of its bitumen reservoir.
Participants will be provided with return air transportation from Calgary and transportation between downtown Calgary and the airport, as well as the necessary personal protective equipment and meals.
Tour #4
Oil Sands Mine/Upgrader
This day-long tour to Canadian Natural Resources’ Horizon oil sands asset is sponsored by the company, with space for 30 delegates. This world-class oil sands mining and upgrading operation processes 300,000bl/d of bitumen to create synthetic crude oil (SCO). During the tour delegates will see how SCO is produced by mining bitumen ore from pits using large shovel units and trucks, as well as having the opportunity to view an operating 400,000 tonne/year CO₂ capture unit.
Participants will be provided with return air transportation from Calgary to the Horizon site, as well as from downtown Calgary to the airport.
Registration for all technical tours has to be done when registering as a delegate for the Congress, which can be done on the WPC’s registration page. Due to the limited number of spaces available on these tours, a limited number of delegates will be confirmed for each tour prior to the Congress, with the process starting in July.
Further information can be found online: https://www.24wpc.com/technicaltours
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