Creating an energy future

With oil prices appearing to have settled in the $45-55/b range and with renewed debate over a looming plateau in conventional oil production, attention is once more turning to the promise and potential of non-conventional oil, writes Tony Reinsch, director, strategy and competition, Upstream Group, PFC Energy

NON-conventional crude oil (NCO) falls into two categories – extra-heavy oil and natural bitumen. Although worldwide in occurrence, single deposits in each category are dominant: the extra-heavy resource of Venezuela's Orinoco oil belt represents nearly 90% of known global extra-heavy oil in place; and the bitumen deposits (oil sands) of Western Canada account for some 85% of the global in-place bitumen resource. Together, these deposits represent some 3.7 trillion barrels of oil in place – a significant resource. NCO production from Canada and Venezuela is projected to reach a combined 4.2m-4.4m barrels a day (b/d) in 2015-2020 from identified and projected projects, requiring a cumulative