• Technical Luncheons
• Tech Division Events
  • Basin Analysis and Sequence Stratigraphy Division
  • Core and Sample Division
  • Emerging Petroleum Resources Division
  • Environment Division
  • GeoFluids Division
  • Geomodeling Division
  • Heavy Oil / Oil Sands Division
  • International Division
  • Palaeontology Division
  • Reservoir Development Division
  • Sedimentology Division
  • Structural Geology Division
• Social Events
• Honorary Address
• Other Events

Tech Division Events

Core and Sample Division

For more information concerning this Division, please contact the Division Chair, Doug Hayden, at (403) 254-9785 or via email at doug@doughayden.ca.

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Division Talks

There are no Division Talks planned at this time.

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Division Proposal to AEUB Proposal

A proposal to be presented to the AEUB recommending the creation of a Heavy Oil Core Storage and Research Facility.

The space available for core storage at the AEUB Core Research Center in Calgary is limited and cannot be expanded in the current location. The large volume of core submitted from Oil Sands projects will result in the maximization of the available space within the next five to seven years. It is in the interest of the oil and gas industry as a whole to find a solution to this dilemma.

The CSPG Core and Sample Division brought members from industry and the AEUB together to create awareness of the storage space challenge and to initiate movement towards a solution. A list of stakeholders from the Oil Sands industry was compiled with representatives from industry, research interests, service companies and the AEUB. This group was encouraged to contribute opinions and to participate in four discussion sessions held to obtain stakeholder input on a range of solutions to the problem.

Solutions discussed included:

1. changing the regulations to increase the spacing requirement for core submission thus reducing the amount of core being accumulated.
2. culling core from the existing facility based on a selection criteria related to the age of the core, the viewing history of the material or the completion of bitumen production from the area the core represents. Core culled from the research center would either be destroyed, returned to the current operator or stored in a regulated manner under government contract at private storage facilities.
3. removal or reduction of core obtained from the Oil Sands mining projects.
4. replacing the core collection with photographs and a broader range of analysis data.
5. the creation of a separate building to house the Oil Sands core. The new facility could be either government owned an run as is the current Core Research Centre or it could be privately run under guidelines established by the AEUB.

After extensive discussion the CSPG Core and Sample Division, Oil Sands Discussion Group strongly recommends that the AEUB create and run in the Calgary area a core storage and viewing facility, which is dedicated to the long term retention of material related to the Oil Sands resource in this province.

The greatest challenge presented by this option is that of securing funding to establish and maintain a new facility. The current facility is funded through user fees and from general AEUB revenues.

Suggestions for funding include:

1. joint participation between the Alberta government and the Oil Sands operating companies for the capital cost of property and building.
2. increased user fees for Oil Sands core in the current facility to establish a fund for future expansion.
3. increases in general licensing fees to all oil and gas companies or to only Oil Sands operators to meet the costs involved.

As part of our effort to create awareness of the issue we are presenting here a Adraft@ proposal with the hope of reaching a larger group of geologists who may be interested enough to comment on the topic. Once our proposal is finalized it will be presented to management representatives of the Oil Sands operating companies to confirm their support, then the proposal and the results of the industry survey will be presented to the AEUB for consideration. When the proposal is presented to the operators, it will be in the form of a question requesting formal corporate support for the concept and we will include a question on how they perceive that the costs of construction and maintenance be met.

This proposal is a recommendation from the technical users of the services provided by the Core Research Centre. Discussion and decisions on cost and funding for such a venture are the responsibility the AEUB, who is the custodian of the public geological material, and the stakeholders who will derive benefit from the facility, the Alberta government, oil and gas companies in general, Oil Sands operators as well as academic and research interests. Funding and implementation will be the next phases of this initiative, that is why there is no mention of costs or funding in our proposal.

For summaries of the discussion meetings or for more information on this topic please contact topic chairman Allan Melnychuk at 250-1806 or at amelnychuk@mcleay.ab.ca.

Your comments are strongly encouraged so that we receive input from a wide range of interested parties.

Allan Melnychuk, Topic Chairman

To download a PDF of the draft proposal click below:
Draft AEUB Proposal (53 kb PDF)

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Division Articles

To download pdf files of Core and Sample Division Articles, please click on the title below:

Core Storage Crunch (208 kb PDF)
Preservation of Core and Drill Cuttings Survey (34 kb PDF)
Sample Processing At Wellsite (10 kb PDF)
Summary of CSPG Core and Sample Division Meeting, January 15, 2002 (111 kb PDF)
Oil Sands Core. Is it worth Keeping? - Opinion Letter (60 kb PDF)