Researchers are pumping vital new information into the province's oilsands sector.

In what's being billed as a world first, two University of Alberta geologists have found a way to more accurately date how old Alberta's vast oilsands actually are.

In a recent paper published in the journal Science, Robert Creaser and David Selby revealed that the province's oilsands are almost twice as old as originally believed.

That would put the widely sought-after resource at about 112 million years old, plus or minus 5.3 million years. Previous thinking had their age pegged at 60 million years.

Jack Dagley, Business Edge
Robert Creaser, left, and David Selby have dated the oilsands at about 112 million years old.

The significance of their finding, says Selby, is that it means some pieces of the Alberta tarsands puzzle can finally be solved.

"Those questions are, when did the oil really form and when did it arrive at the reservoir? It has also given insight as to why the oil is so biodegraded (heavy)," says Selby.

Selby points out that if the oil had formed just 60 million years ago, the chances of it interacting with surface fluids, such as water and bacteria, would be less likely.

But add in the extra 50-plus million years and it likely explains why the oil is so heavy, he says.

Creaser, the principal investigator and Selby, the lead researcher, are both a part of the university's Earth and Atmospheric Sciences faculty.

They started their work about two years ago, bolstered by funding from the Alberta Ingenuity Fund, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the American Chemical Society.

"We were working on shale trying to get (its) age, because we know the shale is source rock," says Selby. "Then we found out we could date a black shale that has produced oil, and that's a huge step forward. We're actually getting the timing of the layering down of the sedimentary rock."

To determine how long ago the oil was formed, the two examined the naturally-occurring decay of rhenium and osmium, two elements found in oil.

"Through the radiogenic decay of rhenium to osmium, time can be calculated for the analysis of oil," says Selby.

That process, however, took quite awhile.

"It's taken a long time to get to this point. The analyses were extremely difficult and time- consuming," says Creaser, adding that the final result became the reward for all their hard work. "It was six or eight months ago that we started to get the initial idea that this was going to work and that it (the oilsands) was older than people thought - and that's when we started getting excited about it."

Though the findings are valuable, Selby stresses that it is not going to dramatically change the day-to-day business of companies involved in the oilsands sector.

"It's not going to help you do the initial exploration (for more oil)," says Selby. Rather, the key to their discovery is that it assists in a better understanding of the geological aspects of the overall system.

"They (companies) often do not know that much about the source of their oil and the timing of when the reservoir filled," says Selby.

Peter Hackett, president and CEO of the Edmonton-based Alberta Ingenuity Fund, says this research demonstrates Alberta Ingenuity's commitment to working on the province's strategy "to build an innovative value-added economy emphasizing energy, life sciences and IT."

"This discovery is clearly in the area of better understanding Alberta's energy resources and that should lead to getting more value out of them," Hackett says.

At the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), which represents 150 member companies that explore for, develop and produce more than 98 per cent of Canada's natural gas, crude oil, oilsands and elemental sulphur, officials were pleased to hear the news coming out of the U of A.

"Any advancement in the knowledge base is always welcomed by the industry," says Jo Ann Robinson, the association's public affairs adviser. "Research and technology is key to ensuring the long-term economic success of the sustainable oil and gas industry."

Meanwhile, Creaser and Selby have no intention on resting on their breakthrough discovery.

Rather, they're hoping to apply their newfound knowledge to other types of oil deposits worldwide.

(Laura Severs can be reached at laura@businessedge.ca)