Imperial Oil is priming the province’s oilsands pump as it gears up to find more economical and environmentally friendly ways to develop one of the world’s largest resource-rich oil deposits.

The record-setting $10-million contribution announced last week, to create the Imperial Oil Centre for Oil Sands Innovation at the University of Alberta, marks the largest amount the oil company has ever invested in a university.

It’s also the largest single corporate contribution received by the U of A’s faculty of engineering and signals a new era of investment in Canada and its energy security, university officials said.

The centre, which will begin work immediately on developing new energy-efficient and environmentally responsible methods for the integrated production and upgrading of Alberta’s oilsands, will be looking for breakthrough discoveries, said Tim Hearn, Imperial’s chairman, president and CEO.

Jack Dagley, Business Edge
U of A engineering dean Dr. David Lynch, left, was all smiles after Imperial Oil CEO Tim Hearn announced new initiative.

“I always want to see results yesterday but we need to look at the medium to longer term – four, five, six or seven years,” said Hearn, emphasizing that the goal is to make major advances rather than taking small, incremental steps.

One of those breakthrough avenues to be explored will include the emerging nanotechnology sector, where existing technologies are scaled down to a minute scale by manipulating single atoms and molecules to build new atomic structures.

New approaches to separation and catalytic conversion of components from bitumen, based on nanostructured materials, will be studied in order to add value by providing clean fuels and petrochemical products.

It also explains why the centre, to be located in the faculty’s chemical materials engineering building, may expand into one of the floors in the National Institute for Nanotechnology, which is now under construction on the university’s main campus.

Other research examples of the centre’s activities include:

* Gasification of bitumen with an emphasis on novel approaches that support integration with production and upgrading.

* Research on chemistry, thermodynamics and interfacial properties of bitumen to support new technologies for in-situ and in-pit production, separation of desirable and undesirable components, new processing pathways and sensors to monitor process operation.

* New methods for analysing production and upgrading of bitumen from oilsands to allow for the rational design of integrated processes. Like lifecycle analysis for manufactured products, these methods will consider all aspects of the utilization of natural resources.

In a world addicted to an increasing need for energy supplies – Hearn said global energy demand is expected to grow by 50 per cent by the year 2030 while oil and gas alone will continue to account for 60 per cent of world supply by the middle of this century – hope lies in northern Alberta’s massive oilsands projects.

“There’s 1.7 trillion barrels of oil in place and we have really only barely touched what’s there,” Hearn said during a press conference announcing the project.

David Lynch, dean of the university’s engineering faculty, said the new centre “enables transformation to occur that would not occur otherwise.”

The centre will receive $2 million a year for five years from Imperial Oil, and will recruit five additional engineering faculty members, 35 graduate students and 10 researchers.

Imperial’s decision to locate the facility at the university plays on the U of A’s strengths by “building on a very large base of oilsands research already in place in the faculty,” said Lynch.

It also comes on the heels of a $2.2-million Oil Sands Tailings Research Facility that the engineering faculty and Natural Resources Canada opened at the beginning of October.

Located in Devon, southwest of Edmonton, the tailings research is concentrating on finding superior ways to handle the final products and outcomes of the oilsands extraction process, said Lynch.

The latest announcement also cements Imperial’s ties in the province, which date back to 1947 when the company brought in the Leduc oilfield, heralding the oil boom in the province, and its recent announcement that will see it move its head office from Toronto to Calgary next year.

One of the largest producers of crude oil and natural gas liquids, and a major producer of natural gas, Imperial is Canada’s largest refiner and marketer of petroleum products, sold primarily under the Esso and Mobil brands, and a major producer of petrochemicals.

“All of Canada is important to us,” said Hearn, “but from a business perspective and resources base, Alberta is absolutely critical.”

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