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Forecaster: Soheil Asgarpour, President, PTAC It’s very difficult to predict what can be a breakthrough technology. There have been many breakthrough technologies that, even when they were developed, no one thought they would become practical technologies. Rather I expect to see more meshing of existing technologies – putting two or more technologies together to [...]

The Alberta government is working to resolve what the new Alberta Energy Regulator's chief executive officer calls a "breakdown" in how the Alberta government created policies. "There was a policy disconnect," said Jim Ellis, the chief regulator of the province. "There was a policy disconnect at government and there was a policy disconnect with the [...]

Integrated Water Resources is halfway through a two-year multi-stakeholder project to build a regional understanding of surface water, groundwater and deep saline water resources, as well as disposal zones, within west-central Alberta. "Because the water needs of these unconventional projects have greater needs than do conventional drilling -- because of the fracturing operations and also [...]

Alberta's energy regulator says it is responding to a changing oil and gas industry by updating its requirements, expanding its publicly accessible information base and implementing a new, play-based planning approach. "Enhanced planning, collaborative engagement, measured outcomes. Those are things you'll be hearing over and over from the new regulator," Bob Willard, senior advisor in [...]

When Emily Jobson sent out a call for survey respondents for her master's theses on the socio-environmental impact of increasing water use for Duvernay development, only 3.2 per cent of those 1,360 canvassed chose to respond. However, the Chevron Corporation intermediate environmental specialist and grad student believes such minimal response could be interpreted as a [...]

Canada’s premier agency for funding research into genomics – which deals with the analysis and functioning of entire DNA sequences in humans and other organisms – is expected to announce a $30-million program Monday that dovetails with the federal government’s emphasis on science that delivers concrete benefits. Genome Canada is opening its purse strings to [...]

Thirty years ago, when Soheil Asgarpour was graduating from university, a professor warned him against a career in the oil and gas industry, lest reserves run out before his career was over. But now that Canada has been recognized as holding one of the largest hydrocarbon deposits in the world with enough oil and gas [...]

Alberta's oilsands region has come under greater scrutiny in recent years by the world in general, and now from outer space. This year, Canada's scientists started using existing long-term satellite data records and peered ever closer at their images so that industry and regulators can better manage the region, an industry forum heard this week. [...]

Work towards the pipeline meant to kick-start carbon dioxide-based enhanced oil recovery (EOR) in Alberta is continuing while the planned upgrader/refinery that will be the pipeline's main CO2 supplier awaits construction approval from its owners. The 50/50 owners of the planned Redwater upgrader/refinery -- North West Upgrading Inc. and Canadian Natural Resources Limited -- expect [...]

Oil sands development to fill void of lagging tech sector Half a century of fighting over every speck of Alberta’s oil sands now behind them, Canada’s largest heavy-oil producers are now embroiled in another decades-long battle. Not with each other, but with the technological and environmental realities of their industry. To maintain their social licence [...]