Oilfield Injection

Alberta’s oil industry extracts large volumes of oil using basic, conventional technologies where oil flows either to the surface under its own pressure or is lifted by pumps located in the wellbore. Over time, pressure in oil formations will decline as oil is removed. To continue to recover more oil, enhanced recovery methods become necessary. These methods involve pumping water or another substance like carbon dioxide into the oil formation to displace the oil to the producing wells and then to surface. Water is the most common substance used to displace oil. In the case of thermal oil recovery, as used in some oil sands projects in northern Alberta, water is heated to create steam. The steam is injected in order to heat the sticky oil (bitumen) and make it thinner so that it will flow more easily to producing wells.