Whitesands THAI™ Toe to Heel Air
Injection Pilot Plant

Client:

WHITESANDS (Petrobank)

Location:

Conklin, Alberta

Project:

Whitesands THAI™ (Toe to Heel Air Injection) Pilot Plant

Project Duration:

March 2005 - May 2007*
(*including temporary project suspension)

This project was designed to demonstrate WHITESANDS’ patented THAI™ (Toe-to-Heel Air Injection) oilsands recovery process in a field setting. The THAI™ process is estimated to recover 70-80% of the bitumen in place, have significantly lower operating costs, have negligible fresh water use, and emit 50% less greenhouse gas emmisions with a smaller surface footprint than other oil sands recovery processes currently in use.

The project was designed to produce up to 300 m3/day (1,800 bbl/day) of partially upgraded bitumen from the McMurray Formation of the Athabasca oil sands.

From the success of the current Whitesands Demonstration Project, Petrobank is planning a greenfield commercial THAI™ at May River, with a central processing facility. The project will be constructed in phases with the first module (Phase-1) having the capacity to produce 10,000 to 15,000 bbl/d of partially upgraded bitumen.

Project Facilities

•Three vertical air injection wells and three horizontal production wells

•Nine observation wells for monitoring temperature and pressure

•Two water supply wells and two water disposal wells.

•A steam generation unit

•Four air compression units

•A production treating and storage facility, including a wellhead separator and gas sweetener

PROJEX provided full EPCM and commissioning support services for the pilot plant. Unique engineering challenges due to unknown process parameters were encountered and overcome.