Title:
How Your Energy World Has Changed ... And Will Continue to Change...
Abstract:
In the last decade, we learned that there are vast quantities of natural gas trapped in low permeability, fine-grained rocks that we call shale. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing at many locations along the well length were developed to unlock this gas. Now there is a glut of gas in North America, likely to last for over a decade. This technology is now also unlocking conventional oil trapped in fine-grained rock, called "shale oil" resources. For example, in three years North Dakota moved from a minor oil-producing state to the second-largest producing state after Texas and its production may exceed a million barrels a day as early as 2015. These vast new resources have radically changed the energy picture in the United States, and therefore also in Canada, but differently because we are a net oil exporter. In fact, we also have far larger amounts of recoverable fossil fuels than we suspected a decade ago and this is impacting us as well. For example, British Columbia may become a minor energy power through massive LNG exports through the Prince Rupert - Kitimat area, and several pipelines and LNG facilities are being planned, with more to come.
Environmental impacts affect Canada's energy world as well. Reduced USA oil consumption, because of better vehicles and lower consumption, concerns over pipelines and ocean shipping of viscous crude oil, the higher carbon impact of bitumen, and a focus on land disturbance issues in the Fort McMurray open pit mining region, all have effects on Canada's energy future. Where should pipelines go?
Maurice will introduce you to fossil energy issues in Canada, explaining what is happening because of these processes. Canada's future is changing; it is better to be informed than unprepared.
Bio:
After flunking out of university in 1965, Maurice started in the oil industry as a roughneck for a year, then as a drilling fluids specialist for two years. On orders from his future wife, he returned to university and obtained a BSc then a PhD in Civil Engineering (University of Alberta). In 1977, he was awarded a research chair at the University of Alberta. Since 1982, he has been a Professor of Geological Engineering in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department.
Maurice carries out research in petroleum geomechanics, new heavy oil production methods, salt mechanics, and deep waste disposal. He has co-authored two textbooks and over 500 articles in conferences and journals and works with industry as an advisor and instructor. He developed a number of short courses in Petroleum Geomechanics and related areas and gives these courses to companies, government agencies and professional groups in countries around the world.
In 2010 Maurice started a new International Society for Rock Mechanics Commission on Petroleum Geomechanics to foster and promote this subject. He hopes that this area of rock mechanics becomes as important as mining and civil rock mechanics.
Maurice also works as a senior scientific advisor to the Alberta government, and does some interesting stuff in carbon dioxide sequestration, shale gas geomechanics, and other arcane but fascinating areas.