Germain

Germain (like Saleski) is located within the West Athabasca oil sands region and lies approximately 130 kilometres southwest of Fort McMurray, Alberta. The main reservoir target is within the Grand Rapids Formation, a regional marine deposit at an average depth of 225 metres which comprises the upper part of the regressive Upper Mannville Group and consists dominantly of thick sandstones. Its unique features are clean sand with a homogeneous and continuous reservoir “pay” zone (the bitumen-bearing portion) between 10 – 25 metres thick. These features increase the predictability and consistency of the reservoir. Laricina intends to use its proprietary solvent-cyclic SAGD (SC-SAGD) process to recover the bitumen.

The secondary target is the Winterburn Formation, a bitumen-bearing carbonate complex that lies approximately 200 metres beneath the Grand Rapids. The Winterburn has favourable reservoir properties and high oil saturation. Laricina will lever the existing infrastructure at Germain by also developing the underlying Winterburn Formation using thermal recovery processes such as cyclic-steam stimulation (CSS) or modified SAGD.

Laricina’s Germain leases currently total 18,176 hectares at 96 percent working interest. Laricina first entered this area in 2006 and over the following several winter seasons drilled a number of stratigraphic test wells to delineate the reservoir and also began to construct surface infrastructure such as an all-weather road.

In October 2007 Laricina applied for a licence to construct and operate an 1,800-barrel-per-day pilot plant. The application proposed to utilize SAGD technology to target the Grand Rapids sands. Regulatory approval for this pilot project was granted in October 2009.

In November 2009, Laricina filed a 5,000-barrel-per-day Commercial Demonstration Project amendment to its pilot at Germain. The modified project will increase bitumen production and will have several advantages over the original pilot. Notably, it will incorporate solvent injection, diluent treating and water recycling. These amendments are expected to result in improved product value and a lower steam to oil ratio and carbon emissions for the same volume of bitumen produced by thermal processes alone.

The Commercial Demonstration Project will be the first step to move Laricina towards full commercial production that the Company estimates will total more than 200,000 gross barrels of bitumen per day.

Laricina Live

Learn more about Laricina’s oil sands innovations, including initiatives in the carbonate formation, use of core imaging tools, and solvent-assisted process development.

Photo Gallery

See what's going on at Laricina's SAGD operations and who's making it happen. Click to view our Photo Gallery.

Operations

Laricina's land base encompasses the Grosmont, Grand Rapids, Winterburn and McMurray formations and include five development areas – Germain, Saleski, Burnt Lakes, Poplar Creek and Conn Creek.
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Technology & Innovation

Laricina is able to advance new and innovative in situ recovery technologies through a combination of lab-based research, advanced simulation modelling and in-field testing.
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© 2009 Laricina Energy