Enhanced Oil Recovery
Penn West's assets include ownership within many of the largest pools discovered in western Canada. The majority of the resources-in-place are not extractable using conventional primary production methods. The future opportunities are increasingly coming through the application of various enhanced recovery techniques to access and produce more of the resource. This is a major focus for Penn West.
The elements of our strategy include:
- Enhancing, improving and enlarging waterflood programs already in operation at many oil pools;
- Evaluating, piloting and commercially implementing enhanced recovery methods such as carbon dioxide (C02) miscible flood and cyclic steam stimulation; and
- Applying emerging technologies to work existing assets in new ways in order to unlock a challenging reservoir and/or improve extraction economics.
A key business objective is to add reserves and production from our existing resource base, thereby creating incremental future cash flows available for reinvestment and distribution to Penn West's investors. The proportion of our capital spending directed towards enhanced oil recovery is planned to be carefully increased as we go forward based on the opportunities that we currently recognize. Although the magnitude of the annual capital commitment is managed in accordance with commodity prices and the capital available for reinvestment, the overall strategy points to growth.