Utilising new technology

Laurie Venning, Senior Vice President of Regent Energy Groups Business Development and Emerging Markets, speaks with Luke Oil about the technology Canadians are using to ensure a supply of oil from difficult reservoirs.

O&G. Who is Regent Energy Group Ltd. and what is their history?
Laurie Venning. Regent Energy Group Ltd. is privately owned oil and gas Service Company that manufactures sand control solutions and complimentary down-hole tools for the exploitation of heavy oil, bitumen, TEOR strategies and Coal Bed Methane horizontal wells. 

O&G. Why is sand control so important in the Western Canadian oil and gas market?
LV. We have lots of unconsolidated reservoirs. These sand particles wear on tools and pumps. Our solution to these problems has been Regent’s patented transverse rolled slotted (TRUE keystone or TRS seamed) liner completions. We engineer to retain the erosive reservoir sands but allow for smooth production of the reservoir fluids. 

O&G. What prompted your company’s direction to work on heavy oil sand control issues?
LV. Working with the operators it was determined that a simple, robust sand control solution would be optimal for horizontal completions of thermal heavy oil. These TRS completion liners worked so well that we carried on in a commercial capacity. 

O&G. Firstly, slotted liners have been in the industry for almost 100 years, what is different about your slotted liners in thermal horizontal wells in Canada?
LV. Firstly, our TRS system creates what we call a true “keystone” slot. That means the sand will form a stable bridge around each slot. We know the seamed slot self-cleans. Secondly, we have developed and patented a new cleaning system, which we call Hot Pig that uses heat to singe off all the burrs and wickers (95 percent clean) and thirdly we have completed tremendous amounts of R&D to develop our new slotting machine “QAT”. This has allowed us to keep our costs and prices in line. These efforts have given us a tremendous competitive advantage.

O&G. As Canadian’s, your sand control methods and best practices in thermal operations such as SAGD or CSS seem quite different with respect practices in the Far East?
LV. The premium screens are often four or more times as expensive and we know they don’t work any better in the harsh production environments. We have studied many other reservoirs and geology. By setting up a manufacturing facility in the Sultanate of Oman, we build and deliver our products locally. We are now working in South America. Russia would be no different in our minds.

O&G. Why is the Canadian sand control market dominated by one product from a privately company as opposed to the products offered by publicly traded companies?
LV. Firstly our product works. None of this would have happened if that weren’t the case. Secondly we work extensively with our customers to provide a highly engineered and customised product specific to their reservoir. We have worked very hard in establishing a partnership approach with our customers. 

O&G. From the comments the company has taken this technology internationally, what opportunities do you see helping Russia?
LV. Our TRS slotted liners are the industry standard for sand control over the last 10 years in the Alberta Oil Sands and it is only a matter of time before we lower the learning curve in Russia and they utilise this technology for their heavy oil reservoirs.