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GSA2016 ANNUAL MEETING & EXPOSITION

LUNCHTIME ENLIGHTENMENT

Jen Russel-Houston, Osum Oil Sands Corp. flooded through the reservoir in a pattern of injection and
production wells. This method and others were adapted to the
GSA 2016 Michel T. Halbouty Distinguished Lecture: Canadian reservoirs and entirely new technological approaches
Contemporary Oil Sands: Retrospect and Future Potential were advanced, with steam assisted gravity drainage (SAGD)
being the most successful. Effective adaptation and application of
Monday, 26 Sept., 12:15–1:15 p.m. these technologies is linked directly to understanding and inte-
grating geological information with engineering design. This has
Colorado Convention Center, Mile High Ballroom 2A/3A led to investment of over $200 billion, and growth in production
to over 1.3 million barrels per day. This spirit of innovation
The oil sands in Canada are the third largest continues as recovery technologies are being piloted, optimized,
accumulation of crude oil in the world and are and commercialized to further reduce the energy intensity and
part of the diverse energy mix that meets the environmental footprint of future developments.
world’s growing needs. The bitumen deposits are
hosted in siliciclastic sandstones deposited Jen Russel-Houston, P.Geol., obtained a Ph.D. in geology from
during the Cretaceous in fluvial to marine Dalhousie University in 2001 and completed a thesis that examined
settings of the foreland basin east of the Rocky the graptolite taphonomy of a Silurian-aged carbonate ramp in the
Mountains and in underlying Paleozoic carbon- Arctic of Canada. Prior to joining Osum Oil Sands Corp. in 2008,
ates. Natural bitumen is a high-density oil that is too viscous to Russel-Houston worked for Shell on both onshore and offshore proj-
flow at reservoir conditions. About 20% of the bitumen is found ects where she developed expertise in reservoir evaluation, thermal
in shallow deposits and excavated using surface mining tech- production geology, and leading technical teams. As vice president of
niques. During this talk, Dr. Jen Russel-Houston will focus on the geoscience, she oversees Osum’s geoscience evaluations as they relate
remaining 80% of the bitumen, which is hosted in reservoirs to current assets and guides the assessment of potential opportuni-
deeper than 75 m and is recovered in situ using wellbores. ties of interest to Osum. Russel-Houston is Director of the Canadian
Typically, steam is injected into the pores of the reservoir to heat Society of Petroleum Geologists, Associate Editor of the Canadian
the oil and thus reduce the viscosity of the bitumen to enable it to Bulletin of Petroleum Geology, and was Vice General Chair of the
flow to producing wells. Early applications of steam injection to American Association of Petroleum Geology Annual Convention
produce oil took place in the 1960s in California, where steam was and Exhibition in June 2016.

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