Cenovus Energy
 | |
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| TSX: CVE NYSE: CVE | |
| Industry | Oil and Natural Gas |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Headquarters | |
Key people | Brian Ferguson, President & Chief Executive Officer Michael A. Grandin (Board Chair) |
| Products | Oil, Natural Gas |
| Revenue | $17.2 billion CAD net before royalties (2012)[1] |
Number of employees | 5000+ (2012) |
| Website | Cenovus.com |
Cenovus Energy Inc. (pronounced se-nō-vus) is an integrated oil company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta.
Cenovus was formed on December 1, 2009 when Encana Corporation split into two distinct companies: one an integrated oil company (Cenovus), the other a pure play natural gas company (Encana).[2] The split left Cenovus with the assets formerly belonging to PanCanadian Energy Corp. and Alberta Energy Company (AEC), the two Canadian oil and gas companies that merged to form Encana in 2002.
Operations
Cenovus currently has two producing projects in the Alberta oil sands – Foster Creek and Christina Lake – as well as several emerging projects which are in various stages of development. Foster Creek and Christina Lake are 50 percent owned by ConocoPhillips. Cenovus also produces heavy oil from the mobile Wabasca formation at its 100 percent-owned Pelican Lake operation in the Greater Pelican Region, about 300 kilometres north of Edmonton. Another key oil project is the Weyburn oilfield in Saskatchewan. It is one of the most prolific oilfields in Western Canada and has been in operation since 1954. The Weyburn project is also Canada’s largest CO2 enhanced oil recovery operation as well as the site of the largest geological greenhouse gas storage project in the world – the International Energy Agency Greenhouse Gas Weyburn-Midale CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project. This independent research initiative is managed by the Petroleum Technology Research Centre in Regina, which studies carbon capture and storage in an oil reservoir.[3]
Cenovus along with Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Suncor and Talisman Energy Inc launched Western Canadian Select (WSC) in December 2004 as a new heavy oil stream, produced and traded out of Western Canada. [4] Western Canadian Select (WCS) Edmonton Par are benchmarks crude oils for the Canadian market.[5]
Cenovus also has ownership in two refineries in the United States as part of a business venture with Phillips 66. Cenovus has a 50 percent interest in their Wood River (Illinois) and Borger (Texas) refineries which Phillips 66 operates.[6]
Technology
Cenovus applies many existing and new technologies at its operations to recover oil and natural gas. The primary technology Cenovus uses at its Foster Creek and Christina Lake projects is called steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD).[7] An additional technological improvement called solvent aided process (SAP) is applied to enhance the SAGD process at Christina Lake. Electric submersible pumps (ESP)[8] are also employed which have improved the steam to oil ratio (SOR)[9] at both Foster Creek and Christina Lake. In 2010, Cenovus commercialized its Wedge WellTM technology,[10] which is used to produce more oil at its oil sands operations while using little to no additional steam. The company followed in 2011 with the commercialization of its blowdown boiler[11] technology to improve the efficiency of water use at its oil sands operations.
References
- ^ Quick Facts About Cenovus
- ^ EnCana proceeds with plan to split into two distinct and independent energy companies
- ^ Weyburn-Midale
- ^ Cenovus (April 29, 2010). "Western Canada Select (WCS) fact sheet".
- ^ Natural Resources Canada (2011). Canadian Crude Oil, Natural Gas and Petroleum Products: Review of 2009 & Outlook to 2030 (PDF) (Report). Government of Canada. p. 9. ISBN 978-1-100-16436-6.
{{cite report}}: Unknown parameter|city=ignored (|location=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Refining (Phillips 66)
- ^ SAGD
- ^ Electric submersible pumps (ESP)
- ^ Steam to oil ratio (SOR)
- ^ Wedge well TM technology
- ^ Blowdown boiler
