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The Upper Devonian Grosmont Formation, located in the West Athabasca Oil Sands Deposit, contains an estimated 406 billion barrels of bitumen. The reservoir is a heavily karsted and fractured, bitumen-saturated carbonate. Initial thermal horizontal well development is currently underway in this resource. These horizontal wells have similar logistics, well construction and materials challenges to those in the McMurray Formation. Laricina has been actively developing the Grosmont Formation. Production from the pilot began in 2011 and many lessons have been learned. The next phase of development is a 10,700 bbl/day commercial project scheduled for first steam in 2014. The Grosmont, despite many drilling challenges such as severe lost circulation, also provides many opportunities not typically achievable in clastic oil sands developments. Carbonate rock is typically a good candidate for open-hole completions due to its geomechanical properties. This paper will discuss the geomechanical investigation evaluating borehole stability during drilling and completion, steam injection and production operations.

You've heard the direction, you've seen the papers, and you've read the publications. The Government of Canada's March 2008 "Turning The Corner - Taking Action to Fight Climate Change" report has set the foundation for CO2 regulations which "start tough and get tougher". The "Toughest" requirements are set for new oil sands plants and coal-fired power plants that come into operation in 2012, or later. The public and legal arena is also impacted by how oil sands carbon emissions are addressed. The Report on Business, March 6, 2008, reported; "a federal court judge … found the approval of Imperial Oil Ltd's $8 billion oil sands mine insufficient on climate change and green house gas emissions." The Conference Board of Canada Carbon Disclosure Project Report 2007 has also stated that "Alberta's GHG reduction legislation will add approximately $0.18/bbl in additional operating costs for a typical integrated oil-sands mining project, and $0.22/bbl for a steam-assisted gravity drainage project." These and other factors have changed the landscape for oil sands development. A review of the political, social, and regulatory pressures and obligations for the in situ oil sands industry to reduce its oil sands carbon foot print will be provided. This paper will discuss Laricina's insights and views on the carbon challenge, describe initiatives Laricina is taking to manage these imperatives and outline the challenges the overall industry is facing. The objective of this paper is to spur dialogue and collaboration by the oil sands industry in an effort to evolve and advance the knowledge and understanding of the impacts this important issue has on our business. This paper will also attempt to describe the dimensions of the carbon problem, point out the experience base our industry has to contribute to a solution, review the parameters to demonstrate CO2 or GHG's containment and storage, touch on the state of regulatory and policy issues, and try to scope out a progression to technical and economic success.