NEVTAH/BLACK SANDS ENERGY TO ENHANCE EFFICIENCY LEVELS OF MOBILE UNIT’S CLOSED-LOOP TECHNOLOGY AS PER INDEPENDENT REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS./ EXPERIENCED ENGINEERING TEAM APPOINTED...

Recently, the joint venture partners received an independent engineer’s report on the efficiency levels of their patented, closed-loop oil sands extraction technology.  This extensive report was based on the operations of the partners’ 250 bbl/day mobile plant,  which has been fabricated and tested in Oklahoma for the past fourteen months. The key findings of the report confirmed the partners’ previous results on oil recovery levels of more than 90%, solvent recovery rates of 99.5% and mining/processing costs ranging from $ 12.00 to $ 20.00 per barrel.

  The report suggested that in order to scale up to commercial production unit sizes, it would be imperative to improve the efficiency levels in several key areas of the unit’s operating systems at the present production rates of the mobile plant.  Any operating deficiencies at present test levels would only be magnified later on at the commercial production levels.  The development of pioneering energy technologies has never been an exact science.  The major oil sands companies in Alberta, despite the billions of dollars injected into the oil development there, have been regularly beset with technology problems, cost overruns of 200% to 300%, application errors and production delays during the twenty year period of oil sands extraction programs.  Oil sands technologies have proven to be much more challenging than the exploitation of conventional reserves. “This is still an art form, not a science,” stated Justin Bouchard, an analyst at Raymond James in Calgary.  “There are lots of things to learn.  The (oil sands) technologies are in their infancy.”

  Relatively speaking, Nevtah/Black Sands Energy have progressed comparatively rapidly in the development of their patented, closed-loop system in just three years.  To date, Nevtah has provided over $ 7,000,000 USD for the technology development so that it can be successfully applied in the state of Utah, which possesses more than 34 billion barrels of oil.  The joint venture partners have been confronted with some technology efficiency difficulties, fabrication delays and production flow problems, none of which are unique in energy development.  Earlier this year, the partners provided a tentative schedule that would have had their mobile unit moved into Utah for commencement of oil sands extraction, plus providing a venue for practical demonstration purposes for potential joint venture opportunities.  The mobile unit was to be a model for the scaled up commercial plants, but prior to the $ 5.5 million USD commitment required for each commercial unit, the partners hired an independent consultant for a comprehensive engineer’s report on the efficiencies of the technology.  The consultant, with over 25 years of experience in the oil industry, came back with a series of recommendations for efficiencies improvements.  These enhancements, in his opinion, would be necessary to bring the technology up to viable commercial production requirements.   The partners are now embarking on this improvement program as recommended by the companies’ independent consultant:

INCREASED HOPPER SIZE & OPERATING ENHANCEMENTS:

Currently, the hopper receives the unprocessed tar sands and performs the initial solvent wash and separation of oil from the oil sands materials.  A slurry line transports the sands, residual oil and solvents in  order to rinse the unit for final separation.  The hopper will now double in size, enhancing material flow as well as operating efficiencies. It will  operate as a solvent vapor recovery vehicle by covering the solvents with an absorbent.  A blanket of carbon dioxide is added to dilute the oxygen available to react with the solvent.  A vertical auger will be installed to serve as a control valve to more efficiently feed oil sands material into the hopper and therefore mitigate operational and reliability problems resulting from considerable mass falling into the hopper machinery.  A horizontal auger will be operated at low rotational speeds.  Since auger wear is proportional to rotational rate, this will reduce auger wear significantly.  A change to the slurry collection system at the sand exit of the hopper will reduce the effect of sand buildup there.  A flow diverter valve will also be added to increase solvent momentum flow to counteract buildup.

SLURRY LINE IMPROVEMENTS FROM HOPPER TO RINSE CHAMBER.

The slurry line operates with high solvent flow rates, but with very low pressure levels.  The proportion of oil to solvent introduced into the rinse chamber from the slurry line ranges from one to three percent.  These operating ranges have been selected so that the prime mover will need to be no more than ten horsepower, which will reduce operating and maintenance costs..  In addition, a very high ratio of solvent to sand increases the degree to which hydrocarbons are removed from the sand.

RINSE CHAMBER.

The rinse chamber dictates and drives all of the other aspects of the system, therefore, the scalability of the mobile plant to a commercial production unit is completely determined by the rinse chamber.  This chamber separates and expels the sand.  In the first step of the process, sand must be separated from solvents contaminated with hydrocarbons, leaving sand saturated with pure solvent.  Then, the pure solvent must be removed from the sand.  The newly-designed rinse chamber will operate within a cyclone process.  As the sand exists from the cyclone, it is expelled by the action of rotating plows operating at the sand exit of the cyclone.  This effect is enhanced by a vacuum applied at the center of the cyclone.  It also increases the flow rates of hydrocarbon-contaminated solvent separating from the sand and also increases the washing effect of the clean solvent at the sand exit.  In a commercial production unit capable of extracting up to 2400 bbl/oil per day, the rates of slurry into the  rinse chamber will range up to 10,000 gallons per minute.  A steam cone has been suggested as an enhancement to the new rinse chamber.  This cone will apply dry steam to evaporated solvents in a cascade of phase-change replacements between rising steam and solvents.

COMPUTER CONTROL SOFTWARE.

The initial computer control systems will be upgraded to improve the display of operating status and more accurate temperature controls.  Previously, the system had a lack of feedback sensors which led to operational errors and prevented the system from operating at full speed.  Several additional SCADA components available off-the-shelf have been recommended for application to the system.  The selection of these components will be determined based on the optimization of operational consistency.

PRODUCTION ECONOMICS.

The reports states directly, “It must be remembered that the cost of operating the system depends only upon the cost per cubic yard of tar sands processed.  That cost is constant and independent of the percent of oil in a cubic yard of tar sand.  Therefore, it is imperative the system be applied to tar sands having a high rate of yield.  An examination of the operational costs of the mobile plant’s system, and by projecting these costs to a production system, it seems feasible to extract oil from sands at a rate of $12.00 to $20.00 per barrel assuming the following:”

1. The yield is ideally from ½ to 1 barrel of oil per cubic yard.
2. Each cubic yard is extracted from an ‘easily accessible’ location since mining costs for extraction and transporting are the largest components of processing costs.

Mr. David E. Orr, PhD was the independent consulting engineer who submitted his engineering report to Black Sands Energy two months ago.  Mr. Orr has since been hired to head up the partners’ engineering team in order to bring the technology into the commercial production stages. Mr. Orr has had an extensive background in the oil and gas industry, including being a former Manager of Research and Applications Development for Texaco, Inc. Houston.  He has performed consultant duties for several major petroleum companies including Gulf Oil, Superior, Tenneco and Texaco.  He is the inventor of chemical technology for the liquefying of heavy asphaltinic and parafinnic oils (applied at PEMEX in Mexico).  He has spent over 16 years in the super-computer industry with such companies as Cray Research, Alliant, Thinking Machines Corporation, working with and consulting to major petroleum companies such as SUN, Phillips, BP and Mobil in seismic processing and reservoir simulation.  He is the designer and inventor of novel steam injection systems for heavy oil production, which has been applied in the Taylor Field in Texas.  And Mr. Orr has over 20 years experience in mathematics modeling and computer simulation of quantum mechanics, electro-magnetics, signal process and fluid dynamics.  He brings a wealth of knowledge and experience that will prove invaluable as Nevtah/Black Sands transform their patented, closed-loop oil sands technology into commercial production. 

There are many industry experts who feel that of all the energy development entities in the United States, the joint venture partners, Nevtah and Black Sands Energy appear now to be the closest of any company in Utah to take their environmentally-safe, patented, closed-loop technology into a viable, commercial production stage. It’s been less than three years since their first experimentation with a small, pilot plant.  The U.S. Department of Energy, in a recent report (available on this website) states that the average time span required to take any pioneering technology to successful commercial production levels is upwards of twenty years. The market conditions for the commercial application of Nevtah/Black Sands Energy’s technology have never been better. With the recent oil price surge to $ 130.00+ per barrel, there are dramatically increased pressures to develop new sources of domestic reserves of oil.  The joint venture partners, with what they feel is a financially prudent decision, are now initiating the technology enhancement program as recommended by the engineering report prior to scaled up commercial production extraction units.  This program will take place during June and July, 2008.