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| By Stephanie Sims | |
| Thursday, 19 July 2007 | |
 Canyon Services Group specializes in the fracturing and chemical stimulation of wells, while developing its own technologies. Canyon Services’ mission is to provide leading technology in unconventional reservoirs, such as natural gas from coal (NGC), shale and tight gas. “Much of western Canada and its sedimentary basins are fairly heavily developed already,” says Joe Peskunowicz, principal engineer and COO of Canyon Services. “The easy stuff is has been found. Our operators are forced to try to use NGC out of coal beds, shales and under saturated and tighter reservoirs.” These same technologies can be used in conventional reservoirs to improve production rates and total recovery from the reservoir, he says. To help stimulate hydrocarbons, Canyon Services is constantly applying new technology to its processes. One of its most successful methodologies has been the application of lightweight proppants in the fracturing process, Peskunowicz says. “Lightweight proppants are new,” he says. “We can utilize a pure nitrogen gas stream to place the proppants by avoiding the damage that can be caused by fluids. Tight reservoirs respond favorably.” Lightweight proppants are only slightly heavier than water, can be transported in a liquid for long-distance travel, and are less damaging because the fluids aren’t viscosified with chemicals that are harmful to the permeability of the reservoir, reducing productivity of the wells. Lightweight proppants also won’t settle at the bottom of a fracture, which is what sand tends to do. “Today, 90 to 95 percent of all fracturing treatments use sand or ceramic proppants,” Peskunowicz says. “We believe lightweight proppants carry advantages that will make it the proppant of choice because it can have a dramatic impact on well activity.” He notes the company developed new equipment called Grand Canyon that allows the placement of proppants in a 100 percent nitrogen gas stream. It has a patent pending on this as well as the process of placing deformable lightweight proppants in either a gas or a liquid. In addition, he adds, the company’s acid additive system has an advantage over competitors’ conventional systems because it uses chemistry that suits different reservoirs. Trends and Challenges A big driver of the market, Peskunowicz says, is the fact that the bulk of remaining reservoirs are very sensitive to exposure to many of the conventional stimulation fluids. In addition, the maturity of the basins drives the technology to update methods used in fracturing and chemical stimulation. Shale gas development has been increasing rapidly in the United States and Canada, Peskunowicz adds. Canyon Services is moving with the trend and extending some of its newest technologies to the shale gas reservoirs. “Shale gas development in Canada is in its infancy; it’s brand-new to most producers,” he says. “It’s an exploitable resource play we have here now that’s often been overlooked in the past. Shale in Canadian basins is just starting to be explored. This bodes well for our company.” Canyon Services continues to grow as it delves into new and different operations, such as shale gas development, by attracting and maintaining staff. “Historically, staffing has been an issue in this industry,” Pesknowicz says. However, its recruiting process helps the company filter through candidates to find good fits. “We are very careful in recruiting because we want to attract skilled and key individuals from the industry,” he says. “By putting those people in a responsible position, they attract people of a like mindset. Our environment is where all of our team, whether they are equipment supervisors and operators in the field or junior engineers, are positively rewarded for the work they do; that is the Canyon culture.” In a few years, Peskunowicz says he sees further developments in technology in the industry and more shale gas productivity. “We are just beginning to test the lands for shale gas for what would otherwise be conventional reserves,” he says. “We’re also using these new processes on large scale developments. As our clients continue to see success in those, we believe many E&P companies will replace their current practices with our Grand Canyon process and lightweight proppants.” E+P |
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