CURRENT ISSUE
| Cover Story |
| Columns |
| ESG Canada Inc.: ‘Dynamic Environment’ |
| Profile | |||
| By Kate Burrows | |||
| Friday, 03 October 2008 | |||
 After a string of deadly rock bursts in the 1980s, Canada’s mining industry decided to pool its resources to develop ESG as a research group dedicated to finding ways to identify potential rock bursts and unstable property.
ESG Canada continues to develop technology and equipment to make the industry safer. The firm’s four founders, Ted Urbancic, James Alexander, Roger Bowes and Cezar Trifu, have pooled their expertise to form the backbone of ESG. “They provide the foundation of intellectual knowledge and processes that make this company what it is today,” Director of Marketing Shan Jhamandas says, adding that three of the founders have Ph.Ds in earthquake seismology. Bowes, the fourth founder, has a strong background in instrumentation and electrical engineering, Jhamandas notes. ESG is a fully integrated provider of geophysical technology and engineering services, which “gives us a great advantage in delivering customized solutions to clients,” Jhamandas explains. “We design, engineer, manufacture, install and support all products and services we supply. With only 35 to 40 people on staff, we are quite flexible in terms of responding to customer demand and driven by customer service.” Its products and systems are designed to detect potential rock burst events by monitoring microseismic activity in the earth. “These micro earthquakes are not usually the result of natural seismicity,” Jhamandas says. “This seismicity is the result of changes in the state of stress in the rock, induced by industrial operations such as excavations, injections or extractions.” The organization’s original purpose was to develop systems that identify these induced seismic events, and locate where they may occur in the future. “The idea is that once detected, the seismicity can be used as a warning to indicate where a rock burst may possibly occur,” Jhamandas explains. “We can employ instruments and software to detect these events occur, and when some abnormal or risky seismicity occurs, the mine/ground control engineers can move the work force to a different area, reducing the risk of workers being caught in dangerous rock bursts.” Strong Potential The technology continues to develop, and can be used in a number of industries beyond mining, such as the petroleum extraction/production markets. In these applications, ESG can use software to map the reservoir’s response to production activities such as water or steam flooding, enhanced oil recovery (EOR), or hydraulic fracture stimulations. We can monitor fracture stimulations to provide petroleum engineers with a real-time visual image of the fracture stimulation as it takes place “This has the potential to help companies optimize their well placement designs and validate the effectiveness of treatments,” he explains. “They can also use the visual images to make real-time adjustments to their treatments.” Jhamandas says the technology is also useful in real-time reservoir monitoring. “Most forms of EOR treatments such as steam injection results in the generation of tiny fractures within the reservoir,” he says. “We are able to install systems to detect these seismicity associated with the generation of these fractures and use it to infer where in the reservoir the steam is going. This can be a valuable source of information, which allows operators to understand how the reservoir is reacting to their treatments and ensure the injections are going where they need to go.” Educating the Industry Although the petroleum industry has not historically been quick to adopt new technology, ESG strives to educate operators about the benefits of its technology and systems. “Operators in western Canada have been fairly quick to adopt the technology, but we’re still in the education phase in many respects, Jhamandas says. “We’re starting to see some good response in the Middle East.” Many companies pick up on its benefits through industry collaborations, Jhamandas adds. Employees believe in the benefits of ESG’s products, and are intent on educating the industry. “Everyone who works at ESG has a certain level of pride in what we do, because our products are designed to increase work place safety,” Jhamandas says. “It’s a dynamic environment that we’re all proud of.” |
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