November 2013

Conventional vs. Unconventional Resources

Youve probably heard terms like these: conventional oil or unconventional gas, but
you may not be clear on what the terms mean. This issue of PatchWorks explores
whats considered conventional versus unconventional in oil and gas.
Conventional oil or gas comes from geological formations that are relatively
straightforward to develop they dont need specialized technologies to unlock their
potential. Because they are easier and less expensive to produce, conventional oil and
gas were the first targets of industry activity. Canada began producing conventional oil
in the late 1890s and conventional natural gas in the early 1900s.
By contrast, unconventional resources are trapped in reservoirs with low permeability,
meaning little to no ability for the oil or natural gas to flow through the rock and into a
wellbore. In order to produce from unconventional reservoirs, industry uses a
stimulation technique like hydraulic fracturing to create cracks in the underground rock
that allow the oil or natural gas to flow. Of course this is more time-consuming and
costly than producing from a reservoir that requires no stimulation beyond a pumpjack
or wellhead compressor.
So if conventional resources are easy and inexpensive to develop, why are we going
after unconventional oil and gas now? Its all about supply, referred to as reserves.

Heres the interesting thing

about conventional versus
unconventional definitions
in this industry: With the rapid
pace of innovation in the
Canadian oilpatch, what is
considered unconventional today
may very well be considered
conventional, 20, 10 or even
five years from now!

Canadas oil and gas future lies with our vast

reserves of unconventional resources.
Take a look at crude oil reserves. Canada has 174 billion barrels of oil reserves, of
which 169 billion barrels are oil sands reserves. Extra-heavy oil and oil sands are
categorized as unconventional oil, along with light tight oil, also known as shale oil.

PatchWorks explains how the

oilpatch works in a series of
short, monthly articles.

Now lets look at conventional

versus unconventional natural
gas. The natural gas resource
triangle shown here illustrates the
amount of natural gas reserves in
Canada by type. Its clear that our
conventional resources (shown in
blue) are by far the smallest in
volume, compared to our
unconventional resources (shown
in green).

PatchWorks is part of PSACs

public outreach program,
designed to strengthen the
partnership between the oil
and gas industry and the
communities where we operate.

Source: CAPP

Canadas unconventional natural gas resources include tight gas sands, coal bed
methane (also known as natural gas from coal), shale gas and gas hydrates. Of these,
we most often hear about shale gas, because it offers high volumes of natural gas,
accessible by todays technologies. (Gas hydrates are trapped in ice and while
Canadas gas hydrate reserves are enormous, we currently have no commercially
viable technology to access them.)
Most importantly, whether conventional or unconventional, shale gas, tight gas, coal
bed methane or gas hydrates, we are still talking about natural gas! No matter what
form it comes in, natural gas is abundant, reliable, versatile and clean-burning.

Coming up in PatchWorks:
Fractional distillation
For other PatchWorks articles
and more oil and gas
information, please visit:
www.oilandgasinfo.ca
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questions and article ideas to:
pw@oilandgasinfo.ca