Pumping up the volume: at Rubiales
Duo put Star to test at Rubiales
Colombia's state-run producer Ecopetrol and Canada-based Pacific Rubiales Energy are set to evaluate the use of synchronized thermal additional recovery (Star) technology at the Rubiales field, in Colombia's Los Llanos Orientales basin.
The work will determine whether the pair will use the technology on a commercial scale to boost recovery at the heavy oil field.
Under the terms of a memorandum of understanding signed by the pair today, Pacific Rubiales will co-ordinate and pay for laboratory tests, already under way in Canada, which will determine the engineering parameters to develop a pilot project to be implemented in a selected number of wells at the Rubiales field.
The Rubiales field is presently producing a little over 58,000 barrels per day of heavy crude and is operated by Pacific Rubiales affiliate Meta Petroleum under the Rubiales risk participation contract and the Piriri association contract, in which Ecopetrol and Pacific Rubiales hold 60/40% and 50/50% interests, respectively.