Connacher Oil & Gas Ramps Up Bitumen Production at Great Divide Pod One

Calgary-based independent exploration and production firm Connacher Oil and Gas has announced that daily bitumen production rate at its Great Divide Pod One steam-assisted gravity drainage project has been ramping up and has now surpassed 5,000 barrels per day.

The company said that, when combined with recent average daily conventional production levels, it is now producing approximately 7,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) of bitumen, crude oil and natural gas. This is approximately triple the company’s production level during 2007.

Further increases are anticipated, as the Pod One ramp up continues during upcoming months towards the project’s design level of 10,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) and in the short run, as new Marten Creek-Randall natural gas volumes of approximately 1,000 boe/d are brought on stream as anticipated by the firm, during March 2008.

The company’s cumulative bitumen production, which has primarily increased since steam injection commenced, totals over 140,000 barrels. Performance indicators including temperatures, pressures, steam oil ratios and individual well productivities reportedly continue to meet or exceed the firm’s targets at this stage of production.