PTAC Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada
May 8, 2017
Executive Summary
The purpose of the Tight Oil and Shale Gas Innovation Roadmap (the “Roadmap”) is to provide knowledge for industry, government and academia to address current and anticipated research and technology challenges and opportunities related to the development by multistage hydraulic fracturing of unconventional tight and shale oil and gas resources. The outcome will be to deepen the understanding of the potential for scientific research and technology development to provide solutions in this industrial sector, and to propose an initial blueprint for future technology investments.
The Roadmap is not focused on any specific company or play, and recognizes that individual producers and service companies have an excellent understanding of technology challenges and opportunities related to their business. It does not enter the realm of government policy and regulatory frameworks, and acknowledges that several government organizations may have studied internally technology gaps and possible futures.
The Roadmap is focused on issues directly related to hydraulic fracturing technology. As such, challenges, gaps and opportunities that apply generally to conventional oil and gas activities are only briefly mentioned, if at all. One such area is well integrity and the potential occurrence of wellbore leakage, which is analysed in reports from the Council of Canadian Academies and of the Canadian Gas Migration Society and will be the topic of a future technology roadmap by Natural Resources Canada.