Heavy Crude Oil
Low-risk, reliable production
Canadian Natural is the largest producer of heavy crude oil in Canada with a competitive advantage through its vast land base, which allows for large scale drilling and development programs, while minimizing capital cost requirements. Costs are further managed through owning and operating centralized treating and sand handling facilities, maximizing their utilization and achieving economies of scale.
Defined growth with low-risk development projects
Primary heavy crude oil production delivers low risk, reliable production. Primary production of heavy crude oil typically recovers between 5%-15% of oil originally in place, leaving a vast unrecovered resource that will ultimately be developed through improved recovery techniques.
World class polymer flood
The Company’s Pelican Lake asset is a large, contiguous, shallow, medium crude oil pool initially developed for primary heavy crude production. Building on a successful waterflood, a higher viscosity polymer flood was tested and subsequently introduced, resulting in further increases in production and reserves.