New oil recovery lab gets $3M support

St John’s, NF – To support research and identify new ways to optimize oil recovery, the Research & Development Corporation of Newfoundland and Labrador (RDC) and the Hibernia Management and Development Company Ltd. (HDMC) are providing $1.635- and $1.7-million respectively for the creation of a state-of-the-art enhanced oil recovery research facility at Memorial University. 

Research efforts in the new laboratory will focus on enhanced oil recovery, which is utilized to increase the amount of crude oil extracted from an oil field and extend the field life.

“The new building, its equipment and staff will support research into enhanced oil recovery, which is critical to the continued success of the province and the industry,” said Jamie Long, president HMDC. “Our ultimate goal is to increase oil recovery offshore Newfoundland and Labrador.”

The goal is to create a world-class research laboratory in Memorial University’s Bruneau Centre for Research and Innovation.

Dr. Lesley James, an assistant professor of process engineering and the Chevron Chair in Petroleum Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at Memorial University, is the principal investigator of the new EOR laboratory. Her research expertise centres on the recovery of oil and gas offshore Newfoundland and Labrador.

“Construction of the Hibernia Enhanced Oil Recovery Laboratory is underway and, once complete, it will house state-of-the-art experimental equipment allowing us to perform enhanced oil recovery experiments at reservoir conditions. The laboratory will enable pore- and core-scale experimental investigations along with the ability to measure fluid, rock and fluid-rock properties,” explained Dr. James.