Sungkyunkwan University’s project group opens Alberta office to validate oil sands technologies

Officials and experts from Korea and Canada pose during the opening ceremony of Sungkyunkwan University’s Unconventional Oil Technology Optimization Project Group office in Calgary, Alberta, Tuesday. Courtesy of Sungkyunkwan University

Sungkyunkwan University’s Unconventional Oil Technology Optimization Project (U-TOP) Group opened a local office in Calgary, Alberta, on Tuesday to expand international cooperation in oil sands production technologies.

The opening marks a significant milestone as it establishes a foothold in Canada to commercialize Korea-developed oil sands plant technologies and bring them to the global market, the university said Wednesday.

The U-TOP Group has been carrying out the oil sands technology development project, a national research and development (R&D) initiative led by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and supported by the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Technology Advancement (KAIA) since 2022.

Through the Canadian demonstration project, the group plans to open the way for the commercialization and global expansion of Korean plant equipment and technologies based on operational data and expertise gained through field operation.

The university said high-level officials and experts from both countries attended the office opening ceremony, expressing their strong interest in bilateral cooperation on eco-friendly energy production technologies.

The attendees included representatives from major Korean institutions such as KAIA and the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources as well as officials from the government of Alberta and Canadian companies including Andora Energy and Iconic Resources.

Muhammad Yaseen, Alberta’s associate minister of multiculturalism, expressed his hope that energy technology cooperation between Alberta and Korea will be further strengthened and that the project will achieve successful outcomes with the opening of the local office.

Andora Energy CEO Jeff Chisholm was quoted as saying that he has great confidence in the plant technology developed by Korean researchers which integrates environmentally friendly features such as solvent recycling and greenhouse gas reduction.

“The opening of the Calgary office marks a significant turning point, as it allows our research team to validate the outcomes of four years of fundamental and applied R&D efforts at the site in Alberta, the world’s largest oil sands production region,” said Jang Am, a civil engineering professor, who leads the U-TOP Group.

“By successfully carrying out the on-site demonstration in Canada, we will prove the global competitiveness of Korea’s plant technologies and establish a solid foundation for Korean construction and plant companies to enter the global unconventional oil market,” he added.

The office opening followed an international joint research agreement with Andora Energy that was signed on May 6 to demonstrate oil sands production technologies at the Sawn Lake oil sands lease in Alberta.

Under the agreement, the office will oversee the local validation project and facilitate communication and collaboration among Korean researchers, the Canadian government and local companies.

Through the Calgary office, the U-TOP Group will begin full-scale on-site validation of the next-generation oil sands extraction technology, known as expanding solvent-steam assisted gravity drainage (ES-SAGD).

The group plans to install plant facilities and modules, which are designed and manufactured with Korean technology, at the Sawn Lake site over the next three years.

Through this field demonstration, the group aims to stably validate the entire oil sands production process at a scale of approximately 600 barrels per day.

The university noted that unlike conventional liquid crude oil, oil sands are a mineral mixture composed of sand, clay, water and bitumen, a highly viscous tar-like crude oil. Since bitumen does not flow at room temperature due to its high viscosity, specialized extraction and separation technologies are essential.

The ES-SAGD technology utilized by the U-TOP Group is a next-generation method designed to overcome the limitations of conventional approaches that inject only high-temperature, high-pressure steam into underground oil sands formations.

By injecting steam together with an environmentally friendly solvent, an organic compound used to dissolve oil, which effectively reduces the viscosity of bitumen, the technology maximizes crude oil recovery while significantly reducing energy consumption for generating steam.

The method is regarded as a highly efficient and environmentally friendly plant technology capable of substantially lowering greenhouse gas emissions.