Grosmont: the next oil-sands frontier

Osum and Laricina see production from carbonates in 2013-14

TWO privately owned oil-sands start-ups, Osum Oil Sands and Laricina Energy, are moving stride-for-stride to open up a new frontier in Alberta’s Grosmont carbonate formation. Both are drawing financial backing from South Korea’s Korea Investment Corporation (KIC). The promised reward is the liberation of a possible 400 billion barrels of bitumen trapped in rocks such as limestone and dolomite, as opposed to the traditional sandy McMurray oil formation. Pilot thermal-recovery projects are in full swing to establish proved-recovery techniques for Grosmont, the largest of four carbonate formations. The focus on a potential new pay zone comes 30 years after pilots were carried out with vertical