The N-Solv process offers commercial, environmental and public benefits.

Commercial Benefits

• Economic Comparison of SAGD & N-Solv [pdf]
• High extraction rates - highest extraction rates of any in situ process
• Substantial decrease in energy costs – N-Solv uses 80-95% less energy than steam processes
• Synergy with SAGD - the entire thermal requirements for N-Solv can be supplied from the waste heat of an existing SAGD
• High value production - in situ upgrading improves both the produced oil quality & API gravity
• Decreased diluent costs – the produced oil is 100 fold less viscosous than the raw bitumen thus less diluent is required to meet pipeline specs
• High yields - the in situ upgrading is very selective and eliminates the asphaltenic components that are currently landfilled as high sulphur and metals coke
• Modular design with manageable capital costs
• Lowest CAPEX of any in situ process
• Lowest OPEX
• Lowest break-even point (= reliable profitability)
• Highest netback
• Highest after tax IRR of any oil sand technology
• N-Solv is expected to produce more bbls of synthetic crude from a reservoir than other in situ extraction processes. This is due to more efficient recovery from the sump (i.e. below the production well) and elimination of coker shrinkage
• Effective in more reservoirs - modest temperatures and pressures and robust economics enable thin and shallow zones to be economically attractive targets

Environmental Benefits

• Lower GHG intensity (11kg/bbl) than conventional oil production (20kg/bbl)
• No water consumption or contamination
• No coke waste by-product and no bitumen shrinkage in the upgrader
• No carcinogenic salt waste sent to municipal landfills
• Much smaller land use footprint than strip mining
• Saves valuable natural gas for more important uses like residential heating

Public Benefits

• Substantially higher royalties and more recoverable reserves equals an economic benefit 5 to 10 times higher than any other extraction technology. The incremental tax and royalty revenue has a substantially smaller environmental footprint.