The project from Tourmaline Oil Corp. with consortium partners Precision Drilling Corporation and Caterpillar Inc. is a plug and play mobile natural gas generator and energy storage system for existing electricity-powered drilling rigs. The technology utilizes clean-burning natural gas, a smart energy management system, and storage of electricity that would otherwise be wasted. This high-efficiency system reduces GHG emissions and cost of drilling rig power generation while increasing the utilization of inactive Alberta drilling rigs. Tourmaline will commercially deploy this system at its various Precision Drilling rig sites in Alberta.
The system is projected to save 3,800 tonnes of CO2e emissions per rig per year. With the proposed commercialization plan Tourmaline estimates a reduction of 11.3 million tonnes of CO2e emissions by the end of 2050.
Tourmaline is Canada’s largest natural gas producer focused on long-term growth through an aggressive exploration, development, production and acquisition program in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.