Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology
As of January 2016, the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology is no longer being published. From 1962 to 2015, JCPT provided readers with high-quality, peer-reviewed research related to the production challenges of Canada. The complete archive of JCPT issues will continue to be offered here.
Petroleum Society's Tech Bank
The Petroleum Society of Canada’s Tech Bank of nearly 5,500 papers has been moved to OnePetro.org the multi-society online library administered by SPE. The Tech Bank is no longer accessible.
A Historical Look at the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology
Journal of record for Canada’s petroleum technology industry ceases publication after 54 years
By Leah Miller Guindon, SPE staff editor
As of January 2016, the Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology (JCPT) is no longer being published. From 1962 to 2015, JCPT provided readers with high-quality, peer-reviewed research related to the production challenges of Canada.
JCPT focused on heavy oil and oil-sands technology, thermal recovery techniques, unconventional gas supplies, optimization techniques, increasing recovery from older basins, and other technologies designed for the production challenges of Canada. Most of these technologies have worldwide applications as well.
At the SPE international board meeting held in the fall of 2015, the Board of Directors voted to approve the suspension the publication for 2 years before revisiting whether or not to relaunch the journal. Effective January 2016, the decision was made as a result of low paper submissions, declining subscriptions, low advertising revenue, and the ongoing industry downturn.
The longevity of this respected journal will not go unforgotten. Many respected experts in the industry still hold the journal in high regard, and are keen on having the journal resurrected following a 2-year hiatus in 2017.
“It should be back as a special and the oldest SPE publication—older than SPE Journal!” said Tayfun Babadagli, professor of petroleum engineering and NSERC Industrial Research Chair in Unconventional Oil Recovery at the University of Alberta. “It is an almost specialized journal (heavy-oil) and has a tradition. Although it sounds a local journal, it is recognized worldwide after approximately 60 years of history. I am sure it survives even under current circumstances. SPE should give more attention to revive it rather than shutting it down.”
One of the most important factors of JCPT was placed upon its content relevance as a result of peer review, which is the process of ensuring the articles JCPT published met the accepted standards of the oil and gas discipline. Countless volunteer executive editors, technical editors, and associate editors dedicated immeasurable hours to ensure the final product was of upmost quality.
“It has been a great facilitator and contributor to the technology development that has enabled and armed our industry with knowledge to contribute to its current levels of output,” said Subodh Gupta, Chief, Research & Development, Oil Sands at Cenovus Energy Incorporated. “It also has been a great vehicle to invite technical contributions relevant to our industry from not just North America but other parts of the world.”
Throughout the years, JCPT was privileged to have some of the most esteemed and respected names in the industry grace its pages. Some of the most memorable papers include those from the Transactions of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers, Incorporated (AIME) (e.g., technological advances put forth by the likes of A. F. van Everdingen and Handy 1960, who first discussed fluid flow in porous media) as well as integral papers on steam injection (Ramey 1967; Ramey et al. 1969) and in the field of thermal in-situ oil recovery.
“There have been many articles that have shaped today's technology,” said consultant and former JCPT Editorial Review Board member and editor Karl Miller. “The articles on heavy-oil combustion theory by the University of Calgary (Moore et al. 1988) have shaped that technology. Several articles on post-cold production technology also helped shape today's technology.”
Roger Butler’s original SAGD paper describing steam assisted gravity drainage was the first analytical solution able to predict oil production rate (Butler and Stephens 1981) and its significance is notable given how many times the paper has been referenced in further industry research. Neil Edmunds’ pioneering work on the commercial exploitation of an emerging heavy oil reservoir in Alberta, the Grosmont carbonates, was widely regaled and first published in JCPT.
Former JCPT Executive Editor Gokhan Coskuner said that the journal was significant to Canada’s petroleum engineering by focusing on common Canadian issues and providing solutions that are fit for the country’s oil fields in particular.
“JCPT disseminated excellent Canadian petroleum engineering technology at all levels,” said former JCPT Executive Editor Roberto Aguilera. “For a very long time there were no barriers as to the topics that would be considered for publication in JCPT following peer review. As a result papers dealing with geoscience, petrophysics, drilling, completions, well testing, oil sands, heavy oil, air injection, all types of flooding, economics, and many other topics were published in JCPT.”
The longtime University of Calgary Schulich School of Engineering professor said that sharing JCPT papers at lectures with his undergraduate and graduate students has been an important part of his academic activities.
“I hear this is true at many other Universities not only in Canada but throughout the world.”
Despite the suspension, former authors and editors emphasize the importance of the journal.
Aguilera added that in his opinion, JCPT is truly an outstanding journal with lots of information to help training petroleum engineers.
“My hope and the hope of many engineers and students that have approached me in this topic is that we will again see the JCPT in the not very distant future for the benefit of all those involved in this industry and the public at large,” said Aguilera.
“JCPT was very significant to development and growth of Canada's petroleum engineering effort, as it provided a dependable and accessible source of information on topics ranging from new theories to field project updates,” added Miller.
The complete archive of JCPT issues will continue to be offered here. The majority of hard copy issues can be viewed at the University of Calgary High Density Library, and available upon request via the University. SPE also maintains a physical archive of most editions at the SPE Richardson office.
References
Butler, R. M. and Stephens, D. J. 1981. The Gravity Drainage of Steam-heated Heavy Oil to Parallel Horizontal Wells. J Pet Technol 20 (2), 90–96. PETSOC-81-02-07. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/81-02-07.
Edmunds, N. and Gittins, S. D. 1993. Effective Application of Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage of Bitumen to Long Horizontal Well Pairs. J Can Pet Technol 32 (6): PETSOC-93-06-05. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/93-06-05.
Handy, L.L. 1960 Determination of Effective Capillary Pressures for Porous Media From Imbibition Data; American Institute of Mechanical Engineers Transactions, Vol. 219: 75-80.
Moore, R. G., Bennion, D. W., Ursenbach, M. et al. 1988. Experimental Basis for Extending the Oil Recoveryivolume Burned Method to Wet and Superwet Combustion. J Can Pet Technol 27 (06): 24–32. PETSOC-88-06-01. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/88-06-01.
Ramey Jr., H. J. A. (1967). “Current Review of Oil Recovery by Steam Injection.” SPE 12247. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/2739-MS.
Ramey Jr., Henry J. (1969). “A Current Look at Thermal Recovery.” SPE 2739‐MS. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/2739-MS.
van Everdingen, A.F. and Hurst, W. The Application of the Laplace Transformation to Flow Problems in Reservoirs; AIME Transactions, Vol. 186, p. 305-324, 1949. http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/949305-G.