The University of Calgary has announced plans to use engineering students to search for oil or gas deposits on a small patch of land it owns in Spring Coulee, an oil-rich area near the American border.
Two questions still linger around the discovery: How did the university come to own the land (the paper trail leading to the previous owner seems to have vanished), and, more pressingly, is the land worth anything?
“There is a producing oil well nearby, so we too could have some black gold,” said Rob Steward, a geoscience professor at U of C.
If the land proves to have sufficient oil reserves to merit mining, U of C will most likely bring in an established oil company such as Trican or Shell, with which it has close relations, for the extraction process. This would not be a first for the university as it already receives money from oil production on land it has leased out.
Either way, the land will allow U of C students to try oil prospecting with the university’s newest gadgets. Last month, in surveying the land to assess resources, students got to test the university’s new seismic vibrator truck.
“This is a great treasure hunt that is going to provide real-world experience that might even result in a new source of revenue for the university,” said Stewart. “We are in the remarkable position of being able to do a lot of the exploration work ourselves, which is a wonderful way for everybody to learn. The data we acquired is a treasure trove of information that students are analyzing in class.”
The two patches of land, five square kilometres in total, will be the site of summer field courses organized by the geoscience department. Gathered data will be further analyzed by students from the Schulich School of Engineering, home to the new Trican Petroleum Engineering Laboratories. The new lab gives students access to equipment similar to that used by the oil industry.
The project is expected to expand and include students from the Haskayne School of Business and the environmental sciences department. “I think this is a real motivating opportunity for students, who can be involved in every step of the oil and gas development process,” said Dave Eaton, head of the geoscience department.
Steward expressed interest in using the potential revenue stream, which could be significant for U of C, to create new scholarships. The money could also be used to reduce the school’s tuition, one of the highest in the country and the object of lobbying efforts by U of C’s student union.
With increasing environmental concerns about Alberta’s oil sands development, U of C’s new land will also serve as a testing ground for the university’s commitment to reduce its impact on the environment.
