David Hills, P.Geo.
Just like the comic book superheroes he enjoys watching on the big screen, professional geoscientist David Hills has his own special superpower.
X-ray vision.
He isn’t shooting electromagnetic laser beams from his eyes, though.
By interpreting geological data—information gathered from underground core samples and well logs, for example—he peers through layers of soil and rock to accurately envision what the Earth looks like hundreds of metres beneath our feet. With this ability, he can build 3-D computer models—or “Minecraft-esque, Lego-block models,” as he jokingly calls them—that show subsurface characteristics in vivid detail.
“Mapping subsurface geology is a bit of an art form,” explains Hills, who dabbles in portraiture, digital illustration, and landscape photography when he’s not unravelling subterranean mysteries.
“You need creativity and inventiveness to bring a model to life. You need a little bit of an imagination to fill in the gaps. But it’s all bound by the science of geology.”
BREAKING NEW GROUND
Hills, and his colleagues at Calgary-based Enhance Energy, used geological modelling to successfully design Alberta’s first fully integrated and large-scale carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) project.
The project captures carbon dioxide emissions—which would otherwise be vented into the atmosphere—and pumps them 1,800 metres below ground into depleted oil reservoirs. The liquified CO₂ pushes out previously unrecoverable oil while remaining trapped underground.
“The modelling we did at the start of the project helped us predict what would happen when we inject the CO₂—where the pore spaces are, how they’re connected, and what path the CO₂ will take,” he explains.
“We’re sequestering the CO₂ forever while using it to revive mature oil fields and produce low-carbon energy. Essentially, we’re turning a waste product into a resource.”
No other crude oil produced in the world has a lower environmental impact than the oil recovered from the Clive oil field in Central Alberta.
Industrial emissions produced by the North West Redwater Sturgeon Refinery and the Nutrien fertilizer plant near Fort Saskatchewan supply the CO₂ for the project. It flows along the newly built, 240-kilometre Alberta Carbon Trunk Line—the world’s longest CO₂ pipeline, owned and operated by Wolf Midstream—and is injected into the Clive field.
This technology can recover an estimated extra one billion barrels of oil from fields within the trunk line catchment basin over the next 25 to 30 years.
BUILDING A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
Since the $1.2-billion CCUS project came online in June 2020, it has captured and permanently stored more than one million tonnes of CO₂, or about 4,000 tonnes a day. At full capacity, it can store up 14.6 million tonnes of CO₂ per year.
That’s equivalent to removing 2.6 million cars from the road.
“We’re putting the carbon back where it came from and helping Alberta reduce its carbon footprint,” says Hills. “We’re proving this technology works, that it’s economically viable and sustainable. It’s a real solution that industry can use today to lower greenhouse gas emissions and meet carbon reduction mandates.”
While Enhance Energy works on expansion plans, the provincial and federal governments, which helped fund the Clive project, investigate other CCUS options for Alberta.
“I’m hoping not just for Enhance, but for the whole oil industry, that we’re going to see a bit of a revolution with CCUS,” he notes.
PROTECTING PUBLIC SAFETY
Hills joined the Enhance Energy team six years ago, leaving behind a secure job with a major oil corporation for an exciting opportunity at a small, fledgling company with a big dream.
“I realized early on this is probably the most important project I’ll ever do in my career, and the most visible. Everybody is watching.”
Hills, and the engineers he worked with on the CCUS project, are licensed by APEGA, which regulates geoscience and engineering in Alberta. As self-regulated professionals, Hills and his colleagues must meet various professional, technical, ethical, and educational standards. They take the obligation very seriously.
“As professionals, we put safety above all else. There is a level of skill and professionalism we’re expected to perform at, and we could never have completed this project without everybody being at that level,” says Hills. “The public can have confidence in the work we do—that when we inject CO₂ into these wells, it will stay exactly where it should.”
Still, it’s not enough to just tell the public CCUS technology is safe, he adds.
“This is the first project of its kind. We need to show very clearly to the public what we’re doing, to be transparent and open about the measures we’ve put in place to protect public safety. The public are trusting us to be at the top of our game.”
BLAST FROM THE PAST
Growing up in London, England, Hills first discovered the marvels of geology on field trips to seaside beaches, where he scoured the shoreline for ammonite fossils. One of his favourite spots was the Jurassic Coast on the English Channel, where dramatic cliffs expose 185 million years of geologic history.
After earning a geology degree from Southampton University, Hills jumped across the pond to undertake a master’s in carbonate sedimentology at the University of Alberta. He later moved to Calgary to further his career, specializing in carbonate geology.
“The thing I love, the day-to-day work of being a geoscientist, is exploring and understanding the ancient environments that have created our natural resources,” he says. “It’s a detective story that I get to do on a daily basis.”
And there’s still plenty of geological mysteries left to solve.
“It’s one of those sciences where no one is ever going to know everything about it. There’s always going to be something new and interesting to find.”
If he could add one more superhero power to his geoscience arsenal, it would be time travelling. Having the ability to witness the Earth’s evolution across the ages would certainly help answer a lot of those unresolved questions.
“I bet most geoscientists would want to time travel!”