Pictures of the Future        Fall 2008

Report from Morning Star

Russia in 2020. Vasily is an engineer who manages a new type of oil sand production facility in Siberia at a location that is virtually isolated from the rest of the world. The facility is, however, very efficient and environmentally friendly. A visiting journalist is touring the installation to learn about its operations.

The world isn’t what it used to be, Vasily thinks to himself as he scowls and crushes a mosquito. He’s already been bitten 11 times today—the one he just crushed makes that 12, which is a lot, even for Siberia. The Siberian summer wasn’t any picnic ten years ago, when Vasily was sent into the wilderness by his company to extract oil from tar sands, but at least the swarms of mosquitoes that now plague the region didn’t exist back then. "It’s global warming," one of his colleagues remarked earlier that morning. "The higher temperatures soften the soil, which gives our little friends ideal conditions for breeding." One thing Vasily hates almost more than mosquitoes are visits from outsiders, which for him means anyone who is not part of his little world in the taiga. The worst such outsiders are company representatives, who come once or twice a year to the enclave with the splendid name of Morning Star to make sure everything is running smoothly. Vasily views such visits as unnecessary, because as the chief engineer he’s the one who built the extraction facility and the pipeline station, and he’s got everything under control, as he repeatedly informs his superiors in an annoyed tone of voice. Company executives have been patient with Vasily’s grumpy attitude because he’s produced outstanding results for them. For his part, Vasily tries to keep his contacts with the outside world to the necessary minimum, which isn’t that difficult given his isolated location. In this regard, Morning Star is a little like Sleeping Beauty: loved but somehow forgotten.

The company wants to change this, however. At Vasily’s urging, and because of ever-stricter environmental regulations, the firm introduced a new oil extraction method two years ago—one that is both highly effective and very environmentally friendly. This so-called induction technique was used commercially for the first time in 2015 in Canada, where it has proved itself many times over. Now the company wants the public to learn more about it and its success. "The journalist from St. Petersburg has landed," Vasily is informed by a voice from his radio. "Get over to the production facility and put a smile on your face—it’s a woman." This news puts Vasily in an even worse mood than before, as he has major problems dealing with fashion-conscious women from Russia’s glittering metropolis after his ten years in Siberia.

The journalist, whose name is Masha, looks with fascination at the test tube the grumpy facility manager has placed in her hand. Only a short time ago the viscous black substance in the tube was lying dormant beneath her feet, trapped in sand for millions of years. The bitumen is now sent via pipeline to a processing plant, where it is converted into pure petroleum. Later on it might be used to power a hybrid car in China, for example, if the vehicle’s electric motor happens to need a boost. Extracting oil from tar sands isn’t really all that unusual, Masha thinks to herself. After all, this type of oil production has become more common since the black gold from conventional sources started getting scarce. What catches her attention about the Morning Star facility, however, is how undamaged the landscape appears. There are none of the giant open pits or similar blights that oil sand extraction often leaves in its wake. The only things that indicate a human presence are a few buildings and transformer shacks, while in the distance a pipeline disappears into the vast taiga.

"The efficiency and environmental friendliness of the facility result from our new mining method," Vasily explains as he pulls a wafer-thin, foldable OLED display out of his pocket that depicts the details of the underground production system. "Look," he says. "Around 20 m under the ground below us is an  inductor that runs directly through the oil sand, and running right beneath the inductor cable is a drainage pipe. We send an inductive current into the field, which slowly heats up the sand. This causes the bitumen to separate from the sand grains and flow into the drainage pipe."

He points to a large blue nozzle sticking out of the ground about 100 m ahead. "That’s where the drain comes to the surface," he says. "A pump then sends the bitumen to our pipeline station, which gets a lot of work because our technique is very productive." Masha begins to write in her electronic notebook.

"How do you ensure the security of the pipeline?" she asks. Vasily scratches his chin. "Our control center at the edge of the forest has six screens that display all pipeline data in real time," he explains. "Wireless sensors mounted inside the pipeline every 100 m or so monitor the entire system. These sensors are self-organizing, use hardly any energy, and immediately pass on their readings to the next sensor in a chain that ends in our control room."

"Is that for detecting terrorists?" Masha asks. "Terrorists?" Vasily says with a smile. "We don’t get any troublemakers out here—except maybe some lovesick moose or a whacked-out bear every once in a while. But of course we’d notice immediately if someone tried to do something to the pipeline, because along with the usual parameters, such as pressure and temperature, our sensors can also register vibrations and digging and hammering sounds. Still, their main purpose is to detect tiny leaks."

"And how do you get the electricity you need out here in the middle of nowhere?" Masha asks. "We’ve got a small cogeneration plant that provides heat and most of our electricity," Vasily replies. "It’s not very demanding, and it will consume just about anything—like us." Masha gives Vasily a sly look. "And what do you do when a lovesick moose comes by?" "If it’s all right with you, I’d like to explain that to you over a cup of hot tea this evening," Vasily says with a smile.
                                                                                                                 Florian Martini