Laricina reports pretty good production numbers from wells in its Saleski property. This is a pretty big deal because it's from a carbonate formation - the Grosmont. All commercial oil sands projects currently produce bitumen from sandstone, or clastic, formations. If Laricina (and its heroically named partner, Osum) can demonstrate oil sand production from carbonates is feasible, it would mean a huge amount of resources so far considered unrecoverable would be... recoverable.
One of the tests took place in March and April. The 52 day average rate was 445 barrels per day. In November and December 2011 a well in the zone (whether it's the same well is not clear) averaged 511 barrels per day over 27 days. Although that's good, you should keep in mind that good clastic SAGD wells can produce between 1000 and 2000 barrels per day for years on end. The story also conspicuously leaves out mention of how much steam was required to recover oil at that rate. Regardless of the rate, a high SOR could sink the economics.
If you're interested in production from carbonates, Laricina has a substantial library of technical documents on the process. They tend to be
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