Putting our investment under the microscope

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In 2010, Encana committed the largest private donation to the University of Wyoming's (UW) School of Energy Resources, a cutting-edge research and collaboration facility; and our commitment of $5 million was matched by the State of Wyoming. We also gifted $2 million to UW for three engineering research laboratories.

The rewards of this investment became evident in January 2012 with the installation at UW of the most advanced high-resolution 3D X-ray microscope available. The institution became the first university in the world to put this tool in the hands of faculty and researchers to increase their understanding of underground oil and natural gas reservoirs.

Installed in a laboratory named for Encana, the custom-designed equipment will enable researchers to obtain ultra-high resolution micro-images of porous media. Once scanned, these 3D maps of pore space can be used to accurately characterize and model flow and fluid occupancy in reservoir rocks relevant to subsurface reservoirs, which can contain oil and gas.

Read more about the University of Wyoming's planned energy research with this cutting-edge instrument.