Preliminary Technical Agenda

Tuesday, 18 May 2010

Panel Session

Session Managers: Roy Hartley, Jim Johnston, Stanislaw Nagy

It is often said that the North American experience will be difficult to transfer to Europe because of the ‘Regulation based’ system that prevails here. This session will investigate the issue: ‘What impact will European regulations and work practices have on our ability to transfer technology and develop the energy that Europe needs?”

Combined Unconventional Gas Session

Session Managers: Craig Cipolla, Carlo Lanzetta, Lukasz Ostrowski

Most areas of Europe lie within easy access of gas pipeline infrastructure. The development cost of unconventional gas onshore, in Europe will therefore largely be controlled by our ability to drill cost-effective wells. The questions to be addressed will be:

• What are the significant cost components of well construction? Are environmental costs as important as claimed? What percentage of well cost is controlled by stimulation, rig rate, casing, wellhead and tubulars, directional drilling, etc? Which are important and what can be done about them?
• Well architecture (number of casings, use of SSSV’s etc.), could a typical North American tight gas/shale gas well actually be drilled in Europe, looking at technical, regulatory and practical issues?
• Are horizontal wells with multiple fractures the technique of choice or is there a case for vertical stimulated wells? Is there a role for multilateral technology?
• Rotary Steerable Systems allow for fast and precise drilling but is the cost prohibitive?

Session I: Tight Gas

Session Managers: Josef Shaoul, Dan Paul Stefanescu, Zbigniew Ząbkiewicz

Tight gas is primarily an economic issue. Production and permeability guidelines are relative to technology development, well cost, stimulation cost and current gas price. As technology has developed, the permeability threshold in North America has changed from <0.1mD (1970s) to <0.01mD (1980s) to <0.001mD today. As a result, tight gas now makes a substantial contribution, perhaps 40%, to North American gas supply. The technologies that have allowed this are the ability to drill long horizontal wells, effective fracture stimulation and reservoir characterisation including developments in 3D seismic, special core analysis, electric log data, and diagenetic and structural analysis. As opposed to “shale gas”, tight gas production depends primarily on the matrix permeability, and does not require the creation of a huge fracture network for economic recovery to be achieved.

In Europe, the higher cost base and ready access to “cheap” imported gas means that tight gas development has been largely neglected, except in Germany where financial incentives for tight gas exist. There are signs that this is beginning to change. Tight gas developments are currently underway in the Rotliegendes and Carboniferous of Germany, offshore Holland and the UK, and efforts are being made to develop basin centred gas accumulations in the Pannonian Basin of Central Europe.

This session will address the issues of how, where and when technology and “best practices” largely developed in North America can be utilised in Europe to develop known tight gas resources.

Guided tour through the Wieliczka Salt Mine

The Wieliczka Salt Mine is located on the outskirts of Krakow. The mine had been in continuous operation producing table salt since the 13th century until 2007 when it became a major tourist attraction, with more than 1.2 million visitors per year.

The mine reaches a depth of 327 metres, is over 300 kilometres long and features a 3.5 kilometre touring route for visitors that includes historic statues and mythical figures, the oldest having been carved out of rock salt by miners, with more recent figures fashioned by contemporary artists. Even the crystals of the chandeliers are made from rock salt that has been dissolved and reconstituted to achieve a clear, glass-like appearance.

At the end of the tour, there is a large cathedral and reception room. Also featured is a large chamber with walls carved to resemble wooden chapels built by miners in earlier centuries, an underground lake and exhibits on the history of salt mining.

Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Session II: Shale Gas

Session Managers: Udo Bregar, Hans-Juergen Handler, Jerzy Rajtar

While Europe is in the early stages of exploration and production of shale gas, the remarkable success in developing shale gas plays in North America has encouraged geologists and engineers in a number of European countries to assess the productive potential of their own indigenous organic-rich shales. There are encouraging signs that the technological lessons learned in the North American plays can be applied to the shale gas potential in Europe. As the source rock for conventional natural gas deposits, shale gas plays represent a still untested and undeveloped resource potential for Europe. Though the technical risks are high, there is an opportunity to identify significant recoverable resources if the plays prove to be commercially viable. With this potential, the development of shale gas plays could be a step to strengthen Europe’s declining domestic gas supply.

The session covers aspects of geological and geophysical identification and evaluation, petro-physical and chemical characterization, drilling and completion, testing, stimulation and production optimization, field development, and environmental concerns. The impact of all these aspects on the overall asset economics of exploring and exploiting shale gas plays will be considered within the context of respecting local legal and political conditions.

Session III: Coal-Bed Methane (CBM)

Session Managers: Jozef Dubinski, Krzysztof Fugiel, Jurek Hadro, Jakub Siemek

Apart from North America, Australia, India and China, coal-bed methane (CBM) is a still emerging industry which has to answer the fundamental question: how to economically produce gas from mostly low permeability or under saturated coal-beds encountered in Europe. This session covers CBM data collection systems as well as CBM productivity and reserves estimates. All recent advanced technologies in CBM will be discussed; particularly ECBM combined with CO2 sequestration, horizontal drilling and recent fracture stimulation techniques. It will also present an integrated approach to exploration, development and production which should be introduced to ensure commerciality of CBM ventures.

Thursday, 20 May 2010

Session III: CBM continued

Workshop wrap-up and close

The session will conclude with a summary of the main lessons and conclusions of the workshop.

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