Panel Sessions
Panel 1: Deep Gas Supply & Demand, Economics & Pricing
It is ironic that the Arabian Gulf, which contains two thirds of the world’s proven oil reserves and is the epicentre of the energy business, faces a regular gas shortage, possibly as high as 10 billion cubic feet in the next decade. The region faces increasing demand for natural gas from the rapidly growing population and new petrochemical and industrial projects.
Natural gas is a vitally important source of energy for all sectors of the economy in this region. Maintaining an adequate supply of this important resource is thus extremely important to preserving and improving our quality of life. While Qatar and Iran have some of the world’s largest gas reserves, international and regional politics preclude Iran from emerging as a significant gas supplier to the region. Only Qatar among the GCC states has the scale of reserves, production and infrastructure to ignore gas supply constraints in industrial production. However, Qatar cannot supply the sheer magnitude of the gas demand that will arise from the Gulf’s power generation, aluminium smelting, water desalination, petrochemicals and iron ore industries.
The region has vast resources of natural gas available for extraction. Finding gas isn't necessarily the problem. According to industry sources, more than half of the gas exploratory wells drilled so far encountered some form of hydrocarbons. But most were in deep, tight reservoirs or contained high pressure and dangerous levels of hydrogen sulfide. Furthermore, the mandatory government low sales price won't make it economic to develop the difficult plays.
Economically producing gas from deep tight gas reservoirs is the next level of the economical recovery challenge. The volume and long-term potential of deep tight gas resources are driving technical progress. There could be much more natural gas than previously known in areas where industry has been unable to fully explore, and new technologies allow us to access resources previously thought unreachable. Increasing demand and improved deep tight gas technologies promise to bring deep gas into the forefront of our future gas resources.
Deep gas has, in recent years, become more conventional. Deep drilling, exploration, and extraction techniques have substantially improved, making drilling for deep gas economical. However, deep gas is still more expensive to produce than conventional natural gas, and as such, economic conditions have to be such that it is profitable for the industry to extract from these sources.
Panel 2: Deep Gas Geology & Geophysics
Exploring for and developing deep gas reservoirs in certain parts of the world has become common place as the quest for reserves extends beyond shallower horizions. The definition of ‘deep’ varies from basin to basin; and from province to province but typically (generally) it can be assumed that ‘deep’ also implies high pressure, higher temperature, difficult to image on seismic and more expensive to drill.
Often ‘deep’ also implies unexplored and thus high risk; and therefore geological and geophysical methods need to be improved quickly in order to de-risk exploration targets but also in focusing reservoir appraisal strategies so that before a commitment can be made to develop, a fuller understanding of reservoir uncertainty can be arrived at.
This panel session will aim to highlight the specific challenges in imaging deep structures in the Gulf Region below the Khuff and also discuss how reservoirs can be appraised and described in order to reduce risk.
Panel 3: Deep Gas Drilling, Production and Stimulations
The panel discussion addressing the topic of Deep Gas Drilling, Production, and stimulation will feature industry leading panelists from operating and service companies who will provide a globally diverse view on Deep Gas development. This panel discussion will highlight current challenges encountered while drilling Deep Gas Wells along with innovative solutions to address these challenges. The panel will also discuss some of the production issues in tight gas and how stimulation strategies can be used to maximize production. Finally the panel will set the stage for the session on Deep Gas Drilling, Production, and Stimulation by providing examples which some of the papers presented in the succeeding session will address in further detail.
