R&D Conference examines hydrocarbon sustainability

Global energy demand is predicted to grow substantially in the next 30 years, and the oil and gas industry will be expected to continue providing the lion's share of future supply. With a theme of "Fueling the Future," the 2009 SPE Research & Development (R&D) Conference investigated the new technologies and energy players required to meet the world's energy needs.

Nearly 100 attendees converged on Lisbon, Portugal earlier this year to discuss the R&D disciplines that would most likely ensure hydrocarbons' role as a major energy source in the coming decades. Major themes included: maximizing recoveries from known fields, discovering and exploiting new reserves, unlocking trapped energy molecules, solving water-management challenges, and increasing productivity in a time of shortages of people and resources.

Fueling the Future

The first session brought leading scientists and economists together to frame the challenges that lay before the industry in providing sufficient energy supplies for the global economy. John Barry, vice president, Unconventionals and Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) for Shell, discussed the need to tap technology to extract more hydrocarbons from increasingly challenging areas, while also keeping costs down and managing CO₂ emissions. He estimated that there are nearly 2 trillion barrels of challenging reserves in the form of heavy oil, oil and gas shales, and Arctic and ultradeepwater regions. Tapping this vast resource will require investment in further offshore satellite developments, power from renewable resources, more smart well completions, and new deepwater and Arctic rig technology.

Chief Economist Dave Larson with PFC Energy next reviewed the global financial crisis and its impact on the energy industry. He said that the industry is reeling from a triple blow of collapsing oil price, decline in hydrocarbon demand that may persist for years, and the drying up of new credit availability, all of which will hamper normal business financing and cause some E&P programs to be postponed or cancelled, which has already begun. In the long-term, Larson said that there is no fundamental change to the expected future supply/demand crunch and that this crisis may create growth opportunities, particularly for national oil companies (NOCs). "NOCs with strong balance sheets, solid cash positions, and low debt ratios will be well-positioned to emerge as major global players," he said.

Discovering Future Reserves

The second session reviewed the new seismic, remote-sensing, and drilling technologies that will be needed to discover future reserves from increasingly risky and environmentally sensitive areas. In one presentation, Gerhard Thonhauser of TDE Thonhauser Data Engineering discussed drilling in extreme environments, which include desert and Arctic regions, high-pressure and high-temperature reservoirs, and ultradeep geographic targets. He called for an industrywide step-change in drilling efficiency, which can be achieved by developing an ultralight drillstring concept to expand the drilling envelope, drilling more offshore targets from less expensive land-based operations, and by reaching deeper targets with existing rigs. Challenges to this development include material compatibility with hostile downhole environments, hydraulics limitations, and poor wear and torsion resistance.

Maximizing Ultimate Recoveries

The third session discussed new reservoir technologies with the potential to increase hydrocarbon recovery. "The focus was on new areas, such as the potential of nanotechnology to increase the illumination of reservoirs and to deliver improved methods to drain these reservoirs," said Session Cochair and Technical Adviser for ConocoPhillips, David Zornes. "We also focused on new applications of techniques such as in-situ combustion and on improved reservoir management processes."

Saudi Aramco's AbdulAziz Al-Kaabi first discussed his company's upstream challenges and solutions. Saudi Aramco has an extensive upstream research program consisting of 28 focus areas and 120 projects aimed at improving recovery efforts to produce Saudi Arabia's estimated 370 billion barrels of remaining oil reserves. Al-Kaabi emphasized research in cross-well electrotomography, drilling the first slimhole using an MWD NMR tool, expanding EOR technologies, and CO₂ capture and injection. He also highlighted a feasibility study for using nanotechnology to improve recovery, with long-term plans including smart water to change salinity and mobility, employing so-called "Resbots" for governing the use of nanoparticles in cores, and conducting high-resolution reservoir simulations.

Ayusman Sen, professor of Chemistry at the Pennsylvania State University, and Emmanuel Gianelis, professor of Materials Science & Engineering with Cornell University, separately discussed nanotechnology developments aimed at increasing recovery. Sen's research on nanorobot development and control has investigated nanoparticle movement via electrocatalysis and cargo loading for transport (placing surfactants or polymers inside nanoparticles). Sen said that a major achievement to date has been the ability to control nanoparticle movement by applying electrical or magnetic fields. Gianelis' research focuses on nanoparticle ionic materials as potential additives in oil and gas production. Citing their unique interfacial properties as improving miscibility and dispersion for greater reservoir sweep efficiencies, Gianelis said that these materials can positively impact rheology of water floods for better crude oil displacement, alter wettability, and act as capture media for carbon capture and sequestration projects.

Next-generation surfactant technology aimed at enhancing oil recovery was next reviewed by George Hirosaki, professor of Chemical Engineering with Rice University. "Advances in blending surfactants as a result of work done by Rice and the University of Texas have given a wider salinity range for recovering oil in a single phase region," Hirosaki said. Other research projects include using an alkaline surfactant polymer system to improve recovery performance, and more effectively combining surfactants with air injection to produce foams for mobility control.

Gordon Moore, professor of Chemical Engineering with the University of Calgary, discussed light-oil air injection and in-situ combustion techniques for increasing production. High pore-scale displacement efficiencies, reduced water requirement compared to steam-injection processes, and the applicability to a wide range of reservoirs and fluid characteristics are the advantages of these methods. Moore also noted the importance of safety and advocated using synthetic lubricants rather than hydrocarbon lubricants to avoid fire risks and using two compressors to ensure uninterrupted air injection to avoid injector damage caused by near-wellbore backflow in early stages of injection.

Unlocking Alternative Sources

This session provided an in-depth survey of the current state of research in developing third-generation biofuels. The potential of commercial biofuel cells for energy generation was discussed, centering on the research activities at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa in Portugal. A large-scale project is underway to generate electricity from Rhodoferax bacteria from oil rigs using low cost electrode materials. The bacteria is genetically engineered to self-replicate, and will be left outside for one year in Lisbon with no maintenance. Within two years, researchers aim to generate 30% of a regular household's electricity with this biofuel cell. They are currently looking for research partners and sponsors, and can be contacted at yannastier@itqb.unl.pt.

Clemens Posten of the Universität Karlsruhe in Germany next discussed large-scale microalgae production for energy use. Posten said that the photoconversion efficiency (PCE) of microalgae is 5 times greater than that for sugar cane, and several production options exist, including open ponds and closed photobioreactors. While closed reactors provide higher PCEs with no evaporation or competition for food production, many current designs are too expensive to be economically viable (Posten said reactors should be cheaper than €30/m²) or require too much energy input. He said that the most efficient current method couples microalgae production to a biogas production facility and uses generated CO₂, ammonia, and phosphates as a food source.

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