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| Advances in the Exploration and Production |
| Technological innovation in the exploration and production sector has equipped the industry with the equipment and practices necessary to continually increase the production of natural gas to meet rising demand. These technologies serve to make the exploration and production of natural gas more efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly. Despite the fact that natural gas deposits are continually being found deeper in the ground, in remote, inhospitable areas that provide a challenging environment in which to produce natural gas, the exploration and production industry has not only kept up its production pace, but in fact has improved the general nature of its operations. Some highlights of technological development in the exploration and production sector include: |
- 22,000 fewer wells are needed on an annual basis to develop the same amount of oil and gas reserves as were developed in 1985.
- Had technology remained constant since 1985, it would take two wells to produce the same amount of oil and natural gas as one 1985 well. However, advances in technology mean that one well today can produce two times as much as a single 1985 well.
- Drilling wastes have decreased by as much as 148 million barrels due to increased well productivity and fewer wells.
- The drilling footprint of well pads has decreased by as much as 70 percent due to advanced drilling technology, which is extremely useful for drilling in sensitive areas.
- By using modular drilling rigs and slimhole drilling, the size and weight of drilling rigs can be reduced by up to 75 percent over traditional drilling rigs, reducing their surface impact.
- Had technology, and thus drilling footprints, remained at 1985 levels, today's drilling footprints would take up an additional 17,000 acres of land.
- New exploration techniques and vibrational sources mean less reliance on explosives, reducing the impact of exploration on the environment.
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Some of the major recent technological innovations in the exploration and production sector include:
3-D and 4-D Seismic Imaging - The development of seismic imaging in three dimensions greatly changed the nature of natural gas exploration. This technology uses traditional seismic imaging techniques, combined with powerful computers and processors, to create a three-dimensional model of the subsurface layers. 4-D seismology expands on this, by adding time as a dimension, allowing exploration teams to observe how subsurface characteristics change over time. Exploration teams can now identify natural gas prospects more easily, place wells more effectively, reduce the number of dry holes drilled, reduce drilling costs, and cut exploration time. This leads to both economic and environmental benefits. |
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| CO2-Sand Fracturing - Fracturing techniques have been used since the 1970s to help increase the flow rate of natural gas and oil from underground formations. CO2-Sand fracturing involves using a mixture of sand propellants and liquid CO2 to fracture formations, creating and enlarging cracks through which oil and natural gas may flow more freely. The CO2 then vaporizes, leaving only sand in the formation, holding the newly enlarged cracks open. Because there are no other substances used in this type of fracturing, there are no 'leftovers' from the fracturing process that must be removed. This means that, while this type of fracturing effectively opens the formation and allows for increased recovery of oil and natural gas, it does not damage the deposit, generates no below ground wastes, and protects groundwater resources. |
| Coiled Tubing - Coiled tubing technologies replace the traditional rigid, jointed drill pipe with a long, flexible coiled pipe string. This greatly reduces the cost of drilling, as well as providing a smaller drilling footprint, requiring less drilling mud, faster rig set up, and reducing the time normally needed to make drill pipe connections. Coiled tubing can also be used in combination with slimhole drilling to provide very economic drilling conditions, and less impact on the environment. |
| Measurement While Drilling - Measurement-While-Drilling (MWD) systems allow for the collection of data from the bottom of a well as it is being drilled. This allows engineers and drilling teams access to up to the second information on the exact nature of the rock formations being encountered by the drill bit. This improves drilling efficiency and accuracy in the drilling process, allows better formation evaluation as the drill bit encounters the underground formation, and reduces the chance of formation damage and blowouts. |
| Slimhole Drilling - Slimhole drilling is exactly as it sounds; drilling a slimmer hole in the ground to get to natural gas and oil deposits. In order to be considered slimhole drilling, at least 90 percent of a well must be drilled with a drill bit less than six inches in diameter (whereas conventional wells typically use drill bits as large as 12.25 inches in diameter). Slimhole drilling can significantly improve the efficiency of drilling operations, as well as decrease its environmental impact. In fact, shorter drilling times and smaller drilling crews can translate into a 50 percent reduction in drilling costs, while reducing the drilling footprint by as much as 75 percent. Because of its low cost profile and reduced environmental impact, slimhole drilling provides a method of economically drilling exploratory wells in new areas, drilling deeper wells in existing fields, and providing an efficient means for extracting more natural gas and oil from undepleted fields. |
| The above technological advancements provide only a snapshot of the increasingly sophisticated technology being developed and put into practice in the exploration and production of natural gas and oil. New technologies and applications are being developed constantly, and serve to improve the economics of producing natural gas, allow for the production of deposits formerly considered too unconventional or uneconomic to develop, and ensure that the supply of natural gas keeps up with steadily increasing demand. Sufficient domestic natural gas resources exist to help fuel the U.S. for a significant period of time, and technology is playing a huge role in providing low-cost, environmentally sound methods of extracting these resources. |
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| New Drilling Technology |
| Technology developed under another DOE-funded project is expected to add 13 million barrels of incremental oil production in a portion of the Wilmington oilfield, a 73-year-old giant field in Long Beach, CA. If the innovative techniques developed under the project are applied field-wide, it could result in boosting Wilmington’s ultimate oil recovery by 525 million barrels of oil, effectively doubling the field’s remaining proved reserves. This technology could boost reserves in similar fields along the California coast by 1.4 billion barrels of oil. The City of Long Beach is a direct beneficiary of the results of the project; it effectively converted an environmental subsidence issue into a major revenue stream for the City. |
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| Stripper Well Consortium This Consortium, supported with DOE funds, has provided over 100 small oil and gas producers with the opportunity to participate in technology development. The 5-year-old program has already yielded commercial technologies that are improving performance in nearly 1000 of the marginal oil and gas wells that provide 7% of domestic gas and 15% of domestic oil production. Examples include two new pump designs, an improved chemical injector, and a flow device that helps in the removal of water from low-pressure gas wells. The Consortium’s research is a perfect example of a successful collaborative effort among DOE, academia, and industry. |
| Technology Transfer to Independents In addition to the Stripper Well Consortium, DOE directly impacts the small producer by funding an active technology transfer program in association with the Petroleum Technology Transfer Council (www.pttc.org). In addition to an in-depth web-based information system, PTTC currently hosts nearly 150 regional events each year drawing about 6,000 participants, and further leverage is obtained by posting workshop summaries online. |
| Technology Breakthroughs Advanced Drill Bits – Polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) drill bits—now one third of the market—is a technology that was given a jump-start by DOE-funded research in the 1980s. This collaborative effort continues, and a new bit with high-strength diamond cutters completed field-testing and development last year. This bit has the potential to significantly reduce the cost (through increased bit life and improved rate of penetration) of reaching deep, tight gas reservoirs. |
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| High-resolution downhole imaging A major new advance in seismic technology developed under a DOE project has made a significant contribution to reducing the oil and gas industry’s exploration and development risk. Paulsson Geophysical Services has fabricated a 400-level downhole receiver array for high-resolution seismic imaging of oil and gas reservoirs. The receiver array is deployed on standard production tubing or drill pipe, and when combined with a multi-component seismic-signal source, can record 9 components of seismic energy; five times the recording capability of current state-of-the-art borehole seismic equipment. This new technology improves image resolution up to 10 times over what was possible with standard three-dimensional seismic recording systems, allowing the resolution of features as thin as 4 feet. This added level of reservoir detail has already decreased the number of dry holes being drilled in fields in Alaska and Texas. |
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With funding from DOE, Advanced Composite Products & Technology (ACPT) has developed a flexible drill pipe made from carbon fiber composites that will enable drillers to utilize existing well bores to reach and produce bypassed oil and gas resources without the cost and environmental impact of drilling new wells. The flexible composite pipe can be used to drill high-angle lateral holes without suffering the fatigue damage that leads to costly pipe |
| failures with steel pipe. ACPT has received orders for over 2,000 feet of pipe and is currently working on the development of a larger-diameter version that will contain a conductor within the body of the pipe for relaying real-time downhole data. |
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| Areas of Growth in Oil & Gas: A Trend in New Technology |
| Intellipipe Novatek and Grant Prideco have completed development of a “smart” drill pipe (IntellipipeTM) that will enable operators to monitor downhole conditions in real time, providing significant improvements in safety and drilling efficiency. |
| A new commercialization company has been formed that expects to employ over 1,000 workers. This technology, developed with DOE funding, opens the door for an entire new suite of downhole tools that could revolutionize the way industry drills for oil and gas. |
| Today’s Research for Tomorrow’s Energy Success Stories - Methane Hydrates - From 1983 to 1992, DOE’s modest program in methane hydrates (in collaboration with the USGS) served to establish a basic foundation in hydrate science and established the vast scale of the domestic hydrate in-place resource. A renewed program begun in 2000 is unique in its degree of interagency and international collaboration, and continues to make significant progress. One pivotal event was the collaboration in 2002 with the Japanese and the Canadians to test and model a hydrate reservoir at the Mallik site in northern Canada. This work confirmed the recoverability of methane from hydrate and indicated that depressurization (similar to coal-bed methane production) was an effective route to commercial production. Subsequently, the program has funded work that has resulted in the first remote detection of drillable hydrate resources, the first dedicated hydrate reservoir simulators, and the first North American discovery and sampling of hydrate-saturated sands in the marine environment. A network of specialized hydrate simulation and analysis facilities established at DOE’s National labs are routinely revealing data on hydrates that are critical to accurate evaluation of field results and reservoir and economic modeling. |
Gas-to-liquid – What to do about all the natural gas that accompanies oil in remote regions? Gas, after all, is an incredibly useful material that contains lighter hydrocarbons like methane. But gas is also expensive to ship by ship, and big steel pipelines cost a bundle. Now to the rescue comes a technology pioneered to supply Hitler's Luftwaffe, converting natural gas to a liquid fuel. It's been talked about for so long that some people think it's like turning lead into gold. The problem is efficiency. Most processes need high temperatures. To the rescue come catalysts, chemicals that help other chemical reactions occur without getting consumed in the process. |
There are signs that gas-to-liquid could be ready for prime time. A pilot plant has begun operation in Bellingham, Wash. More ambitiously, Chevron and Sasol, a firm in South Africa that once tried to convert coal into oil, are collaborating on a $1-billion plant for Nigeria. The technology could be used to convert gas that's now burned off at oil wells into a usable fuel. In a larger sense, it could convert isolated, or "stranded," gas into a usable product. If you found a huge gas field in the South China Sea, it might not justify building a billion-dollar pipeline to transport it. And if it's not economical, the gas is just not there. If gas-to-liquid works, however, a ship housing the conversion machinery could tread water above the wells, feeding tankers that would haul the fuel to market. |
| Similarly, a large amount of gas remains on the North Slope of Alaska as well as in the Lafayette Shale in Arkansas, without any way to get it to market. If you could turn it into liquid, you could put it into the pipeline. |
| Deep Trek Program The goal of the DOE/NETL Deep Trek program is to develop an integrated deep drilling and deep imaging system that will lower the cost and improve the efficiency of drilling and completing deep wells. Although less than 1% of all wells drilled in the United States have penetrated below 15,000 feet, deep reservoirs account for more than 7 percent of domestic production, a share that will need to grow to 12 percent by 2010 to meet America’s growing demand for natural gas. But development of deep resources is limited because drilling systems cannot withstand the extremely high temperature and pressure conditions, resulting in an exponential increase in drilling costs. The Deep Trek Program is developing the building blocks needed to change this. For example, Honeywell International is developing four electronic downhole components—identified by industry as those most needed—that will operate at 400-450° F. Three other projects are developing key elements of an advanced suite of drilling and diagnostic tools for deep wells. These include tools for evaluating formations in real time, a microprocessor to provide real-time processing of downhole measurements and control downhole equipment, and a downhole power source. These and other Program technologies will lead to more efficient and safer recovery of an additional 100 trillion cubic feet of deep-formation gas through 2020. |
Microhole Technologies Program Developing marginal oil and gas resources and reducing exploration risk is the focus of one of NETL’s youngest programs. Less than three years old, the Microhole Technologies Program already boasts a significant success: the launch of a 1 trillion cubic feet shallow gas play in Kansas and Colorado. A DOE field demonstration of a hybrid coiled-tubing drilling rig proved the feasibility of economically developing this hitherto marginal gas play with low-cost, ultra-small-diameter wells while simultaneously reducing environmental impact. This point factored into the project operator’s nomination as Operator of the Year by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Initial successes in low-cost drilling and subsurface imaging technologies—with some already in the early stages of commercialization—suggest a new paradigm for oil and gas exploration and how American oil and gas wells can be drilled economically with minimal environmental impact. |
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