Techbits: R&D Conference Examines Hydrocarbon Sustainability
Authors: Moon Ted 
Published: February 2015

Techbits

With global energy demand predicted to grow substantially in the next 30 years, 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 this year to discuss the R&D disciplines that would ensure hydrocarbons’ role as a major energy source in the coming decades. Major conference 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 manpower and resource shortages.

Fueling the Future

In the first session, leading scientists and economists framed the challenges that confront the industry in providing sufficient energy supplies for the global economy. John Barry, vice president, Unconventionals and Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) for Shell, discussed technology's vital role in extracting 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 in Arctic and ultradeepwater regions. Tapping this vast resource will require further investment in 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 impact of the global financial crisis 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 required to discover future reserves from increasingly challenging areas. Gerhard Thonhauser of TDE Thonhauser Data Engineering discussed drilling in extreme environments like 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. Developmental challenges include material compatibility with hostile downhole environments, hydraulics limitations, and poor wear and torsion resistance.