Grand Challenges for the Oil and Gas Industry for the Next Decade and Beyond
Authors: Halsey Thomas , Agrawal Gaurav , Bailey Jeffrey R. , Balhoff Matthew , Borglum Scyller , Mohanty Kishore K. , Traver Michael T. 
Published: August 2023

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The oil and gas industry faces a rapidly changing world of multiple challenges and opportunities, especially with growing climate and sustainability concerns. About a decade ago, SPE conducted a series of workshops to define the grand challenges in technology and R&D for the upstream oil and gas industry for the following decade. It identified 5 + 1 grand challenges (Table 1).

To define the set of grand challenges for the next decade, in a much more unpredictable environment, we held an SPE workshop in Austin, Texas, in January 2023. Panelists from IOCs, NOCs, and service companies, as well as environmental and financial stakeholders in the emerging energy system, surveyed the rapidly changing energy landscape. The workshop then facilitated sessions of the more than 120 thought leader participants to define grand challenges that are impactful for society and our industry and have a significant R&D/technology component that is aligned with the capabilities of the SPE membership.

We arrived at a list of five technical grand challenges: improved recovery from tight/shale resources, net-zero operations, carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), geothermal energy, and digital transformation. Additionally, we identified a sixth “bonus” nontechnical challenge—education and advocacy, since we believe that more effective engagement with thought leaders outside our industry will be required to advance and deploy new technologies in all five of these areas. Table 2 summarizes the technical challenges and their impacts.

We believe that this work will help the industry focus its R&D and technology efforts on the highest-value activities for both industry and society. We now summarize each of these new grand challenges.

Improved Recovery From Tight/Shale Resources

Notwithstanding the rapid growth of non-hydrocarbon energy sources and carriers, oil and natural gas demand are projected to continue rising through 2050 (EIA 2023). In the past 20 years, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing were combined to extract hydrocarbons from unconventional shale resources, which helped us meet rising global oil demand. However, production from existing shale oil wells declines quickly, and ultimate recoveries are often less than 10%. To meet global demand, we must improve recovery with minimal environmental impact.

Tight and shale oil reservoirs have unique challenges. For example, shale reservoirs are subject to clay swelling and formation damage. Permeabilities are ultra-low, often on the order of nano-Darcys, which leads to extremely low flow rates and to transport dominated by diffusion. Thus, hydraulic and natural fractures are necessary, and geomechanics/rock compaction plays an important role.

Many traditional improved oil recovery (IOR) strategies are challenging in tight and shale reservoirs. The small pores make waterflooding techniques difficult, and the low permeability hampers well-to-well methods. Thus, single-well, huff-and-puff strategies are the most common IOR methods. Injectants include miscible and immiscible gases (CO2, CH4, and N2) and chemicals (surfactants, solvents, and nanoparticles). In addition, thermal methods may allow control of oil viscosity and pressurization of the reservoir.