Nick Snow
Washington Editor
As the nation's top Democrats and Republicans locked horns over raising the national debt ceiling and dealing with a growing budget deficit on Aug. 1, the US Department of Energy quietly announced that 11 research projects aimed at extracting more energy from unconventional oil and gas resources while reducing environmental risks would receive $12.4 million of federal support.
The projects focus on two significant US oil and gas questions: how to safely produce the nation's abundant shale gas resources while minimizing environmental risks, and how to recover more stranded oil from mature fields.
All of the contracts will be administered by the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA), under the National Energy Technology Laboratory's management, DOE's Fossil Energy Office said.
The eight shale-related projects' total value is $17 million over 3 years, with recipients paying $6.7 million in addition to $10.3 million of federal funds. The three mature oil field projects will have a $3.2 million total value over 3 years, with $1.1 million provided by the recipients and $2.1 million in federal support.
Federal lawmakers seeking to cut programs they consider unnecessary probably will try to eliminate this one in the next few months. Their argument will be the same as in the past: The oil and gas industry makes enough money to finance its own research and development, and doesn't need federal assistance.
Secure—for now
Fortunately, these projects were funded from DOE's Fiscal 10 budget and are secure, a DOE source explained. Their source, RPSEA, was set up under the 2005 Energy Policy Act to receive a share of federal oil and gas revenue to support related R&D and is not subject to annual congressional review—for now.
Still, a closer look at two of these projects is in order before the budget axes start to swing in the weeks ahead.
The Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colo., was awarded nearly $2 million, and will supply $2.6 million, for a 3-year study of making the use of cryogenic nitrogen or carbon dioxide an economic alternative to water in hydraulic fracturing.
"If either of these gases could be used successfully…not only would water management issues be simplified, but the potential for fracture fluid contamination of near-surface water sources would be reduced," FEO said.
And a 2-year study by the Power, Environmental, Energy Research Institute, Covina, Calif., (which is supplying $156,000 in addition to $624,000 from RPSEA) could lead to a possible game-changing polymeric surfactants technology for tertiary recovery in the Illinois basin.
A multibillion barrel residual oil resource is stranded there because conventional EOR is uneconomic, FEO said.
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