Looking for new ways to improve production

Don Stowers
Editor-OGFJ

Scott Tinker believes nanotechnology can be used to squeeze more oil and gas out of rock formations. As director of the Advanced Energy Consortium at the University of Texas, he helps coordinate research aimed at improving oil and gas recovery. At present, only about 40% of the oil and gas in reservoirs can be recovered, even with the most advanced recovery techniques now available.

The consortium’s primary goal is to develop intelligent subsurface microand nanosensors that can be injected into reservoirs to help characterize the space in three dimensions and improve the recovery of existing and new hydrocarbon resources. The hope is that these sensors will enable the mapping of the reservoirs in 3-D and improve the ability to extract oil and gas from the porous rock. “Our basic mission is to get the earth scientists and the nano folks together to fi nd a solution,” said Tinker, who was in Houston last month to address a group of petroleum industry executives at The Houstonian, as part of the GeoTech Executive Speaker Series sponsored by Seismic Micro- Technology Inc. (SMT) and Oil & Gas Financial Journal. “The AEC’s research will assist in the exploration of oil and gas reservoirs that could potentially unleash more oil than the current technology being used in primary, secondary, and even in some cases, tertiary recovery methods.”

At present, the only way to study hydrocarbon reservoirs is through seismic techniques and by actually drilling down. Both surface and downhole seismic have limited resolution, while drilling can only take readings in a limited area around the bore hole.

Arshad Matin, CEO of SMT, noted, “As existing fi elds mature, exploration companies must fi nd new waysto extract more oil and gas to meet ever-increasing global demands. Our Geo-Tech speaker series will educate industry leaders about new technologies that will enhance production yet be more environmentally friendly.”

The Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin will manage the AEC. Houston’s Rice University, which has extensive nanotechnology expertise, will be a collaborative technical partner. The public-private research consortium includes BP America; Baker Hughes; ConocoPhillips; Halliburton Energy Services; Marathon Oil; Occidental Oil and Gas; Schlumberger Technology; and Shell International E&P.

Each of these companies has committed $1 million per year for three years to fund the consortium and get things started. More funding will be needed as the research picks up steam.

The idea is to bring together researchers from these companies as well as academic institutions and other organizations to pool research in much the same way that oil companies collaborated on offshore technologies in the early days of offshore exploration.

“It’s the fi rst time the energy companies have got together to fund this kind of research, so it really is a big deal,” noted Wade Adams, director of the Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice.

For more information on the AEC, contact Scott Tinker at [email protected].