Research institutions and companies across North America are not letting up in their efforts to make production more efficient even as energy firms around the world slash spending and cut jobs in response to crashing oil prices.
Research centers, helped by multi-year budgets and grants, are doubling down - hiring more staff, building new laboratories and launching new studies as demand for money-saving solutions is greater than ever.
20 more researchers and lab assistants over the past year, marking a 10 percent increase, has been made by the University of North Dakota's Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC).
"At $100 per barrel oil, you just produce as much as you can, with cost as a secondary concern. But at $30 oil, you need to innovate, or else you're just losing money," said Tom Erickson, the Center's head.
While the center works on alternative fuel and coal technologies, its CO2 project is among the biggest. The center has an annual budget of more than $30 million funded by the federal government and industry partners, including Marathon Oil Corp and Continental Resources.
While it has yet to be applied commercially in shale drilling, carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants has been used for years to extract oil from older, conventional wells. Shale is a rock and the scientists are now trying to find the best way for CO2 to flow through it and help bring oil to the surface unlike spongy conventional oil reserves.
Aggregating reams of data from field sensors to using medical scanning equipment or reducing the amount of water used for fracking are among the research efforts that are being conducted elsewhere.
"We think this slowdown will actually be a plus for technology research and development," Jon Olson, head of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at the University of Texas-Austin, told Reuters.
It is however a far-fetched conjecture about whether any breakthroughs can come soon enough for scores of companies that are losing money and fighting for survival. But the industry battered by more than 70 percent crude price CLc1 plunge since mid-2014 could be returned to the path of profitability if the efforts are successful.
Production costs in North Dakota's largest oil-producing county for example, could be cut by about 10 percent by the use of CO2 in fracking. That happening, according to experts, would bring costs to around $24.30 per barrel, below current market prices.
It is still unclear how quickly it could be commercially deployed as the process has worked in laboratory conditions so far but not yet in field trials.
Calling the study as promising, Oscar Abbink, an oilfield technology expert at IHS Energy Insight, which is not involved in the North Dakota research, noted the industry's interest in innovation has soared during the downturn.
"A few years ago, it was all about pulling more oil out of the ground. Now, the cost is much more important," Abbink said.
The use of carbon dioxide is also being looked into by scientists at privately held WellDog Inc and Blackbird Energy Inc.
WellDog launched a new service that helps customers measure CO2 levels in older oil wells and could also serve to control volumes pumped into new ones last December. WellDog markets spectroscopy technology to shale clients to help them distinguish between types of natural gas.
"This is a growth area," said John Pope, WellDog's president.
"There is a technology lever in the oil and gas industry that hasn't been pulled as strongly as it could have been in the past," Mike Ming, general manager of GE's new Oklahoma City center, told Reuters.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
Research centers, helped by multi-year budgets and grants, are doubling down - hiring more staff, building new laboratories and launching new studies as demand for money-saving solutions is greater than ever.
20 more researchers and lab assistants over the past year, marking a 10 percent increase, has been made by the University of North Dakota's Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC).
"At $100 per barrel oil, you just produce as much as you can, with cost as a secondary concern. But at $30 oil, you need to innovate, or else you're just losing money," said Tom Erickson, the Center's head.
While the center works on alternative fuel and coal technologies, its CO2 project is among the biggest. The center has an annual budget of more than $30 million funded by the federal government and industry partners, including Marathon Oil Corp and Continental Resources.
While it has yet to be applied commercially in shale drilling, carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants has been used for years to extract oil from older, conventional wells. Shale is a rock and the scientists are now trying to find the best way for CO2 to flow through it and help bring oil to the surface unlike spongy conventional oil reserves.
Aggregating reams of data from field sensors to using medical scanning equipment or reducing the amount of water used for fracking are among the research efforts that are being conducted elsewhere.
"We think this slowdown will actually be a plus for technology research and development," Jon Olson, head of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at the University of Texas-Austin, told Reuters.
It is however a far-fetched conjecture about whether any breakthroughs can come soon enough for scores of companies that are losing money and fighting for survival. But the industry battered by more than 70 percent crude price CLc1 plunge since mid-2014 could be returned to the path of profitability if the efforts are successful.
Production costs in North Dakota's largest oil-producing county for example, could be cut by about 10 percent by the use of CO2 in fracking. That happening, according to experts, would bring costs to around $24.30 per barrel, below current market prices.
It is still unclear how quickly it could be commercially deployed as the process has worked in laboratory conditions so far but not yet in field trials.
Calling the study as promising, Oscar Abbink, an oilfield technology expert at IHS Energy Insight, which is not involved in the North Dakota research, noted the industry's interest in innovation has soared during the downturn.
"A few years ago, it was all about pulling more oil out of the ground. Now, the cost is much more important," Abbink said.
The use of carbon dioxide is also being looked into by scientists at privately held WellDog Inc and Blackbird Energy Inc.
WellDog launched a new service that helps customers measure CO2 levels in older oil wells and could also serve to control volumes pumped into new ones last December. WellDog markets spectroscopy technology to shale clients to help them distinguish between types of natural gas.
"This is a growth area," said John Pope, WellDog's president.
"There is a technology lever in the oil and gas industry that hasn't been pulled as strongly as it could have been in the past," Mike Ming, general manager of GE's new Oklahoma City center, told Reuters.
(Source:www.reuters.com)
