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Page added on May 15, 2015
New drilling technology could unlock old oil
Analysis from research center IHS finds advances in hydraulic fracturing used in the United States could unlock oil in mature fields outside North America.
IHS researchers looked into what would happen if new and advancing drilling techniques were applied to 170 mature oil fields that may have what was described as incremental hydrocarbon resources. By applying the new technology to low-productivity oil basins, IHS found there may be hundreds of billions of barrels of potential new oil.
“While our analysis was an initial, high-level assessment of low productivity plays outside the U.S., we were quite surprised at the impressive potential for increased recovery using these unconventional techniques,” Susan Farrell, vice president of upstream energy research at IHS, said in a statement.
The research finds that of the 141 billion barrels of potential oil, about 95 percent of that would require hydraulic fracturing to produce.
Hydraulic fracturing uses water, abrasives and a trace amount of chemicals to coax oil and natural gas from formations that would be otherwise inaccessible through conventional drilling techniques.
IHS finds operators in France, China and Tunisia using new drilling technology to address geological and production changes in mature basins. Leta Smith, research director for exploration and production at IHS Energy, said combining unconventional with the conventional may “breathe new life” into mature basins.
“For operators with experience in these drilling and completion techniques,” she said, “Mexico may be an attractive option for future investment, along with some of the 14 countries identified outside the Middle East, including Brazil, the U.K., Norway, Congo and Indonesia.”
10 Comments on "New drilling technology could unlock old oil"
Apneaman on Fri, 15th May 2015 7:39 pm
IHS Inc. (IHS) is a company based in Douglas County, Colorado, United States.[4]
IHS provides information and analysis to support the decision-making process of businesses and governments in industries, such as aerospace, defense and security; automotive; chemical; energy; maritime and trade; and technology. In the past decade IHS has acquired the following businesses: Jane’s Information Group, Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), Global Insight, and John S. Herold, Inc. In 2010, IHS purchased iSuppli and Screen Digest and, in 2012, Displaybank and IMS Research. In 2013, IHS acquired Polk and Carfax.[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IHS_Inc.
penury on Fri, 15th May 2015 9:36 pm
you can almost smell the fear from the authors of this piece.
SilentRunning on Sat, 16th May 2015 12:09 am
Clearly, we have too much clean water left. We need to destroy more aquifers with fracking chemicals, in a desperate play to keep BAU going.
HARM on Sat, 16th May 2015 4:15 am
“Clearly, we have too much clean water left. We need to destroy more aquifers with fracking chemicals…”
You betcha!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/15/antarctic-ice-shelf-disin_n_7291782.html“
Dredd on Sat, 16th May 2015 5:11 am
Whoopie, nothing like old fermented oil to poison a planet. Whoopie.
Apneaman on Sat, 16th May 2015 6:45 am
Oil CEO Wanted University Quake Scientists Dismissed: Dean’s E-Mail
The billionaire CEO of Continental Resources told a dean at the University of Oklahoma that he wanted earthquake researchers dismissed
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-15/oil-tycoon-harold-hamm-wanted-scientists-dismissed-dean-s-e-mail-says
Apneaman on Sat, 16th May 2015 6:53 am
Governor Cuomo Harold Hamm on line 1……he say it’s urgent and he sounds pissed.
…………………………………………..
New York Fracking Report Underscores Quake, Climate Risks
The environmental assessment brings New York State one step closer to banning fracking
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-york-fracking-report-underscores-quake-climate-risks/
joe on Sat, 16th May 2015 8:02 am
Even if they get every drop from every easy oil well, these are still part of peak oil calculus. With exponential growth comes exponential supply, but a finite resource. Factor in expected growth in demand by every possible efficiency input, then divide by available supply. By the time I’m 70 the world should have used up about half what’s left, this I based on a 70mbpd to demand. Will green energy take 20mbpd off the market today? We use 90mbpd now. If we stay as we are, all the oil is effectively gone in the lifetime of many people reading this and we either mine it or make it. If we revolutionise ourselves we kick peak easy oil down the road another generation and may avert worst case global warming. I don’t have much hope for that.
rockman on Sat, 16th May 2015 8:56 am
“By applying the new technology to low-productivity oil basins, IHS found there may be hundreds of billions of barrels of potential new oil.” It’s always amusing to see the hype about the “new frac technology” when they don’t actually describe what’s new. And the reason is obvious if one has been frac’ng wells for 40 years as the Rockmn has: there ain’t nothing new about it. Sure, some refinements such as changing the chemistry of the water a bit (slick water fracs) or developing down hole equipment that makes multistage frac’ng more efficient. Byt here’s a clue: the pump trucks, mixing equipment and proppants used today are the same as those that have been used for decades. In 1979 the Rockman pumped 500,000 pound frac (more sand the has been pumped in many recent Eagle Ford Shale well) into a tite carbonate shale in Texas.
Actually the really big improvement in the has been developing the tech to drill long horizontal well bores which make development much more efficient the frac’ng vertical wells. But that tech ain’t exactly new either: the Rockman was drill such hz wells 20 years ago in the tite carbonate shale…the Austin Chalk.
But they do make a point about how underutilized both techs are overseas. The lack of equipment and experienced hands along with the nature of NOC’s to just develop the easier projects is conducive to such applications on a major scale.
But the are some major exceptions: many years ago Maersk began a major (hundreds of wells from 6 offshore platforms) hz drilling program in a tite chalk reservoir in the Persian Gulf…Al Shaheen Field. And those wells made EFS wells look like tinker toys: record breaking hz well bores exceeding 32,000’…about 6X longer then the typical EFS well.
But, again, that project has been the exception. And given the current low oil price I doubt we’ll see much expansion. After all, all the tech used to develop the EFS and Bakken was available many years before they boomed. It took high oil prices to justify the development of either reserve. Reserves that has been identified many decades earlier.
BobInget on Sat, 16th May 2015 11:04 am
Rockman’s last paragraph stole this post.
We need $100+ oil to begin ‘salvage’ work.
This morning’s “Weekend Edition” tells the story of a log salvage operation. Recovering
old sunken 19th century logs from rivers and lakes. In business now for several years, they’ve yet to turn a profit. This, despite bringing up old growth timber made more lovely by over a hundred years+ of cold water.
By the time these logs are discovered, dredged up, transported, cleaned, dried out, milled, transported, they become almost unaffordable.
Old ‘left over’ oil was abandoned because it
cost more to raise then sell for.
If you can’t afford an extra 40% for that airline ticket, don’t fly. In the age of Skype
folks are flying on business more then ever.
Counter-intuitive, I know.
WHEN oil prices jump-up because of conflict-force manure, the tide will go out. We can then tell just how important personal and travel is.
Unlike a solid oak seamless twenty five foot
table or bar, oil is not, in most cases, optional.