Thirst and starvation for oil
Our world is starved for energy, and there is no easy solution. Despite all efforts to develop alternative sources, the relative mix of fossil fuels to all other energy solutions remains unchanged at about 75%. Although technology has come to the rescue many times by providing ways to use our energy more efficiently and enabling access to more raw supplies, it is unrealistic to expect a dramatic switch to alternative resources anytime soon. It took more than two decades to make the move from leaded to unleaded fuel, and that was a simple evolution.
With few exceptions, a large part of the world’s land mass has been explored and it is commonly accepted that no large land discoveries are likely to be made in the future. As the majority of our planet is covered with water, it is under the water that exploration is ongoing. Every year a new record is set for deepest subsea exploration; we are now over 10,000 ft (3,000 m). And production depths are lagging several thousand feet behind drilling and exploration. This shows the gap and the potential extension of subsea well development/production that will come in the next decades. Deeper hydrocarbon has been found, and now will be the time to produce it. A key way to produce it economically is with subsea equipment and installations. The growth will not stop there, and if there is a fantastic place to develop solutions and bring new technology this is it.
Key technologies in subsea development include multiphase metering and processing. Produced water will be treated and rejected at sea-level or separated and re-injected. Water is the red money that reduces production pipeline efficiency, leads to hydrate formation and can jeopardize flow assurance. The faster it can be removed from the main stream the more economical becomes the solution. Downhole separation, multiphase pumps, and multiphase meters are keys to this success.
Long regarded as an annoying side-effect, gas production has grown in prominence along with our ability to measure its volume, flow rate, and now online calorific power. This will lead to knowledge of the gas quality at the wellhead. Ultimately, these very deep projects will share common production lines and then royalties will be allocated on gas quality and volume. This is a new challenge for the entire industry to be able to monitor gas composition in a real-time multiphase environment along with other intrinsic properties including flow rates.
The solution could be simple – more exploration offshore, more deepwater rigs to drill, and the energy could be always there. But there is another way to look at the future, and this is with unconventional fluids: heavy oil, extra heavy oil, and bitumen are plentiful. Canada, Venezuela, and Russia have 2.5, 1.5, and 1 trillion bbl in place respectively. It is believed that worldwide, heavier fluids represent around 5 to 10 trillion bbl and amount to more than 70% of the entire oil reserves known today. These unconventional oils are easy to tap, they are quite shallow most of the time, and the reservoirs could be huge. Production at the current rate could last more than 40-100 years.
Today, less than 10% of heavy oil is recovered from cold production. Thermal processes and other techniques from in-situ combustion to steam-assisted yield recovery factors in the range of 70%. A long-term commitment of investment and technology is necessary. The challenge in these reservoirs is mobility. By definition these oils are viscous and the way to produce them involves reducing the viscosity. New tools allow hydrocarbon composition to be determined at the well site. This is a new area of research, and knowledge of fluid properties is a key production enabler, the other one being production technology based on thermal or chemical techniques. Separating heavy oil, water, steam, and gas to measure and allocate production is difficult.
Accordingly, real-time multiphase metering, which allows flow rate and volume fraction measurement without prior separation, has been developed as a key enabling technology for optimization of heavy oil production. The potential is fantastic. A client recently used multiphase metering to improve understanding of reservoirs offshore, optimize heavy oil production, and reverse a production decline. The cost of installing the multiphase flowmeters on the platforms was paid out in a few days with the additional earnings from increased production.
Coleridge’s famousThe Rime of the Ancient Mariner laments, “Water, water, everywhere… Nor any drop to drink.” So it could be said for oil. The oil is there, the technology exists to produce it, and there is plenty of thirst for it, but producing it is challenging. With the advance of multiphase technologies to optimize production from deepwater reservoirs and unconventional resources, our industry has moved closer to a solution.
The world is starving for energy, but thirsting for new ideas and new technologies to produce it more efficiently.
Bruno G. Pinguet
Multiphase Domain Champion
This page reflects viewpoints on the political, economic, cultural, technological, and environmental issues that shape the future of the petroleum industry. Offshore Magazine invites you to share your thoughts. Email your Beyond the Horizon manuscript to Eldon Ball at[email protected].