Energy Ventures hosted an Unconventional Resource Technologies webinar in partnership with Hart Energy Publishing on April 7, 2010.
Read on to learn more about how this webinar provided oilfield insiders with insight into the innovation being driven by entrepreneurs and private capital, and offered a first look at four new technologies that are beginning to impact unconventional resource plays.
To view the webinar on demand, click here .
To download a brochure highlighting the technologies that are meeting the key challenges of unconventional resource development, click here:
Webinar Overview:
Investing in new technology to increase production in unconventional oil and gas resources has always been considered risky. However, developing technologies that will allow E&P and oilfield services companies to overcome the technical challenges of unconventional plays like shale is the only way to continue to meet growing energy demand for the foreseeable future.
Energy Ventures was founded in 2002 on the basis that hydrocarbons will continue to be the world’s primary energy source, and that new technologies will be the key to finding, extracting and producing more hydrocarbons in a way that improves efficiencies, lowers costs and decreases environmental footprints.
During this interactive webinar, Energy Ventures shared its process for identifying the key long term trends driving the E&P industry and understanding the challenges that will require new technology solutions. Oilfield industry insiders gained insight into the innovation being driven by entrepreneurs and private capital, and got a first look at four new technologies that are beginning to impact unconventional resource plays.
Click here for an interview with Jim Sledzik and Oil and Gas Investor, discussing the webinar and new unconventional-resource play technology developed by portfolio companies Ingrain , Oxane , Fotech Solutions and Ziebel , from nanotech proppant to fiber optics.
What Was Learned:
- How private capital and entrepreneurs are driving innovation in the oilfield
- Why new technology is the key to the continued viability of oil and gas
- How four new technologies are overcoming specific production challenges of shale
Four New Technology Innovations:
Ingrain Inc. – Quantitative Digital Rock Physics
Ingrain’s digital rock-physics lab computes the physical properties and fluid-flow characteristics of oil and gas reservoir rocks, allowing the company to determine porosity and permeability within rock matrix and TOC of actual 3D pore space. Its technology leads the industry in measuring shales, carbonates, tight-gas sands and oil sands by creating vRock(TM) digital reservoir rocks from whole core, core plugs and drill cuttings, delivering accurate results within 30 days or less.
Fotech Solutions Ltd. – Fiber Optic Acoustic Sensor Technology
Fotech’s Helios system is creating a completely new picture of downhole conditions in producing wells by dynamically monitoring multi-zone production in tight gas wells. Operators can identify trends in real time, and better understand the level of production from each frac zone in live wells. Helios analyses the back-scatter of pulsed laser light to turn a communications-grade optical fibre cable into a high fidelity monitoring instrument that can identify, characterize and position acoustic events and vibration to an accuracy of 1 meter.
Oxane Materials Inc. – Ultralight, High Strength Ceramic Proppants
Oxane has created OxFracTM and OxBallTM, the only ultralight, high strength, nano-structured ceramic proppants in the industry, which will begin production in Q2/2010. Coupling superior proppant transport with high sustained conductivity, OxFrac and OxBall expose more stimulated rock volume to the wellbore thereby improving initial production, production decline, and expected ultimate recovery.
Ziebel AS – New Carbon-Fiber Rod Well Intervention Technology
Ziebel’s Z-System is the first new wellbore intervention methodology in decades, enabling unique logging systems and manipulation in highly deviated and horizontal wellbores. Using significantly less choke effect compared with coil tubing or a “tractor,” Z-System’s 20,000 ft. injectable semi-stiff, continuous, carbon “rod” is the width of a pencil. The system delivers distributed temperature and acoustic sensing along the entire wellbore, as well as highly accurate point pressure and temperature. Further, it doesn’t require any up-down movements to log the entire wellbore while listening to flow types (laminar, mist, slug flow), leakages, gas lift valves, possibly gas entry, microseismic activities, etc.
Featured Speakers:
- Jim Sledzik - Partner and President, Houston Office, Energy Ventures AS
- Douglas Gibson - CEO, Fotech Solutions Ltd.
- Henrique Tono - Director and CEO, Ingrain Inc.
- Chris Coker - President and Founder, Oxane Materials Inc.
- David S. Ottesen - Founder and CEO, Ziebel AS
A bout the Moderator:
Peggy Williams, Senior Exploration Editor, Oil and Gas Investor
Peggy Williams is senior exploration editor for
Oil and Gas Investor
magazine and a certified petroleum geologist with 17 years of industry experience in oil and gas E&P. She joined Hart Energy Publishing in 1992. She holds a bachelor’s degree in geology from the University of Rhode Island, a master’s in energy resources from the University of Pittsburgh and an M.S. in technical communications from the University of Colorado. Williams is an active member of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, and has served in several capacities with that organization and its local affiliate, the Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists. She is also a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and an associate member of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists
.
Supplemental Webinar Materials:
Ingrain - Discover how Ingrain's digital rock physics lab computes the physical properties and fluid flow characteristics of oil and gas reservoir rocks. To learn more, click to download the Digital Rocks Physics Lab below. You can also watch this video to see firsthand and in 3D the complexities of the inside of a reservoir rock.
Additional articles detailing Ingrain's imaging technology and computation can be found here:
- "Computer simulations of fluid flow in sediment: From images to permeability," The Leading Edge (January 2010)
- "From micro to reservoir scale: Permeability from digital experiments," The Leading Edge (December 2009)
- "Capturing digital rock properties for resevoir modeling," World Oil (November 2009)
- "3D Nanoscale Imaging and Computing of Resevoir Rock Properties and Fluid Flow," Scandinavian-Oil Gas (June 2009)
- "Finding huge potential in rocks' tiniest cracks," Houston Chronicle (December 2008)
Fotech Solutions - Learn more about the Helios system from Fotech, which consists of two elements: an optical fiber cable, and the Helios Interrogator, which is connected to one end of the fiber and sends a pulsed laser into the fibre, and analyses the reflected signals. Click the links below to watch videos demonstrating the Helios system's exceptional detection and tracking capabilities.
Oxane - Oxane has developed nano-scale ceramic balls that can be injected into rock to extract natural gas more efficiently and at a lower cost. In an interview with Houston NPR, Oxane CEO Chris Coker and Rice University and Oxane co-founder Andrew Barron discuss the emergence of nanotechnology and the research that could have a huge impact on the energy and healthcare industries. To listen to the podcast, click here .
