American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017 - 99

high-resolution 3-D laser inspection using
autonomous underwater vehicles.
Organizations leading these consortia
efforts include Blade Energy Partners,
CSI Technologies, Princeton University,
Safe Marine Transfer, GE Global Research,
Houston Offshore Engineering, Fugro,
Society of Exploration Geophysicists'
Advanced Modeling Corporation, Clearview Subsea, Det Norske Veritas (USA),
Stress Engineering Services, Remora
Technology, University of Houston, Nautilus International, and Lockheed Martin.
Many of these companies also partnered
with academia and operators.
Shale Play R&D
The need to increase recovery efficiency
is particularly pressing in unconventional
plays, where recovery rates can be less
than 15 percent for oil wells and 30 percent
for gas wells. Some studies are focused
directly on increasing EURs in resource
plays through improvements in characterizing shale reservoirs, or through advancing
the state of well completion/recompletion
technologies, including advanced diagnostics and optimized frac designs.
While focused less directly on increasing EURs, some of the RPSEA R&D
projects that generally support that longterm objective in shale plays include enhancing fracture connectivity and matrix
porosity, remediating sustained casing
pressure and other isolation breaches,
characterizing and recycling flowback
and produced water, improving zonal isolation in horizontal wells, geomechanical
analysis of fractured reservoirs, and optimized stimulation treatment designs.
The backbone of the shale R&D program includes a strong environmental element where a variety of projects addresses
air quality, water, seismicity, and land use.
Institutions engaged in these research
projects include the Houston Advanced

Research Center's Environmentally Friendly Drilling Program, GSI Environmental,
Colorado School of Mines, Colorado
State University, Southern Research Institute, University of Southern California,
Gas Technology Institute, Texas A&M
University, Drexel University, Oklahoma
State University, University of Texas at
Austin, and the University of Oklahoma.
These institutions are teamed with a
variety of operators, universities and national labs.
Focused On Small Operators
Research addressing increased production and recovery from marginal and
conventional wells ranks high. These resources have been somewhat lost in the
shadows of the more high-profile shale
and deepwater plays, but marginal wells
collectively produce more oil than the
United States imports annually from the
Middle East. What is more, conventional
and marginal wells provide access to
twice as many oil reserves as the nation
has produced to date.
Conventional and marginal fields are
operated predominantly by independents,
and often small independents. One of the
challenges is that the companies operating
these assets do not have the resources to
conduct stand-alone R&D initiatives. This
is where visionary leadership and investments could mesh academia, operators
and service providers to have a major
impact on this valuable resource, while
also improving the environment.
The small producer program also addresses boosting EURs through enhanced
and tertiary recovery. For instance, one
project seeks to identify and develop
technologies engineered to enable small
producers to target residual oil zone fairways in the Permian Basin using CO2
EOR. Another study is researching nextgeneration CO2 flooding methods to re-

cover more of the oil left after secondary
recovery in Permian fields.
RPSEA small producer research projects include technologies such as hollow-fiber membrane nanofiltration for
treating produced water, enhanced cement
integrity, basin-scale produced water management for tight reservoirs, noninvasive
ultrasonic technology for paraffin management in production tubing, conformance control, hybrid compression technology for multiphase and liquids-rich
production streams, surfactant injection,
and chemical EOR.
These small independent producer-focused R&D efforts are led by organizations
such as Advanced Resources International,
Melzer Consulting, New Mexico Institute
of Mining & Technology, New Mexico
Petroleum Recovery Research Center,
Rice University, University of Texas of
the Permian Basin, Battelle Memorial
Institute, University of Missouri, and the
University of Kansas.
Two other R&D focal points of note
are developing and demonstrating new
technologies that could increase the use
of natural gas, and monetize stranded or
underutilized natural gas resources. As is
the case in on- and offshore safety performance technologies, the public is best
served by having the industry work together with regulators and stakeholders
in support of these solutions.
Looking forward, the industry will
see similar changes as it did a decade
ago. Despite the vocal critics, a changing
attitude toward viewing fossil fuels as an
asset rather than a liability will create
opportunities for government and industry
to work collaboratively to make prudent
investments in new technology research.
Together, we can take advantage of what
we have learned over the past decade to
ensure a safer, more productive and more
profitable tomorrow.
r

TOM
WILLIAMS

Tom Williams is president of the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America. He has
served as senior adviser to the Environmentally Friendly Drilling program, an organization he
co-founded in 2005 while working as a vice president of technology at Noble Corporation.
Williams has been in the energy business for 35 years as an operator as well in managing and
commercializing new technologies. He held senior executive positions at the U.S. departments
of Energy and Interior, and has served on a number of energy organizations, associations, and
public and privately held corporations, including chairman of the Interstate Oil & Gas
Compact Commission's Energy, Environment, Research & Technology Committee, and the
International Association of Drilling Contractors' Drilling Engineering Association Board.
JANUARY 2017 99
American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2017

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