Industry View
Interview with Thomas E. Williams, Vice President of Maurer Technology
From your perspective of having been heavily involved in applied R&D and technology commercialization in a variety of roles, what are the most prominent barriers you see to (1) newly developed technology quickly becoming adopted and (2) needed future technology being developed?

There have been a number of incremental improvements over existing technology that our industry has developed—in conjunction with end users—for specific needs that were quickly developed and adopted. Necessity truly is the mother of invention. For example, it is mind-boggling how rapidly technology has advanced in deep water drilling in a relatively short period of time. However, this  is typically not the case in our industry with the advances that occur in most applied R&D, especially when it requires doing something different. Most people hate to change their approach unless it has been conclusively proven it will save them money.

Demonstration is the key to any successfully applied R&D project. Technology developers are required to demonstrate it, change it, demonstrate it, fix it, demonstrate it, improve it, sometimes over and over again. Corporate and government funding for most R&D projects doesn't make provision for this trial and error process. This means that the first guy may never get it past the first test (which rarely goes right), and the second or third guy may get lucky. This could take years. The technology developer, the service company (who will commercialize and provide the technology), and the end user must be willing to cooperate, or many very good ideas will never get past the reporting stage. This is the reason the potentially high-impact, 		high-risk projects never get beyond the first prototype. The U.S. government R&D programs are not well funded (unlike the situation in many other oil/gas producing countries), and there are restrictions on the amount of risk money they can spend on the demonstration stage. The Department of Energy and the Minerals Management Service (to a lesser degree) are working with industry to fund R&D to more cost effectively and safely drill and produce in environmentally sensitive areas and in deep high-temperature high-pressure reservoirs. These applications are very high risk, but in my opinion offer potential rewards to well justify the R&D investments.

In each of these cases, what could industry do differently to increase the probability of technologies being there for independents to apply in the future?

Many independents—typically not bound by corporate and legal barriers—will try darn near anything in exploration. But when it comes to operations and production, they want their technologies well proven. They simply don't have the R&D dollars, don't want to spend the time, or don't want to incur the risks associated with demonstration projects.

But someone must still objectively demonstrate new technologies and prove their economics in the field. The smaller technology developers and service companies (who in my opinion have been the real innovators in our industry) are limited in their resources and the ability to test and demonstrate in field conditions This is all

necessary to either get the right partner or end user committed for commercialization of their new technology. There is a graveyard of potentially enabling technologies that have just not been proven to the industry's satisfaction.

It is very important to have oil field test facilities available like Catoosa and DOE's Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center that can provide full-scale testing and demonstration of new tools, equipment, and technologies. Many of the majors previously had their own wells, flow loops, and oil field demonstration
centers, but they disappeared along with their R&D laboratories. Most of the largest service companies have world class test facilities and test wells for their own products, and there are a few private laboratories available with experts who can assist in avoiding the mistakes of those who came before.

In short, the answer to your question—the industry could do two things; first, operators should consider providing opportunities for new demonstration projects (and then be patient); and second, they should ask Congress and ask their oil and gas associations to ask Congress to provide more funding that closes the gap between Research, Development, Demonstration, and Commercialization.

Thomas E. Williams is Vice President of Maurer Technology, a division of Noble Technology Services, and a wholly owned Noble Corporation subsidiary. Tom joined Maurer Engineering in 2000 as Vice President of Business Development prior to the sale of the company to Noble Drilling Corporation in 2001. Tom held Senior Executive Positions at the U.S. Departments of Energy (DOE) and Interior during the (Sr.) Bush Administration from 1989 to 1993. From 1993 to 2000, he was Business Development Director at Westport Technology Center in Houston, a leading upstream oil and gas research company. Tom is the co-founder and served on the Board of Directors of Cementing Solutions, Inc., a successful oil and gas cementing services and technology company. He has been in the oil and gas industry for over 20 years, having owned and operated an oil and gas exploration, production and consulting company prior to joining the DOE. Tom has authored more than 100 energy publications and articles and serves on a number of oil and gas organizations, associations and boards including the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), PTTC's Texas Region Producer Advisory Group, the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO), the Society of Petroleum Engineers, American Association of Drilling Engineers, DeepStar Consortium Contributors Advisor Board, Far East Energy Corporation and others.

 

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