Tech Transfer Track

Accelerating Technology Development & Deployment

A panel at the Offshore Technology Conference in early May noted how industry must find a way to compress technology development time from first-generation innovation to product commercialization to full deployment. In the past, this could take 15 to 30 years. Some thoughts expressed by panelists worthy of mulling over include:

  • Vendors disproportionately shoulder cost while receiving inadequate share of the margin.

  • Disruptive technologies require changing behaviors.

  • Risk aversion is the largest obstacle to implementation.

  • What we tend to call R&D is really "engineering." One really needs to distinguish between the two.

  • Desperation (examining a problem under pressure) is the mother of invention.

  • Applications-based technology (field experience) really makes a difference.

  • Technology transfer is a contact sport (PTTC can attest to that).

Venture capital funding in the energy business is low, at least partly because of the long product lead times. Venture capital providers want developers to have customers first, yet without capital, developers find it difficult to attract customers. Which comes first, the chicken or the egg?

Excerpted from "OTC: Technologies Require New Business Models," Oil and
Gas Journal, May 16, 2005,
p. 26-28.

PTAC Online R&D Projects Database

The Petroleum Technology Alliance Canada (PTAC) has developed and now placed online an Oil & Gas R&D Projects Database, accessible at www.ptac.org/rdd/search.php. The database now contains over 150 new technology projects of interest to the industry and remains available to accept new submissions. This will allow industry to stay abreast of current developments and locate research projects aligned with their needs.

The database can be searched by industry sector (8 categories), technical area (17 categories),

keyword, company/ organization and researcher last name. Researchers may identify partners for complementary technologies and for applications development. Researchers who submit project information will have increased exposure to industry and government stakeholders.

To include an R&D project in the database, please submit an online, brief public domain summary of your R&D oil- and gas-related project. Background information, input guidance and the input form are available at: www.ptac.org/rdd1.
html.

Venture Capital in the Energy Industry

The 5th Edition of Research Reports International's "Venture Capital in the Energy Industry" report is a 190-page sourcebook that offers a detailed look at venture capital funding of emerging energy technologies. It strives to provide value for those looking for venture capital funding, those considering investing in venture capital funds, and to venture capitalists themselves. Among other things, the report:

  • Identifies trends driving energy industry investments

  • Details the key sectors receiving investment

  • Reveals candidate funding criteria and valuation methodologies

  • Discusses advantages and disadvantages of VC funding

  • Profiles participants in energy venture capital

The report contains company profiles on 50 key venture capital firms and 41 portfolio companies. More information about the report is available online at www.
researchandmarkets.com/
reportinfo.asp?report_id=228247.

Gas Well Dewatering with Concentric Coiled Tubing and A Jet Pump

A recent artificial lift advancement employs concentric coiled tubing and jet pump technology for gas well dewatering. With BJ Services' AquaLiftTM Gas Well Dewatering System, the inner coiled tubing string is used to power a downhole jet pump, returning produced wellbore fluids and power fluid up the concentric coiled tubing annulus. Based on a venturi effect, system fluid pressure is converted into a high-energy jet stream, creating low pressure at the pump intake. The trick is to miniaturize the jet pump. A typical system consists of one-inch coiled tubing pre-set inside a string of 1.75 inch tubing, where the pump is attached to the bottom of the pre-assembled string.

AquaLift's best fit is in aging gas wells of shallow- to medium-depth. The main benefit of the system is it's ability to draw reservoir pressure down to a lower level, which positively affects recoverable reserves. Typically the pump is set below casing perforations and immersed in produced water. Some reservoir pressure must remain, for instance a medium-depth well of 5,000 ft should not be much below 100 psi. At 10,000 ft, the pressure limit might be 250 psi.

Excerpts from "Priming the Pump," New Technology Magazine, March 2005 (see www.ntm.nickles.com). Further information on BJ Services' Aqualift system viewable online at www.bjservices.com/website/ps.nsf/
0/3BDA3895D04825F286256F4
3006BFAA7/$file/AquaLift+
System.pdf.

GeoScience World, A New Information Portal

GeoScienceWorld (GSW), a new information portal containing GeoRef plus 30 leading journals from the world's foremost geoscience organizations, was launched (www.geoscience
world.org) in late February. The initial GSW collection incorporates the complete text of 30 journals from 22 societies and institutes from six countries. Founding organizations include: American Association of Petroleum Geologists, American Geological Institute, Geological Society of London, Mineralogical Society of America, SEPM-Society for Sedimentary Geology and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.

GSW provides access to scientifically peer-reviewed full-text articles from high impact geoscience publications with linking between cited references and articles within the GSW database and outside of GSW through CrossRef. The ability to search the database and review abstracts of GSW articles is an open access activity.

Although the core value of GSW is the collection of articles and data set linkage, GSW also is integrated with GeoRef, the bibliographic search database published by AGI that includes information on over 3500 publications. Direct linkage exists from a GeoRef search to all articles within GSW and cross linking to references outside of GSW is accomplished with CrossRef. GeoRef integration results in a search of geoscience and allied publications that is as complete as possible. Literally no stone is left unturned. GeoRef also provides linkage to other open access digital files, such as USGS, State Surveys, etc.

For more information, please contact GSW's Executive Director Don Hemenway (hemenway@
geoscienceworld.org).

Network News
5

PTTC

2nd Quarter 2005