DOE Digest

DOE Awards, Advanced Technologies with Independents

Three awards were recently announced in DOE's Advanced Technology Development with Independents Program. Awards were made to Temblor Petroleum Company LLC and Utah Geological Survey for exploration-oriented projects, and Schlumberger Data and Consulting Services received the single award for work in existing fields.

Schlumberger will explore the "Application of Time-Lapse Seismic Monitoring for the Control and Optimization of CO2-Enhanced Oil Recovery Operations." DOE funding of $2 million will supplement the $12.6 million that Schlumberger is providing. The first objective of this project is to demonstrate the use of cost-effective key and advanced technologies to better characterize oil reservoirs prior to CO2 flooding. The second objective is to demonstrate the use of advanced seismic technologies to monitor the CO₂ flood front during injection such that "real-time" decisions can be made. The 4-year project will demonstrate the technical and cost effectiveness of the application of these technologies.

Temblor Petroleum Company LLC will evaluate "Use of Cutting Edge Horizontal and Underbalanced Drilling Technologies and Subsurface Seismic Techniques to Explore, Drill and Produce Reservoired Oil and Gas from the Fractured Monterey Formation Below 10,000' in the Santa Maria Basin of California." Temblor and DOE are sharing equally in the $3 million project cost. In California operators are reluctant to use horizontal and UBD due to perceptions about financial, operational and environmental risk, this in spite of very strong geologic and engineering indications that horizontal and UBD would greatly increase success in the fractured Monterey reservoirs. The project proposes to re-drill a well drilled three years ago to 11,400' by Temblor Petroleum on a large seismically-defined structure near the town of Los Alamos in the Santa Maria Basin of California. Cutting edge logging while drilling technology will be used to verify the fracture orientation and change drill direction if required.

The Utah Geological Survey will study "The Mississippian Leadville Limestone Exploration Play, Utah and Colorado - Exploration Techniques and Studies for Independents." The Survey and DOE will share equally in the $535,000 project. The overall objectives are to: (1) develop and demonstrate techniques and exploration methods never tried on the Leadville Limestone, (2) provide the facies, hydrodynamic pressure regime, and oil show quality maps that will be used to target areas for exploration, (3) increase deliverability from new and old Leadville fields through detailed reservoir characterization, (4) reduce exploration costs and risk especially in environmentally sensitive areas, and (5) add new oil discoveries and reserves.

Contact DOE's Virginia Weyland (phone 918-699-2041, email Virginia.Weyland@netl.
doe.gov) for more information.

These universities are the first two educational institutions to  participate in DOE's new Technical Career Intern Program. DOE Fossil Energy is initiating this program to recruit highly qualified students from leading universities for internships in fossil energy programs and for employment once they graduate.

The objective of the Technical Career Intern Program is to develop a number of highly-rated schools which could provide a "pipeline" of future DOE Fossil Energy employees. Mike Smith, Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy, noted that two thirds of Fossil Energy staff are eligible to retire within the next four years, creating an urgent need to attract new graduates.

Under the Technical Career Intern Program, graduates would be hired with government commitments to: (1) provide extensive training, (2) pay up to $40,000 of student loans, and (3) pay for optional masters programs in earth sciences or engineering while the new employees continue working part time and receiving their full salary.

In choosing the first two schools, meetings were held with 18 learning institutions. The initial implementation period is anticipated to last up to 36 months with recruitment of student interns beginning in spring 2004. After the pilot program is well underway, it is anticipated that additional schools will be included.

See DOE Techline for full information (www.fossil.energy.gov
/news/techlines/03/tl_
careerintern_firstschools.
html).

DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory recently selected Penn State University to establish and operate an underground gas storage technology consortium. Total cost for the 4 ½-year project is $3 million. The consortium will be industry-driven and emphasize the creation of a balanced research portfolio of practical solutions, short-term projects and basic research. The first phase of the agreement will last 18 months to create the consortium, solicit membership, establish an executive panel of industry experts, refine a technical approach, and select and award initial research projects.

Gas storage wells/fields often suffer a decline in productivity after several years of withdrawal and injection cycling. Current revitalization techniques usually provide only limited, temporary delivery restoration. Additionally, not all regions of current and potential high gas demand possess natural underground reservoirs or salt formations that can support local storage needs.

Research supported by the consortium will include, but not be limited to, technologies to limit and remediate the progressive damage caused by the repeated injection and withdrawal of gas in existing and future facilities, as well as innovative reservoir development and management techniques that can maximize performance. Moreover, research will focus on developing, in close proximity to demand centers, man-made storage systems such as underground mined caverns, gas hydrate storage, distributed liquefied natural gas, and other non-traditional means.

See DOE Techline for full information (www.fossil.energy.gov/
news/techlines/03/tl_
gasstorage_pennstate.html).

The U.S. DOE recently named seven partnerships of state agencies, universities, and private companies that will form the core of a nationwide network to help determine the best approaches for capturing and permanently storing gases that can contribute to global climate change. Together, the partnerships include more than 140 organizations spanning 33 states, three Indian nations, and two Canadian provinces.

In only the last five years, sequestration research at DOE has risen from small-scale, largely conceptual studies to one of the highest priorities. The seven partnerships will develop the framework needed to validate and potentially deploy carbon sequestration technologies. They will study which of the numerous sequestration approaches that have emerged in the last few years are best suited for their specific regions of the country. They will also begin studying possible regulations and infrastructure requirements that a region would need should climate science dictate that sequestration be deployed on a wide scale in the future. The selected partnerships are:

West Coast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership led by the California Energy Commission, Sacramento, CA, and made up of representative organizations from Alaska, Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

Southwest Regional Partnership for Carbon Sequestration which will involve the efforts of 21 partners in eight states coordinated by the Western Governors' Association and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM.

Northern Rockies and Great Plains Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership which will be headed by Montana State University, Bozeman, MT, and cover Idaho, Montana, and South Dakota.

Plains CO₂ Reduction Partnership which will extend across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and two Canadian provinces. It will be led by the Energy & Environmental Research Center at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND.

Midwest Geologic Sequestration Consortium which will evaluate sequestration options in the Illinois Basin of Illinois, western Indiana, and western Kentucky. It will be led by the University of Illinois, Illinois State Geological Survey.

Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership, headed by Southern States Energy Board, Norcross, GA, and involving Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership covering Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia and coordinated by the Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, OH.

DOE will provide approximately $11.1 million to support the partnerships over the next two years. Each group will receive up to $1.6 million, with participating organizations contributing another $7 million, or an average of nearly 40 percent of the initial funding.

See DOE Techline for full information (www.fossil.energy.gov/news/
techlines/03/tl_sequestration
_partnershipselections.html).