GAS HYDRATES: THE TITAN UNCONVENTIONAL RESOURCE

An H2O crystal lattice structure consisting of tons and tons of methane gas. Capable of expanding up to 150 times its original size. Now that is some huge amount of storage if one starts to consider it seems almost unreal. Well, this enormous source of gas exists and is known by the name of gas hydrate.

Gas hydrate is a part of the unconventional resources of hydrocarbons and is one which has the most extensive amount of capacity of storing carbon content of about 2.2 million pounds that is twice the amount of any other conventional and unconventional fossil fuel in existence.

Throughout the world the ratio of gas hydrates in comparison to other fossil fuels (conventional and unconventional) is 2:1 respectively hence making it the largest source of hydrocarbons.

Mostly occurring in permafrost regions and deep within the ocean floor, however due to greenhouse gas emissions/global warming these clathrates recently have been found near land and have been captured in nets yes fishing nets.

So now we know a little about what gas hydrates are, their potential and where they occur. But what is the world doing about it.

Well, countries like China, Japan, Korea, and India with hydrate resources, research and development programs are doing the extensive job on determining and producing these titans of energy. Comparing the progress between these countries Japan has been the most successful, recently producing the offshore methane hydrates in a testing phase in 2013.A more promising future next to this achievement can be seen from India having the largest research and development field work being conducted there internationally inviting all the research facilities/institutions and O&G companies to come work on finding out and maximizing the potential to gain from the hydrate resource.

Other countries are also working on gaining an edge over one another in obtaining fruitful results from gas hydrates.

Places like the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska, and Malaysia are being been focused on. Recently Canada had to drop out of this race due to the shortage of funds. However, USA and UK haven’t ignored the hydrate potential being one of the chief research-based countries which are figuring out methods of finding and producing hydrates. UK’s Heriot-Watt University is the leading institute for gas hydrates research. USA's Rice University, Texas A&M University and Colorado School of Mines doing a tremendous job in development and research of gas hydrates.

The question is where Pakistan stands in all this. The answer to that is a bit vague. Pakistan has a lot of potential in terms of gas hydrates positioning. 

A rough estimate about the extent of gas hydrates field offshore is 200km long, 100 km wide, 600 meters thick.

Now keeping in mind that 1 cubic meter of hydrate consists of 164 cubic meters of gas the amount of reserves that we have is ginormous.

There hasn't been much work done as the word 'roughly' mentioned above indicates, we need to do a lot of work starting from estimating the exact potential and hotspots to research work. 

The prospects are highly encouraging; the amount of gas produced from the hydrates can power our nation for decades to come. We are missing out on the verge of a revolutionizing era which is to come for the oil and gas industry in the near future and need to pace up to produce as much as possible from this beacon of auspiciousness.



GAS HYDRATES: THE TITAN UNCONVENTIONAL RESOURCE

Mohsin Yousufi, Lecturer, NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi

Poem on Petroleum Industry's operations

Every field has a history to tell

In the beginning, it’s the wildcat well

With little geological and offset data

It’s the exploration of the mysterious strata

 

Lift the derrick, set the rig

Attach the bit and start the dig

critical the operation; it would be

prevent the blowout by the BOP

 

 

Maintain the specific hydrostatic head

Balance the pressure of formation bed

Neither let the kick to cause

Check for any circulation loss

 

after drilling is successfully done

its time for the casing run

with casing collars and shoe at bottom

attach them hang them one by one

 

After reaching the TVD

fill the casings with slurry

above the slurry place the plug

for displacement use the heavy slug

 

Measure the absolute open flow

through isochronal and flow after flow

plot the vlp and IPR

find the operating point so far

 

after performing the dst

its time to replace the BOP

then without any further delay

install the  Xmas tree

 

now its time for next tool run

commonly known as perforation gun

keep the mud weight high or low

for under or overbalance flow

 

replace the mud with heavy brine

place the plugs with wireline

isolate the oil potential zone

set the packers at depth known

 

run in hole the logging tool

with wireline wrapped around spool

lower the tool with certain pace

Interpret the signals at surface

 

 

lower the drawdown fulfill the need

controlled by the choke size indeed

BHP reduced oilflow starts

once oil was trapped now it is freed.

Poem on Petroleum Industry's operations.

By:

Ahmed Shakeel
Student of Petroleum Engineering

NED University of Engineering and Technology, Karachi

How the Oil and Gas industry is using Technology to reduce Water Consumption

As the United States has recently emerged as the world’s largest oil and gas producer. It's mainly because of the “shale" which has changed not only America’s energy landscape but also the global energy market. This may sound like a fiction story but it is true! While total world resources of oil shale are conservatively estimated at 2.6 trillion barrels, US sits on close to two trillion barrels of crude. Possibly more than all the crude than was ever produced worldwide since petroleum age began.  But In some states and regions, consumption of water has made it difficult to recover more of it. As fracking requires millions of gallons of water per well.

A 2009 report on modern shale gas by the Groundwater Protection Council, "Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States: A Primer," stated that: “The amount of water needed to drill and fracture a horizontal shale gas well generally ranges from about 2 million to 4 million gallons, depending on the basin and formation characteristics.”

A 2010 Harvard study found that, on average, water consumption for natural gas produced through fracking ranges from 0.6 to 1.8 gallons of water per MMBtu (Mielke, Anadon and Narayanamurti 2010).

U.S. nationwide water consumption for fracking is about 1% of the total, in such scenario companies are actively developing and using new technologies to reduce water use.
For example, Apache, a major operator in Texas, is using undrinkable and recycled produced water for its drilling and fracking operations with no freshwater supplies. The company has recycled more than 1.2 million barrels of produced water. Apache sources some of its water from the Santa Rosa aquifer, Texas whose water is unsuitable for humans or agriculture. Other operator companies in west Texas like, Pioneer Natural Resources, Anadarko are purchasing wastewater from the city of Odessa to use in its local oil and gas operations.

Energy development is the base of the economy in these regions, as supports many high-paying jobs. The sufficient oil and gas production provides America enough energy and it results in less import of oil from international market, and the use of nonpotable water means that local residents will be having plenty of underground drinking water.


In some cases, water recycling is not economical, So the Technological innovations are allowing operator companies to increase water recycling and improve overall operations. 

In 2013, Halliburton documented how reusing produced water and flowback helped save as much as $100,000 off the cost of each well for which it was used. and company says "The wells, which were in Eddy County, New Mexico, “have shown no loss of production,"

It costs Apache less than $0.30 to treat a barrel of water for reuse in west Texas. Traditionally, companies drag wastewater to separate injection wells. But it costs about ten times as much to use that same wastewater for disposal. New technologies are helping oil and gas companies make processes more economical, environmentally friendly and safer.

Water cost is one of the significant expense for oil and gas companies, sometimes totaling as much as about 10 percent of each well’s capital cost, according to IHS CERA. More innovation means more water savings, which translates to lower costs and, ultimately, the capacity for even greater investment.

As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, “Some of the largest independent U.S. oil and gas companies are spending now to save money on water later.”

A critic might suggest that these are only tales—perhaps high-profile exceptions to the rule. Wastewater disposal, after all, is still a common practice. But only a few years ago, many of these technologies and processes were nowhere to be seen. The challenge then was innovating and using technology to solve a complex environmental problem. Now technology is helping the oil and gas industry overcome many challenges to operate more efficiently and more safely.

Clearly, the oil and gas industry has accepted the challenge of backing new technology to improve operations. And the best news is that it's only just beginning.