Harnessing Multidisciplinary Expertise: How the Oil and Gas Industry is Contributing to The Energy Transition

As the world transitions towards renewable energy sources, the traditional oil and gas industry is even more incentivized to handle limited and valuable fossil energy sources in a responsible manner. Even when the new fossil energy resources are not fully utilized, responsible resource management is critical for making the most of the energy accumulated over hundreds of millions of years and for achieving optimal recovery. It's not just about extracting hydrocarbons; it's about doing so responsibly, with a keen eye towards minimizing environmental impact.

To achieve these goals, it is imperative to increase oil recovery in a responsible manner- a drive that has led to numerous scientific and engineering accomplishments. Some examples include the ability to drill accurately placed wells longer than most people can hike in a day, including offshore wells over 16km(about 9.94 mi) long or those in the midst of the desert at 9.5 km depth. Advanced technologies enable us to see detailed fluid movement through the rocks deeper than most mountains, or to triple energy output compared to initial estimates by simply injecting the seawater, for example, in the Ekofisk field in Norway.

The cumulative knowledge amassed by the oil and gas industry over decades of exploration and production is now being harnessed to tackle the pressing environmental challenges of our time, and it presents a very valuable asset. The body of science and engineering experience in the oil and gas sector encompasses most of the natural science disciplines including geoscience, mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology in the industry's arsenal of knowledge.

Mathematics forms the backbone of reservoir modeling and simulation, allowing us to predict fluid flow behavior with precision in new projects involving CCUS. Physics principles underpin drilling operations, from the mechanics of rotary drilling to the complex dynamics of well bore stability in geothermal wells. And chemistry is integral to understanding fluid-rock interactions and developing technologies for minimizing environmental impact.

All this cross-disciplinary competence and engineering savvy is now available and ready for deployment to meet the environmental challenges facing us, supported by the digitalization of the oil and gas industry that could enhance the operational efficiency and reduce the cost, risk, and environmental impacts.

One important contribution from the oil and gas industry towards the development of a a sustainable future is the ability to understand the subsurface flow and transport phenomena. Obvious applications of these technologies are seen in the CCUS which offers an additional alternative for oil and gas companies to reduce their carbon footprint, including the need to characterize carbon storage sites and model any potential CO2 plume movement. For CCUS the injection and application of CO2 to optimize fossil energy resources can directly benefit from existing oil and gas enhanced recovery experience.

Modelling approaches used by the oil and gas industry to predict and optimize production share many similarities with environmental modelling and are also like hydrology models and geothermal models in appearance and fundamental design. In all cases, the fundamental physical conservation laws are used to construct mathematical models of reality.

One such mature oil and gas technology that exemplifies the cumulative knowledge from multiple scientific fields is tracer technology used to understand and quantify fluid flows within the reservoir. Tracer testing is a versatile technology used to investigate and understand fluid flow in a wide range of scientific and industrial applications, including oil and gas. The concept of tracer testing is based on tagging a fluid using an identifiable mass that can be clearly distinguished from the moving fluid. An important requirement for tracers is that they behave as close to the tagged fluid as possible without affecting the flow in any manner. This is achieved by using very small amounts of tracer (typically in the parts-per-trillion range)specifically designed to move concurrently with the traced fluid.

To investigate fluid flows in the subsurface, tracersare typically injected and sampled to obtain straight-forward analysis of theproduced tracer signals and accurate insights into the flow pattern. Theseinsights are provided from tracer data by direct application of basicconservation laws.

Tracer technology is essential for CCUS and geothermal projects, providingcritical monitoring, measurement, and verification (MMV), and offeringstability for long-term monitoring. Tracers provide quantifiable proof of flow,eliminating speculation and uncertainties and removing assumptions frommodeling. Tracer technology mitigates reliability and operational concerns: othertechnologies that rely on power for operation and communication are prone toeventual failure. Key considerations include duration before failure, detectionof failure, and remediation plans.