The oil and gas industry in the United States today has a much different character than it did prior to 1980. No longer does “Big Oil” dominate the makeup of America’s oil and gas sector. For the most part, the major oil companies have focused their attention on more-lucrative prospects outside of the United States.

Independent oil and gas producers—small businesses typically employing no more than 10 full-time employees—now drill 85 percent of the Nation’s wells and produce 65 percent of its natural gas and 40 percent of its oil (nearly 60 percent in the Lower 48 States). Most of these companies, however, are working on small financial margins and have few resources to risk on developing technological solutions to the problems they encounter in their oil or gas fields.

Communicating data and results from NETL oil and gas research projects to the industry community is important to the future viability of America’s oil and gas industry.  DOE has made oil and natural gas technology transfer targeted specifically to small independent producers one of its highest priorities. In the past calendar year alone, almost 6,000 CDs on technology topics were distributed at trade shows and conferences on such topics as slurry technology, microhole technology, coalbed natural gas, South-Central Alaska gas recovery methods, compilation of major oil reservoirs in the Permian Basin, Class Field Demonstration Project summaries, PC Pipe Talley Sheet program, newsletters, and software.

One of the primary technology transfer tools developed and fully maintained by the Oil and Natural Gas Program is its web based “Reference Shelf”. This area houses a wealth of information, links, documents and data from Program supported projects and studies that are freely available to, academia, industry, and the public including:

• Project factsheets which provide detailed information about completed and active R&D projects supported by the Program,
• Publications such as, final project reports, topical reports, and program related brochures
• Links to newsletters such as, E&P Focus, GasTIPS, FITI, and Eye on the Environment
• Information about Oil and Natural Gas Program related solicitations
• Project deliverables, datasets, software, & databases, freely available to download or order on CD

To assist the small and independent operators who own the vast majority of the Nation’s “stripper” wells—those that produce less than 10 barrels per day of oil or less than 60 thousand cubic feet per day of natural gas—NETL organized a Stripper Well Consortium - external site in association with Pennsylvania State University. The consortium allows operators to leverage their resources and experiences, with federal assistance, to analyze the causes of premature well declines and to apply the latest technologies to correct them.

NETL in September 2003 implemented a project to create a Gas Storage Technology Consortium (GSTC - external site) to provide a vehicle for R&D designed to enhance operational flexibility and deliverability of the Nation’s gas storage system. The project consolidates earlier DOE research conducted in concert with the Gas Technology Institute and Pipeline Research Council International. GSTC supports these research efforts and, through roadmap sessions and other industry input, will further define research to be funded through it. The consortium focuses on research needs as defined by the storage industry.

The PUMP (Preferred Upstream Management Practices) program was specifically designed to help slow the decline in the Nation’s oil production and to maintain the domestic infrastructure to continue to produce oil. PUMP was aimed at pairing “best practices” and solutions coming from new technologies with an active campaign of disseminating information to domestic producers.

Identifying those new-technology needs among America’s oil and gas producers also is part of NETL’s mission. The PRIME (Public Resources Invested in Management and Extraction) program [PDF-6000KB] - emphasizes longer-term, higher-risk research with the goal of reducing costs, risks, and environmental impacts associated with finding and producing U.S. petroleum resources. In kicking off the program, NETL conducted a 2001 workshop in Houston, TX, convening over 60 technology developers and users from industry, academia, and the DOE National Laboratories. The workshop’s purpose was to get industry input on exploration and production technology R&D needs and opportunities to facilitate the public-private partnerships that would follow.

In 1995, DOE developed a special program to specifically focus on assisting independent producers, Technology Development with Independents, in developing demonstrating technologies especially relevant to the operations of domestic independent oil and gas producers. These efforts entailed cost-shared R&D field demonstration projects whose results and lessons learned were quickly disseminated to the industry through workshops and other communications efforts.

NETL’s Native American Initiative sought to stimulate economic development and increase oil and natural gas production on American Indian lands while protecting the environment. The program supported the development and application of innovative petroleum technologies and promoted government-to-government relationships and Tribal partnerships with industry and academia. The program required oil and gas companies working on NETL projects on Tribal lands to take on Tribes as partners and to employ Tribal members where possible.

An additional technology transfer effort is NETL’s Russian technology program, which was implemented in support of the Administration’s goals for diversity of hydrocarbon supply. The objective of this program is to investigate promising Russian technologies that may be more advanced than those commercially available in the United States. The program addresses technologies in two areas: oil pipeline spill detection and upstream oil production. DOE’s Russian Cooperative Research Program was initiated via a kickoff meeting in Moscow in June 2004. The projects announced to date focus on identification of arctic resources and improved oil recovery via enhanced fracturing techniques and optimized carbon dioxide flooding.