MORGANTOWN, WV - Drilling for natural gas is not as simple as digging a
hole. It is a complex process that involves cutting
rock, transporting cuttings to the surface, controlling
the flow of gases and fluids into the wellbore, and
preserving the producing potential of the target
formation - all while minimizing environmental damage.
What's more, shallow and conventional gas resources in
the United States are being depleted, so that drillers
must do all of this miles below the earth's surface, at
very high temperatures, and at pressures hundreds of
times greater than atmospheric pressure.
To meet the increasing
challenges of drilling for natural gas, the Department
of Energy (DOE) has selected two new projects to advance
drilling performance.
In two-year, cost-shared
projects, MASI LLC and Terralog Technologies will
investigate "smart drilling" options to increase
productivity, improve drilling safety, and reduce costs.
Managed by DOE's Strategic Center for Natural Gas, the
projects support the President's National Energy Policy,
which calls for boosting domestic production of natural
gas to ensure an adequate future supply at reasonable
prices.
Estimates indicate that
U.S. natural gas consumption will increase by more than
50 percent by 2025. DOE's Office of Fossil Energy works
to maintain secure, reliable, and affordable supplies of
natural gas to meet this increasing demand. The
Strategic Center for Natural Gas implements all elements
of DOE's natural gas research, "from borehole to burner
tip," and oversees a comprehensive research and
technology development program. Projects to enhance
natural gas exploration and production in the near-,
mid-, and long-term are a key component of the research
program.
Descriptions of the two
new projects follow:
- MASI LLC,
Houston, TX, will conduct a two-phase project
to determine how micro-bubbles called aphrons help
seal permeable and fractured wellbore rock during
drilling, minimizing reservoir damage. An aphron is a
uniquely structured micro-bubble of air or gas created
by combining surfactants and polymers in drilling
fluid. Aphrons fill fractures and pores in rocks and
other media, creating seals that stop or slow the
entry of fluid. With damage to the gas reservoir
minimized, drillers are able to use conventional
drilling equipment to complete wells that previously
would have required more expensive drilling methods.
This two-year project has
a total budget of $1,234,607. DOE's share is $568,845.
- Terralog
Technologies, Arcadia, CA, will undertake a
comprehensive research project to advance the basic
understanding of the physical mechanisms involved in
combined percussion and rotary drilling.
There is clear evidence
that the combination of percussion and rotary drilling
provides significant improvement in penetration rates
in hard-rock environments. This has led to advances in
"percussion" or "hammer" drills using both mud and air
systems. However, the fundamental rock mechanics
associated with percussion drilling have not been
fully defined and adequately modeled. In addition,
there are no practical simulation tools available to
help design and optimize percussion drilling
operations. As a result, cost and reliability concerns
have limited the wide-spread application of percussion
drilling by industry. By addressing these needs, the
project will help industry recover vast untapped gas
resources contained in deep, hard-rock environments
more economically and efficiently.
- The two-year project has a total budget of $650,656. DOE's share is $520,525.
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