Miller Energy

A Department of Energy-sponsored technology that allows natural gas and oil explorers to drill safer, more productive wells by using a high-speed, down-hole communications system has crossed a major milestone: A prototype is being successfully tested in a full-scale commercial well for the first time, putting it on the fast track to commercialization. (more…)

Program Goal The goal of DOE’s Deep Trek Program is to develop technologies that lower the cost and improve the efficiency of drilling and completing deep wells. New tools and technologies that help operators safely drill faster, deeper, cheaper, and cleaner will help ensure an adequate supply of clean-burning natural gas for the nation

“Deeper” and “smarter” will likely be the watchwords of America’s drilling industry in the coming years, especially as the nation’s natural gas producers try to keep up with growing demands for this clean-burning fuel.

Although more than 70 percent of the natural gas produced in the United States already comes from wells at 5,000 feet or deeper, only seven percent comes from formations below 15,000 feet. Yet, at these deeper depths, an estimated 125 trillion cubic feet of natural gas is thought to be trapped.

Tapping into this resource will be both technologically daunting and expensive. For wells deeper than 15,000 feet, as much as 50 percent of drilling costs can be spent in penetrating the last 10 percent of a well’s depth. The rock is typically hot, hard, abrasive, and under extreme pressure. Often, in deeper wells, it is not uncommon for the drill bit to slow to only two to four feet per hour at operating costs of tens of thousands of dollars a day for a land rig and millions of dollars a day for deep offshore formations. And it is exceedingly difficult to control the precise trajectory of a well when the drill bit is nearly three miles below the surface.

These conditions test the limits of today’s drilling technology. In September 2003, the National Petroleum Council issued a report to the Secretary of Energy that recommended actions to improve natural gas supplies over the next 20 years. The major “technology needs” identified to exploit deep drilling include equipment and sensors able to withstand high temperatures and high pressures, expandable pipe to reduce weight, lightweight composite pipe materials, and micro-technologies to allow smaller diameter wells.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy kicked off Deep Trek a year earlier in 2002 to help develop high-tech drilling tools that industry needs to tackle these deeper deposits. The goal is to develop a “smart” drilling system tough enough to withstand the extreme temperatures, pressures and corrosive conditions of deep reservoirs, yet economical enough to make the gas affordable to produce. The DOE awarded five Deep Trek research projects in September 2002, three in May 2003 and two more the following September with a total cost of nearly $18 million, almost $10 million of which is being contributed by research partners. These projects include advancing drilling performance, developing “smart” communication systems, instrumentation, novel drill bits and fluids, and novel pipe systems that are able to withstand the severe temperatures (over 400 degrees F) and pressures in deep horizons.

These “smart” drilling systems can report key measurements – temperature, pressure, fluid content, geology, etc. – as a well is drilled. Sophisticated electronic systems can identify potential trouble spots on a real-time basis, allowing operators to make adjustments without interruption or costly work stoppages.

Deep Trek builds on a solid track record of achievements in past drilling R&D partnerships between the federal government and private industry.

DOE’s Other Drilling Advancements

DOE’s past drilling advancements include the first system to transmit drill bit location by sending pressure pulses through drilling mud, which was developed by the Energy Department and Teleco, Inc. Today, this “mud pulse” measurement-while-drilling telemetry has become standard in the industry.

More recently, the Office of Fossil Energy’s drilling program produced the next major advance in downhole telemetry. A new technology system sponsored by DOE called IntelliPipe™ turns an oil and gas drill pipe into a high-speed data transmission tool capable of sending data from the bottom of a well up to 200,000 times faster than mud pulse and other downhole telemetry technology in common use today. The system has proven remarkably reliable in extensive US and Canadian field trials. Potential benefits include decreased costs, improved safety, and reduced environmental impacts from drilling. Former Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham called the IntelliPipe™ “one of the most remarkable advances in drilling technology in the last 25 years.” The system was developed by Novatek Engineering, Provo, Utah, and Grant Prideco, Houston, Texas, a global leader in drill pipe technology, who formed a joint venture, IntelliServ™ to market the revolutionary pipe. Grant Prideco’s announcement in February of the commercial launch of its IntelliServ Network and related Intellipipe™ technology capped five years of research sponsored by DOE.

Revolutionary new drill bits are also one of the “success stories” of the Energy Department’s research program. The prime example is the polycrystalline diamond drill bit, now the industry standard for drilling into difficult formations. Prior to the early 1980s, drill bit manufacturers had been unable to adhere industrial-grade diamond cutters to the bit. Scientists at the Energy Department’s Sandia National Laboratories solved the problem by developing a “diffusion bonding” approach. More recently, Penn State University, working under an Office of Fossil Energy contract, developed a way to use microwaves to harden the tungsten carbide of deep drilling bits, resulting in a 30 percent increase in strength.

The drilling system of the future may also employ new advances in drill pipe materials as a result of the Energy Department’s research program. In mid 2004, the Department announced the development of a new “composite” drill pipe that is lighter, stronger and more flexible than steel, which could significantly alter the ability to drain substantially more oil and gas from rock than traditional vertical wells.

The new carbon fiber drill pipe could be especially important in drilling horizontal wells that require the drill pipe to bend on a short radius. It could also play a key role in deep drilling where the weight of the drill pipe is an especially important factor. The carbon fiber drill pipe is likely to weigh less than half the weight of steel drill pipe, and the lighter the pipe, the less torque and drag is created, and the greater distance a well can be drilled both vertically and horizontally.

Development of alternative sources of natural gas, such as methane hydrate, can help to guard against potential supply interruptions or shortages and improve energy security.

Methane hydrate is a cage-like lattice of ice inside of which are trapped molecules of methane, the chief constituent of natural gas. If methane hydrate is either warmed or depressurized, it will revert back to water and natural gas. When brought to the earth’s surface, one cubic meter of gas hydrate releases 164 cubic meters of natural gas. Hydrate deposits may be several hundred meters thick and generally occur in two types of settings: under Arctic permafrost, and beneath the ocean floor. Methane that forms hydrate can be both biogenic, created by biological activity in sediments, and thermogenic, created by geological processes deeper within the earth.

While global estimates vary considerably, the energy content of methane occurring in hydrate form is immense, possibly exceeding the combined energy content of all other known fossil fuels. However, future production volumes are speculative because methane production from hydrate has not been documented beyond small-scale field experiments.

The U.S. R&D program is focused on the two major technical constraints to production: 1) the need to detect and quantify methane hydrate deposits prior to drilling, and 2) the demonstration of methane production from hydrate at commercial volumes. Recent and planned research and field trials should answer these two issues.

In recent field tests, researchers have demonstrated the capability to predict the location and concentration of methane hydrate deposits using reprocessed conventional 3-D seismic data, and new techniques, including multi-component seismic, are being tested. Modeling of small-volume production tests in the U.S. and Canadian Arctic suggest that commercial production is possible using depressurization and thermal stimulation from conventional wellbores. Large-scale production tests are planned in the Canadian Arctic in the winter of 2008 and in the U.S. Arctic in the following year.

Demonstration of production from offshore deposits will lag behind Arctic studies by three to five years, because marine deposits are less well documented, and marine sampling and well tests are significantly more expensive.

Why We Need Methane From Hydrate

Natural gas is an important energy source for the U.S. economy, providing almost 23 percent of all energy used in our Nation’s diverse energy portfolio. A reliable and efficient energy source, natural gas is also the least carbon-intensive of the fossil fuels.

Historically, the United States has produced much of the natural gas it has consumed, with the balance imported from Canada through pipelines. According to EIA, total U.S. natural gas consumption is expected to increase from about 22 trillion cubic feet today to 26 trillion cubic feet in 2030- a projected jump of more than 18 percent.

Production of domestic conventional and unconventional natural gas cannot keep pace with demand growth. The development of new, cost-effective resources such as methane hydrate can play a major role in moderating price increases and ensuring adequate future supplies of natural gas for American consumers.

International Cooperation in Methane Hydrate R&D

In April and June 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy signed agreements for cooperative research efforts with representatives from three countries with gas hydrate research programs: India, Korea and Japan. Officials from DOE and the Indian government signed a Memorandum of Understanding for Cooperation in Methane Hydrate Research and Development in New Delhi on April 4. The agreement provides for exchange of information and personnel in the areas of exploration and quantification of natural gas hydrates, resource assessments, laboratory characterization, and production testing.
On April 18, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and South Korea Minister Lee Youn-ho signed a Statement of Intent to exchange information on gas hydrate topics and technologies. Korea is looking to gas hydrates as a future energy source and hopes to take part in U.S. pilot testing early next year.

On June 6, 2008, Secretary Bodman and Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Akira Amari signed a Statement of Intent for cooperation in methane hydrate research and development. Japan has an active methane hydrate R&D program that has resulted in the discovery of large offshore hydrate deposits and successful short-term production testing in the Canadian arctic.

Addressing Water Issues Key to Increasing U.S. Shale Gas Production

DOE 04/2009 Washington, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces the release of “Modern Shale Gas Development in the United States: A Primer.” The Primer provides regulators, policy makers, and the public with an objective source of information on the technology advances and challenges that accompany deep shale gas development.

Natural gas production from hydrocarbon rich deep shale formations, known as “shale gas,” is one of the most quickly expanding trends in onshore domestic oil and gas exploration. The lower 48 states have a wide distribution of these shales containing vast resources of natural gas. Led by rapid development in the Barnett Shale in Texas, current shale gas activity is also found in areas of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Illinois, and the Appalachian Basin. Some of these areas have seen little or no oil and gas activity in the past and new shale gas development can bring change to the environmental and socio-economic landscape. With these changes have come questions about the nature of shale gas development, the potential environmental impacts, and the ability of the current regulatory structure to deal with this development.

DOE recognized the need for a report that presents credible, factual information to address these questions. The Primer describes the importance of shale gas in meeting the future energy needs of the United States. It provides an overview of modern shale gas development, as well as a summary of federal, state, and local regulations applicable to the natural gas production industry, and describes environmental considerations related to shale gas development.

Clean-burning natural gas will continue to play a vital role in meeting U.S. energy needs. And, U.S. natural gas supply is expected to come increasingly from domestic gas-filled shales. Key to the emergence of shale gas production has been the refinement of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing technologies. These technologies enable industry to produce more natural gas from the shale formations economically and with less disturbance of surface environments.

Protecting and conserving water resources is an important aspect of producing shale gas, and this DOE-funded effort was championed by the Ground Water Protection Council, the national association of state ground water and underground injection agencies whose mission is to promote the protection and conservation of ground water for all beneficial uses. The Primer provides fact-based technical information for public education and informed regulation and policy decisions on the environmentally responsible development of the Nation’s shale gas resources.

- End of Techline