I generally like warmer weather, but I am really looking forward to the end of daylight saving time in the U.S. and getting our hour back.
Speaking of getting time back, this week, we explore ways AI is helping operators increase efficiencies, and we look at a new tech that combines the warmth of the sun with the insulation from the ground to make idled wells a viable geothermal option. Let’s dig in!
Sarah Compton
Editor, Enspired
Bringing Solar to Idle Wells to Produce Geothermal Energy
Boy Anthony/ Shutterstock.com
Many oil and gas folks see an idled well as the end of an asset’s profitable life. A California-based Geo2Watts sees opportunity.
Supplementing solar: Intermittency is an issue with solar and wind, and geothermal requires high enough subsurface temperatures to work, as well as a water source.
Combining the heat of solar with the potential for insulation from idle oil and gas wells is the name of the game for Geo2Watts.
How they do it:
Geo2Watts effectively converts idle wells to a thermal energy storage (TES) system by filling the well with a thermal storage/harvesting substance, such as phase-change materials.
The company also puts a proprietary heat exchanger in the well to add and extract heat from the converted well.
Solar thermal collectors are the source of the heat for the wells, though heat pumps and resistance heaters might also be used to heat pressurized water up to 175°C.
Powering up:
The TES is charged when that heated water is pumped within a closed-loop heat exchanger.
Heat is harvested and delivered to the evaporator/boiler of an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) power plant.
That harvested heat drives the power cycle to produce electricity, and the pressurized water flows through the same heat exchanger of the TES.
The role of geoscience: Geothermal gradient, reservoir characterization, data collection, and exploration for suitable sites all likely have a role to play as this technology moves into its pilot phases.
The big picture: Rather than finding a way around the weaknesses of renewable technology, this solution utilizes the strengths of them, as well as provides a way for companies to—perhaps profitably—offload their idle oil and gas wells. Although there is still a lot of tire kicking to be done, it’s an interesting and promising concept!
Want more information? Check out the JPT article here.
A message from AAPG Academy
Join AAPG Academy today at 12pm CDT as we learn how abandoned O&G wells were converted to geothermal to heat greenhouses and eliminate a food desert in tribal lands.
Get an inside look at how this project won with the U.S. Department of Energy and strategies for how your projects and research can be funded too!
A good argument could be made that AI is beyond the infancy stage in the oil and gas industry and is starting to enter its teenage years. It’s working its way into daily operations, supplementing, and in some cases supplanting, humans.
SLB recently announced that it autonomously drilled sections of five wells off the coast of Brazil, leading to a 60 percent faster drilling time overall. Decreasing drilling time not only reduces cost, but environmental impact, giving a powerful one-two punch of benefits to operators.
Jesus Lamas, president of SLB’s well construction unit, predicted that in the next three to five years, 15 percent of all wells will be autonomously controlled by AI.
So, while jobs won’t disappear overnight, it’s good to be aware of the potential impacts such a transition will have on available jobs, especially in geoscience.
In a similar vein, machine learning can predict equipment failures, which reduces downtime and potentially hazards onsite.
Lisa Helper, a geologist at Hilcorp, said the company estimates it can prevent roughly half a billion cubic feet of gas production from going offline with such predictions.
Baker Hughes can predict equipment failure within 30 days on about 65 percent of a particular Permian Basin client’s wells, and, in a nod to a common method for frac modeling, combining physics with data science is expected to yield higher probabilities of prediction.
A few leaders have said AI won’t replace you, but the people using AI will. I don’t think that’s entirely accurate, as some jobs lend themselves more readily to automation than others.
It’s up to us as geoscientists to know how best to implement these tools and make sure we’re not limiting our skillsets to tasks easily conquered by AI.
Dive deeper:Learn more about AI and drilling in this Bloomberg report.
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