Entrepreneurial Innovation Technology
advancements in the US Oil industry
By Igor Sill T
he recent announcement from Paris-based International Energy Agency projects the US may become the world’s largest oil producer by around 2020, overtaking Saudi
Arabia, thanks
to new technologies capable of extracting previously inaccessible oil reserves and increased output achieved through innovative drilling advances. So, despite a worldwide oil shortage and high demands, the US can actually achieve energy dependence while potentially enjoying lower oil and gas prices. Improved vehicle efficiencies along with clean energy would allow the US, which currently imports around 20 percent of its total energy needs, to become fully energy independent by 2035. So, what’s happened that’s creating this remarkably rapid rise in domestic oil supply in the US?
Recently, US oil exploration and extraction have been all about applying new technology advancements to oil resource plays. Significant advances in extraction and lift technology now allows us to remove heavier grades of crude out of existing oil fields more cost
effectively. These plays are
opening huge new reservoir targets with vast hydrocarbon deposits in regions all across our country. One of the highest-profile plays to surface is the 17 million acre Mississippian Lime area which covers Northern Oklahoma and Kansas. This is in contrast to the wildly successful 15 million acres in
20 entrepreneurcountry
North Dakota and Montana’s Bakken region and 6 million in Texas’ Eagle Ford oil rich fields. The North Dakota Petroleum Council estimates that 30,000 direct oil field jobs have been created in western North Dakota over the last three years and that an additional 7,000-10,000 direct jobs will be created each year over the next 5 years. For every direct job created in the oil play, an additional two indirect jobs are created.
Interestingly,
Montana and North Dakota are the only two states to have had budget surpluses each year starting in 2009 going through the current year.
Most tend to agree that while the Bakken has an advantage in reservoir shape, the structurally thin Bakken requires operators to drill wells with horizontal legs up to two miles long, whereas Mississippian drillers can drill shallower vertically or horizontally with far better economics.
The
Mississippian Lime is reversing the decline of oil production in the US because of the many continual fine tuning and innovative technological advances that have been made in 3D Seismic Imaging and horizontal drilling.
Mississippian Lime operators
The added bonus for is
that they are working in the heart of the country with ready access to transportation infrastructure, better weather conditions, skilled professionals, plenty of oil services and equipment.
Rigs offshore Oil refinery
Horizontal production is in full ramp- up mode in the Mississippian, and an interesting aspect of the play is that conventional verticals work as well.
The Mississippi Lime has been active for over 50 years with conventional vertical wells, but what has transformed it into a leading oil play is the advent of advanced horizontal drilling techniques, seismic imaging, multistage production and new artificial lift technologies.
What makes the Mississippi Lime play attractive is that the wells are relatively simple and inexpensive to frac. Drillers are able to use low horsepower rigs and low horsepower frac equipment making it extremely cost-efficient to drill into the formation with horizontal
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