Episode 178 | Lighter Lift | Upwing Energy
It takes energy to make energy. For oil & gas producers, this is becoming more important, especially when it comes to CO2 emissions produced as a result.
California-based Upwing Energy believes they have a solution that can help producers get more out of existing wells, and significantly reduce the amount of carbon produced making hydrocarbons. Since 2019, they have been developing their Subsurface Compression System (SCS), a device works inside the well, rather than the surface.
“It’s always more efficient to push than to pull,” says Herman Artinian, Upwing’s President & CEO. For conventional natural gas wells (i.e. those that do not require fracking), hydrocarbons rise to the surface under their own pressure. To get remaining natural gas, operators have historically used compressors at the surface to reduce pressure and create a vacuum (“pull”). This is energy-intensive, and often causes the valuable condensate liquids to drop out on their mile-long journey to the surface.
Alternatively, the SCS is a skinny, 5” diameter compressor that can slide down the well and “push” gas and condensate to the surface.
Herman says artificial lift methods have existed for natural gas, but “There is nothing that really [has existed] for natural gas.” He claims the SCS is 5:1 more energy efficient than surface compressors for recovering natural gas.
In addition to the energy gains at each well, these also provide considerable gains for the oil & gas industry as a whole. Herman says 20-40% of natural gas from these conventional reservoirs can be recovered through their solution. These conventional reservoirs hold as much natural gas a new unconventional well.
“Every one [of our tools] deployed will save one drilling,” he says. This would offset all the activity needed to bring these unconventional wells online (i.e. drilling, fracking, pumping). Upwing cites a report that claims this offset amounts to 8,000 tons per well, and as much as 40 million tons of CO2 per year.
This is solution is just one of the ways the oil & gas industry is taking the “new math” of CO2 into account. Yes, hydrocarbons emit carbon, that’s inescapable. But solutions like these can increase efficiency and significantly reduce emissions as a whole.
“We’re going to need as much as we can bring up to the surface,” says Herman. “But both the industry, as well as people around the world, want it to be sustainable.”
Useful Links: