Episode 181 | Carbon Clarity | Locus Bio-Energy
In Episode 178 we discussed how an innovative new downhole compressor technology could help gas producers get more production without the need to drill new wells. This translated into more efficiency through the savings from bringing these new wells online.
Ohio-based Locus Bio-Energy is also making that case. Instead of a mechanical device, they are proving they can get more production from existing wells that use their bio-surfactant, a drilling fluid that allows oil to flow more freely through formations.
Last year, Locus’ bio-surfactant became the world’s first ISO-14064-certified EOR technology. 14064 is a 3-part, international standard for greenhouse gas management activities, including emissions inventories.
“What that certification allows operators to do that are using our chemistry is to seek that into the reduction in scope and their carbon intensity accounting which is becoming more and more important over time,” says Marty Shumway, Locus Bio-Energy’s Senior Vice President.
Marty says they were able to share case histories that showed how using their surfactant on existing wells produced more oil & gas than business-as-usual. The increased production means fewer new wells, including energy-intensive “unconventional wells,” i.e. those that require fracking.
“We're not suggesting that we can eliminate hydraulic fracturing and drilling by using our chemistry,” Marty points out. Rather, they believe their surfactant can “keep production flat,” not dropping off over time at the rates these wells do over their lifetimes.
Surfactants are just one of many drilling fluids used in the production of oil and gas. Specifically, they can help oil dissolve in water easier, and reduce surface tension (imagine a bead of water). This is important for oil & gas because these molecules have to often pass through dense rock on their way to the surface.
Marty says their surfactants have shown increased production numbers, even when used during “primary production,” when hydrocarbons rise to the surface under natural conditions. This sounds like an excuse to sell more chemical, right? Marty says they’ve also shown that operators need less of their surfactant because it appears to have longer “survivability” in the reservoir.
I was curious is this certification, like the earlier episode, is indication of a change in attitudes across the oil sector, where CO2 production is part of the bargain.
“I think the idea of looking at the carbon intensity of produced oil makes a lot of sense for me,” says Marty. “I think the oil industry is catching up to what the gas industry has already realized and done,” with efforts like “certified green gas.”
Yet Marty also believes that proven performance and good financial sense will still drive customers to use a product like this.
“It’s another arrow in the quiver of tools that these companies can do,” he says.
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