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December 2013/January 2014

SCIENCE

DETECTIVESCan new research unlockthe potential of Wyomingsaging oil fields?


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Wyoming Energy Journal |3December 2013 / January 2014


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4 |Wyoming Energy Journal December 2013 / January 2014

Wyoming Energy Journal is published six times each year by theCasper Star-Tribune at 170 Star Lane, Casper, WY 82604-2883.Toll-free: in Wyoming, 800-559-0583

Publisher: Nathan Bekke, 307-266-0503, [email protected] manager: Tom Biermann, 307-266-0606,

[email protected] reporter: Benjamin Storrow, 307-266-0639, benjamin.

[email protected]: Carol Seavey, 307-266-0544, [email protected]

December 2013 / January 2014

CONTENTSPAGE 8:Newtechnologyfor powerplantscoming outof federallabs

PAGE 17:TheEnhancedOilRecoveryInstitute

PAGE 22:Innovativewatertreatmentbreaksground

WYOMING ENERGY JOURNAL

ON THE COVER: Haifeng Jiang, a research scientist at the

University of Wyomings Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute laboratory,

poses for a photo Nov. 5 in Laramie.

New technology for power plants coming out offederal labs, page 5

A conversation with Mark Northam, page 6

Supercomputer research makes wind energy

more viable, page 8

New research may boost Wyomings energyindustry and diversify its economy, page 11

Inside the Hess Digital Rock Physics Lab at the

University of Wyoming, page 15

Making old oil fields new, page 17

University of Wyoming scientists look for waysto boost oil and gas production, page 19

University of Wyoming trying to move beyondslogan of clean coal, page 20

Innovative water treatment breaks ground, page22

Study: Wyo can economically turn natural gas

into gasoline, page 25


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Carbon capture turbines with Integrated Gasification Combine CycleFor decades, power plants have used IGCC technology to feed turbines by gasifying coal and using

carbon monoxide and hydrogen as an energy source. Now NETL scientists want to gasify the coal athigher temperatures and use the hydrogen while replacing the carbon monoxide with carbon dioxide tomake cleaner and cheaper energy.

NETL scientists have found that power plants will be able to continue to use hydrogen to fuelturbines and remove the carbon dioxide before it hits the atmosphere by gasifying coal at highertemperatures and pressures. Power plants will be able to reduce their costs and the amount of nitrogenproduced during gasification if they crank up the heat.

Oxy-Fuel Turbines

Its a brand new concept unseen anywhere in the world. It will take a synthesis of either coal byproductsor natural gas to act as one half of the working fluid inside the turbine. The solution will be mixedwith pure oxygen and combusted to create the other half, creating a working fluid of water andcarbon dioxide. Since the oxygen is pure there will be no thermal oxides from nitrogen derived fromcombustion, and the water leaving the turbine as exhaust can be easily condensed and captured.


Gone are the days when the U.S. Geological Survey was the pioneer of exploration and technological innovation in the energy industry.Universities, private industry and the Department of Energy are now the leading players who push the boundaries for research anddevelopment in todays markets for crude, coal, wind, solar and natural gas advancements.

The DOEs National Energy Technology Laboratory is the arm of the federal government that keeps the nation ahead of the curve in theenergy industry. No matter what youve heard about the Obama administrations war on coal and other fossil fuels, federal scientists areworking on an array of projects that will help the industry evolve at a time when more and more people are calling for cleaner, greener energy.

Here are three NETL projects Wyoming power plants could see in the next 10 years.

New technology for power plants coming out of federal labs

Photo: An extruded Inconel 740H pipe that is suitable for high temperature and pressure conditions is being

produced. (Courtesy of NETL)

Photo: Face plate of a Clean Energy System Inc. oxy-fuel combustor. (Courtesy of NETL)

By KYLE ROERINK, Star-Tribune staff writer

Alloys, Steels and CoatingsPower plants need to burn at higher temperatures and handle greater pressures to reduce emissions.NETL is coupling its push to advance more energy efficient turbines with its effort to create alloys,steels and coatings for power plants that will handle more heat and higher pressures. The goal iscreating materials that can withstand up to 1,400 degrees Fahrenheit and 5,000 pounds of pressure persquare inch.

UNDER THE

MICROSCOPE

Photo: GE H-Class Gas Turbine on the Half Shell Used for Combined Cycle Operation. (Courtesy of NETL)


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6|Wyoming Energy Journal December 2013 / January 2014

Mark Northam is thedirector of the Universityof Wyoming School of

Energy Resources. He sat downwith the Casper Star-Tribunein early November to talk aboutresearch and development in thestate - and how it is impactingWyomings energy industry.

CST: Why is research anddevelopment important to theWyoming energy industry?

Northam: The economy of thestate is heavily tied to the pro-duction of energy resources, oil,gas, coal, uranium, wind. We sellit all as commodities so that asthe national economy waxes andwanes the value to the state goesup and down. It wreaks havoc onour economy.

There are a number of reasonsfor research. One is to ensure thatwe get optimum recovery of thoseresources from discovered fieldsand mines. In every case, we leavea lot of it behind. The second is ifwe can do research on ways to addvalue to it in the state. We con-sume cheap resources and createvaluable products like motor fuels,petrochemicals, etc. We not onlycreate jobs in Wyoming, but weremove ourselves one step fromthat boom and bust cycle causedby selling commodities.

CST: What role does the Uni-versity of Wyoming play inthe research and developmentsector in the state?

Northam:The School of EnergyResources helps create the strat-egy on where we should focus.The state funds the School ofEnergy Resources and we in turnaward funds in the form of grantto faculty doing research that alignwith that strategy. I would say thatthe first level the school providesis making sure that our strategicdirection aligns with the needs ofthe state. The second is as a cus-todian of the states investment toensure that the funds are investedin the appropriate areas.

CST: What is the strategicdirection of the state?

Northam: Right now there aretwo main things the school is in-volved in. We are the owners of thestrategic investment in unconven-

tional reservoirs. Weve expandedthe definition of unconventionalreservoirs to include shale oil,shale gas, tight gas those areall traditional unconventionalresources. We are also includingmature oil and gas fields. Oil andgas fields that have basically givenup nearly everything we can getout of the ground. In most cases,there is about half of what wasoriginally there in place. That iswhere the improved and enhancedoil recovery programs come in.

The other strategic area weare investing in is what we callconversion technology. That areawe are focused on conversion ofnatural gas and coal to resourcesthat we have in abundance, but

Big dollars,big solutionsA conversation with Mark Northam

RYAN DORGAN | STAR-TRIBUNE

Director of the University of Wyoming School of Energy Resources Mark

Northam poses for a portrait Nov. 5 in Laramie.

Qa&By BENJAMIN STORROW, Star-Tribune staff writer


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dont do anything with otherthan sell it to other people. Werefocused on converting to highervalue products, specifically motorfuels and petrochemicals.

CST: Can we put a dollaramount on the research beingdone here?

Northam: Not one Id be com-fortable with. I can say the statehas invested about $35 millionthat has been matched one to oneby outside entities in what theycall clean coal and conversiontechnologies. That has all been

put to work. That is an $80 millionprogram and has been going since2007.

The state has invested $1.6 mil-lion in in-situ uranium recoveryresearch. The state has invested$13 million in carbon sequestra-tion research, which is related toour energy programs because it isa way of reducing carbon emis-sions into the atmosphere. Thoseare separate funded programs that

the state provided funding for.

We probably invested overtime about 40 percent of SERsbase budget in research; that basefunding would come to about$20 million. That is to fund justresearch.

CST: What are we doing welltoday in Wyoming in terms ofR&D and what do we need todo better?

Northam:In a broad sense, weredoing well at multidisciplineprogrammatic research. One ofthem is in reservoir characteriza-tion. That is experiential work in

the laboratory that defines wherefossil energy resources are locatedin a reservoir and how they movethrough a reservoir. A relatedpiece is the computational sciencethat allows us to take what wefind in the laboratory and scaleup and simulate to the field scale.Thats an area where were doingextremely well.

In the area of enhanced andimproved oil recovery we are

building programs that will leave a

mark on the future in how we getleft-behind oil out of a reservoir.Again, Im talking only about theenergy areas.

I think we are doing a good jobof the early stages of how do we

convert synthesis gas which isthe synthesis of coal and naturalgas to petrochemical precursors.Those would be raw materialsthat we would then ship to thechemical industry and they take itand make the things that becomeplastics and textiles and chemicalsthat are sold.

I think were doing an excel-lent job for developing procedures

for reclaiming disturbed lands,lands that are disturbed for energyproduction. That is through theWyoming Reclamation and Resto-ration Center.

CST: And what do we need todo better?

Northam:Personally, I believe,and some people would disagree,that we need to do a better job of

taking fundamental research and

moving it through the pipelineand making it available to opera-tors in the state. Thats a generalarea.

A more specific area, we needto do a better job reducing emis-

sions from coal and natural gas.We are very good, I think wereamong the best, at defining aproject where we would store thecarbon dioxide underground. Butwe have very little in the way ofhow do we actually remove carbondioxide from emission streams.Thats something we will befocusing on during this Tier OneCollege of Engineering initiative,

is developing an area there.The holy grail for keeping fossilenergy in clean energy markets ischeap methods for reducing CO2emissions. We can do it now, but itis too costly to become a commer-cial entity.

Reach Benjamin Storrowat 307-266-0639 or [email protected]. Follow him

on Twitter @bstorrow

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Supercomputer research makeswind energy more viable

The NCAR-Wyoming

Supercomputing Center is shown

on Nov. 7 in Cheyenne.

Big thinkStory by KYLE ROERINK, Star-Tribune staff writer

Photos by ALAN ROGERS, Star-Tribune staff photographer


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Humans have failed topredict the weather formillennia.

A supercomputer in Wyo-

ming may change that.Its name is Yellowstone andit is the brainchild of the Na-tional Center for AtmosphericResearch and IBM. It makes1.5 quadrillion computationsper second and is 72,288 timesfaster than your average laptopcomputer.

Yellowstone may be the keyto forecasting the weather

better than ever before whilemaking renewable energysources more reliable. Pinningthe computer as a panacea mayseem like a fools errand, butit has the faithof preeminentresearch-ers across theglobe. The

breadth ofYellowstonescapabilities isso large that re-searches from

around theworld are waiting in line to runexperiments on the machine.

NCAR is 200 percent overrequested allocations for run-ning simulations on Yellow-stone, said Aaron Andersen,deputy director for operationsand services at the NCAR-Wy-oming Supercomputer Centerin Cheyenne.

The machine is working be-tween 96 and 98 percent of itscapacity at any given time, hesaid.

Weve done a lot of work tomake sure the machine is full,he said.

In its first year of operation,

Yellowstone has explored thenature of tornadoes, hurri-canes, water shortages, solarpatterns and wind. Scientistshope it will give them a betterunderstanding of the world.Energy companies hope it willmake them more money.

The supercomputer sits a

few miles from the Happy JackWind Farm outside of Chey-enne. The turbines are visiblein the distance.

On a warm day in November,the turbines moved sluggishlydespite the wind.

Researchersat NCAR andthe Universityof Wyoming arehoping to allevi-ate the problem

by giving utilitycompanies betterdata to make en-hanced decisions

about where toinstall turbines to get the mostbangs for their bucks. Whilethe Happy Jack Wind Farm washaving a slow morning, Yel-lowstone was likely workingcomputations to study howwind moves around moun-tains, travels at night and rico-chets off turbines.

Ten years ago this wasntbeing done, said Sue Haupt,director of the Weather Sys-tems Assessment Program forNCAR.

The Yellowstone supercomputer at the NCAR-

Wyoming Supercomputing Center in Cheyenne

contains 70,000 processor cores. By comparison,

a modern laptop computer typically contains

two or four cores.

Aaron Andersen, deputy director for

operations and services at the NCAR-Wyoming

Supercomputing Center, is pictured outside the

facility Cheyenne.

NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center in

Cheyenne was built in a modular fashion that

will allow the facility to expand as needed.

Weve done a lot ofwork to make surethe machine is full. Aaron Andersen, deputy director

for operations and services at theNCAR-Wyoming Supercomputer

Center in Cheyenne


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Its situational awareness, shesaid.

The supercomputer is a gamechanger because it has the abilityto model whole wind farms andsimulate weather patterns that

span from coast to coast. Theadvanced modeling techniquesprovide scientists with a detailedpicture of when and why turbinesturn.

The data spewing out of Yel-lowstone will also help preserveturbines. In an ideal world, aturbine should last 20 years, Hauptsaid. But their actual lifespan hasbeen less than 10, she said.

Atmospheric turbulence knownas eddies is the problem. Theycause vibrations that beat ongear boxes and elicit other dam-ages that prematurely deteriorateturbines. Yellowstone will one daybe able to lay out a plan for turbineengineers to create turbines that

can withstand eddies, Haupt said.Eddies are just a fact of life,

she said.By plugging in data from NASA

satellites, researchers at NCARhave also been able to run simula-tions that predict weather patternsacross the nation that range from15 minutes to six hours from thepresent. After enough test runs,NCAR scientists hope the data willdelineate precise cloud movementsand other weather fronts that willgive utility companies accuratetimetables for when to take renew-

ables online and offline.Weather isnt static, Haupt

said, and Yellowstones data willone day be able to give utilitiessomething theyve never had be-fore: More time to plan ahead.

With a 24 hours notice, utilitycompanies will be able to knowwhen to switch from coal or natu-ral gas to a renewable source.

The foresight could be lucra-tive.

We want to make them moremoney, said Jonathan Naughton, amechanical engineering professorand director of UWs Wind EnergyResearch Center.

As wind power use gains mo-mentum, wind farms continue tobecome larger and larger, Naugh-

ton said. He and his colleagues areresearching the best way to lay outturbines for harvesting wind.

Smaller wind farms usuallysit in a linear row so wind doesnthave to recycle from one turbine toanother. But in larger farms whereturbines are stacked in rows. Thewind will pass through one turbineand lose energy before it enters thenext, Naughton said.

Known as a wake, Naughtonand his peers are looking to capturethe 40 to 50 percent of energy lostin passing from one turbine to thenext.

They are doing massive

simulations to figure out how tocapture reinvigorated wind after itpasses through one turbine beforeit enters into the next, he said.

For turbine engineers, UWsdata will be like a car engineerlearning more about the fuel thatgoes into an engine, Naughtonsaid.

We had ideas but we neededthe horse power of Yellowstoneto have the simulations we couldwork with, he said.

UW is one school in a numberof higher education institutionsaccessing Yellowstone, but it has ahome field advantage.

UW pumped $20 million intoYellowstone and will add $1 millioneach year for the next 20 years. Thepayoff is that it doesnt have to waitin a long line for access to the com-puter. It is guaranteed 20 percent

of Yellowstones computing space.Aside from wind projects, UW

researchers have used Yellowstoneto study seismic activity and theeffects of pine beetle infestationson the water flow in the GreenRiver Basin. Researchers have alsoused the computer to look at theColorado Basin water supply andoil and natural gas supplies.

Many more projects will becoming down the pike. Yellow-stones designers made sure of it.

Andersen and facility opera-tions manager Gary New designedthe building so the computer andits data storage area can double insize.

Yellowstone is festooned withbraids of yellow Ethernet cordsand orange fiber-optic cables thatrun along thousands of processorsstored in refrigerator-like cabinets

in a temperature-controlled room.New and Andersen expect there tobe more in the future. Hard drivessit in units that look like a mixbetween a greenhouse and a stor-age shed.

The computer is creating a tonof data, Andersen said. You needsome place to store it.

The mammoth computerrefrains from overheating thanks

to a tower-controlled evaporativecooling system designed similarlyto a car radiator that uses a waterloop to act as the medium forconvection.

Cheyenne Light and Powerprovides energy to the facility. Tenpercent of the energy fueling thesupercomputer and the facilitycomes from wind energy producedat the Happy Jack Wind Farm.Traditional resources such as

coal power the remainder.Just like the research being

performed using Yellowstone, Acomplex like NCARs in Cheyennewasnt something that existed 10years ago.

Its world-class right now,Andersen said.


An evaporative cooling tower is shown at the NCAR-WyomingSupercomputing Center on Nov. 7 in Cheyenne.


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The signs of the energy boom are everywhere at the Energy Innovation Center, the $25.4 million building theUniversity of Wyoming opened on its Laramie campus in January.

There is the Questar Conference Room with the windows that fog, preventing anyone outside from seeingin. There is the Encana Auditorium with the 3-by-2 matrix tile wall capable of showing images generated by theShell 3-D Visualization laboratory a few doors down the hallway.

The Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute laboratory boasts a face behavior apparatus to study the interactions ofcarbon dioxide and natural gas, and the slim tube apparatus to determine how much pressure to exert on an oilreservoir.

Equipping the huntNew research may boost Wyomings energy industry and diversify its economy


Dr. Mohammad Piri holds a collection of small rock pieces to be tested and observed inside a nano-CT scanner Nov. 5 at the University of Wyomings

Hess Digital Rock Physics Laboratory in Laramie.

By BENJAMIN STORROW, Star-Tribune staff writer


12/28

Over at the Hess Digital RocksPhysics Laboratory scientists usea focused ion beam-scanningelectron microscope and a seriesof high resolution scanners to testhow oil, gas and chemical stimu-

lants interact in rock formations.The gleaming hallways and

sparkling laboratories reflect thewave of new technology alteringthe oil and gas industry landscape.Technologies like horizontal drill-ing and hydraulic fracturing, toname just two of the more famousexamples, are helping produc-ers unlock the Cowboy Statespreviously inaccessible reservoirsof hydrocarbons. Its a lucrativecycle. As new technologies bringmore product to the market, moremoney is invested in research anddevelopment to bring yet evenmore product to bear.

The stakes are potentiallyenormous. Wyomings oil reservesalone stand at an estimated 15 bil-lion barrels, one to two billion ofwhich scientists believe can be ex-tracted from the ground in coming

decades. The research being doneat the Energy Innovation Centerwill help determine exactly howmuch oil and gas will come out ofthe ground and how quickly.

But in a state with an economystill vulnerable to fluctuations incommodity prices, the question isnot just how much oil and gas newresearch can help coax from theground. It is also whether researchcan be a means to its own end.

Wyoming booms when oil,gas and coal prices climb, andbusts when they fall, noted MarkNortham, director of the UWSchool of Energy Resources.

If we are selling the major-ity of those natural resources ascommodities, especially if we areworking with companies outsidethe state of Wyoming, than we areno different from a Third World

country, Northam said. We arean energy colony of the rest of theU.S.

Wyoming ranks last among all50 states in research and develop-ment. The state produced some$154 million in research and de-velopment expenditures in 2008,



A slim tube apparatus designed to simulate the high-pressure, high-heat subterranean environments used in

oil exploration is seen Nov. 5 at the University of Wyomings Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute laboratory in

Laramie.


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the last year for which completefigures were available, according to

the National Science Foundation.South Dakota, with expendituresof $254 million, was 49th.

In 2011, UW recorded some$57 million in total research anddevelopment expenditures, goodfor a national ranking of 190 outof about 900 colleges and uni-versities. Wyoming conferred 57doctorate degrees the same year,earning a ranking of 181, accordingto NSF data.

Research and development canbe a buffer against the traditionalcycle of boom and bust, Northamsaid. If, for instance, the statedeveloped the ability to convertpetroleum into petrochemicals,diesel and ethylene, it would addvalue to the initial product. Sud-

denly, instead of selling one com-modity the state is selling three,

lessening its reliance on oil andgas prices while adding jobs andincreasing tax revenues, he said.

Wyo-mingboasted aformidableresearch anddevelop-ment pres-ence duringthe oilboom of theearly 1980s,said DavidMohr-bacher,the director of the Enhanced OilRecovery Institute (EORI) at UW.

ExxonMobil, Shell and Amoco,

among a long list of other produc-ers, all operated in the state and

employed large research depart-ments. But when oil prices col-lapsed in the mid-80s, the large

companiesleft. Theysold theirWyomingoil fields andtook theirresearch de-partmentswith them.

Therewas a hugeexodus ofknow-howin the state,

he said.The new wave of technology

not only helps producers iden-

tify new resources, but offers abuffer against boom and bust, he

said. EORI performs much of theresearch small operators cant.Not only does that help themrecover more oil, it helps themkeep production costs down. If oilprices fall from $106 a barrel, theircurrent price, to $70 a barrel theproducer can still make a profitbecause their research is covered,he said.

Our job is to keep the cost ofproducing with advanced technol-ogy low, Mohrbacher said.

There is another notable dif-ference between the research anddevelopment being done today andin the 80s. In the 80s, companieswere fiercely protective of theirresearch, guarding it jealously lestit lend a competitor the advan-



J. David Mohrbacher, director of the University of Wyomings Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute, poses for a portrait Nov. 5 in Laramie.

Our job is to keepthe cost of producing

with advancedtechnology low.

J. David Mohrbacher, Director of theUniversity of Wyomings Enhanced Oil

Recovery Institute


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tage. Today companies are sharinginformation through UW, Mohr-bacher said.

EORI sponsors two workinggroups, one in the Powder River

Basins Minnelusa formation andanother in Ten Sleep Reservoir,comprising the Bighorn and WindRiver basins. Producers in bothareas share research about theeffectiveness of techniques usedin their respective fields. Theirresearch is supplemented by workdone by university researchers.

Together, you could say the groupsare trying to identify the best ex-tractive practice for their respec-tive formations.

Shane True, a geologist at the

Casper-based True Oil Co., notedthat EORIs expanded waterflood-ing plan helped increase produc-tion in the Timber Creek oil fieldin the Powder River Basin. ByMohrbachers estimate, produc-tion there doubled. Some 5 millionbarrels of oil are expected to beproduced at the field during the

next two to three decades.It improved our understand-

ing of the Minnelusa and we willtry to do similar things in our otherfields, True said. EORIs intentis to serve the public good. Whatthey have learned will be open to

public, which helps increase pro-duction and the tax base.It remains to be seen if Wyo-

ming can develop a research anddevelopment sector capable ofbuoying the economy in difficulttimes. But there is at least anec-dotal evidence to suggest that theenergy boom is boosting the Cow-boy States research capabilities.

Exxon Mobile recently gave theSchool of Energy Resources a $2.5

million grant, which was matchedby the state, for improved oil andgas recovery research. The goal isto increase recovery rates by ex-ploring everything from improvedcollaboration between chemists,geologists and engineers to usingtested extraction methods in newways. That research is expectedto take years before reaching thefield.

The new Digital Physics Lab atUW uses high resolution imagingto study how oil, rock and stimu-lants injected into fluids interact.At its most basic, the labs missionis to identify the chemical concoc-tion that will maximize oil flowfrom an underground geologicformation. The technology is not

yet widely used in the field, butresearchers at UW hope it will besoon.

Then there is the appliedresearch. EORIs work with manyof the states small operators isa prime example. Their work is

especially notable, as nearly 90percent of the states oil is pro-duced in fields that have been inproduction for more than 25 years.Those fields likely contain between15 billion and 20 billion barrelsof oil, Mohrbacher said. Of that,around one billion to two billionbarrels can likely be recovered incoming decades.

The economic impact ofbringing that oil to the surface is

significant. EORI-assisted projectsat Timber Creek in the PowderRiver Basin and Grieve oil fieldnear Casper will produce some$150 million in tax revenue duringthe course of their operationallifetimes, Mohrbacher said.

The state is doing well inresearch and development, butit clearly can do better, saidNortham, the School of Energy

Resources director.R&D allows us to climb theladder to becoming a more ad-vanced economy, he said.

Reach energy reportBenjaminStorrow at 307-266-0639 [email protected] him on Twitter @bstorrow


Haifeng Jiang, a research scientist at the University of Wyomings

Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute laboratory, works with a slim

tube apparatus designed to simulate the high-pressure, high-heat

subterranean environments used in oil exploration Nov. 5 in Laramie.


Tools and fittings used in testing rocks and fluids seen in oil reservoirs

are seen Nov. 5 at the University of Wyomings Enhanced Oil Recovery

Institute laboratory in Laramie.


15/28


Mohammad Piri likens his research to opening a black box. The box is the earths subsurface and its contents arethe estimated reserves of untapped oil and gas.Scientists, engineers and producers have spent more than a century probing the box. They have drilled verticalwells into it, and horizontal ones. They have injected water, carbon dioxide and soaps, among other things, into thebox to stimulate oil and gas flow.

A common thread connects all the different methods. No matter how they coaxed the box to give up its treasure ofhydrocarbons, none could look inside it and say for sure what was happening.

Opening the black boxInside the Hess Digital Rock Physics Lab at the University of Wyoming


Mohammad Piri speaks with a research scientist Nov. 5 at the University of Wyomings Hess Digital Rock Physics Laboratory in Laramie.

By BENJAMIN STORROW, Star-Tribune staff writer


16/28

How does oil, gas and brine sitin rock pores and how does theymove through those pores whena stimulant like water is added?How do oil, gas, brine, rock andstimulant interact under extreme

pressure and high temperatures?Those are the questionsthe Hess Digital Rocks PhysicsLaboratory at the University ofWyoming seeks to answer. The labopened in September with a $4.4million donation from the HessCorporation, a New York City-based oil company.

Digital rock physics is beingdriven by the large oil and gas playsin shale formations. The Bakken in

North Dakota is perhaps the mostfamous example in the UnitedStates, if not the world. Successfulas those plays have been, they onlyrecover a fraction of the oil and gasestimated to lie within the rocks.Shale formations usually yield lessthan percent of the hydrocarbonsthey contain, said Piri, an associateprofessor of chemical and petro-leum engineering and the labs

director.The lack of understanding of

what is happening in these reser-voirs is driving the development ofthis type of laboratory, Piri said.

The lab, he added, providesan opportunity to study theseflow problems that can potentiallyimprove recoveries from thesereservoirs. That is why digital rockphysics is becoming important.

How much more oil and gasmight be recovered? Piri cannotyet say, but he hopes the lab mightproduce an answer in the comingyears.

The technology the lab employsis not terribly unique. X-ray imag-ing has been around for a whileand the CT scanners on display arenot unlike those you would find ata hospital.

What is unique is how those

technologies have been integratedto study the interactions of rock,oil and stimulant.

The labs operations might bethought of in three basic func-tions. The first is the study ofthe oil-bearing rock itself. Usinghigh powered cameras that can

examine down to 50 millionths ofa millimeter, scientists can see theindividual pores in the rock whereoil or gas might sit. Viewing howa droplet of oil sits on rock mightappear inconsequential at firstglance. But how the oil clings tothe rock has important implica-tions for bringing it out of the

ground, Piri said.The second step is injecting a

stimulant into the rock. The highresolution cameras then recordthe interaction between stimulant,rock and oil.

The third and final step is anattempt to re-create the condi-

tions found beneath the ground.Essentially, that means exertinglarge amounts of pressure andhigh temperature on the rock andfluids used in the first two steps.The basic purpose is to identify thechemical recipe that will maximizethe amount of oil that flows fromthe formation, Piri said.

In the past, researchers usedhigh resolution cameras to exam-ine the geology of rock samples,Piri said. They later used CT scan-ners to try and document flow. Butnever before has that technologybeen integrated to measure flow on

a pore by pore basis.The University of Wyoming,

to the best of my knowledge, is theonly institution that has integratedmulti-scale imaging and reservoircondition flow for oil and gas ap-plications, Piri said.

And that brought him back tothe black box. The drilling andsimulation technologies used tobring oil and gas from the groundwere once unseen.

Now we can actually see it,Piri said. Seeing it, he hopes, willbenefit oil and gas production forgenerations to come.



ABOVE: Soheil Saraji, a post-

doctorate research scientist,

performs research Nov. 5 at the

University of Wyomings Hess

Digital Rock Physics Laboratory in

Laramie.

RIGHT: Mohammad Piri holds

small cylinders of stone used to

study how different fluids flow and

settle in the rocks pores Nov. 5 at

the University of Wyomings Hess

Digital Rock Physics Laboratory in

Laramie.


17/28


By BENJAMIN STORROWStar-Tribune staff writer

The Osage Field near New-castle had seen better dayswhen the Sunshine Val-

ley Petroleum Company boughtit in 2012. The aging oil field isone of the continually producingfields in Wyoming. Of the some

600 operating oil wells, 200 wereproducing and each of those wasonly managing a meager barrel aday, barely enough to be economi-cal. An oil mining company hadrecently tried and failed to makethe field profitable.

We got it for a good pricebecause it wasnt economic tobegin with, said Marron Bingle-Davis, a geologist for the SunshineValley subsidiary Osage Partners,LLC. Its been hobbling along fora time.

Sunshine Valley nonethelesssaw promise in Osage. (The com-pany operates the field through itssubsidiary (Osage Partners, LLC.)The field produced approximately30 million barrels of oil since itsfirst wells were drilled around1920. The company estimated thatroughly three quarters, or some

95 million barrels of oil, remainedlocked beneath the surface.

But to access it they would needto try something new. Traditionalextraction methods had pumpednearly all they could from theground. And so Sunshine Valleydeveloped a plan using new tech-nology to access what traditionalmethods could not.

Still there was a problem. Sun-

shine Valley operates 2,000 wellsacross Wyoming and employsaround 50 people. ExxonMobil itis not. The company cannot affordthe expensive research neededto effectively deploy the newtechnology that would make Osageprofitable.

Enter the Enhanced Oil Recov-ery Institute (EORI) at the Univer-

sity of Wyo-ming. EORIwas createdby the stateLegislature in2004 to helpsmall op-erators increaseproductionat the statesmature oil

fields. Pryingthe unrecov-ered oil fromthose fields represents a poten-tially hefty prize. Wyoming has anestimated 15 to 20 billion barrelsof untapped oil reserves. EORIsgoal is to recover 1 to 2 billion of

those in the coming decades. Putdifferently, Wyomings mature oil

fields generallyrecover 30 to60 percent ofthe oil they areestimated tocontain.

EORIsmission is todo the researchthat will helpget the re-

maining oil outof the ground.We do a

lot of a research and technical workthat they cannot do because it ispricey, said Laura Dalles, outreachcoordinator at EORI, speakingof the states smaller producers.

Then we help them take it to thefield.

Oil production can be thoughtof in three stages. The first stage,generally speaking, involvesdrilling a well and relying on thepressure within the earth to bringthe oil to the surface. The second-ary stage mainly involves inject-ing water into wells to stimulateproduction. And the third stageinvolves injecting steam, carbondioxides, soaps and polymers into

a reservoir, essentially cleaning theoil from the rock.Oil could stick on rock, like

dirty dishes. We have to wash it offlike the dishes, explained SheenaXie, EORI lab manager.

EORI focuses on the second andthird stages.

Making old oil fields newInside The Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute


Haifeng Jiang, a research scientist at the University of Wyomings Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute laboratory,

works with a vessel used for liquid transfers Nov. 5 in Laramie.

Oil could stick onrock, like dirty dishes.

We have to wash itoff like the dishes,

explained Sheena Xie,EORI lab manager.

Sheena Xie, EORI lab manager


18/28


19/28


By BENJAMIN STORROWStar-Tribune staff writer

Terms like horizontal drillingand fracking, as hydraulicfracturing is commonly

referred to, are well known now.The two technologies have sentU.S. energy production soaring inrecent years, as previously inac-cessible reservoirs of oil and gashave been unlocked in places likeNorth Dakota, Pennsylvania andNew York.

American natural gas produc-tion is up by more than a quarteron the decade. In October, crudeoil production reached daily levels

not seen since 1989. And a recentreport by the International EnergyAgency projected the U.S. willbecome the worlds largest oil pro-ducer by 2015, surpassing the likesof Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Time to take step back andbreathe a little, right? Not exactly.

Scientists at the University ofWyoming are looking at new waysto improve oil and gas recovery

even further. It sounds counter-intuitive at first pass. How do youimprove upon the technologiesthat will make the U.S. the worldsenergy leaders in two years time?

Well, consider this. The recentenergy boom has largely centeredon shale formations. Techniqueslike fracking and horizontal drill-ing usually help recover between4 to 12 percent of the oil and gasthose formations are estimated to

contain, leaving a significant prizeleft trapped within the ground.

What we want is to go beyondhorizontal drilling and fracking,said Vladimir Alvarado, associateprofessor of chemical and petro-leum engineering at the Universityof Wyoming. That is a starting

point How do we access more?That is the real R&D question.

The university researcherslike Alvarado have a significantpartner in their quest. ExxonMobildonated $2.5 million to the School

of Energy Resources ImprovedOil and Gas Recovery program inFebruary. The state made a match-ing $2.5 million contribution of itsown.

So how does one go aboutimproving oil and gas productionin shale formations? In severalways it turns out. One is relativelysimple: improve collaborationbetween the scientists that work inthe energy sector.

When I started in the indus-try, we used to call it throwingprojects over the fence, said MarkNortham, director of the Schoolof Energy Resources. Geologistswould start with it, do the bestjob they could and then throwit over the fence to the engineer.The engineer would get a geologicmodel and go wow, thats a greatgeologic model but I can simulate

that. Thats too complex.And then the pair would beginarguing.

The idea is to get chemists,geologists, petroleum engineers,physicists and computational sci-entists to name a few speakingthe same language, Alvarado said.Something is lost in translationwhen, say, an engineer is trying todescribe a problem to a chemist.The two understand a different

problem and thus work towardsdifferent solutions.

Its not so much about being ageneralist as about being multilin-gual person able to communicatewith specialists, Alvarado said.

The Improved Oil and GasRecovery program comprises four

faculty members from the chem-isty, geology, chemical engineer-

ing and chemical and petroleumengineering departments. Such anapproach is becoming increasinglycommon in industry, as teams ofscientists approach challenges on aproject or programmatic basis.

Things get more complicatedwhen it comes to the actual sci-ence that might boost productionlevels. Alvarado likes to talk aboutchallenging the paradigm of oiland gas production. What does

that mean exactly? Traditionally,as oil fields mature operators turnto what are essentially cleaningsolutions to glean oil stuck to therock. But instead of cleaning oilfrom the rock, Alvarado and histeam are focusing on how to im-prove oil mobility. Basically, they

want to improve oil flow so more ofit flows out of the reservoir. Doingthat requires fine-tuning of thechemical concoction injected intothe reservoir, he said.

Yet that is only half of Al-

varados attempt to shake up theparadigm. The other half relies onwhen that chemical concoction isinjected in the reservoir. Instead ofwaiting to inject the chemical untillater in the fields operating life, asis often the case now, the chemicalshould be injected at the begin-ning, he said.

Shale gas offers a template forimproving shale oil production,Alvarado said. Gas production is

relatively simple compared to oilproduction, but often times thereservoir are similar, mean similarproduction methods can be usedin both.

We learned to do the extendedhorizontal wells from shale gas. Wejust borrowed that technology todo shale oil, Alvarado said. Themassive number of fracking stagesin shale gas, we just transferred

that to shale oil.Using shale gas production as amodel can help focus oil researchand keep research costs down. Inthe 1980s, many laboratory ex-periments tried in the field failed.That was costly, Alvarado said.Using methods used in shale gasproduction increases the likeli-hood shale oil research will besuccessful.

And that increases the chances

that more oil and gas will come outof the ground.

There are two ways in in-dustry to bring more resources tothe surface, Alvarado said. Youdiscover new ones, or you accessthe known ones. This makes moreof the known ones.

Beyond frackingUniversity of Wyoming scientists look for ways

to boost oil and gas production


Associate Professor of Chemical

and Petroleum Engineering

Vladimir Alvarado poses for a

portrait Nov. 5 at the University

of Wyoming School of Energy

Resources in Laramie.


20/28


21/28



22/28


By CHRISTINE PETERSONStar-Tribune staff writer

Wyoming oil and gas developers have long struggled with what to do with water removed during extraction.

Some leave it in ponds to evaporate, others recycle it back into production, said Paul Ulrich, project lead

for Encana. But Encanas fields in the Moneta Divide between Casper and Shoshone produced so muchwater, the company needed another method.

In early November, Encana broke ground on what will be the third largest water treatment plant of its kind, to becompleted in June. The Neptune Water Treatment Facility will take produced water extracted during gas develop-ment, remove salts and make it as pure as drinking water. The facility could produce as much as one million gallonsof water each day.

Innovative water

treatment breaks groundFacility will be the third largest of its kind in the world

COURTESY

Carrie Eppelheimer of Dow, left, and Randy Phillips of Encana, center, review a map of the Moneta Divide oil and gas development at the future site of

Encanas Neptune Water Treatment Facility.


23/28


We have to get very creative orinnovative on how to manage ourwater, not only to be good envi-ronmental stewards but also do iteconomically, Ulrich said.

The idea for the facility wasborn out of necessity.

Water removed and processedduring gas development in theMoneta Divide is salty. Chemicalsand other organic materials couldbe removed, but the salt couldnot. The fields permits only al-lowed a certain amount of salt tobe deposited on the ground, saidBill DiRienzo, discharge permit-ting program manager with theDepartment of Environmental

Quality.The Department of Environ-

mental Quality required Encana tocut back the amount of salt it wasproducing, which meant the com-pany had to reduce the number ofwells it ran, he said.

This plant will allow them totreat enough water to bring thosewells back into production, hesaid.

Encana has spent the pastcouple of years working with DowWater and Pro-cess Solutionsand GE to createthe plant, Ulrichsaid.

Right now,the field oper-ates about 280wells, Ulrichsaid. Plans are

for a total of4,100 wellsduring the next30 years. Thewells will coverabout 265,000acres in Fremontand Natronacounties.

More plants will be built as thefield expands, processing up to one

million barrels of water each day atfull capacity, he said.The building itself will be half

the size of a football field. Thewater treated each day could fill anOlympic-sized swimming pool,according to a fact sheet providedby Encana.

Right now, most of the treatedwater will run down Alkali Creekas it has since production began.Once the field is up and running

at maximum capacity whichwill first require approval of theenvironmental impact state-

ment Encanawill pump thewater from theplants through apipeline and intoBoysen Reservoir.

The water willbe tested daily byEncana, Ulrich

said.A pipeline

eventually makesmore sense thansending the wa-ter down a creek,DiRienzo said.One million bar-

rels of water is roughly the same as65 cubic feet per second, the sameamount as a small river. That kind

of flow into a creek could causeerosion issues, he said.The ground in the Moneta

Divide area is also barren and hasa high level of alkali. The Depart-ment of Environmental Qualitywill require Encana to treat thewastewater to be as pure as the

water running in the Wind Riverthrough Wind River Canyon.

It doesnt make sense to treatit like that and then drop it on theground and let it run for 30 miles,

DiRienzo said. It makes moresense to keep it clean and put it inthe pipe and send it down whereit will be cleaner or as clean as thewater in Boysen.

DiRienzo called the Neptunefacility a pilot project. None like ithas been used in oil and gas fields

in Wyoming, and he is interested tosee if it works, he said.

The facility wont be visiblefrom U.S. Highway 20/26 runningbetween Casper and Shoshone,

Ulrich said. But once it is up andrunning, Encana will be eager toshow it off.

Reach Christine Petersonat 307-746-3121 or [email protected]. Follow heron Twitter @PetersonOutside.

COURTESY

The future site of Encanas Neptune Water Treatment Facility, to be

located in the Moneta Divide oil and gas development.

COURTESY

An artists rendering of Encanas Neptune Water Treatment Facility, to be located in the Moneta Divide oil and

gas development.

We have to getvery creative or

innovative on howto manage our

water, not only to be

good environmentalstewards but also doit economically.

Paul Ulrich, project leadfor Encana


24/28

December 2013 / January 2014

COURTESY SHELL

The Shell Pearl GTL plant in Qatar, the largest natural gas

to liquids conversion plant in the world.


25/28


Turning natural gas intogasoline could be a prof-itable business in Wyo-ming on a small scale,

according to a study commis-sioned by the state Legislature in2012. And companies are looking

into future projects, according toan energy researcher and also adeputy director of the Universityof Wyoming School of EnergyResources.

Lawmakers paid for a study byLaramie-based Western Re-

search Institute (WRI) to developways to add value to Wyomingsnatural gas resource by possiblyturning it into liquid transporta-tion fuels and chemicals such asgasoline and diesel. The sourceof the gas would be so-called

stranded natural gas, remoteenough from a pipeline thatbuilding an infrastructure to getto it cant be justified.

WRI was asked to study if thatremote gas could be turned intomuch more transportable liquid

COURTESY OF SHELL

The Shell Pearl GTL plant in Qatar, the largest natural gas to liquids conversion plant in the world.

ConversionStudy: Wyo can economically turn natural gas into gasoline

By SUSAN ANDERSON, Business editor


26/28

that wouldnt require a pipeline,

but could be shipped to marketin a tanker on already existingroads.

The institute was chargedwith studying whether a com-mercial scale facility would beeconomically viable in Wyominggiven projected energy prices and

regulatory trends, according to

WRI materials.The answer came back withgood news sort of.

WRI advised Wyoming tothink small in a big way.

Researchers found that it istechnologically, logistically eco-nomically and legally feasible to

build what they called a prop-erly scaled plant in Wyoming.

Properly scaled meanssmall, not the billion-dollar plantpictured by some hopeful peoplein the state.

Dr. Vijay Sethi, the lead re-searcher, said that whats new inthis study is the focus on usingnew technology and techniquesto build much smaller plantsthan the kind normally consid-ered. The fact that investmentscan be several billion dollars tomake gas-to-liquid facilities hascaused planners to consider largefacilities that would give enoughreturn on such a big investment.

But, Sethi said, Wyomingdoesnt have enough natural gasfor such a plant.

We suspected that oftenpeople were thinking we have abigger resource than we do, hesaid. The amount of gas neededfor even a small plant is quitelarge. There is not enough gas inWyoming to justify spending $26billion for a facility.

The largest such facility in theworld is the Shell Pearl GTL (gas-to-liquid) plant in Qatar. Shellinvested $20 billion in partner-ship with the Middle East nationto build the plant. But it has ac-cess to huge undersea resourcesof natural gas close to the shoreof Qatar.

The WRI report acknowledgedthat Wyoming wasnt going tohave a Qatar-sized facility. But

Sethi said instead of trying tomatch the 140,000 barrels ofgasoline a day produced in Qatar,what you do is build smallermodular plants at the scale of500 to 1,000 barrels a day. Iftheres not the money or resourceto support a large plant, you haveto think small, he said.

The report pointed out cre-ative ways of thinking small, such

as using control systems to man-age smaller modular plants froma remote location. The reportfound that a central facility canservice modular synthesis reac-tors and gas clean-up modules.These and other similar con-cepts and strategies make dis-

tributed GTL conversion possiblein remote locations, according tothe report.

Rob Hurless, deputy directorof the School of Energy Resourc-es at UW and an energy strategistfor Gov. Matt Mead, praised theeffort to find a way to add value toWyomings natural gas resource.Theres always been a level ofinterest about how do we addvalue, he said.

He added that the next stepis to see if any companies outthere are interested in pursuing inthis kind of scale, and I think theanswer is probably yes.

Sethi echoed that optimism.

Several entities are circling,looking for pieces of these tech-nologies to implement somethinglike that, he said.


COURTESY OF SHELL

The Shell Pearl GTL plant in Qatar, the largest natural gas to liquids

conversion plant in the world.

HEAVY EQUIPMENTOPERATOR

IS NOW HIRING FOR A NCCCO

CRANE OPERATOR.The ideal applicant will have a current NCCCO

certification, current Class A CDL, minimum

3 yrs. Oilfield related experience operatinghydraulic cranes.Must possess organizational,

leadership, and people skills, plus be able

to work under pressure. Previous crane

mechanical and maintenance experience a

plus. Position is located in Minot, ND.

All applicants should send resume with

references to [email protected]

HEAVY EQUIPMENTOPERATOR

IS NOW HIRING FOR A RIGGER.

The ideal applicant will have a current

NCCCO Rigger Certification, plus 2 yrs.

oilfield experience.CDL li cense preferred.

Position is located in Minot, ND.

All applicants should send resume with

references to [email protected]

EMPLOYMENT


27/28

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SEMI OIL CHANGES STARTING AT $249.00 TRUCK & TRAILER DOT INSPECTIONS FULL SERVICE ASE CERTIFIED MECHANICS 120 FOOT INDOOR WASH-BAY (MONTHLY BILLING AVAIL.) FULL PARTS CENTER AFTER HOURS AND WEEKEND APPOINTMENTS DRIVERS LOUNGE TIRE SERVICE

CALL RED FOR YOUR APPOINTMENT

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NEW TRUCK CENTER

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