Leveraging Technology for NGH Development and Production

Abstract

From the earliest days of industrial production of oil and gas, assumptions about limits to the ability to recover hydrocarbon energy have been proven wrong through technology development. Migration of exploration and production technology to frontier regions, deeper water, and harsher conditions more remote from land is necessary for the oil and gas industry to create the largest value of potential new resources. Production technology is increasingly being moved from surface platforms to the seafloor to decrease costs and increase operations. Seafloor installations are becoming increasingly robotic. Some conventional oil and gas drilling, particularly that not having to deal directly with very high reservoir pressures, is being moved to the seafloor. All of this investment in technology development is being borne by industry for conventional oil and gas resources, but most of it can be optimized for development of NGH resources. This means the amortized cost of NGH development can be very small from the outset. In addition to leveraging existing technology developments, the particular physical properties of NGH and its reservoir sediments will allow seafloor processing to be carried out substantially less expensively than convention gas, which means seafloor processing installations for NGH gas will be inherently less expensive than for conventional gas. NGH seafloor installations will be assembled, operated, and serviced entirely underwater, with both site provision and gas production located remote from the seafloor installation. Virtually all exploration and production technology for NGH resources can be moved to, and operated from, the seafloor.