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Technologies
 Oil and Natural Gas Supply
Oil and natural gas are the lifeblood of our economy, accounting for more than 60 percent of the energy consumed in the United States. To meet projected
demand, our Nation has a vital interest in ensuring that competitively-priced domestic natural gas and oil remain part of the U.S. energy portfolio for decades to come. Read More.

Announcements
New Models Help Optimize Development of Bakken Shale Resources Compliance Rules Exploration and field development in the largest continuous oil play in the lower 48 states, located in North Dakota and eastern Montana, will be guided by new geo-models developed with funding from DOE/NETL.
Read the detailed project summary

DOE/NETL-Sponsored Online Mapping Portal Helps Oil and Gas Producers Comply with New Mexico Compliance Rules By speeding the process and cutting the cost of regulatory compliance, the New Mexico Pit Rule Mapping Portal supports domestic oil and gas production, helping to strengthen the nation’s energy security. The web-based tool, developed by researchers at New Mexico Tech’s Petroleum Recovery Research Center, will be especially helpful to smaller operators. Link to the New Mexico Pit Rule Mapping Portal

2011 Unconventional Resources Program Request for Proposals (RFP) Released   NETL's contractor, the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA), released a request for proposals (RFP), December 20, 2011, seeking research projects to explore ways to extract more energy from natural gas resources while reducing environmental risk. Proposals will be accepted until March 6, 2012.
Further information can be found on the RPSEA website (www.rpsea.org).

2011 Small Producer Program Request for Proposals (RFP) Released
As part of DOE’s Ultra-Deepwater and Unconventional Natural Gas and Other Petroleum Resources Program, NETL’s Contractor, Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA), has released a RFP focusing on the needs of Small Producers. The RFP was released on December 13, 2011 and will close February 27, 2012.
Further information can be found on the RPSEA website (www.rpsea.org).

DOE Releases Comprehensive Review of CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery Mobility Control A thorough review of 40 years of RD&D related to the past successes and failures of lab- and field-scale efforts to reduce CO2 mobility using CO2 thickeners, foams, and gels is now available. Results clearly indicate that mobility and conformance control for CO2 EOR can be technically and economically attainable. Read the report [PDF-10.43MB]

Fall 2011 Issue of E&P Focus Now Available! In this issue read about NETL research focusing on expanding E&P capabilities in deepwater and ultra-deepwater regions in an environmentally responsible manner. Included are overviews of NETL-sponsored projects directed at developing technologies to further increase discovery ratios and production in the Gulf of Mexico.

DOE Selects Projects Aimed at Reducing Drilling Risks in Ultra-Deepwater The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy (FE) has selected six new natural gas and oil research projects aimed at reducing risks and enhancing the environmental performance of drilling in ultra-deepwater settings. The projects have been selected for negotiation leading to awards totaling $9.6 million, and will add to the research portfolio for FE’s Ultra-Deepwater and Unconventional Natural Gas and Other Petroleum Resources Program. The total value of the projects is more than $26.4 million over 3 years with approximately $16.8 million of cost-share provided by the research partners in addition to the $9.6 million in federal funds. The research contracts will be administered by the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA), under the management of the Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory.

Methane Hydrate Production Technologies to be Tested on Alaska's North Slope The U.S. Department of Energy, the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation, and ConocoPhillips will work together to test innovative technologies for producing methane gas from hydrate deposits on the Alaska North Slope. The production tests are the next step in efforts to evaluate the response of gas hydrate reservoirs to alternative gas hydrate production concepts. The tests will provide critical information to inform potential future extended-duration tests.

Publicly Funded Oil & Natural Gas R&D Increases Domestic Energy Supplies A compendium of research accomplished over the course of more than 30 years through the Department of Energy’s Oil and Natural Gas Program shows the significant role that the National Energy Technology Laboratory has played in fostering abundant and affordable supplies of domestic oil and natural gas resources that will fuel our nation for decades to come.

Fossil Energy R&D Returns Significant National Benefit in More Than Three Decades of Achievement Research and development activities at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy have helped increase domestic energy supplies and security, lowered costs, improved efficiencies, and enhanced environmental protection over the past 30 years, according to newly released informational materials.

E&P Focus Newsletter - A quarterly publication highlighting the latest developments in R&D being carried out by NETL

Fire In The Ice - Methane Hydrate R&D Program Newsletter

Announcements Archive >

While domestic resources remain plentiful, increasingly, these resources are concentrated in geologically challenging and operationally complex settings such as deep formations, deepwater offshore, and lower permeability formations. Their recovery requires innovative exploration and production technologies, along with sustained attention to environmental protection.

Through NETL, scientists and engineers in government and industry are focusing on innovative solutions to these challenges. NETL supports research, development, and field demonstrations of advanced technologies to enhance near-term and mid-term supplies through the efficient use of the nation's existing resources. NETL also performs analyses of natural gas and petroleum issues to support policy decisions and to ensure a balanced R&D portfolio.

  • To help industry increase supplies of oil and gas in the near term, NETL focuses on developing low-cost technologies to expand the economic life expectancy of individual wells, spurring innovations to find and tap missed or bypassed reservoirs in the field, and transferring new technology to the thousands of small and independent operators that account for the lion’s share of the U.S. industry.
  • Over the mid term, NETL’s E&P efforts target critical emerging resources -- such as tight gas, deep gas, and heavy oil -- that are currently poorly understood and underutilized. These unconventional and emerging resources require the application of new technologies to make recovery economic. Such efforts have borne fruit in the past. Earlier DOE-funded research has catalyzed an unconventional natural gas industry that currently accounts for 30 percent of the Nation’s gas supply—a share expected to grow.
  • Sustaining natural gas and oil supplies over the long term will require adding fundamental new sources to the nation's resource base. As a result, NETL is leading a national R&D effort to evaluate methane hydrates and other potential future resources that may one day contribute to our nation’s supply demands.

Meeting National Goals
NETL’s RD&D efforts contribute to the following vital national goals:
  • Secure and reliable energy supplies
    The United States is home to an abundant supply of both natural gas and oil, yet there exists a supply and demand gap because much of the conventional resource base has been harvested. Future sources of supply will come from more remote locations, increasingly complex and deeper reservoirs, and more environmentally sensitive areas. New technologies will certainly be needed to develop these resources in an environmentally and economically acceptable manner. With advanced technologies, our Nation can continue producing these valuable domestic resources while also meeting environmental protection goals.
     
      Conventional / Unconventional Gas
     
    America's demand for natural gas is expected to grow as much as 50% by 2025. Unconventional gas resources, much of which currently are not economically recoverable, are expected to bear much of the burden of meeting this demand.
       
  • Clean power generation
    The clean-burning properties of natural gas make it a preferred fuel for power generation. Indeed, natural gas consumption in the power generation sector is projected to increase from 5.0 trillion cubic feet in 2003 to 9.4 trillion cubic feet in 2025. Cost-effective production, processing, transmission, and storage technologies will enable natural gas to fulfill this central role in meeting our Nation’s growing electricity needs.
 
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