Guest Editorial: How To Leverage E&P Expertise for the New Energy Economy

Abstract

_ The term “new energy economy” broadly refers to the transition to a low-carbon future for sustaining human development while reducing CO2 emissions. Such a shift is considered to be the third energy transition of the modern era, after the shift from biomass to coal as the primary source of energy in the early 1900s, followed by oil overtaking coal’s dominant position in the 1960s–1970s. This trend towards decarbonization (i.e., diversification from carbon-intensive fossil fuels to sustainable greener energy feedstocks and carriers) is motivated by the understanding that emissions need to be reduced to moderate the potential impacts of global temperature rise on future climatic changes. Strategies common to proposed decarbonization pathways include - Improving energy efficiency (i.e., slower increase in energy demand compared to GDP/population increase). - Increasing energy supply from renewable sources (i.e., wind, solar, geothermal, nuclear) coupled with hydrogen underground storage (HUS) as a way of storing surplus electrical energy. - Switching to low-carbon energy carriers (i.e., hydrogen) for end-use applications in transportation, buildings, and industry. - Removing carbon emissions, via carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), from fossil-fuel-fired power plants and hard-to-abate industrial sources. The key takeaway for readers is how the two subsurface-oriented decarbonization strategies—CCUS and HUS—are relevant for application/adaptation of expertise from the exploration and production (E&P) sector of the oil and gas industry. Their rise will be built upon decades of experience with CO2-EOR, gas injection, produced-water disposal, and underground natural gas storage (NGS). Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) As shown in Fig. 1, CCUS involves capturing CO2 from a fossil-fuel-fired power plant or industrial facility and processing it to a practically pure form, transporting it to a nearby geologic storage site using pipelines, and injecting it into saline aquifers for long-term sequestration or depleted oil/gas fields for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and associated storage. Research and field demonstration projects over the past few decades have demonstrated that CCUS is a viable technology for curtailing atmospheric CO2 emissions buildup. Some of the key elements of CCUS projects and their overlap with corresponding E&P expertise are summarized below.