Technology To Meet the Challenge of Future Energy Supplies

Abstract

The past 50 years of our industry has spanned an incredible period of change in the global economy, technology, and the role of energy. The energy supply system requires large, sustained, long-term investments in technology, resource development, and infrastructure to deliver reliable and affordable supplies of energy on an immense global scale. Our industry has continuously delivered on this critical mission. In the decades ahead, however, there will be increasing challenges to the capacity of the traditional oil and gas supply system to meet the level of expected growth in global energy demand arising from increasing populations and expanding economic prosperity. The scale and time frame of the energy system will require a multidimensional approach to meeting the future supply challenge. There is simply no "silver bullet" as some might wish, and all elements of the solution involve a combination of increasingly complex technical, economic, political, and environmental factors. Fortunately, there is a very large energy resource base and many corresponding opportunities for increasing supply, includingIncreasing the performance of current producing assetsImproving the capital investment performance for new developmentsFinding and developing major new producing frontiersExpanding and diversifying the energy resource base. In parallel, the industry will also need to meet two new challenges that will broadly impact many aspects of energy:Delivering solutions for carbon managementDeveloping the next generation of energy professionals. Technology in the Critical Path At the core of capturing these opportunities and meeting the challenges is the expanded application and integration of technology at scale. Many in-place technologies will continue to undergo steady advances to have important cumulative impacts on performance. In addition, significant shifts in the technology base are poised to arise from major advances in fundamental technologies. Next-Generation Seismic Imaging and Reservoir Simulation. The industry has been notably successful in riding the exponential growth curve of information technology. E&P technologies are among the most computationally demanding and data intensive of all industrial technical applications, led by seismic imaging and reservoir simulation. The combination of new seismic measurements, such as wide-azimuth multicomponent recording and cost-effective cluster computing, is already providing unprecedented subsalt images. As the newest generation of advanced scientific computers is installed for government and university research, the stage is set for commercially viable deployments in a decade or less. Combined with the commensurate 100-fold leap in transfer rates and data volumes, broad new classes of imaging and modeling applications will become commercially practical. Increasing recoveries from developed reservoirs, reducing capital risk, and finding the next major producing trends will all depend on continued advancement in these major industry technologies.