Friday, November 16, 2018

Netherlands: Overview of an Oil & Gas and Geothermal Cooperation Conference

System Integration: Gas Meets Geothermal at Shell Technology Center Amsterdam (Well Engineering Partners)

District heating is one of the options in which hot water infrastructures within the building can be maintained, sourced by residual heating of nearby industries and/or from geothermal sources. There’s a great potential for geothermal in the Netherlands: much of the subsurface is already known in detail from oil and gas exploration. What needs to be done to unlock this potential successfully and what are the challenges to overcome? How will business develop this opportunity and create a new industry?
  • TNO gave a presentation of the Technology roadmap Geothermal Energy: The subsurface areas that outside the oil and gas exploration regions are unknown. There is a SCAN project started to scan the subsurface in those also called ‘white spots’ areas.
  • ECW showcased the development of heat networks and geothermal energy: it was great to hear the success story of one of the most, if not the most, successful geothermal energy operator in The Netherlands and to see our client thrive.
  • During the Geothermal  Energy workshop, Rabobank and DAGO shared their experiences and vision related to geothermal energy finances and legislation. Siemens presented an innovative basic concept of a CO2 based geothermal power generation cycle.
  • EBN presented the Dutch Masterplan Geothermal Energy: focused especially on the synergy within both sectors (geothermal and oil&gas) and the challenges we face together as a sector. Redefining the business case for dual-play concepts and further develop re-use and repurpose concepts for oil & gas wells, harmonizing mining law, acknowledge practical and operational industry standards.
  • Vermillion shared their intentions and initial steps into the geothermal market with a Gas to Geothermal (G2G) case at Middenmeer to convert 2 depleted gas wells to a geothermal doublet.
  • Halliburton presented their strategy to cooperate with the geothermal production challenge by obtained experiences of Electric Submersible Pumps (ESP) in the geothermal industry standardizing their ESP from 30 different versions to only 3.
  • It was an informative event and positive to see the involvement of petroleum operators and service companies in the geothermal energy sector.