USA:

DOE Wants to Mobilize Subsurface Engineering R&D Efforts (Oil & Gas Journal)

Douglas Hollett, GTO Director, will deliver a keynote speech at the Geothermal Resources Council Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon on September 29, 20143 - the largest annual gathering of geothermal stakeholders in the world.

The US Department of Energy wants to mobilize federal government, oil and gas industry, university, and other research to address subsurface engineering challenges, particularly controlling fracture propagation and fluid flow, officials said at the first of several projected discussions.

The industry learned from experience after it starting producing oil and gas from tight shale formations in 1995-96, observed GRC Member Doug Hollett, director of DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Office and a member of the department’s Subsurface Technology and Engineering Crosscut Technical Team.

“There was this wonderful stumbling across information as producers drilled lots of wells and learned from their mistakes,” he said during a July 22 at the US Energy Association’s headquarters. “I wonder if there isn’t a better way.”

Susan Hubbard, a senior scientist and director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Earth Sciences Division, said, “Improved subsurface utilization really is a key to our national energy security. There’s been a very nice dialogue across all the national laboratories about adaptive control of the subsurface.”

Hollett noted that nine core areas, including wellbore integrity and new subsurface signals, were identified during a Mar. 14 national labs summit. Common interests, goals, and concerns already have emerged as diverse groups conducted research, he said. At least three more of these discussions where critical questions can be asked will be held, including possibly one during the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting Dec. 15-19 in San Francisco, he said.

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