Worlds first Enhanced Gas Recovery success!

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Worlds first Enhanced Gas Recovery success!

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Enhanced gas recovery using nitrogen injection has unlocked an additional 13 million boe from a nearly depleted gas reservoir. This novel technology similar to that used to squeeze the last drop of beer from a keg will help Shell to get more from existing resources to help meet the energy challenge.
The De Wijk gas field in the Netherlands has been in production since the 1950s. With more than 80% of its gas recovered, the field was nearing the end of its life. Extracting the remaining gas would be either be technically too complex or uneconomic or both. Now, De Wijk is home to the latest Shell first. Novel technology in the form of the Enhanced Gas Recovery (EGR) project has proven that the ultimate recovery factor can be realised. De Wijks field life has now been extended by some 15 years and is expected to recover an additional 2 bcm (~ 13 mln boe), increasing ultimate recovery from 77% to around 87%. This is a really impressive project in so many ways great safety, cost and schedule performance, novel contracting strategies a world first enhanced gas recovery application, said Graham Henley, Vice President, Operated Projects in Shell Projects & Technology. Nitrogen facts The natural gas we use at home is made up of about 14% nitrogen Nitrogen can remain in the field without adversely affecting people or the environment More on natural gas... Natural gas is the cleanestburning fossil fuel and is helping to meet extra energy demand with less impact on the environment. Global demand for natural gas is expected to increase by 60% from 2010 to 2030, and this presents a major opportunity for Shell. Pushing the envelope with nitrogen EGR in depleted gas fields is effectively the last measure that is applied to increase production life in the field. Its already known that nitrogen gas condensates and gas caps above oil rims to maintain high pressure. However, injecting the nitrogen into depleted non-associated gas reservoirs is a "first".

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Information on the De Wijk EGR concept Martin de Boer

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Worlds first Enhanced Gas Recovery success!

The nitrogen maintains pressure and essentially pushes the remaining natural gas molecules underground to production wells. In De Wijk, several preexisting conditions enabled this success: the field was at the right stage of maturity; it was onshore; its pipelines provided gas directly into the Netherlands grid; and the pipelines were already designed to handle gas with nitrogen content. So the project was executed within budget and timeframe. The gas was also supplied from a purpose built nitrogen plant which will be owned and operated by Air Products under a long-term supply agreement; and most of the wells for nitrogen gas injection are existing wells which have been converted from production into injection wells. Social responsibility The project also demonstrates societal acceptance of EGR by intensive stakeholder management and a tailored communication strategy. To make this project a technological and social success, several parts came into play: Cooperation between many different internal and external parties which resulted in first gas in less than 24 months after Final Investment Decision and within budget Local Stakeholder engagement through small scale community meetings and personal contacts Contract Strategy to leverage Air Products knowledge and experience during project lifetime. Commercial agreement to allow natural gas with variable nitrogen gas content to be supplied into the national grid. What most impressed me when I visited the site earlier this year was the care that was being taken to involve the local community, which has really paid off in ensuring their support for the project. We can learn a lot from the De Wijk team for the future, concluded Graham. More information: Information on the De Wijk EGR concept For more information on the De Wijk project, contact Martin de Boer

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