What's new in production

A group of petroleum-producing and oilfield service companies have banded together with the University of Texas at Austin in a joint research venture to create and develop new oilfield nanotechnology. The Advanced Energy Consortium (AEC) plans to develop subsurface nanosensors that can be injected into oil and gas wells. These sensors would be forced through the existing pore space and into the surrounding rock formation. There, they would collect the reservoir’s physical characteristics. Exactly how this would be achieved is the focus of the consortium. This data could then be used for production optimization studies. Consortium members include BP America, ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil, Occidental, Shell, Schlumberger Technology and Halliburton Energy Services. Project management will be provided by the University of Texas at Austin (UTA). Industry members will each contribute $1 million research funding per year for the first three years to underwrite the project.