WorldWide Drilling Resource

Producing Oil with Microwaves Compiled by the Editorial Staff of WorldWide Drilling Resource ®® There is an estimated 1.5 trillion barrels of untapped crude oi l in the United States; however, there is one problem preventing its recovery. This massive amount of oil is contained in oil shale, which is not to be confused with shale oil. Oil shale is a solid organic material found in shale rocks, so it’s not exactly oil until the oil shale is heated to extremely high temperatures. The problem has been reaching the high temperatures needed in an effective and environmen- tally safe way. Using microwaves to extract fossil fuels in shale rock has been studied since the 1980s, but Peter Kearl, chief technology officer and cofounder of Qmast in Colorado, is pioneering the use of microwave technology. During his tenure as a research scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Kearl was the project manager for the High Power Microwave Program working on innovative methods using technology to remove hydrocarbon. His approach would be to microwave the oil shale formations with a beam as powerful as 500 household microwave ovens, which would liquify and release the crude oil without adverse effects to the environ- ment. While the beam would only heat an area within 80 feet of the wellbore, one microwave stimulated well, which would be drilled in formations about 1000 feet thick, could pump nearly 800,000 barrels of oil. To microwave the oil shale, Qmast plans to lower a 2.45-gigahertz emitter into the ground, which would funct ion basical ly l ike a supercharged oven. New microwave antenna technologies have started emerging to create, steer, and stabilize the beam in a way like never before. The interesting trick to the process is the porous rocks themselves don’t heat up when nuked; instead, only the water trapped in the pores will be boiled. Any hydrocar- bons mixed in with the boiling water will then be heated and liquified, and as the water turns to steam, everything will flow through the cleared pores to be collected at the surface. Qmast plans to have their first microwave systems deployed this year, and producing by the end of the year. The pumping cost per well currently stands at about nine dollars, which is about two dollars more than conven- tional wells. Fortunately, there are multiple applications to using microwaves, which does increase the chances of suc- cess in the future despite the current expense differential. For instance, microwave technology can clean up clogged wells, and unblock shale oil deposits where water has pre- vented the oil from flowing to the wellbore. These old wells as Kear l said, “could effect ively be rehabi l i tated by microwave heating,” which would produce more oil from existing wells. Microwave extraction doesn’t only yield oil but drinkable water as well, so the combination of oil and water by-product makes the technology unique and desirable. 4< /*2'3* "& > > > > ,'< ? /2+ '6* /3+6 /3+6 ')1/3- " " !8=2+ /7843 4* 4* ')1/3- !+8 5)7 !8'3*'6* $'2:+ 9((+6 6':+2 $'2:+ 9((+6 !+'87 9((+6 $'2:+ 37+687 #6+8.'3+ $'2:+ 37+687 $'2:+ !56/3- ! ! $'2:+ 4:+6 '71+8 ? !;/:+2 ')1/3- ? !+6/+7 ? !+6/+7 ? !+6/+7 ? !+6/+7 ? !+6/+7 ? !+6/+7 < /3+6 < /3+6 < /3+6 < /3+6 < /3+6 6/)+7 !9(0+)8 "4 .'3-+ %/8.498 48/)+ !@ @ < < < < < 24 SEPTEMBER 2017 WorldWide Drilling Resource ®