SCOPE OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING IN OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

Oil is the life blood of progress and development on planet earth. Ever since its maiden discovery, it has been a subject of immense interest. Today, it fuels the 21^st century we live in! Right from the paper we write on and the plastic bottle we drink from, to the cars we drive in and the shimmering cities  we live in, we are surrounded by thousands of derivative products that come to us through the extraction of this magical fluid buried thousands of feet underneath- for Eons!   

Just as Chemical Engineers have been revolutionizing the world with astounding researches and developments, they are playing a herculean role in the industry that fuels the digitized world humans are now living in- the Petroleum Industry! This article attempts to show a glimpse of some of the most influential researches that chemical engineers working for the Oil & Gas Industry are currently involved in and how could these determine the future of the energy industry.

SMART FLUIDS TO AID ENHANCED OIL RECOVERY-

When reservoirs get depleted of the natural pressure that brings oil to the wellbore, they often have to be treated with what is termed as ‘Enhanced Oil Recovery’. This is injecting fluids into the reservoirs to ‘push’ oil out of the rock pores. This technique can recover upto 60% of the remaining oil from the reservoir.

Conventional injection fluids used in EOR techniques, drilling, production and fracturing operations are extremely complex. They also have to be added with additives to meet the changes in the environments commonly associated with a suite of drilling hazards. In tough conditions such as high temperature and acid gas environments, conventional fluids often perform poorly. While trying to improve the efficacy of these fluids in such conditions, Chemical Engineering has touched its limits in the petroleum industry!

Meet Smart fluids— A major advancement in chemical engineering that can revolutionize the energy industry! By sensing the environment & smartly tuning their particles’ properties accordingly, smart fluids can virtually adjust to any environment without the need to add additives! These fluids are capable of changing their chemistry & physical properties, in accordance to the reservoir’s conditions. As an example, such fluids can hydrate & swell in the presence of water, plugging the rock pores & preventing water movement in reservoir (so as to prevent water breakthrough), while dehydrating and contracting in the presence of oil (to allow only oil to flow). Tremendous amount of research is being done on the usage of smart fluids for smart diversion stimulation for better zonal coverage, segregation of oil and water pathways, wettability alteration agents & so on. This technology is progressing swiftly due to relative permeability modifiers & smart emulsified gels.

In the future, chemical and petroleum engineers shall eventually be able to deploy smart fluids deeper into the reservoir to change its properties on a much larger scale. These fluids will be custom-fit & will impart the desired behavior in the reservoir automatically. In other words, they would be bull-headed into the reservoir & left to their own means to work automatically, without requiring any sophisticated techniques.

THE HUNT FOR ANTI-FREEZING CHEMICALS IN THE NORTH SEA OIL FIELDS:

Scandinavian beetles & cold water fishes produce especial kind of proteins to prevent themselves from freezing in the icy cold environments they live in. Tremendous amount of research is being done by chemical engineers and scientists to investigate whether this mechanism can be replicated and used as a hydrate inhibition tool to stop ice formation inside pipelines and wells. Although the imagination does turn riot with the news of beetles potentially coming to aid freezing pipelines, the concept is sound.

Maersk Oil Company has entered into a collaborative 4 year project that aims to boost Improved Oil Recovery (IOR) and prolong North Sea operations by using bio technology to create new solutions & overcome the challenges of mature field production. The company has also announced a US $100 million investment over the next ten years in a new research facility at the Qatar Science & Technology Park in Doha.

OIL TRACERS:

Just as no two humans are the same and each human can be characterized by a specific DNA coding, no two ‘Oils’ are the same and each oil has its own distinguishable ‘biomarker’. These are a group of compounds, primarily hydrocarbons found in oils and they typically retain all or most of the original carbon skeleton of the original natural product. These have been used to catch the culprit oil tanker after any spillage incident into oceans, especially when several oil tankers passed by and none claimed to be responsible. The biomarkers of oil samples from each tanker have to be matched with the biomarkers of the spilled oil. When matched, the culprit is identified just as criminals are identified in DNA forensic sciences. Today, oil bio-markers are being used in determining oil ‘source rocks’ (the original rocks where from the oil migrated) for petroleum exploration, allocating commingled production (that is, in a well with multiple layers producing oil, identifying which layer is producing which type of oil and how much of it) and so on. More progress in this science is subjected to more researches involving Chemistry!   

Chemical engineers are making wonders happen in the oil and gas industry. Are you ready to join the energy industry and play your part?

By Batool Arhamna Haider
Kanza Batool Haider.

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