Expert says technological advances could increase oil production

Oil demand will continue to grow, and meeting that demand will depend in part on development of technologies for improving recovery processes, an expert said in an interview this week with NPN MarketPulse.

“There exist huge amounts of remaining reserves that are either undeveloped” or, in most cases in North America, that are sitting idle after having been tapped for the oil that is most accessible, said John Warren, vice president of operations and business development for Wavefront Energy & Environmental Services, Edmonton, Alberta.

Wavefront develops, markets and licenses proprietary technologies in the energy and environmental sectors, including a proprietary injection technology for oil recovery called Powerwave. magazine.

Traditional extraction methods typically result in 10 to 20 percent recovery, meaning that roughly 80 percent of the oil remains in the ground, according to the company, which uses its technology to extract oil from low or non-producing wells in the United States and Canada. The company said its process involves the injection of water into the ground. It has been used on more than 175 wells for customers ranging from Shell Oil to Canadian Natural Resources to increase production levels, according to the company.

Asked whether he thinks it’s possible for the United States to achieve energy independence, Warren said, “I don’t know if that’s attainable. I have been in the industry for many years and all I’ve seen is an increase in demand and a decrease in the capacity to meet those demands. There are very few major developments and or exploration activities that result in a huge find.”

Yet technology continues to evolve, Warren noted. “We can go deeper and deeper into the ground and we can extract oil. For example, we’re extracting oil out of shale sands in western Colorado, where we were unable to do so before. So there are things we can do to enhance [the process] but at a greater cost.

“Could we be independent? I think it’s highly unlikely.”

But lessening the nation’s dependence on imported oil is a reachable goal in Warren’s view.

He said 60 percent of proven oil reserves in North America remain in the ground.

“That’s a huge amount of capacity,” Warren said. “That’s not to say that technology alone can extract all that oil. That’s not realistic. But if we can enhance that by 10 to 15 percent that’s a significant amount of production and it allows us to be less reliant on importation of foreign oil.”

It is estimated that in Texas alone there are 10,000 inactive wells with remaining capacity, Warren said. “If we could extract 10 percent more oil out of those wells, that would be a huge upside.”

Supply and demand is and will continue to be the most powerful factor influencing oil and gas price trends, with economic and political developments coming into play as always, Warren said.

“My opinion is that the oil price over the next three to five years is not going to significantly decrease,” Warren said, “and it does have the potential to significantly increase above the levels that we’ve seen in the past year.”