Nanotech solutions for
the Oil & Gas industry
- Overview I
- Overview II (cont.)
- Exploration
- Reservoir Management
- Drilling
- Production
- Refining & Distribution
The path to the next trillion starts small.
Nanotechnology offers the promise of the intelligent oil field. A highly interdisciplinary field, nanoscience is characterized by its innovative collaboration between fields such as chemical engineering, materials science, applied physics, bio-chemistry, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. Nanoscientists engineer at the scale of atoms and molecules. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter, a benzene molecule for example is about a nanometer wide, pores in oil-bearing rock are just a few hundred nanometers in diameter.
Nanotechnology offers both upstream and downstream solutions. At the most fundamental level, nanotechnology can provide the oil and gas industry with a better understanding of rock/fluid interactions and their effects on multiphase flow. Understanding such processes can lead to improved downhole separation. Tailored surfactants can provide added control and help recover more oil. Improved monitoring and illumination of reservoirs from high-precision nanosensors will greatly enhance production capability while minimizing downtime.
The oil and gas industry relies on the strength and stability of its materials. The extreme precision of nanoscale manipulation offers geoscientists and engineers not only miniaturized devices to work with, but also radically improved novel materials. Nanomaterials can be made as light and elastic as silk but as strong as steel. There are numerous robust and temperature/pressure resistant nanotechnology applications already deployed or being developed for automotive, aerospace and military use which can offer a wide range of similar benefits for the petrol industry.
