1. Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry
Joshua Moreno
Scott Marwil
Danielle Miller

2. Introduction How can nanotechnology help the oil and gas industry?
First, let’s identify the problems:
Drilling equipment tends to wear down fairly quickly
Normally, oil wells are only able to recover about 1 out of every 3 barrels of oil from a reservoir
Current Seismic technology cannot produce high enough resolution data about the oil reservoir
With peak oil fast approaching, there is a definite need to be able to fully utilize all of the resources that are available

3. Introduction
Nanotechnology is striving to help the oil and gas industry increase oil recovery by improving:
Chemicals used in recovery of oil
Drilling Materials
Reservoir Surveillance

4. Nanocoatings Anti-wear for drilling parts
Anti-corrosion for pipelines and other exposed long term structures
Lubricants and drilling mud
Thermal coatings to lower deformation
Anti-fouling for ships

5. Anti-wear coating Goal is to increase durability in moving parts
Increased durability gives added toughness, a longer life span, and a lower equipment cost over time
Coating is usually sprayed on and will bond with the host material.
Drilling materials need advances to be able to reach hard to get oil reserves

6. Nanovar Produced by Integran Can be put on most any composite metal
Coatings custom made for situation and material being applied to

7. Nanovar Much denser than metal on an atomic level
Provides strength, hardness, and thermal resistance which are three things needed in oil drilling in the future to reach reserves

8. Anti-corrosion
Long lasting coatings are needed to protect under sea pipes from sea water
Coatings used on rigs and other platforms to prevent rust and corrosion that can cause safety issues
More environmental friendly than anti-corrosion paints and cheaper

9. Anti-corrosion Metal surfaces are imperfect
Surface penetration from the coating is vital to performance
Nanocoatings can be custom made and out perform traditional coatings in this aspect

10. Nanofluids - lubricants
Suspensions of nanoparticles in fluids that enhance its properties
Main advantage in the oil and gas field is the enhanced thermal properties (performs well at high/low temperatures, transfers heat well, insulates well, etc)
Highly customizable to the desired situation

11. Nanofluids – drilling mud
Nanofluids used in drilling mud is being looked at as a solution to ultra deep drilling fluid
Nanoparticles added at a low weight percentage can have a big impact in the fluid
The suspension of nanoparticles can provide enhanced stability against sedimentation along with better thermal, mechanical, electrical, and magnetic properties
Customizable for the situation and geography/region
Improvements will enable access to deeper, hotter regions in high grade formations where oil cannot currently be reached

12. Anti-fouling Big issue in the marine industry
These bacteria and plants can increase a ships fuel costs by 40%
Environmental concerns about current anti-fouling paints

13. Anti-fouling
AMBIO project is seeking a nanocoating solution that eliminates fouling
Focuses on how microorganisms attach to the surfaces of ships
Seeks to combine a low drag silicon coating with carbon nanotubes

14. Wrap-up Still a lot of development occurring in this field
Development slowed by competing companies. No free flow of information
Will be greatly important as we seek harder to reach oil and gas reserves

15. Reservoir Surveillance
Purpose: To increase knowledge about oil wells in an attempt to recover more oil from wells
Rice University is working on “nanoreporters”
Made up of hundreds of millions of carbon clusters
Each reporter is approximately 30,000 times smaller than a human hair

16. Reservoir Surveillance
These “reporters” are designed to change their molecular makeup depending on what they encounter – water, petroleum, hydrogen sulfide, etc
They are also given tags, similar to barcodes, that can tell scientists how long they have been underground

17. Reservoir Surveillance
Lastly, they are being designed to be able to report properties about the material that they are currently near
With the ability to report temperature and pressure, they can relay valuable information to scientists

18. Reservoir Surveillance
How does this increased knowledge help?
With a better idea of the physical properties of an oil reservoir, operators will have a much easier time finding and recovering oil
This would also allow easier placement of Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) chemicals such as emulsifier and foamer

19. Nanorobots
Another new technology that may have an impact on the oil and gas industry is nano-robots. The EXPEC Advanced Research Center has been looking into this new technology
They have coined the phrase resbots, or reservoir robots
These resbots are designed for a similar purpose as the nanoreporters; however, they are proving to be difficult due to their larger size
Resbot lead technologist Mazen Kanj illustrates that one drop of solution contains more 600 billion Resbots. One milligram of the dry material holds 6 trillion Resbots.

20. Nanorobots
In order for any particle to move through an oil reservoir, it must be able to pass through tiny pores in the rock
In order for resbots to be able to pass through them, EXPEC ARC had to manipulate the physical and chemical properties of the resbots until they were able to pass through the pores
Reservoir rock holds oil in tiny pores connected by “pore throats,” outlined in red, which are even smaller than the pores. Nanorobots must be small enough to pass through the pore throats.

21. Nanorobots
Te EXPEC ARC has recently produced the first positive test of their resbots
They were able to pass the resbots through a core sample and successfully recover them
This is great first step in resbot technology

22. Nanorobots
The resbots that they passed through the core sample were “dumb” resbots, meaning that they had no sensing capability yet
The next step is to begin adding the sensors to the resbots
Saudi Aramco’s EXPEC ARC representatives at the February Applied Technology Workshop. From left are Hiba Dialdin; Dr. Mazen Kanj, workshop chairman; Dr. Muhammad Al-Saggaf; Rami Kamal, workshop committee member; and Modiu Sanni.

23. Conclusions Great expectations and nearly limitless possibilities
Too expensive to use in the present
Will be invaluable in the future
Can help delay peak oil

24. Questions

25. Works Cited
“Nanotechnology advances to shed new light on reservoirs,” JPT Online
“Resbots Pass First Reservoir Feasibility Tests,” Saudi Aramco News
Applications of Nanofluids: Current and Future” Kevin v. Wong and Omar De Leon University of Miami
“Development and implementation of plasma sprayed nanostructured ceramic coatings” M. Gell, E.H. Jordan, Y.H. Sohn

26. Please prepare rebuttal
Group S4
Please prepare rebuttal

27. Group S4 Rebuttal (Presentation 1)
Danielle Miller
Scott Marwil
Joshua Moreno

28. General Comments
First of all, thanks to all the groups for the constructive criticism.
Both Josh and Scott have learned from the presentations and used the experience to develop their speaking skills.

29. Timing
Our group presented this topic without Danielle. This explains why our presentation came up a little bit short on time.
Even so, the group could have done a bit more to lengthen the presentation.
In the future, more effort will be put into maintaining a good pace in the presentation.

30. Slide Pictures
More pictures could have been used and a couple of them were a little blurry. This issue arose because the pictures we used were small to begin with.
A more thorough picture search could have fixed this and will be implemented in the future.

31. Research
Several comments arose about the amount of research done for the presentation.
We feel that, due to a presenter missing, we provided more than enough information for two people to research.

32. Presentation: Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry By Group 4
Group S1
REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry
Presentation:
Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry
By Group 4

33. Positive Notes Josh had good speaking skills Slides had good format
Seemed knowledgeable
Good pace
Slides had good format
Large text, except for first slide
Lots of graphics
Use of humor in end question slide
Presenters answered questions with further information than what was presented
Showed good preparation for presentation
But the presentation was information-light, so adding the info to the slides would have been helpful
Two group members managed well in the absence of third member

34. Opportunities for Improvement
Scott can improve speaking skills
Rushed pace
Looked at monitor more than audience
Seemed like the group could not find adequate information for presentation
Little detail in slides
A different topic choice where information was more available would have been better
Slide information was not cited in slides or at end of presentation
Pictures were not cited either

35. Grade Slides (20/20) Educational Value (16/20) Graphics (20/20)
Well designed
Educational Value (16/20)
Seemed more interested in quantity than details in information
Graphics (20/20)
Frequent and well placed
Made presentation more enjoyable
But replace a few pictures with diagrams
Some pictures did not add to presentation
Oral presentation (17/20)
1st speaker did well
2nd speaker needs some practice
Group Analysis of Research (19/20)
Needed a little more research on topic for thoroughness
Overall (92/100)

36. REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry
Group S2
REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry
Chris Heflin
Rachael Houk
Michael Jones

37. Positives
Very good at building slides with both pictures and words. Graphs gave good representation of the information.
Provided multiple applications of the technologies available and delved into each topic.
Spoke clearly and eloquently.

38. Negatives
The presentation was a bit brief. They could elaborate more on each topic rather than moving steadily through the slides.

39. Michael Koetting James Kancewick Bradford Lamb
Group S3
REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry
Michael Koetting
James Kancewick
Bradford Lamb

40. Overall Good explanations of slides Good time management
Expanded on topics
Nano robot discusion very interesting

41. Recommendations Have more information/ slides about the topics
Better time management
More pictures

42. REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry
Group S5
REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry
Trevor Seidel
Laura Young

43. Presentation Review The presentation needed more graphics
Some of the slides were just words
The oral presenters spoke clearly and were easy to understand
Some of the slides were a little wordy and detracted from the oral presentation
The topic was well developed and interesting to the audience

44. Presentation Review
The team presented the information well and understood the topic thoroughly
The oral presentation was good; they spoke clearly and slowly—easy to understand

45. John Baumhardt Daniel Arnold Michael Trevathan Michael Tran
Group S6
REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry
John Baumhardt
Daniel Arnold
Michael Trevathan
Michael Tran

46. Review
Professional slide layout and, except for a couple graphics, the graphic text sizing was easy to read.
The presentation was very professional and the interest/passion felt for the topic was evident throughout the presentation.
The verbal presentation was quite good overall. There was some reading straight off of the slides, which was distracting.
For some of the topics, we felt, while the nanotechnology research was interesting, the shortcomings of the current industrial methods were not explicitly established.

47. Critique of Information
We are afraid the actual drive for anti-corrosion technology was missed in the presentation.
From a natural gas background, the anti-corrosion section doesn’t address the corrosion aspect of the natural gas industry. In the industry, corrosion refers to the degradation and destruction of pipelines internal walls.
Whenever untreated natural gas (from a well) travels through a pipe line microbes accumulate throughout the pipeline, and some produce sulfur that corrodes the pipeline.
Nanotechnology solutions are most likely focused on internal pipeline corrosion rather than low impact sea water, rust, and paint degradation.

48. Critique (continued)
We believe that our concerns with the presentation are due to the incorporation of too many subtopics.
There were so many applications discussed that a clear/in-depth analysis couldn’t possibly have been performed for the background section of every topic.
This topics were extremely interesting and the nanotechnology information seemed very well researched and established.