How scalability of geothermal changes the game for oil & gas players
Oil Well in Reagan County, Texas (source: flickr/ J. Stephen Conn, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
20 May 2020
A rather interesting interview with a former oil & gas executive from Halliburton sheds an interesting light on how scalability of geothermal development through a closed-loop approach could change the game for geothermal.
In the Heat Beat blog a site maintained by the Geothermal Entrepreneurship Organization in Texas, Jamie Bird is interviewing several industry players. Definitely a blog to keep on one’s radar … super interesting.
So we will post some references to the interviews and posts, while recommending you read the whole pieces linked within the posts.
In an interview published already in the beginning April, Jamie is interviewing Vik Rao, former Senior VP and CTO at oil service giant Halliburton.
In the interview he shares his view on geothermal and how it has changed from a level of hate to to actually being interesting and him serving as advisor to several geothermal companies.
Describing geothermal as small, “nichy”, and expensive it was not an opportunity that would create interest with any oil major due to its geographical limitations.
Advancements in drilling and fracturing have been a step into the direction of making geothermal interesting. Concepts such as supercritical and closed-loop systems. Complementary to Enhanced (engineered) Geothermal Systems (EGS), the scale is – so Vik – “considerable provided the techno/ economic hurldes are traversed.”
He then looks into how an oil service company sees the future of geothermal energy, describing the larger interest and the need for firms having to have a closer look at the opportunities provided in geothermal. The issue of temperature of wells in the context of drilling is surely something to develop experience on and operations should be optimised for temperatures up to 200 degrees Celsius to expand then to the higher temperatures of 250-300 degrees C going forward.
He then describes the supercritical/ closed-loop “genre of geothermal” as interesting as it does not involve hydraulic fracturing and taking away the challenges connected to seismicity.
How heat is then a new energy asset for oil and gas players will be interesting to see. While talking about mainly of electricity instead of a fluid “powering transportation”, his point is that it is indeed closer to the core competencies of the oil and gas sector rather than the solar and wind some of the players have been targeting. With oil and gas players well on their way to become power producers, while so far not utilising their strengths.
“… principal approaches to scalable geothermal energy, EGS and closed loop systems, demand existing core competencies in the operators and service companies, and I would argue that fact not only makes the pivot realistic – it makes it obvious, even inevitable. Another point is that it really is not a pivot in the sense that I expect geothermal to be a material addition to an oil and gas portfolio.”, so Vik Rao.
Rather interesting takes. For the full interview and further insides, see link below.
Source: Heat Beat Blog
