Nanotechnology in the Oil
and Gas Industry
Joshua Moreno
Scott Marwil
Danielle Miller
Introduction
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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
Introduction
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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
Nanocoatings
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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
Anti-wear coating
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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
Nanovar
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Produced by
Integran
Can be put on
most any
composite metal
Coatings custom
made for situation
and material being
applied to
Nanovar
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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
Anti-corrosion
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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 anticorrosion paints and
cheaper
Anti-corrosion
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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
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
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Nanofluids – drilling mud
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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
Anti-fouling
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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
Anti-fouling
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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
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
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Reservoir Surveillance
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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
Reservoir Surveillance
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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
Reservoir Surveillance
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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
Reservoir Surveillance
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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
Nanorobots
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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.
Nanorobots
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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.
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
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Nanorobots
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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.
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
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Questions
Works Cited
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•
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“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
http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/factsheets/rd/R&D108.
pdf
Group S4
Please prepare rebuttal
Danielle Miller
Scott Marwil
Joshua Moreno
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.
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.
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.
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.
Group S1
REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas
Industry
Presentation:
Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas Industry
By Group 4

Josh had good speaking skills
◦ Seemed knowledgeable
◦ Good pace
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Slides had good format
◦ Large text, except for first slide
◦ Lots of graphics
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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
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Two group members managed well in the
absence of third member
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Scott can improve speaking skills
◦ Rushed pace
◦ Looked at monitor more than audience
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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
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Slide information was not cited in slides or at
end of presentation
◦ Pictures were not cited either
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Slides (20/20)
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Educational Value (16/20)
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Graphics (20/20)
◦ Well designed
◦ Seemed more interested in quantity than details in
information
◦ Frequent and well placed
◦ Made presentation more enjoyable
◦ But replace a few pictures with diagrams
 Some pictures did not add to presentation
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Oral presentation (17/20)
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Group Analysis of Research (19/20)
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Overall (92/100)
◦ 1st speaker did well
◦ 2nd speaker needs some practice
◦ Needed a little more research on topic for thoroughness
Group S2
REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas
Industry
Chris Heflin
Rachael Houk
Michael Jones
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.
Negatives
• The presentation was a bit brief. They
could elaborate more on each topic rather
than moving steadily through the slides.
Group S3
REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas
Industry
Michael Koetting
James Kancewick
Bradford Lamb
Overall
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Good explanations of slides
Good time management
Expanded on topics
Nano robot discusion very interesting
Recommendations
• Have more information/ slides about the
topics
• Better time management
• More pictures
Group S5
REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas
Industry
Trevor Seidel
Laura Young
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
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
Group S6
REVIEW of Nanotechnology in the Oil and Gas
Industry
John Baumhardt
Daniel Arnold
Michael Trevathan
Michael Tran
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.
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.
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.