OIL, GAS AND GEOTHERMAL ENERGY:
EXPLORING THE NEW DYNAMIC AT SMU
Contact Kim Cobb at 214-768-7654
June 19, 2008
DALLAS – Southern Methodist University’s nationally recognized geothermal energy team mounted an alternative energy “how-to” forum June 17-18, demonstrating how oil and gas producers can breathe new life into low-producing wells and generate low-cost electricity by tapping the “nuisance “ hot water generated by many drilling operations.
The Geothermal Energy Utilization Associated with Oil and Gas Development Conference included two full days of speakers, technology demonstrations and round-table discussions on the SMU campus. See http://smu.edu/geothermal/Oil&Gas/2008/Geothermal_Energy_Utilization.htm
While many people associate geothermal energy with large, high-temperature hydrothermal power plants in places like Iceland and California, the technology exists to draw clean, affordable power from lower-temperature water. The process of pumping oil and gas to the surface frequently brings with it waste fluids that carry substantial heat to the surface from areas of unusually hot rock. The installation of a binary pump at the well head can produce enough energy to run the well (mitigating production costs for low-volume wells) and an oil field full of geothermal pumps could be linked to distribute (at a profit) surplus electricity to outside users.
SMU researchers have documented the large amounts of hot water that the state’s oil and gas producers must reinject into the ground at considerable expense. In West Texas, for example, for every barrel of oil produced, nearly 100 barrels of hot water are co-produced.
This marked the third year for SMU’s geothermal/oil and gas conference. While geothermal scientists, inventors and developers dominated previous sessions, the 2008 conference drew larger numbers of participants from the oil and gas industry.
“This is an opportunity for the energy industry to think outside the box,” said Maria Richards, SMU Geothermal Lab Coordinator and conference organizer.
This combination of old and new technology is growing in importance in the face of record-setting oil prices and the growing debate over peak oil. The annual conference is a natural fit for the Dallas campus: Half the nation’s active oil and gas land rigs are located in Texas and SMU’s geothermal scientists are the acknowledged experts in this emerging field.
David Blackwell, SMU’s W.B. Hamilton Professor of Geophysics, and Richards were part of an 18-member panel assembled by MIT in September 2005 to evaluate the potential of geothermal energy becoming a major energy source for the United States by 2050. Blackwell and Richards also demonstrated the potential for widespread geothermal development with their Geothermal Map of North America, released by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists in 2004.
The SMU Geothermal Lab is partially funded by a grant from the Texas State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) for geothermal outreach and networking. The goal of this program is to increase geothermal awareness among Texas residents and development of additional geothermal projects in the state.
Contact Maria Richards at 214-768-1975.
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