PIONEER ENERGY INC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase I: 26c

Description

The EPA estimates that oil and gas production facilities in the US are responsible for over 110 MM tons of CO2 equivalent in methane emissions per year. On a 20-year scale, methane is nearly 100 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2. These facts have driven the current administration to put forward a goal to reduce methane emissions from oil production. Achieving a substantial reduction in methane emissions is viewed by many as necessary for the U.S. to meet their Paris Agreement obligations. Methane emissions from unconventional oil production are largely the result of the very high number of point sources on a modern oil pad. Each point source may emit a minute amount of fugitive methane emissions, but taken as a whole, the total amount of emissions is substantial. It is estimated that about 2% of the gas produced ends up being released into the atmosphere. The proposed system, called the Recycling Treater, is an integrated phase separation and fractionation column which stabilizes the crude at high pressure in a single step. The system is envisioned to produce four output streams: stabilized crude, produced water, a Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs) stream, and residue lean gas. This proposal is for modeling and software simulation of this new approach. The proposed system will substantially replace most existing well pad surface equipment. It will minimize methane and VOCs emissions, while at the same time maximizing the amount of liquids recovered from oil wells. We are anticipating ~90% reduction in the number of sources of emissions from the well pad, and an immediate increase of about 5% of crude oil output. The proposed system can greatly improve the economy of miscible NGL enhanced oil recovery (EOR), which can further increase total hydrocarbon extraction from exiting unconventional wells by 50%-100% and elongate the productive life of those wells by 5-10 years. With this invention the U.S. will be able to continue to produce unconventional crude, but with a much smaller environmental footprint. It will be able to capitalize on the large investment already made in unconventional crude production, improving the economic returns for the producers while at the same time enabling them to achieve their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) targets. It will also help the U.S. move closer to meeting its obligations under the Paris Agreement.