Market Analysis Overview
The United States energy sector is in a period of change and growth due to the invention and adoption of new oilfield drilling and completion techniques. These new technological achievements, known as EOR (Enhanced Oil Recovery) Techniques have reversed the domestic United States' oilfield depletion trends, making this country extremely competitive in the global energy production sector over the past five years. One of the many challenges to the sector is that the upstream growth is rapidly overwhelming the midstream pipeline infrastructure's carrying capacity, leading to transportation and emissions problems. STWA's Applied Oil Technology (AOT™) on-demand crude oil viscosity reduction flow assurance technology is designed to assist with both of these issues facing the industry.
EOR Growth:
The advent of EOR beginning predominantly in about 2007, has led to growth in the upstream sector. The Williston Basin and Bakken Formation in North Dakota, for example, has benefitted from widespread adoption of the new techniques, enabling the once inactive field again to become viable in the otherwise desolate region. The Bakken is considered by many within the industry as a key leading indicator of future production as other areas begin the adoption process of the new downhole techniques. The rampant upstream growth due to the EOR use has reversed the "Peak Oil" trend that was indicated decades ago, bringing the USA to the forefront of gas and crude production. These new techniques allow for previously unattainable oil and gas reserves to become viable, and have led to massive growth in the upstream production sector. With the EOR processes, many industry analysts predict that the USA will be able to be energy independent within the next 5-10 years.
Midstream Challenges due to EOR Growth:
The rampant and accelerating growth does not come without its challenges however. One of the many issues that faces the industry is the simple fact that the accelerating growth in the upstream sector due to the adoption of the new and more effective recovery techniques has outstripped the midstream transportation network of long distance transmission pipelines' carrying capacity. The midstream sector, which takes the upstream product produced in the remote oilfields throughout the continent and brings it to market, hundreds to thousands of miles away, was designed and built prior to the advent of the EOR technology. The problem is that there simply isn't enough pipeline diameter and transport capacity to service the areas adopting the EOR techniques. This, in turn leads the upstream producers to look to other means to bring their product to market. In regions such as the Williston Basin (Bakken), the lack of pipeline carrying capacity has led to explosive growth in truck and train transportation, triggering many challenges for the highway and rail systems throughout the domestic USA. The US Energy Information Administration states that truck and rail petroleum transportation was up 38% in the first half of 2012 due to the lack of pipeline infrastructure. (http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=7270)
New Regions Adopting EOR:
The EOR techniques are being adopted in more regions than just the Williston / Bakken Formation at an accelerating rate. Our research is indicating that like the Williston / Bakken, the adoption of the EOR techniques is now making old oilfields in the Rocky Mountains viable for the first time in decades, and many notable upstream energy companies are seeing enormous benefits and growth in the areas. Oilfields such as the Denver-Julesberg (D-J) Basin in northern Colorado / Southern Wyoming / Southern Nebraska, the Uinta-Piceance Basin in Utah / Colorado, the Green River Basin, and a number of other fields in the Rockies are beginning to adopt the EOR techniques that made the Williston / Bakken so successful. According to Midstream Business Magazine (Nov-Dec 2012 issue), the DJ Basin production alone grew 30% last year, and analysts predict production to double by 2016. According to the office of the Governor' Utah's Energy Landscape 2011 Department of Natural Resources Report, the number of oil and gas well completions in Utah averaged 879 per year over the past 7 years, a major increase over the 274 wells averaged throughout the 1990's.
The main problem the new EOR adopting regions are facing is that their areas have an even greater lack of pipeline transport capacity leading out of the areas, because the midstream pipeline infrastructure was designed decades before the advent of EOR made the regions viable. The regions are extremely reliant on truck and train transport, because of the lack of midstream infrastructure servicing the areas. We believe new technologies such as our AOT (Applied Oil Technology) are coming to the forefront of interest within the commercial energy production and transport sector for its ability to increase the flow rates, improve the energy-efficiency, and increase the margin of safety for the existing pipelines and new pipelines in development to service the areas.
